The Richter Scale^®

Veterans of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas may recall that the Riviera Hotel’s ballroom was part of the CES show in years gone by, featuring the more risque elements of consumer electronics, namely new gadgets in the realm of adult entertainment, as well as media content (typically in the form of CDs and VHS tapes). It was at the Riviera during CES that I saw my first commercial use of MPEG playback on CD, and the first use of digital video over phone lines using Intel Indeo codec. And let’s not forget using Quicktime VR for interactive adult entertainment titles on CD.

Well, at some point, the folks who used to claim the Riveria for their exhibits, and the CEA (the folks running CES) must have parted ways, because for at least the last couple of years, Adult Video News (AVN) has been running something called the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo as a standalone show. Last year the show had the Sands Convention Center to itself.

This year, however, CES expanding to take over all the remaining space at the Sands, so the two shows shared venue. Look closely at the photos below to see how well they blended.

It was vastly entertaining to see geeks coexisting with adult starlets, each on the way to their own exhibit area. It was pretty easy to tell who the CES attendees were and who was there for the AVN Adult Expo. Typically the AVN show attendees ignored the CES attendees while the CES attendees stopped to stare and gape.

The AVN show has certainly expanding its breadth of exhibitors to include offerings of all aspects of the adult business - retail displays, toys, lubricants, and more. But there were still some pretty interesting technology finds there too, as innovators in the adult industry continue to apply new technologies to their industry. More on that in a subsequent blog entry.