Consumer Electronics

CEA has several awards programs for industry leaders, inventors, products, and technologies. Since 1976, the Innovations Design and Engineering Awards has given consumer technology manufacturers and developers an opportunity to have their newest products judged by a panel of designers, engineers and members of the trade press. The winning products are then showcased each year at the International CES, also produced by CEA. To recognize the contributions of the "true pioneers" of the consumer electronics industry, CEA announced the first 50 inductees into its Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame at the 2000 International CES. Each year another bunch of inventors, engineers, business leaders, retailers and journalists are inducted at the CEA Industry Forum. CEAPAC CEAPAC is CTA's political action committee. About CEAPAC, CEA says, "CEA's Political Action Committee (CEAPAC) protects your freedom to build and sell consumer electronics products. R...

The CTA Technology & Standards program has more than 70 committees, subcommittees, and working groups with about 1,100 members. CEA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute, commonly referred to as ANSI. 4K Working Group CTA has established the 4K Working Group in order to help "manufacturers, retailers, and content providers" define 4K standards, discuss options for delivering 4K content, and educating consumers. Gary Shapiro said, "Under CEA’s leadership, the 4K Working Group will bring together all parties with an interest in 4K to bring this technology to market and enhance the viewing experience for consumers.” The 4K Working Group is led by Gary Yacoubian, president and CEO of Specialty Technologies/SVSound. Yacoubian previously served as chair of CEA's Executive Board. Leadership Gary Shapiro Shapiro is president and CEO of CTA. Shapiro has worked for CTA since 1979, when he was still a law student. Shapiro is also chai...

International CES The International CES (CES) is a major technology trade show held each January in Las Vegas. The CTA-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new product announcements. The first CES was held in 1967 in New York City. It was a spinoff from the Chicago Music Show, which until then had served as the main event for exhibiting consumer electronics. The event had 17,500 attendees and over 100 exhibitors; the kickoff speaker was Motorola chairman Bob Galvin. From 1978 to 1994, CES was held twice each year: once in January in Las Vegas known as  Winter Consumer Electronics Show  (WCES) and once in June in Chicago, known as  Summer Consumer Electronics Show . In 1998, the show changed to a once-a-year format with Las Vegas as the location. CES is one of the largest and longest trade shows held in Las Vegas, taking up to 18 days to set up, run and break down. SINOCES SINOCES is a tradeshow held annually in the Chinese city of Qingdao i...

The  Consumer Technology Association  ( CTA ), formerly  Consumer Electronics Association  ( CEA ), is a standards and  trade organization  for the  consumer   electronics industry  in the United States. CTA works to influence public policy, holds events such as the International CES and SINOCES, conducts market research, and helps its members and regulators implement technical standards. CTA is led by  Gary Shapiro . CTA believes that "spectrum is the oxygen of innovation." CTA supports legislation to allow the FCC to conduct voluntary incentive auctions in order to obtain 500 megahertz of new radio spectrum for wireless broadband internet services. CTA supports making this spectrum available for licensed and unlicensed use. In March 2011, CEA and CTIA sent a joint letter to Congress in support of voluntary incentive auctions. In February of the same year, the two groups also released a white paper on freeing up broadc...

2010 Highlights include the Intel Infoscape, which is run on the Intel Core i7 processor. One computer ran two 7-foot (2.1 m) screens, displaying 576 cubes hooked up to 20,000 info sources, including 20 live video feeds. Visitors would touch one of the cubes, and an infobox displaying that content would come forward. One journalist explained, "The graphics on the giant screens were a tons of fun to move around with their uncanny quickness and smooth motion, and the whole thing felt super responsive, Giving us a peek into the future, it seemed a lot like that computer screen in the movie Minority Report. It was the most spectacular demo we saw at CES 2010." Equally impressive, Parrot presented the 1st prototype of Parrot AR.Drone, a remote-controlled flying toy which streams video via wi-fi to an iPhone.The 2010 exhibition was held January 7–10, 2010 and attracted more than 120,000 attendees. Sustainable Planet grew by 40% in 2010. 2011 The 2...

1967 Organizers held the first CES in New York City from June 24 to 28, 1967. The 200 exhibitors attracted 17,500 attendees to the Hilton and Americana hotels over those four days. On view: the latest pocket radios and TVs sporting integrated circuits. 1993 In a one-time experiment, the Summer CES 1993 was open to the general public. Major announcements during this edition were: Capcom unveils Mega Man X First Time in North American. 2004 The Blu-ray Group held at the January 2004 CES the first US press conference to promote the Blu-ray Disc format . 2005 The 2005 CES was from January 6–9, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The event started off with a twist when the main keynote address by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates went wrong, as his demonstration of Windows Media Center resulted in a Blue Screen of Death, much to the amusement of the onlookers. Samsu...

The electronics industry, especially meaning consumer electronics, emerged in the 20th century and has now become a global industry worth billions of dollars. Contemporary society uses all manner of electronic devices built in automated or semi-automated factories operated by the industry. Mobile phone industry Service and repair Consumer electronic service can refer to the maintenance of said products. When consumer electronics have malfunctions, they may sometimes be repaired. In 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the increased popularity in listening to sound from analog audio devices, such as record players, as opposed to digital sound, has sparked a noticeable increase of business for the electronic repair industry there. Environmental impact Energy consumption The energy consumption of consumer electronics and their environmental impact, either from their production processes or the disposal of the devices, is increasing steadily. EIA est...

Many consumer electronics are built in China, due to maintenance cost, availability of materials, quality, and speed as opposed to other countries such as the United States. Cities such as Shenzhen have become important production centres for the industry, attracting many consumer electronics companies such as Apple Inc. Electronic component An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not to be confused with electrical elements, which are conceptual abstractions representing idealized electronic components. Software development Consumer electronics such as personal computers use various types of software. Embedded software is used within some consumer electronics, such as mobile phones. This type of software may be embedde...

Main consumer electronics products include radio receivers, television sets, MP3 players, video recorders, DVD players, digital cameras, camcorders, personal computers, video game consoles, telephones and mobile phones. Increasingly these products have become based on digital technologies, and have largely merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology such as those invented by Apple Inc. and MIT Media Lab. Trends While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence, combining elements of many products, consumers face different decisions when purchasing. There is an ever increasing need to keep product information updated and comparable, for the consumer to make an informed choice. Style, price, specification, and performance are all relevant. There is a gradual shift towards e-commerce...

Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic or digital equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment (flatscreen TVs, DVD players, DVD movies, iPods, video games, remote control cars, etc.), communications (telephones, cell phones, e-mail-capable laptops, etc.), and home-office activities (e.g., desktop computers, printers, paper shredders, etc.). In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers, to distinguish them from "white goods" such as washing machines and refrigerators. In the 2010s, this distinction is not always present in large big box consumer electronics stores, such as Best Buy, which sell both entertainment, communications, and home office devices and kitchen appliances such as refrig...