PEPCOM 2014 – Oz as a theme for technology
January 2014, PEPCOM at CES 2014 was themed as the Wonderful world of Digital Tech under a banner of the Gizmos of Oz following a wizard of oz theme. In addition to the many exhibitors, the press that were invited were greeted and treated to roaming costumed characters dressed as Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, Glinda the good witch, the wicked witch and event munchkins that were handing out candy from the Lollipop guild next to Dorothy’s house.
We had a chance to spend some time at the event with a couple of key technology providers who were showing their new 2014 products. These included: Analogix, Cub Cadet – who was the main press kit sponsor for the event, Lantronix Print Servers, Dlink, Western Digital, San Disk, Samsung storage products, and Dish Network.
Analogix was showing their SlimPort DisplayPort (DP) solution. The multi-monitor support system can now address 4K displays and multi-view data on the current release of the protocol. While originally adopted by the OEM community, the interface is gaining popularity with consumer and gaming applications and currently dominates the OEM rear seat display marketplace.
Cub Cadete was showing a zero turning radius all electric ride-on mower. The plug-in electric motor can run the riding mower for cutting an average of 1 acre (depending on grass height & terrain) on an overnight charge. This new mower has one of the lowest cost of operation of any riding mower in its class, and it usable even on “spare the air” poor air quality days, in states with such restrictions, due to its zero emissions.
Lantronix previously introduced a home an enterprise wireless printserver for the iPad / iPhone. This year, they have supplemented the product line with a dual Android / iOS supported print server that allows mobile devices (tablets and phones). The device will also work with wirelessly connected Windows devices.
Dlink was showing both routers and switches for SOHO and SMB locations. The routers included their new 802.11ac wireless products with increased security and support gaming and video packet transfer optimization.
Western Digital (WD) was showing hteir new MyCloud storage solution. The home marketplace has not really accepted the use of Linux based NAS devices for the home network. This resulted in multiple USB connected back up drives in the house or long transfer times to back up to the cloud. The MyCloud product addresses these by being a simple network connected device that can be menu controlled to backup the whole network in the home, as well as having an IPV6 endpoint destination, that allows access to the drive from internet when you are away from home.
San Disk and Samsung were showing their new flash memory solutions. SanDisk their wifi and wireless hub enabled external storage for tablets and smart phones along with their new USB3.0 enabled storage solutions. Samsung was showing their new line of MLC SSD for the commercial space. The enterprise products are using advanced performance technologies such as 3D cells, but the high density low cost solution for the desktop, laptop and upgrade market are with MCL NAND SSD products. As Samsung uses their own controller for the SSDs, the acquisition of LSI and the Sandforce controllers and their lifecycle are non-issues for the Samsung products.
Dish Network Hopper & Joey at CES 2014
Dish Network was showing their newest addition to the Hopper DVR and Joey client receiver. The satellite provider uses MOCA as a video delivery network from a central DVR and signal mux. The new system supports up to 4 Joey’s including a super Joey with a wireless connection. This allows the DVR to record up to 8 shows at once with their primetime recording system. The Primetime Recording still supports the “autoskip” on commercials that is triggered by the ad insertion signal
Additional images of the PEPCOM CES 2014 event can be seen at https://mandetech.com/gallery/index.php/PEPCOM-at-CES2014
