For those retailers, exhibitors and press who regularly attend the show, the pace of advancement seems too slow, but to the rest of the universe, it's rushing way too fast. Take digital television. Never have so few cared so much about something so expensive. DTV, its advocates insist, is a touchstone of a concept called convergence, where telecommunications, entertainment and computing are all intertwined in the home environment. Wait a minute.
Digital broadcasts are limited.
And convergence is dependent on cable and telephone and satellite providers joining the mix, and you already know how hard it is to get those guys to answer a phone call. Convergence notwithstanding, we took some time during the recent show to slip away from the 60-inch megascreens and deafening surround sounds of DTV in search of more obscure, but equally fascinating, forms of electronics inventiveness. The set will work today and will display a digital broadcast through a separate, extra-cost DTV tuner when these adapters become available later this year. The screens, with built-in stereo speakers, make fine displays for business presentations as well. Sony uses a proprietary digital processor to produce a multichannel sound field through the headphones.