As we bid farewell to the 2011 International CES, we close with some general observations from the ETC reporting team…

Las Vegas was crowded – really crowded. If the national economy is slow to recover, there was little evidence of it in the Nevada desert. CEA estimates that about 140,000 people attended the show (more than last year and on par with pre-recession levels), and the state of the industry is showing strength. CEA’s Gary Shapiro estimates that consumer electronics spending will show a 6% increase for 2010, to $180 billion, and will rise an additional 3% this year, to more than $186 billion.

If we had to sum up this year’s show in 10 words, they would be: smart, connected, apps, 3D, 4G, gestural interfaces, tablets, tablets, and tablets.

The word that appeared around every corner of this year’s show floor was ‘smart’ – from banners and new product lines to marketing slogans and more. There was no escaping it, as it seems manufacturers now recognize the need to simplify consumer control over the dizzying array of available devices and services.

‘Connected’ everything was another star of the show, especially in regards to television and related services: search, discovery, VOD, and way too many apps to fathom. In fact, it was a challenge to spot a TV that wasn’t connected to Hulu, Netflix, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Yahoo! – you get the idea.

CES presented the connected TV as the center for our new multimedia-driven homes. We saw Hubs, Dashboards, Media Links – all designed to address these needs.

This CE connectivity is reliant upon high-speed networks and we heard a lot in terms of 4G and LTE. Verizon, T-Mobile, and others showcased their recently launched networks and collection of tablets and smartphones designed to leverage new speed and efficiency. We found the Motorola Atrix 4G compelling, an Android-based phone featuring NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, support for AT&T’s 4G network, and a very interesting laptop dock.

We saw 3D in record abundance – from 3D mobile and 3D gaming to new autostereo displays and a wide selection of prototype and market-ready 3DTVs and laptops.

Sony and Panasonic are sticking with active-shutter, while others – including LG, Toshiba, and Vizio – are touting the benefits of new passive 3D models. Passive displays are being produced at a more reasonable cost and many find passive polarized to be more comfortable. Additionally, the weight of the glasses is an improvement, and they work better over eyeglasses.

For those who believe donning plastic glasses may become the primary obstacle to consumer adoption, a number of autostereo displays were on hand, some that showed real promise and others that were less than impressive.

In terms of gestural interfaces, Microsoft Kinect is already breaking sales records, but the real story here is how gesture technologies will be used beyond video games. PrimeSense showed a system that wirelessly links the PC and TV, enabling access to content from a controller-free 3D system. Imagine what ‘connected’ TV will be like with set-top boxes featuring gesture recognition.

If there was a single breakout star this year, however, it would be tablets.

The Motorola XOOM turned a lot of heads in Vegas. The Android-based device (CNET’s ‘Best of Show’ winner) is one in a growing number of tablets targeting the burgeoning iPad market. Reactions were also positive for the 4G BlackBerry PlayBook which, unlike most of the iPad competitors, does not use Android, but will run on the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Another tablet not using Android is Samsung’s Sliding PC 7. It runs on Windows, and is a touch-screen device with its own slide-out keyboard. Larger than an iPad but smaller than many Netbooks, it could be the hybrid that many have been hoping for.

We have much more to discuss, especially in regards to cloud-based content hosting and delivery services (i.e. UltraViolet), connected TVs and Blu-ray players with 2D-to-3D conversion capabilities, and more – but we’ll save those thoughts for our post show report which should be available within the next week.

Thanks for reading the blog for this year’s CES coverage. A special thank-you to ETC’s sponsors who make our work possible. Until the next show…

KC Blake, Sarah Blake, George Gerba, Carolyn Giardina, Bryan Gonzalez, Bob Lambert, Michael Lei, Phil Lelyveld, Jack Lerner, Edie Meadows, Nick Nero, Paula Parisi, Adrian Pennington, Rob Scott, David Wertheimer, Joyce Yi

Winners of this year’s CNET Best of CES Awards were announced Saturday morning in the lobby of South Hall. With all the buzz surrounding tablet PCs taking over Las Vegas, it’s apropos that a new Android-based tablet would take ‘Best of Show’ for 2011.

Motorola’s XOOM turned a lot of heads this week – from its appearance in the opening keynote to crowded demos in Central Hall at the Motorola booth. The XOOM is one in a growing number of tablets targeting the burgeoning iPad market, but as Bob Lambert wrote in his CES event coverage, Motorola’s solution is compelling, “with Android’s refreshingly thoughtful user interface, growing range of applications and high-speed LTE-based wireless connectivity.” Additionally, CNET reports some interesting distinctions: “(XOOM) comes standard with front- and rear-facing cameras, including one that can record in HD, compared with none in the current version of the iPad. It also boasts a larger screen with a higher resolution, supports Adobe Flash, and uses Verizon’s network instead of AT&T’s.”

We’ll be watching how this potential competition will play out in 2011.

This year’s ‘People’s Voice Award’ went to the Razer Switchblade – an Intel Atom-based, concept design for a Netbook of sorts, designed to bring PC gaming to a portable form factor. Razer has taken the familiar keyboard and redesigned it as a tool for mobile gaming controls (CNET has a great online video demo). By combining a multitouch screen with a tactile adaptive keyboard (the keyboard actually changes on-the-fly based on which game you are playing), Razer presents a compelling solution for portable gaming.

Whether the Switchblade takes off or not, we expect the form factor is something we’ll see with future interface technologies.

Our audience should also be interested in some of the category winners, including: Nintendo 3DS (Gaming), a portable system in which gamers have the option of adjusting the 3D intensity or shutting it off; Toshiba 3D eyeglass-free technology (Prototype), a proof of concept design for 3D laptops that leverages eye tracking software; and the Motorola Atrix 4G (Smartphones), an Android-based phone featuring NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, support for AT&T’s 4G network, and an interesting laptop dock.

For the complete list of winners and related articles, visit the CNET Best of CES page. Other awards presented during CES worth noting include:

— The CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program (sponsored by PCWorld)

— The 61st Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards (NATAS)

— The 4th Annual Mashable Awards (formerly the Open Web Awards)

— The 2011 CES Mobile Apps Showdown (created by Robin Raskin of Living in Digital Times)

— The 2011 CES Hot Stuff Awards (sponsored by Stuff magazine)

Home Server Technologies Inc. (HSTi) showcased an innovative new technology called Wireless Media Stick, a simple and affordable product that allows media connectivity between mobile devices, TVs, DVD players and more.

The product addresses this year’s underlying theme of connectivity, but unlike Google TV or Samsung’s Smart Hub products, all of which can run a hefty cost after subscriptions and hardware, the Wireless Media Stick is available for a modest $119.

The unit looks like any USB flash drive. After connecting to a main computer that contains media files, the computer is enabled (all the software is embedded into the product), and the Media Stick can be inserted into any device with a USB playback port — and through a wireless connection users have the ability to access and share photos, videos and music.

What’s especially interesting about the technology is that you can also stream on-the-go; the Wireless Media Stick app is downloadable for smartphones and by taking the Stick to any location you can directly stream data from a mobile device to any TV, computer or stereo that is USB playback compatible.

The reasonably-priced Wireless Media Stick is currently available and should be particularly appealing to high school and college students who are constantly on-the-go and accustomed to easily sharing their media content.

At CES Sensio announced the launch of a 3D Internet content library for streaming 3D movies to Internet enabled 3DTVs or STBs. The content library currently consists of about 50 films and is available to existing VOD providers.

Sensio has also announced increased efforts at enabling 3D console gaming by providing a software kit to developers that will encode the 3D game output into a number of 3D formats. This is particularly useful for the Xbox 360, which doesn’t natively support any 3D formats for gaming.

Finally, Sensio Autodetect is a licensable technology for TV manufacturers that can detect practically any 3D format and display it on TV with less than one frame of latency, meaning consumers won’t even know they’ve changed 3D formats. (See related story on Autodetect.)

KDDI R&D Laboratories demonstrated a proof-of-concept implementation of a system that will allow consumers to determine and change their vantage point and control their 3D viewing experience during a live broadcast.

Free Viewpoint 3D Video requires a minimum of four 2D camera positions, and four 2D video feeds, to work. It takes approximately 3-4 hours to set up and calibrate the 2D cameras. Once calibration is complete, the KDDI software in a consumer’s home device uses the four (or more) feeds to create a live consumer-controlled 3D video feed that can synthesize the 3D viewing experience from any position between the cameras. Their system also synthesizes the soundscape to match the audio that the person would hear from their chosen camera position. It is using 2D information to create a 3D audiovisual experience.

Although the attached photo looks like a screen shot of a video game, it is actually a 3D generated image of a live soccer match. Their synthesized images do look more CGI than real at the moment, but they expect to refine the process in the near future.

They plan to run a test of this system over the KDDI broadcast system in about six months.

2D-to-3D conversion has essentially become a standard feature in 3D products from leading CE manufacturers.

Among these products are some of Samsung’s latest 3D Blu-ray players. The product line also offers Samsung Smart Hub via integrated wireless and Smart Blu-ray features. With Smart Hub, users can search for movies, shows and videos across connected devices, browse the Web and access Samsung Apps.

Getting a lot of attention was the wall-mountable Samsung BD-D7500 3D Blu-ray player (pictured here), which also includes a 250GB hard drive for storing content.

From developments in Blu-ray players to 3D glasses, Samsung also previewed light-weight prescription-ready 3D active glasses and a wireless charger for 3D active glasses. The SSG-3700CR glasses weigh just under an ounce. Viewers who wear eyeglasses can order special prescription lenses that attach to the SSG-3700CR. For those who plan to wear their own eyeglasses, there is also a new temple design that connects to the top of the frame.

Recharging options include a USB cable or Samsung wireless charger; an indicator on the side of the glasses gauge battery life. Samsung reports that the glasses will automatically turn on when moved or placed on the face and power off when motion or touch is not detected by the embedded sensors.

Pricing was not available.

Prepare to be dazzled at the Samsung booth…

Crowds were gathering around eye-catching 1080p imagery, playing on a prototype of an ultra-thin, 75-inch, Full HD 3D LED TV.

The prototype is Internet-enabled, supports 3D, and includes a touchscreen remote. Samsung also explained the display is power efficient since it features LED backlighting.

The prototype is roughly an inch thick, though a company spokesperson said that could change before release, which is slated in Q4. A 55- and 60-inch version of the TV will also be available.

Technicolor presented an overview of their 3D quality control certification process and criteria in their Central Hall booth at CES. The 3D certification program, Certifi3D, launched in December.

BSkyB, the first Europe operator to launch a 3D channel, recently announced its support for the Certifi3D service.

“We are very excited that BSkyB is endorsing our 3D certification program,” said Pierre (Pete) Routhier, Technicolor’s VP for 3D product strategy and business development. “Together with our customers, we will take a proactive approach in support of the industry to ensure a consistent and quality end-consumer 3D experience in the home.”

Technicolor’s Certification chart, which describes their evaluation criteria, is “a 15-point quality checklist to identify common errors in production that result in suboptimal 3D content.” The checklist ranges in areas from luminance and depth of field to hyperconvergence and 2D-to-3D ratio. An overview of the chart (Technicolor Certifi3d Poster) is available as a pdf download.

Walt Husak and co-workers showed and discussed some full resolution 3D test material that they shot, in a private room within the Dolby booth.

They played two scenes of a woman in multi-patterned clothing walking within a cinderblock space with office plants and other objects.

The Dolby team also shot, but did not show, outdoor sports footage. Dolby may show this material to the various industry bodies currently discussing development of a 3D standard test reel, in the hope that it will accelerate the process.

Contact Walt at Dolby for more information.