CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada

Samsung at CES 2016

One word to describe CES 2016 in Las Vegas was FANTASTIC. This year was a record breaking in every sense. 177,000 people attended including 50,000 people representing 150 international countries. Big or small startup, over 3,800 companies participated to launch innovation to global market. During the show, “#CES2016” was used close to 1.3 million times.

The energy at CES 2016 was contagious. I spent a first full week in January to move around the three main venues to talk with reps from startups to major technology companies.

This year, I saw three themes of emerging technologies: connected everything from Samsung’s refrigerators to cars, drones, and virtual reality from 360˚ cameras to VR goggles.

The Virtual Reality was the recurring theme throughout the show. Thus far, Virtual Reality has been in the market for many years with incremental development; however, the confluence of many technological advancements created a perfect storm for the Virtual Reality to take shape this year.

To create an immersive or a VR contents, there must be at least five components. First, a video camera that can shoot HD quality 360˚ footages. Second, a software that can seamlessly stitch the 360˚ video footages. Third, this is non-technology related nonetheless need a compelling story to engage the viewers. Fourth, need a platform to push the content such as YouTube/360 channel. Lastly, need a device to view the contents which there are many devices in the market that a consumer can buy at a reasonable price.

I think we are just beginning to realize the possibilities of VR as a new medium, and how it can deliver an immersive experience that we’ve never experienced before. I believe this is the future, and I witnessed it at CES 2016.