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    An APEX Safari at CES

    January 7, 2015  | Written by Jordan Yerman
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    It’s day two of CES 2015 in sunny Las Vegas… though we’re all spending the day in a cavernous convention center. Several members of the APEX community gathered to tour the convention floor, guided by APEX Technical Director Bryan Rusenko.

    Lufthansa Technologies was represented by Dirk Ottens and Michael Childers, who also chairs the APEX Tech Committee. Brian Richardson and Alice Liu from American Airlines also joined us, along with Ron Freer from Southwest Airlines and Marc Kirmoyan from Bombardier.

    Crowded House

    CES is expecting around 150,000 people to attend this year’s conference: That’s roughly one quarter the population of Vancouver… and some of ’em may have brought along a plus-one.

    So, yes, it was crowded, and keeping a group of professionals with such diverse interests together on a media tour through the CES jungle was a challenge. However, we were united in our love for technology, and how these new offerings might become evolved for use in-flight.

    Fueling the Future

    During the tour, we discussed how hydrogen-fuel technology seen in next-generation cars could make its way into the airline industry, lightening our environmental footprint.

    We also saw promise in the screen-cleaning and device-charging technologies on display: If bring-your-own-device is one of IFEC’s futures, then keeping those devices charged and scum-free is pretty crucial.

    Watch the Throne

    We oohed and aahed over the latest smartwatches, though Freer already has one. He’s keenly interested in wearables as an aid for flight attendants, but notes that, with tech, “there are no silver bullets.”

    Glimpsing Tomorrow

    We also checked out the new generation of video displays. While most consumers are still grooving on 4K, 8K is on the very near horizon.

    Elbows, shoulders, knees and toes were rubbed with people from all over the world as they scoured the convention floor. (I apparently missed spotting Neil Young as I checked my phone – A hazard of the profession.) Day two closes and we’re nowhere near to seeing everything, but the ground we’ve covered so far is exciting. Especially once the APEX community gets its hands on it.