 Welcome to a special DTS Labs interview edition. I'm Tom Merritt and I'm Sarah Lane and joining us today We're very happy to have Richard Kowalski from the Consumer Electronics Association Glad to be here. What brings you into town? Well, there's been about 170,000 people come. Yeah, I seem to have noticed them wandering around. Yeah, a few people here No, of course, we're here for CES 2018 which has been a blast so far We've been lucky enough to have you guys give us a little space on the floor out there Which is so nice to have Because you you can cover CES without actually being here. There's so many people covering it But there's there's something about being in the middle of it that makes a difference. Yeah And I think it's nice to have a home base. I've been a roving camera crew before on the show floor On behalf of CTA Consumer Technology Association, which throws this whole shindig And yeah, it's pretty nice to have a place you can settle down put all your stuff and then go out when you're in Central Hall That's kind of the most focal point of the whole show and I think it's a good place to be. Yeah, no absolutely We appreciate it and and even more than the location the bandwidth and having gone to CES going all the way back to 2000 Mayor that I've always prepared with backups and everything and it was a dream like everything just worked That's good. I'm glad to hear that. I mean, we had a little issue with power today Obviously everybody's heard about that, but that's you know, that's out of your control The stuff that's under your control, but I was impressed. I'll be honest. All right Well, I'm glad I'll bring that back to people back home. So what does it take to put together something like that? I mean you like you said there's a hundred seventy thousand people here all of them want Perfect bandwidth all of them want power strips and and and space Depending on the booths, you know certain exhibitors have huge You know wall-to-wall displays and you know, so that it's not just like hey, can I have an outlet? It's there's a lot. There's a lot to it. I guess How early do some of these booths get sort of put together and is there a sort of a test run of setup? Or they really working on a 24-hour cycle right before the show So there's few weeks before and when everybody it's got the big booths. They they get in there They hang all the scaffolding they need they start constructing these giant Booths that are you know, basically they're home on the show floor for a week. Sure And yeah, I mean they have to haul in all that gear hang it from the ceiling and set it up just the way they need and When you think about some of the displays you see there like multi television Screens that are all coordinated and showing you all this awesome footage and 8k or whatever it is You know, they have to make sure that works ahead of time It's crazy to be in here though the night before the show floor opens because they're still Unwrapping things and yeah, so right up to the last minute They're getting things ironed out making sure everything works, right? Well Monday when we were recording our show daily tech news show from from our booth in Central Hall There was a lot of work yet to be done to the point where it's like, I know it will be okay tomorrow But how how do they do it? People just don't see a lot of coffee. Yeah, I'm sure of that You know one of the things I've noticed too over the years. There've been several times when major exhibitors I mean going back even to when Comdex went away and everybody sort of looked to CES to kind of carry that torch forward There've been you know Microsoft I used to do the keynote. They don't do the keynote anymore In fact Microsoft doesn't even have their corner booth over there in the central hall and several times over the years people said Well, this must be it this you know, this is the time CES is bigger than one company I mean and it just seems to keep growing and how does it stay? so Yeah, we're fortunate to be in an industry that's always changing and we just try to make sure we're keeping up on the latest trends Pulling in the newer companies who have the fresh ideas One place to kind of watch out for is the Eureka Park Zone There's 900 exhibitors there now These are all startups who have the new ideas are coming out new products Getting them out there getting the world to see them and those are ideas that the larger companies are looking at They're gonna bring in to their portfolio and try to catch onto those trends So we're always just trying to keep up with the new ideas Keep everything fresh and and just make sure we're always on the cutting edge What do the companies say they get out of it? They're the ones who keep coming back? so this is a global event and They get first of all get global exposure to the media to their Customers this is a great meeting place. I mean when it comes down to it This is a trade show these are business people need to come together They're shopping for a new product to sell at their stores or they're trying to Enter markets and they're trying to meet the right people to get their product out there So this is a business event people are just they're doing business and this saves them a lot of trouble Everybody comes here they meet up. They make their orders. They you know try to figure out You know how many meetings they can have and they're just really efficient about it So it's an efficient thing to and it's a great melting pot of ideas So I think people come here for that just to see what the new ideas are Yeah, I a lot of times I talked to folks in our audience are like well Why didn't they announce this there? Why why wasn't there an answer better or this or that? And I try to remind them like yes, it is I mean that this is comparable to up fronts in a way for television Yeah, I think I just have to remember that they're they're here to Really get business done. We don't let consumers out. Yeah show floor We fed everyone who's coming to the show. So we're making sure there aren't tire kickers and people are here to Get get things done other than the professional tire kickers. Yeah. Oh, yeah But uh consumers and we're so glad to have you guys here because there's about 7,000 members of the area here Absolutely, yeah, you know press car here We we've the three of us who work together for some time and we joke that it's kind of a reunion There's a lot of journalists that I don't see the rest of the year. I know they're gonna be at CES and yeah And yeah, we're we're all sort of doing things our own way But there's a real camaraderie with with the media particularly tech journalism. Yeah, definitely I see people that I only see once a year here, too So, yeah, like you said going back to the exhibitors and Obviously depending on the company, you're gonna have a smaller booth or a bigger booth and some of them are Crazy and some are a little bit more straightforward. Have you ever had? What's the sort of strangest request or most outlandish request you've had for a booth where you had to say you guys can't do that I think In recent years that the whole drone zone right and something we've had to treat carefully because we don't want Yeah, yeah, so we've had to you know put some restrictions on where those things are gonna fly sure and so I think that's probably the most recent trying to figure out How do we keep this right like you're a drone company? We want you to be showing off the best of the best without Making it weird for everyone. Yeah, don't want people having a duck. Sure Me too the South Hall and the guy was just in the middle of the hallway flight it now at that point It was so unique that everyone there was there was no rule either about not doing that because it was like Huh, look at that. Yeah. Oh, wait a second. It was impressive. Yeah, everybody's eyes. So, yeah You you've taken over all of unincorporated Clark County At this point like yeah tech East tech West like you mentioned the Eureka zone And I hear the is the LVC see expanding as well Yeah in the coming years, they have plans to drastically grow this venue And I mean that's the only way we can grow as a show is if there's more floor space because we're just taking everything We can you know, we're at Mandalay Bay for press events Monte Carlo Venetian sands you name it so Well, how do the casinos feel about that because I would assume that if you're if you're one venue is much bigger and and people aren't walking to some of Some of the hotels and casinos for CES and then staying to have fun for the reasons they might take issue I think I think it helps them a little bit because you know takes a little stress off their venues Well, I mean they'll still be booking rooms. Sure. So sure I mean if it allows us to bring more people into town, right, you know, it helps them Yeah, and I suppose if the entire show is more Centralized that makes for happier attendees. Yeah, who have a great time and want to go out and have a nice dinner Yeah, yeah, so yeah, everyone comes here and that's the only place you got to be Yeah, and yeah, you don't have to wait for the buses and taxis So, yeah, we're really hopeful that it's gonna help things out. I think it's about time It's just it's gonna take a few years and be quite a project. Yeah, where are they gonna put it? There's hardly any room around. I Don't know the details But it'll be to the sky Well Richard once again, thank you for for cooperating with us. I think the CEA on our behalf For cooperating giving us a place on the show floor and thank everybody for putting together the show Thanks for talking to us. Oh glad to be here. If people want to find out more about yourself or the CEA Where should they go? I can go to cta.tech. That's our main website There's CES.tech as well, which is about the show itself Cta.tech is a little more about the association its membership and what they're trying to do to Know keep innovation going. Yeah All right. Well, there you go folks. Thanks again for watching our coverage of CES and we will talk to you again tomorrow This show is part of the frog pants network. Get more at frogpants.com I'm in the club. I'll see you