CES 2016

Drones are no flash in the pan, as ample evidence at last week’s CES revealed. Ryan Nakashima reports there’s speculation that drones may become a mass-market product for consumers in three years as the FAA continues to labor away on drone-safety rules.

his year’s CES gadget show, like ones before it, showed off a mix of the dreamy and the practical in technology. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights of CES 2016.

Stephen Burke, chief executive officer of NBCUniversal, worries about the future of cable networks that air heavy schedules of rerun programming. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Thursday, Burke said: “If you carry a show on cable that’s a rerun, it’s hard to maintain the same ratings” when you have many other media content choices.

Distance-measuring smartphones, exercise-charging battery packs and a toothbrush that’s also a video game controller are among Thursday’s highlights at CES 2106. A wide-ranging rundown from The Associated Press.

The online video site’s chief business officer, Robert Kyncl, says his dire prediction of TV’s demise is less focused on who makes the content but how it’s delivered. “When I say that 75% of all video will be transmitted through the Internet, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s video made for the Internet,” he said. “It will also be content from ABC, NBC — people who have honed their craft.”

Sony plans to launch a 4K streaming service in the U.S. aimed at providing purchasers of its 4K Bravia TVs with some content to play on them. The transactional service will provide users of Sony’s new HDR TVs streams in the high-resolution Ultra HD format, complemented by High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology.

Even moderately priced sets can now connect to the Internet and run Netflix and other apps — that’s the “smart” part. Yet many people are ignoring the built-in features and turning to Apple TV, Roku and other stand-alone streaming devices that often do a better job. The NPD Group estimates that roughly a third of smart TVs in the U.S.aren’t actually connected to the Internet. And researchers at Parks Associates found that even as more Americans are using smart TV functions, streaming device usage has grown even faster.

Over-the-air broadcasting is making its first game-changing advancement in decades for all to see on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center with the opening of CES 2016.

Netflix members watched 12 billion hours of video in the fourth quarter of 2015, up 45% from a year earlier, CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday. “We’re at the start of a global revolution,” he said, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sling CEO Roger Lynch said the service will roll out a new interface, called MyTV, that will predict what a user might want to watch based on viewing habits. He vowed, though, that Sling will serve up “more features, more channels, [on] more devices,” adding that “there’s much, much more we plan to do.”

HDR, or high dynamic range, promises brighter whites, darker blacks, and a richer range of colors — at least when you’re watching the few select movie titles that get released in the format. Trouble is, there aren’t all that many of those yet, and other HDR viewing options are likely to remain scarce for the immediate future. Even worse, there are likely to be several different flavors of HDR, just to keep TV buyers on their toes.

The cable programmer, whose channels include TBS, TNT, CNN and Cartoon Network, among others, is introducing a new native advertising unit at the Consumer Electronics Show this week with the goal of reimagining commercial breaks.

This year’s CES is slated to be the biggest ever, taking up more than 2.4 million square feet of exhibit space, about a 7% increase from a year earlier, when it officially kicks off Wednesday after two days of media previews. There will be less emphasis on the typical CES electronics like televisions, tablets and smartphones, and more attention paid to industry-changing innovations such as connected, electric and driverless cars; the Internet of Things; drones; virtual reality and gaming; and entertainment tech.

For the first time ever, attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — the world’s largest trade show — will have their bags searched upon entering. The show’s sponsor, the Consumer Technology Association, says new security procedures have been implemented “due to recent global tragedies.”

The annual Consumer Electronics Show will showcase game-changing television technologies that have taken TV from a once linear, appointment-based medium into an anything, anywhere, on-any-device reality. Whether they are viewed as challenges that pose an existential threat to over-the-air television or as trail markers along the path to what can be the future of OTA television will largely be a matter of perspective.