Gizmodo
Wandering around the CES show floor, you have to laugh when the elaborate multi-million dollar structures designed to convince you of a company's credibility are called "booths." Step with us through the most exquisite, best-designed and overall most awe-inspiring of all we saw this week in this top ten gallery of the Best Booths of CES. And yeah, we called them booths, but some might even be elevated to gadget status.
1. Intel's booth (pictured above), our favorite, spins lappies into a humongous and hellacious helix that kicked our asses all the way into the middle of next week.
2. A Disney pirate ship, sitting there on top of the Blu-ray booth? Yep, it was built to promote the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and we even snuck into its insides, which were being used as a break room for bored booth babes. Its realism, created by the same artisans, set designers and carpenters who make Disney World so appealing, was accurate right down to the seagull guano.
3. LG stacks TVs a mile high, and this time, in a way that was even more effective than last year, the Lucky Goldstar gang showed us that Life is indeed Good.
4. Belkin's booth looked like it came straight out of Dwell magazine. A booth? No, this swank little townhouse on the CES show floor was a place in which we would have liked to have slept—it would have been a whole better than our shitty hotel rooms.
5. The Nordic cool of the Philips booth appealed to our aesthetic sensibility, and its thick cushy carpet made sense. Its booth and the occupants therein were all easy on the eyes.
6. These oversized Eneloop batteries, jutting out of the show floor like so many electric phalluses, made us laugh while making us dig the product even more.
7. The giant Samsung booth dominated the show floor, roadblocking the area and offering no exit from its back side. That sucked, but we still liked the power of the thing, but we're biased because the front showed off our fave screen of the entire show, the 82-inch ultra high definition TV, a 3840x2160 masterpiece that's the world's largest of its type.
8. As far as waterfalls of TVs go, Sharp does 'em best, filling the air with its beauteous Aquos displays. Pretty.
9. Sony's booth felt inviting and relaxing, and there was a separate area for the Sony Pictures division where you could just kick back and watch some TV for a while. Naw, we didn't hang out there much, but we always knew it was there.
10. Gibson had a huge party tent set up in the parking lot, touting its fab new robotic guitars and such. But the kicker was the big-name bands and gigsters they had playing every night. For example, here's Peter Frampton. There were also beaucoups other celebs hanging around, too. Overall, it was a no-bullshit approach that was much appreciated.
Photography by Curtis Walker, Peter Frampton photo by Sandy Campbell
Comments
And the worst?
what about the top 10 worst booths, perhaps?
whoa. now we're thinking alike tpfannes!
At the risk of sounding like a huge dork,
I believe that's just a *single* helix of Intel laptops...
That Pirates booth was at Comic Con.
Man, TVs are so flat now you can hang them like paintings.
Intel's is awesome @_@
man I wish I got to go, a friend of mine is a panasonic rep and was telling me how awesome it was to go there.
i cant see the pictures :(
what is happening with this stupid computer?
No pics from inside the Pirates hull?? :*(
That Intel booth is a work of art.
Great design and coloring.
The laser blue color and the winding staircase really gives a futuristic effect
what?? Giz crew reads Dwell?
@EMPATHOGEN:
You're right and they're wrong, it's only a single helix.
A double helix would have a spiral of laptops twirling down in the opposite direction.
@empathogen: Ha! I thought the same thing..
Since when did Peter Frampton begin to look like Dr. Kevorkian?
Frampton was stuck in the parking lot? Why didn't someone show him the way?
@JETDILLO:
Actually, if you look closely there are two helices on the structure as the top line cannot possibly touch where the second one starts visually.
It is a double helix...just a lot more flattened than a DNA chain which is the usual visual representation of a double helix...
Okay...I gotta take a shower cuz I must be a big nerd... :p
"and we're biased because the front showed off our fave screen of the entire show, the 82-inch ultra high definition TV, a 2K masterpiece that's the world's largest of its type."
Damn, sign me up. Where can I buy one for 2K?
Gibson >>> all.
"Yep, it was built to promote the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and we even snuck into its insides, which was being used as a break room for bored booth babes."
This sentence is uselss without pictures!
Holy crap, I just realized I own several computers with Intel processors in them, a Blu Ray player and several Blu Ray movies. I'm sure I own something from LG, Belkin, Philips and Samsung. I own a Sharp Aquos TV, a Sony laptop and PS3 and a Gibson guitar. Now all I need to do is buy an Aneloop battery (whatever those are) and I'll feel really guilty about being a typical consumer.
Oh man, those Eneloop batteries (really all the ultra-low-discharge NiMH batteries) are the shizz! I have renewed faith in rechargeable batteries. Even bought a Sansa 250 MP3 player for FM at the gym since it uses a single AAA battery for power.
@roncri: 2k resolution as in digital cinema 2K
BTW giz team 2k isn't a big deal its damn close to 1080p which was probly everywhere
1080p = 1920x 1080 2k = 2048x1080
4k and uhdv are TEH PWNZ
@tpfannes: Just about anyone in the int'l hall will meet the "worst" designation. I suppose you could have a worst big booth category but as far as overall? There's SOOOOOOooo many small totally shitty booths there. Seriously. You have to wonder how some of these companies can afford to exhibit and/or if they ever even get a single order. I always try to buy at least one or two craptastic show samples because I *know* i'll never see the product for sale anywhere ('cept maybe in China).
I looked at the Sony booth and all I could think was;
.....
Pirate...
Blue Ray...
Pirate Blue Ray.
u'm OK. if you say so.
@Polyphonic:
agreed, I wish i could have been there to try out the robot guitar.
Congrats Intel Team!
@92BuickLeSabre: Ah, you bastard! Well played, however.
very nice... :) You shouldn't do one one the worst ones, that would just put down some of the newcomers and some others :(
Oh sony, you cheapskates. That's the exact same Black Pearl Blu-Ray booth they had at Comic-Con 07.
I really think that Panasonic blew everyone away this year... Great booth that lined an entire wall which made it much easier to see everything. They had multiple presentations and speakers for several of their products. Their show that they had for the Life Wall was well done and the video they looped in between for the upcoming Olympic coverage was epic. All of this and not including the 150 incher.
@empathogen: Well you succeeded. You do not sound like a huge dork; an inattentive dork perhaps, but not a huge one.
If you carefully at the image (or try this larger version at engadget [www.blogsmithmedia.com]) you can clearly see that it is a double helix.
I'm not sure what's Nordic about the Philips booth, given that Philips is a Dutch company. Perhaps there was someone wearing a Viking helmet just out of shot?
Peter Frampton looks so old!
well you are wrong, it is NOT a double helix, its only a double helix if the two lines are going in opposite directions
@92BuickLeSabre: Haha!
@NZRUSS: Ironic, that is!
It was great to see one of the exhibits we designed included in your listing! Catalyst Exhibits, Inc. designed the your number 4 pick!
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