Backstage at CES: XM's Booth Pre-Show
The folks at XM were kind enough to not only give me a tour of the booth pre-show, but to allow me to snap off photos of it for Orbitcast readers to enjoy.
The display booth was buzzing with excitement as dozens of people were busy making sure that every piece of audio equipment was working flawlessly for the show. And trust me, there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle.
Here you can see a Saturn Sky and a slightly pimped out Hyundai Azera (that's sarcasm folks - the thing is modded to the gills). This is only half of the booth.

Here you can see the famed "Infotainment" vehicle (we gotta work on that name). The guys were hard at work on that badboy, and I have a feeling they'll be there deep into the night fine tuning the details.

Here's one of the kiosks that will showcase various devices... note the lack of units. I think these will be plug-and-plays.
(For the sake of bandwidth, follow the jump for lots more pics.)
Another kiosk. The hands will hold the devices, indicating that these units are... you guessed it, handhelds. These Innos and Helixs will have the new XM2go software that will support Audible (finally!).
Here's the center area of the booth. Plug and plays obviously are featured here, as well as the new Delphi Sound System, and a slew of XMWX devices (no pics of the XMWX units yet).

This is one of the most impressive (and in my opinion, one of the most significant) areas of the booth - and that's what I'll call the "Wall of the Mini-Tuner." This is the mobile audio section, which showcases all the latest generation car and marine stereos. These units are just incredible to play with.

And here's a good shot to show the height of the whole thing.
I didn't get authorization from Sirius to take photos of their booth pre-show but I did get the chance to walk around and look at it. It's quite large and impressive, so Sirius fans won't be disappointed tomorrow when CES 2007 officially opens.


Comments
O&A next to Jeter....not good. lol It's more of a Jimmy thing but still. Wonder why Sirius wouldn't let you try to generate some pre-show buzz for them.
Posted by: ahigee ? | January 7, 2007 11:45 PM
ryan, sure hope you look over the HD radio area during your visit..!
I really posted to say thanks for your coverage of ces this year.
Posted by: tim ? | January 8, 2007 6:44 AM
Nice pics...similar to last year.
Posted by: prozac | January 8, 2007 7:18 AM
Very Cool Ryan! Thanks for taking all of us to CES! Cool to see you there so that we can see what's new.
Posted by: The Squeaky Wheel | January 8, 2007 8:36 AM
Would love to see some of the mini tuner head units up close and personal... do these have actual mini tuner slots on 'em, or is there some kind of cradle that plugs into the back of the head unit?
Posted by: MikeV ? | January 8, 2007 9:26 AM
Thanks for all the info Ryan. It's (almost ) like being there sans the cute hookers in LV.
Posted by: pockpie | January 8, 2007 12:17 PM
Very cool Ryan!!!!
Thanks.
Posted by: XMGUY2500 | January 11, 2007 1:02 AM