大象传媒

Las Vegas Highs and Lows

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 10 Jan 08, 15:41 GMT

A former boss used to send out an email at the end of each week to me and other members of his reporting team called 鈥淗ighs and Lows鈥�, painting a distinctly rosy picture of our operation. A 鈥渉igh 鈥渨as that we had broken new stories on every possible 大象传媒 bulletin 鈥� a low was that some short-sighted editor had failed to recognise our genius. But let鈥檚 take a rather more objective view of the highs and lows that the Consumer Electronics show has given us this week.

HIGH

One high was finding products that actually made you stop and stare. Much has been written about OLED televisions, but you have to see how rich and deep the colours are and how thin the screen is before you get the appeal. Mind you, at $2500 for an 11-inch screen, this is just a toy for the rich right now. Other products that caught my eye were the Eye-Fi wireless card for sending photos directly from camera to computer, and a couple of very smart mini-laptops, or mobile internet devices, as they like to be called. Finally, the promise of life without wires seems to be coming true.

LOW

But 3-D TV anyone? I can鈥檛 believe many people will want to don those daft sunglasses to watch a dubious three-dimensional effect that certainly didn鈥檛 work for me. New 3-D televisions that don鈥檛 require glasses are here 鈥� but they apparently give you a headache. I鈥檓 also underwhelmed by home automation that still seems to be trying to solve problems that aren鈥檛 there. Do I really need my house to dim the lights when I get into bed?

HIGH

It was great to get extended interviews with Bill Gates 鈥� in more animated and relaxed mood than usual 鈥� and with Nicholas Negroponte, whose passion about the role that computers could play in ending poverty is inspiring.

LOW

But it鈥檚 depressing to read the comments of a few respondents to this blog who believe that any interview with Bill Gates is a crime against humanity. One man wrote:

鈥淵ou were chosen for your job because you are the kind of chap the 大象传媒 can trust to choose the right questions for Mr Gates. If Mr Gates was unhappy, you would find your contract would not be renewed.鈥�
I must whip that contract out of the dusty drawer and check for the clause forbidding tricky questions to Bill Gates but I certainly do not recall it.

HIGH

But let鈥檚 end on a high. For once, our own technology worked. I started my career in television working with film, which had to be processed before you could start editing. Then, for many years, we relied on satellite feeds to get our reports back to London. But this week, for the first time in my experience, we delivered all our video and audio reports from CES via the internet and they all arrived in time to hit their slot. (Actually, we did do a couple of radio lives via our M4 satphone 鈥� a rather crumbly piece of technology - and that did fail once, keeping us off the Today programme.)

It is those behind the camera, who make this work. Steve Adrain, shooting, editing, fiddling with the internet connection, - and taking on the responsibilities of what used to be the work of a whole team. Andrew Webb did a similar job for web video. And Catherine Wynne, producer extraordinaire, marshalled the whole operation with quiet, but forceful, efficiency. Thanks to all of them.