The 5 CES Announcements That Could Impact Post-Production 01/04/12

The big Consumer Electronics Show is rolling into Vegas next week and what’s unveiled there could have huge implications on the post-production industry.
 
It used to be this annual convention was only of interest to gadget hounds and geeked out technologists but now that (gulp) describes a lot of editors I know (myself included).
 
Let’s face it, the consumerization of content-creation has been in the making since we started using off the shelf computers and camcorders decades ago.
 
Now with the Web, mobile phones and consumer cameras being used even in high-budget workflows we definitely need to stay up on the latest developments.
 
So what will be hot topics for editors to monitor at CES 2012?:
 
 

Thunderbolt on PCs

Back in Sept. of last year, Intel announced that it was bringing Thunderbolt to Windows PCs. Until now, Thunderbolt has been exclusive to Apple computers.
 
Now Avid and Premiere editors using PCs will be able to turbocharge their workflow. Even though Thunderbolt PC motherboards aren’t forecast to ship until Q2, there could be a demo at CES to whet our appetite.
 
A re-designed Sony Vaio Z looks like a likely candidate. In the very least, let’s hope this puts to rest the Thunderbolt vs. USB 3.0 debate.
 
 

4K TV

Nope. That’s not a typo.
 
Next week LG will unveil a 84-inch 4K TV capable of displaying eight million pixels at 3840 by 2160 resolution.
 
Now whether these are “marketing pixels” is another story. In the very least, now may be a good time to re-read the excellent post on Creative Cow: The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels.
 
Maybe at some point in the future we’ll be able to hook it up to our Google TV and watch YouTube’s 4K channel.
 
 

3D TV

And that’s not all LG has been up to.
 
They will also be introducing a 55-inch OLED TV that will be 4 millimeters thick and weigh 16.5 pounds.
 
Yep, that’s thinner than most smartphones.
 
LG claims it’s “the most convincing 3D viewing experience currently available outside of a movie theater”
 
And if that’s not enough to chew on, Stream TV will be launching glasses free Ultra-D 3DTV tech at CES. They claim their “Ultra-D” technology will “surpass all 3D experiences to date”.
 
 

Smart TV

Not to be outdone, Samsung will be showing off their Smart TV eco-system that will support YouTube’s growing library of 3D content.
 
Lenovo offers a similar smart television product with LeTV but ups the ante with a new cloud storage service.
 
 

Android Tablets

Not interested in being yet another hipster video editor with an iPad/editing workflow? Then 2012 may be your chance to start the trend of hipster video editor with an Android tablet/editing workflow.
 
The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime has been getting rave reviews since it was released a month ago and we’ve all been inundated with info on the Android-based Kindle Fire.
 
With a strong consensus that we won’t see the iPad 3 at CES, that potentially leaves a lot of press time for a new slew of hungry Android tablets to take a bite out of Apple.
 
 
So what did I miss?