CAMeRA @ Las Vegas: Superlatives

This morning we followed the same routine. At 9am we had the buffet breakfast in the hotel. Then we walked to the Convention Center for our second NAB day. We decided we wanted to finish the South Hall first, because that seems to be the most relative section of the show.

Again we noticed that most of the stands were focused on the post-production of video and audio material. Very little of the shown hard- and software were really innovative. Most are proven technology that they simply want to sell.

Autodesk had some people showing some of their software, like Maya. Very impressive, but hardly anything really new.

We did run into a small stand that showed a program called the Animation Master. A very easy to use program to create 3D animation. Although the demo was of course geared to make it look easier than it really is, it still looked very impressive. Not as high tech as 3D Studio or Maya, but a real option for perhaps proto-typing. Since they offered it for only $50 (! - normal $299), we bought a copy.

We also saw a very nice touch display from Wacom. Not particularly for CAMeRA, but Johan was very interested.

Around 1pm we had a slice of pizza and talked a bit more about my Ph.D. After that we finish the South Hall and decided to to a bit of sight seeing down town.

We took the monorail to the Flamingo Hotel, where Las Vegas and gambling all started in 1946. We looked around in the Flamingo Hotel, Caesar's Palace and the Venetian. Words cannot begin to describe what those hotels (if you can call them hotels) look like. Think American, think superlatives, think tacky, think... anything.

Especially the Caesar's Palace hotel was incredible. It's bigger than huge (and that's an understatement). Outside and inside are opulently decorated with Greco-Roman objects. Everything is big. There's a shopping mall inside the hotel that is so big that it took us better part of an hour to see but a part of it. With fake Mediterranean facades, enormous fountains (a la Trevi fountain) and huge statues (including a life size replica of the David (and us thinking Caesar was a Roman! ;-)). And designer shops all around. Mind boggling.

The Venetian is a little less over the top, but only a bit. Again everything is big and tacky. Including the canal with the gondolas and the almost life size piazza.

After so much visual violence, we couldn't take anymore and we left for the Sahara hotel at around 6pm.

For dinner we decided to revisit our Thai friends around the corner and had an other excellent dinner in a quiet and friendly atmosphere, were we discussed everything from kids to the state of the educational system in the Netherlands.