How do you get people’s attention when you’re up against over 3,000 other exhibitors at the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show? Well, bigger, brighter, and louder usually works pretty well, and when it comes to creating a spectacle, LG and Samsung — two companies locked in a perpetual battle for your attention — do it better than anyone else.
This year, Samsung took a stab at spectacle supremacy with another wall of TVs, and while that may not seem like an original approach (because it isn’t), Samsung kicked things up a notch by making its TVs dance. More of a square dance than a foxtrot, the choreography is just unexpected enough to lure you in from across the hall. The TVs making their moves are Samsung’s latest SUHD TVs, which this year are brighter, more colorful, and scary smart. Plug in any component and they know what it is automatically, then rename the input to match, say Xbox One or Blu-ray player. Then they program the remote accordingly. The future is here people, and Samsung’s TVs are at the center of it. They do a pretty nice do-si-do, too.
LG’s secret weapon for the last few years has been its OLED TVs, which it uses to create this massive, two-story 3-D display. Nobody escapes this thing. If the thunderous music doesn’t get you, the sheer scale of the presentation, which shows off OLEDs unique ability to display perfect blacks, will almost certainly have you ensnared. I mean look at the people around you in our video. They are transfixed right now. And when they do break free, guess where they’re gonna go? Right around the corner to get a closer look at LG’s OLEDS, which are just as impressive from the side because they are thinner than your smartphone. Well played, LG.
Of course, not everyone goes for the big and bold approach. Take Klipsch, perhaps the most American speaker company there is. They like to say they’ve been pissing off the neighbors for 70 years — and they’ve got the rock-star street cred to back that statement — but Klipsch isn’t just about loud and proud. The speaker maker has a storied place in America’s home audio history, and for Klipsch’s 70th anniversary this year, they’ve turned their CES booth into a sort of Klipsch museum, celebrating the evolution of their speakers over the past few decades, including the legendary Cornwalls and Heresy series, leading right up to their new wireless Hi-Fi models, which you don’t even need a receiver to run. This is the sort of place you want to hang out in all day. And you know what? We almost did.
