CES and the Blue Room
It's been a while since I blogged about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Blue Room, amongst other things we've been busy at our annual visit to (the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas from which we and , more of which below...
A bit of background for those who haven't heard about the Blue Room - basically it's a room in the Broadcast Centre here in London and it's blue. But it is also a concept, a "media lab" facility lovingly developed and managed by my colleagues Trevor Robinson and Richard Robbins. It also regularly gets packed into a van and taken around the country to other Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ sites so to share the benefit amongst as many people as possible.
Our mission relates directly to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's 6th Public Purpose: "Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ viewers, listeners and users can expect the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to help everyone in the UK to get the best out of emerging media technologies now and in the future". The Blue Room exists to assist our colleagues in delivering this by ensuring they have an awareness of how the world of consumer technology is changing the way that we all consume media.
"But", I hear you ask: "surely Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ staff should all be wise to this sort of thing?"
To some extent yes. However like most organisations we comprise staff with a wide range of vocations such as Programme Makers, Designers, Lawyers as well as Technologists to name but a few and whilst I count myself lucky to work with some of the best and brightest it takes quite a degree of focus to keep fully across the rapid pace of development in the consumer technology arena, hence the role of the Blue Room.
So, back to
Now that the dust has settled on this year's event what should we be choosing to highlight in the Blue Room as a result?
Well 3D TV was one of the predominant themes and a lot of my colleagues are keen to understand more about it. Our plan then is to expand our displays of Anaglyph and Polarising systems to include Shuttered and Autostereoscopic systems, subject to these being available in the UK; inevitably there is always a time delay between what is on show at CES and when it appears on the UK market. We will also be looking at some of the boxes we saw that performed real-time conversion to 3D and perhaps Panasonic's "end-to-end" 3D with their integrated .
Multi-touch technology was another growth area at this year's CES - indeed I spotted several people pawing at various displays on the assumption that they were multi-touch capable, such is the expectation. We already have a Microsoft Surface (much in evidence at CES and not only on the Microsoft stand) but will be looking to augment this with other display devices, possibly from Asus or Samsung.
TV Remote Controllers have come alive this year with multi-touch devices with integral screens on offer from and (see picture above),and a Wii type pointer from LG. (I can just picture your kids saying: "Ooh! A tiny telly!" and wandering off with it to their bedrooms...)
Above: A Parrot AR.Drone - iPhone-controlled helicopter with built-in cam that streams video output to said iPhone - from the
The eReader market seems to be really taking off, highlighted in some part by the number of rather cheap and unimpressive devices on show. The media industry in general is becoming quite excited by the prospect of sending content wirelessly to these devices and we hope to have some example from the higher end of the market on display, including the Barnes & Noble Nook and perhaps later in the year the
Other exhibits we hope to get our hands on include the , various projectors, the , , Panasonic and LG TVs with Skype and maybe even something new from Apple...
I hope to update you in due course as to our impressions of these devices in use and how we think they will affect what we do, in the meantime we continue to
Roland Allen is Head of Technology Liason, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Future Media & Technology
N.B. More videos from Vegas are available on the Blue Room's
Comment number 1.
At 25th Jan 2010, Trev wrote:How can the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ justify sending staff on expensive trips to Las Vegas when they can't afford to provide a decent picture quality on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD. For the last five months we have had to put up with apawling picture quality and the insults from the head of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HD Danielle Nagler.
I am all for the new technical developments but the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ needs to address the basics before even contemplating 3D.
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Comment number 2.
At 25th Jan 2010, Ed Lyons wrote:Oh come on, keep it on topic.
Don't you think a few flights to Las Vegas might be cheaper than a 25%-50% increase in the bandwidth costs for HD?
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At 25th Jan 2010, Nick Reynolds wrote:As Ed has said stay on topic please - no more comments about Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ HH on this post please.
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At 25th Jan 2010, Trev wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 27th Jan 2010, sussane sh wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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At 24th May 2010, hd2010 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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