177,393 industry professionals from 158 countries drawn to CES in January 

Show sees 10 percent increase in international attendance 

Arlington, VA, June 29, 2016 - The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, owner and producer of CES®, the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies, has announced final, audited numbers for CES® 2016. The audit confirms the 2016 event, which ran January 6-9 in Las Vegas, NV, reached a new attendance record, attracting 177,393 industry professionals from around the world.

More, the final number, which marks less than one percent growth over CES 2015, underscores CTA's efforts to limit overall attendance on par with final numbers from CES 2016. The full independent audit summary, performed by Vault Consulting, LLC, is complete and highlights are now available on CES.tech.
 
The audit also confirms a record international presence at the 2016 show with 53,808 attendees coming from outside the U.S. (up 10 percent over last year) representing 158 countries (up from 153 countries at CES® 2015). CES 2016 played host to 3,886 exhibiting companies showcasing the latest innovation and technologies changing the world across 2,475,646 net square feet of exhibit space. 
 
"Attracting more than 177,000 attendees is quite a remarkable achievement and our strong international attendance clearly confirms our show's status as the global technology event" said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, CES and corporate business strategy, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM. "We also are extremely pleased to see that the new enhanced credentialing procedures we implemented for 2016 enabled us to deliver a high-quality audience." 
 
To ensure industry professionals attending CES would continue to have a positive, quality business experience, this year CTA sought to cap overall attendance right around 176,000 by implementing new registration fees and other measures. CTA aimed to cap attendance, in line with the 176,676 attending CES 2015.
 
CES continued to garner global media coverage with 7,545 media scouring the show floor to report on the latest trends and products from the consumer technology industry. Coverage resulted in 2.5 billion potential media impressions from February 1, 2015-January 31, 2016, a 162 percent increase over 2015. CES social media dominated the four days of the show with more than 930,379 mentions of #CES2016 and @CES and 16.18 billion potential Twitter impressions.
 
 Some of the hottest trends generating media coverage from the show floor include IoT, smart home, computers/tablets, vehicles and gaming. Social sharing activity focused heavily on wearables, including fitness products, vehicle electronics and smart home.
 
"As the consumer technology industry has grown and expanded to embrace new market sectors and industries, so too has CES. Participants now include representatives from a growing number of global industries beyond the traditionally defined consumer technology sector," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM. "CES 2016 was a phenomenal event that served as a global epicenter for product launches and business deals.  The audit confirms that CES continues to feature exhibitors who bring the hottest tech trends to market that are changing our world and attracts top media to cover the excitement." 
 
Vault Consulting, LLC is certified by the Exhibition and Event Industry Audit Commission (EEIAC) to perform audits. The CES audit provides absolute verification of exhibition records, including direct on-site observation, examination of registration systems and testing of attendee records. This audit complies with the industry standards for audits adopted by both the EEIAC and the International Association of Exhibition and Events (IAEE). CES is also certified by UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

Highlights of the attendance breakdown can be found on CES.tech. 

Registration for CES 2017 opens September 6. Visit CES.tech for more information and to be notified when registration opens. 

CES has announced its Best of Innovation Awards Honorees for CES 2016. The CES Innovation Awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering advancements across 27 consumer technology product categories. The announcement came during CES Unveiled New York, an annual event to showcase new products and trends and the latest show announcements leading up to the CES.

In-vehicle honorees include Parrot, Dual Electronics, Alpine Electronics and Infinity for its Kappa K5 amp. Directed was also honored in the Wearables category for its Viper SmartStart 4.0. 
 
Each category has a three-member judging team that evaluates the products based on the criteria of engineering, design, function, features and how the product directly compares to competitors in the market. Products that receive the Best of Innovation designation are the highest-rated products within each category, and will be featured in the Innovation Awards Showcase at CES Tech West during CES 2016, Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas, NV. CES is owned and produced by The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, formerly the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)^®, the trade association representing the $285 billion U.S. consumer technology industry.
 
“This was another fantastic year for the Innovation Awards, as all of the honorees represent a vast range of technological advancements showcasing the excitement, energy and promise of consumer technology” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, CES and corporate business strategy. “These innovative products highlight key industry trends that will be seen across the entire CES show floor in January, and will drive the global consumer tech industry for months to come.”

The 2016 Best of Innovation Honorees are:

Computer Hardware and Components
HP Inc.
HP ENVY Curved All-in-One

Computer Peripherals
ROLI
Seaboard RISE

Digital Imaging
Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation
Ricoh Theta S

Eco-Design and Sustainable Technology
Pilot
ECO USBCELL Rechargeable  Battery

Fitness, Sports and Biotech
Ouraring
ŌURA

Gaming and Virtual Reality
Vuzix Corporation
iWear Wireless

Headphones
Harman International Industries
JBL Reflect Aware

Home Appliances
Somabar
Somabar Robotic Bartender

Home Audio/Video Components and Accessories
Klipsch Group, Inc.
Klipsch Reference Premiere Dolby Atmos Speaker System

Portable Media Players & Accessories
Belkin International
Belkin Charge Dock for Apple Watch and iPhone

Smart Home
Sengled
Sengled Voice

Software and Mobile Apps
Airspek
DietSensor

Tablets, E-Readers, and Mobile Computing
Lenovo, Corp. Yoga Tab 3 Pro
Osterhout Design Group R-7 Smart Glasses

Tech For A Better World
3D Systems
K-1 Assistive Device

Unmanned Systems and Accessories
Lily
Lily Camera

Vehicle Intelligence
Ford Motor Company
Ford F-150 Pro Trailer Backup Assist

Wearable Technologies
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Gear S2

Wireless Handset Accessories
Deeper
Smart Fishfinder

Wireless Handsets
Samsung Electronics
Galaxy S6 edge+

For more information on the CES 2016 Innovation Awards, including photos and descriptions of all honorees, visit CES Innovation Awards on CESweb.org.

Dancing With Giants

By Jamie Sorcher

The glitter and glory of CES has come and gone, but there’s nothing like a look in the rearview mirror to assess the big trends and to gain some perspective.

This year’s CES was its most massive yet with a near capacity crowd of more than 170,000 attendees, 3,800 companies and, of course, the expanding venues (East, West and South Halls) with 24.7 million net square feet of exhibit space. For someone wanting to see it all, it would require visiting 95 exhibitors each day of the show from the moment it opened until it closed.

Also new this year was the recent name change by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) that hosts the show to the broader title of Consumer Technology Association.

“Innovation and expansion are hallmarks of the consumer technology industry and our association—and as our industry changes, so must we,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association. “Our membership and the consumer technology sector have grown and evolved to engage almost every major industry segment and America’s burgeoning startup economy, touching almost every part of consumers’ lives. Our new name—the Consumer Technology Association—more accurately represents this growth and the excitement and innovative spirit of the industry we represent.”

The industry getting bigger and broader has brought more than a name change. The larger scope of the show has also seen more companies decide to show off the grid. This year a number of companies exhibited away from the main show floors including Harman, Rockford Fosgate, Orca, DD Audio, JL Audio, elettromedia, NAV-TV, and ADS (iDatalink).

"We have taken the approach that we want to bring technology in—so how do you cap that?" said Karen Chupka, senior vice president CES and corporate business strategist for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). "We want to create solutions and, as big as the show is getting, make it easy to help people find what they are looking for. When companies go off site, it makes it more difficult to do that."

Read the rest of this feature by [clicking here]

Dual Electronics has announced that it has been named a CES 2016 Innovation Awards Honoree for its in-car high-resolution audio player with WiFi, model DWF916L. Products entered in this prestigious program are judged by a panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the trade media. Products chosen as CES Innovation Honorees reflect innovative design and engineering and represent some of the most cutting edge tech products and services coming to market.

The DWF916L is the world’s first in-car headunit that allows playback of lossless music files streamed from a smartphone over WiFi. The player supports FLAC, ALAC, APE and WAV high-resolution audio files, up to 24bit/192 kHz. It also supports DLNA, allowing it to stream audio from other DLNA compatible devices including tablets and laptops. In addition, the DWF916L features a proprietary up-sampling algorithm to convert 16bit audio streamed from a smartphone over WiFi to 24bit audio.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Jim Braun, President and CEO, Dual Electronics. “We are happy to be able to bring mastering quality audio to the car in an elegant and user friendly solution, and at a price that won’t break the bank. “

Other features of the DWF916L headunit include built-in Bluetooth technology, direct USB control for iPod/iPhone devices, MTP for Android devices connected via USB, control for the Pandora app on an iPhone connected via USB, a large 3” full-color LCD, 3 pairs of 4V preamp outputs and 7 preset EQs.

Dual’s in-car high-resolution audio player with WiFi (model DWF916L) will be displayed at CES 2016, booth 2818, North Hall, LVCC, Las Vegas, Nevada between January 6 – 9, 2016. The DWF916L is expected to ship in late Spring 2016, at $499 MSRP.