Televisions were the stars of January's International Consumer Electronics Show. Known as CES, the yearly gathering in Las Vegas is one of the world's largest consumer electronics trade shows.
TVs made news this year because they were bigger and better, with some of the most advanced technology ever. Some TVs used a technology called Organic Light Emitting Diodes, or OLED. They were thinner, lighter, offered better color and were brighter than current LEDs.
Ultra High Definition TVs were also popular. Most of UHDTVs on display used something called 4K technology. It has four times more resolution than current HDTVs. And Sharp Electronics showed off a super high definition TV with resolution that is 16 times greater than that of standard high definition TVs. Smart TVs this year were smarter.
Many offered technology like voice recognition. One TV from the company TCL uses sensors and voice recognition to know who is watching. It then offers programs based on the user. In addition to TV technology, size also played a major part in CES 2013.
Televisions varied in size from big to bigger, with at least two companies -- Samsung and HiSense -- exhibiting TVs measuring almost three meters across. Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, the group that organizes the show. He said CES has more than 20,000 products from over 3200 companies. But, it is more than a trade show. It is a gathering of the brightest minds, industry leaders and those trying to catch a glimpse of the future.
For VOA Learning English, I'm Laurel Bowman. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 14Jan2013)
