THROWBACK THURSDAY: CES 1987

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Beta ED. Super VHS. 8mm Video. Man, the days when people actually wanted CDs. I didn’t get to go to the Consumer Electronic Shows then — and back then there were two of them every year — so I had to be content with waiting until new technology came to my local Highland Electronics Superstore.

It really was a different time

We’re looking back 35 years here. It wasn’t just a different time for consumer electronics… it was a different time in so many ways. If you lived through those days you might be tempted to think “Oh it wasn’t that different.” But really, it was. Communication wasn’t instant, not by any means. If you were lucky you could get some information about new tech from the evening news or maybe a newspaper article. But, if you really wanted a deep dive you had to wait until the magazines came out over a month later.

Not only that, I think that our definition of “consumer electronics” was very different too. I mean, of course you didn’t have a lot of handheld stuff since it was practically impossible to do. More than that, though, “consumer electronics” usually meant things like TVs and sound systems. Computers had their own shows, and there wasn’t as much of an overlap. Computers really didn’t break into the “consumer” world until the mid-1990s. Before that, they were really for hobbyists and business people.

It literally was a different show, too.

Remember at that time the Consumer Electronics Show was owned by a different group than the one that owns it now. The Consumer Technology Association (Signal Group is a member) is a spinoff from the older Consumer Electronics Association, and its goals are really fairly different from the ones the CEA had.

Trade shows have evolved, too. I was involved in the trade show industry in 1987. These were all-expense-paid vacations for the top dogs in business. They were as much about entertainment as they were about learning. Without cell phones or pagers, the attendees (usually men) were on their own in the wild, and let’s be honest… they did wild things.

Take a look at this

Thanks to YouTube user videoholicreturns, though, we can relive those days, and it’s an extra added bonus that they come to us through wobbly standard-definition camcorder video, as all worthwhile things in the 1980s did. You even get blocky titles! Love it! If you look at their channel there’s a lot more than just the 1987 show, too.

This is an hour-long expedition into the future of technology, as seen from the past. It’s a reminder that today’s tech will look pretty dorky in 30 years, too.

The 2023 CES

This year is the first time since 2013 that there’s no show floor presence from The Solid Signal Blog (not counting the 2021 show when there wasn’t a show floor.) The world’s changed a lot, and a trip to Las Vegas for a gadget show isn’t the “must” that it once was. We’ll keep reporting on the best in consumer electronics throughout the year.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.