Philips CES 2008

January 6, 1:00pm - Press Day
Before the show actually starts, there is an entire day dedicated to press conferences. They start at 8m and go until late in the day. More than 600 press shuttle from room to room to see what t he big announcements of the year are. Its quite a sight to see.

Philips had the 1pm slot. We spent the entire two days before turning a blah banquet room into an oasis of Simplicity. White walls, white carpet and relaxing lighting - even the chair covers were white. It was truly amazing how different the room looked. Of course with beauty come the beast - in this instance that would be me. About 30 minutes before the doors opened - I kicked over a cup of coffee all over a white chair and the floor. GREAT! Lucky for me our events team are miracles workers and had the entire thing cleaned up in a matter of minutes.

It was a packed house with no seats to spare and the show was a great success. Philips showed off Aurea - a unique television that is more like a work of art than a TV. The entire frame illuminates with light and gives the viewer a completely new viewing experience. You can see more of at seductionbylight.com and our new Design Collection. The Deign Collection features a whole new look that is unique and personal and spans across a wide rage of products. From FlatTVs to Ambisound to Blu-ray disc the Design Collection is definitely different from anything out there. Be sure to check out the website product links to see the entire collection for yourself.

Philips also announced its new partnership with Rhapsody. From today, Rhapsody is available in the US for downloading to Philips portable GoGear devices and Philips Streamium™ home audio products.

I can't cover all the announcements ( but you can read the speech) - but one of my personal favorites is the new color collection from the Active Crystals line. This is a partnership between Philips and Swarovski and together we are making electronics more personal, expressive and above all fashionable. The new collection feature two new USB drives and two in-ear head phones embellished with lilac or black crystals. One of the USB is in the shape of a heart pendant which is perfect as it comes out in time for Valentine's day!

Tomorrow the show opens and then the excitement really begins.

Lindsay - Philips Consumer Lifestyle CES Blogger

January 6, 9:00am - Ringing in the new year with the Philips CES blog
Vegas baby,Vegas

Christmas stockings and lit the last new year's fire cracker, CES is almost upon us! In two days I, and many of my colleagues, will participate in the annual exodus to Las Vegas to show off the latest in cutting edge innovation that Philips has to offer.

Before everything officially kicks off though I am delighted to welcome you to the Philips CES blog! Following the success of our blog at IFA last year, we just couldn't turn down the opportunity of giving you a behind the scenes look at what happens when Philips is at CES and so we're going to have a team of people contributing to the blog and giving their insights on CES. This is a monumental time for Philips with the creation of our newly formed consumer lifestyle sector on 1 January. Philips' consumer electronics business officially merged with its domestic appliances and personal care business with a mission to deliver great lifestyle experiences through simplicity-led design and immersive entertainment. Am very excited that we will be presenting ourselves as a newly combined sector at our press conference on Sunday 6 January.

Design is going to be hot on Philips' agenda this year as well as our continuing focus on meaningful innovation that brings simple yet sophisticated and inspiring products into peoples' lives. But we are also looking forward to see what else is going on at the show in terms of other design trends, innovation and sustainability (like the great news that CES is going green). We'll be updating this site throughout CES and things should start to get busy on Sunday once everyone has arrived. We're also really looking forward to hearing back from - your thoughts, questions, etc!

Andrew - Philips Consumer Lifestyle CES Blogger