Getting their tech on: What media executives loved at CES

I asked several media executives to describe the “coolest products” they saw at the recently completed CES in Las Vegas. I told the executives not to limit their answers to products with sports applications. I was expecting some to gush about virtual reality, like the executives I asked from Time Warner Cable, CBS and the NFL. But I was not expecting executives to evangelize on wearable technologies, like the executives I asked from Turner Sports, NBC Sports and C-SPAN.

Here are some of the things that interested media folks from this year’s show.

Vendors showed off gains in wearable technology at CES. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

“It’s incredible to see the level of maturity with wearables. One area where it will have the biggest impact is personal health care, with the ability to read blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, oxygen saturation, blood sugar, activity level, etc., that can be recorded and analyzed. It has gone much further than tracking how many steps you take in a day. It will lead to advancements in driver assistance applications — with lane change and collision avoidance becoming standard features, along with the introduction of hand-gesture controls. It’s amazing.”

“The coolest thing I experienced at CES (other than the realization of seeing dozens of programmers, which highlighted how much our ecosystem has changed in the last decade) was the Oculus Rift demonstration. I definitely have VR fever like so many others and look forward to seeing the technology continue to develop and consumer models and monetization plans emerge.”

“Two cool and relevant technologies were in the Eureka Park area that provides startups a unique exhibiting opportunity to launch new products, services or ideas. The first is a wall-mounted holographic projector that was amazing and could be used for studio analysis. The second is wearable fabric technology that maps full range of motion with biometrics built directly into compression gear.”

“One small shop called Solos was showing smart eyewear, which essentially is a head-worn computing and display system that allows cyclists to access real-time performance data (heart rate, speed, power, distance, duration, etc.) from their smartphone or wearable sensors on its high-res display. The glasses allow for voice commands to control the display and have a small stereo speaker to deliver performance cues. It’s built for cyclists, but runners, rowers and others could use as well.”

“The coolest things I saw at CES dealt with TVs and car technology. The 4K TVs — especially the Samsung Quantum Dot SUHD TVs — made me question my eyesight. I only saw the Audi concept for a short bit on the second day, but it definitely got me excited about the potential for what you could do with those displays.
“I wanted to get my hands on the VR/media display headsets but the lines were excruciatingly long. The one that stood out (though isn’t actually a VR headset) was Glyph, a headset that had the best hardware design I’ve seen. The concept of a portable media device that doesn’t block out the real world was interesting to me, and I will likely buy one.”

“I finally had a chance to immerse myself in the latest VR experiences, both on the hardware and content sides. The opportunity to transport people to places they’ve only dreamed of visiting is going to be big for both fans and advertisers as the technology becomes more distributed. It felt like the content executions were still in the early stages. But they still were mind-blowing.”

“It’s hard not to be impressed by the overall scale of CES, with almost everything constituting ‘cool.’ The floor hummed from dozens of drones, each doing something different (photography and automated navigation being both the coolest and most functional). The Parrot Disco is amazing — simply throw it and the drone will take off and reach 50 mph. There’s virtual reality, fantastic OLED displays, etc.

“I left most wanting items around the Internet of Things (IOT) and smart home. The Netatmo Presence security camera is beautiful, practical and needed. Finally, it was fascinating to see so many successfully funded Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects — their logos were on countless gadgets and booths.”

John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.