I wanted to write more about why we were not going but haven't had time things have been very busy at home and at work. So I have not even been able to comment until now.
SatelliteGuys has been covering CES for 10 years and enjoyed doing it, when we first started going it was like Christmas Day. It was so exciting to hear and be able to report on things first. The technology was fresh and new and we were seeing groundbreaking technology.
But then we seemed to hit a technology wall. Yeah lots of 4K TV's.. even some 8K TV's. But to be honest with you, they all looked the same. Sure some had some better PQ than others but TV's were TV's.
Not only was the technology getting boring to me but being able to report on things first was also slipping out of our hands.
I remember waking up one morning at CES prepping for a 1PM DISH Network press conference, only to look at my phone to find out that DISH released press releases for everything that was going to be announced at 1PM Vegas time at 6 am Eastern Time (which was 3 am Vegas time). I couldn't even have a scoop from the show being at the show. The funniest thing about this was in the press releases they had quotes from the press conference which had not happened yet.
Now I will be honest, over the past few years I walked into CES knowing what DISH was going to announce, in fact in many cases I was already using the equipment which was going to be announced at CES. I was able to do this as I promised DISH I would not say anything until they announced it at CES. By the time I reported on it from CES it was already old news.
I always had to laugh as we have some members here (you can probably guess some of them) who would tear these press conferences and equipment announcements apart, and say that was was announced was vaporware or that there was no way that a device could record 16 things at one time.... and speak about it like they were quoting the gospel... all while I was using the device at home for months already knowing damn well it worked and worked well. Sure in the past DISH has announced stuff that did not make it to market, but there were reasons they did not make it. Remember when DISH announced a Sling Receiver for the 921 receiver? Yeah I had one. And the reason it did not make it to market was because it used your Network or WIFI to stream to it using Slingbox Technology. The only big issue was the picture quality varied depending on what else was happening on your Network. If you kid was playing a game or downloading a file, the PQ would turn to crap. They canned this product because of it and went with MOCA technology and turned the 921 added Moca to it and it became The Hopper.
Anyways back to CES.
While you didn't see it, it took WEEKS of preparation to get ready for CES. Each year we would purchase new technology and we had to test it to make sure it worked an worked well. We needed to make sure we had all the wires we needed, make sure all the batteries were charged, hell a few years we even took a full radio station setup to CES and broadcasted live from the show floor. As I mentioned as the technology changed we adapted with it, each year we got new equipment and as CES went on thankfully the equipment got smaller and lighter. I remember my first CES I was by myself, carrying 3 giant backpacks covering press conferences with 2 video cameras, all while live blogging it and taking pictures as well. You don't even know what it was like carrying all that stuff by myself through CES. At the end of CES, I literally could not walk anymore. But I did it with pride for SatelliteGuys. I was so thankful to get help over the years, from SatelliteGuys Staff Dfergie, WallyHTS, GoalieBob, RockyMtnHigh, Jcrandall, & Ramy (Hopefully I did not forget anyone!) Then also getting help froM ScooterS, Foxbat, Don Landis and other SatelliteGuys members was also a godsend! All of them flew out on their own dime to help! At our last CES we raised the bar with 4K Coverages from CES.
As we talk about the cost of the equipment. there were also the costs of actually going there. The costs were high. We had airfare back and forth to Hartford and then we had the Hotel Costs, its funny that a hotel room which was going for $49 a night before CES was now over $300 a night. In the early days Ad Revenue helped greatly with this but as time went on and ad revenue money dropped most was paid for out of my own pocket, and when I went I either took vacation time from work, or in some cases went a week without pay as I was out of vacation time. All the staff who came in did so at their own costs. To thank them I would take them out to a nice dinner where they ate like kings, took them to a show and also gave them some cash with my thanks as well. I can't tell you how much I appreciated these guys taking time out to help me and SatelliteGuys!
Let's be honest, ad revenue now is barely enough to keep us floating now, and with the support of our Pub Members we are still able to pull through, but paying to go to CES was becoming hard... real hard.
Finally when I went to CES I went there for one reason, and that was to cover the world of Satellite for you! Over the years satellite has faded out of view at CES. When I started we covered DIRECTV, DISH, XM, SIRIUS, Sky Angel and many FTA companies that were at the show. This year you won't find a single satellite company there. So why go if there is nothing for us to cover in regards to Satellite.
As Pub Members know I made the decision to not go to CES this summer. I listed a number of the above reasons for not going. After I made the decision not to go to CES I let the folks from DISH know and quickly got a reply back not to feel bad about not going... as they were not going either. (They asked me to not mention that as things could have changed between then and CES, so I didn't mention it.)
This past year I took my son to CES for the first time as a Christmas gift. He has been wanting to go for years. So he helped me at the DISH booth and at the DIRECTV even I was invited to off the strip. He got a day to roam around CES by himself. After we was done and came back to the hotel room, I asked him what he thought and he said it was a lot more boring than he thought it would be.
CES was so fun and so exciting, but something changed and it became more of a hassle to go. I do feel CES is dying, but I feel this is due to the fact that we are hitting a technology roadblock. I got to be honest the last great thing I saw at CES announced was the Hopper 3 from DISH. It is such a great piece of hardware that even to this day I don't see what they can add to it to make it better. (Software is another thing)
So when you add these reasons to the reasons that Dave Graveline mentioned you can see why I made the decision not to be at CES this year.
With that said I have been in preliminary talks with DISH to possibly do a SatelliteGuys event with Charlie and Vivek in Orlando Florida in May. Where members may come down and be part of things.
In closing I know its the holiday season, and I wanted to say THANK YOU to all our Pub Members for your assistance in helping keeping the lights on here at SatelliteGuys this year. Also thank you to the staff and members who helped me at CES all these years!
And now you know.
