Digital Downtown – New York’s Consumer Technology Showcase

Rachelle Friedman’s Keynote at Downtown Digital

Digital Downtown is a harbinger of all things tech. Held in the lovely Winter Garden lobby at the World Financial Center, tech industry leaders such as Toshiba, LG, Hitachi, Sharp and Pioneer just to name a few were there to show off their wares and what they had in stock for the future.

Digital Downtown was brought to us by North American publishing, Martin Porter and Associates and The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The CEA is perhaps best known for being the organizer of the highly regarded, International Consumer Electronic Show (CES) annually in Las Vegas.

Kicking off the festivities was J&R co-founder and CEO, Rachelle Friedman who delivered a touching keynote speech. She talked about how J&R was able to persevere and bounce back after the horrific terrorist attacks on 9-11. The luminous presence of J&R in downtown Manhattan can make people forget that it was once just a 300 sq ft storefront that sold Vinyl LP’s. J&R has grown tremendously over the years, and while the storefront has ballooned to 300,000 sq ft, the enjoyable shopping experience has remained the same. At its heart, J&R is still and will always be a Mom and Pop shop that delivers a one-stop shopping hub for consumer electronics with customer service and support that is second to none.

On the show floor, there was a dazzling array of the latest and greatest tech toys. From motorized wall mounts, to audiophile grade speakers and everything else in between, the show did not disappoint. Phones, music equipment, car audio, videogames, it was all there.

The highlights of the show, however, were the flat panel displays. It really is amazing how CE companies continue to push the envelope with superb picture quality while maintaining sleek, modern aesthetics. LG had on display both gorgeous looking Plasma and LCD sets. They also had an LED backlit display that promises to not only be environmentally conscious by using less energy, but also will also deliver reference quality black levels and picture quality. Despite the glare on the show floor from the sun, the picture quality on the LED display was outstanding.

LG’s Display Booth at Digital Downtown

Toshiba had a myriad of LCD displays that all looked good. It really is amazing to see LCD technology continue to improve.

Toshiba’s Booth at Digital Downtown

However, the display that stole the whole show was the Hitachi 1.5” LCD that was first introduced at CES earlier this year. Yes, you read that correctly. The display was only 1.5 inches thick. For reference, an iphone is about half an inch thick. On the show floor was a 37” model. I spoke at length with the Hitachi rep and he mentioned that larger sizes are in the works and the thin aesthetic will also be applied to Plasma displays as well. UK.cinenow had great video footage of the set for the CES debut. The video does it no justice.