I consider myself a “practical technophile”.

I don’t usually get all worked up over conceptual or emerging gadgets and other consumer electronics, knowing that it is going to take a little time for the kinks to get worked out and actually become practical. Nonetheless, a friend from back East was going to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year and I decided I would attend if I could wiggle my way onto the press list.

From what I read, there were over 120,000 people at 2010 CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center- a massive trade show!

An interesting tidbit – the first CES took place in New York City in 1967 with 200 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees. A few notable products that debuted at CES over the years:

• Videocassette Recorder (VCR), 1970
• Laserdisc Player, 1974
• Camcorder, 1981
• Compact Disc Player, 1981
• Mini Disc, 1993  (that one never quite took off, did it?)
• Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), 1996
• High Definition Television (HDTV), 1998
• Microsoft Xbox, 2001
• Plasma TV, 2001
• Blu-Ray DVD, 2003

What was astounding to me, aside from the sheer number of people, was the amount of effort (and $$$) that electronics manufacturers are willing to put into a trade show like this. A few of my 2010 CES photos below show off how heated the LED TV – and now 3D TV product categories are getting. (pun intended, electronics geeks, the new LED TV’s are actually pretty cool to the touch)

I couldn’t point my camera in any direction without seeing 1000′s of TV screens. For a true technophile, this event was drool-able. For me, I couldn’t stop thinking about the logistics of designing and deploying some of these gargantuan TV displays. (click to expand photos)