2025’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week has thrown a bit of a curveball at Fred Jacobs, president and founder of Jacobs Media.
There are the usual gadgets and gizmos on display at CES with all the hype and glitz, including a robot vacuum that picks up dirty socks and a stringless guitar. Jacobs says the breathtaking technology and awe-inspiring visual theatrics often leave him scratching his head and asking “How did they do that?”
However, this year there is something different about the massive technology show, he says.
“The political overtones on how the next administration and Congress could impact the technology marketplace are very prevalent. What could the impact be from President Trump and his close alliance with Elon Musk? There’s a lot of speculation around on all of this. Who will be the winners and losers? No one really know,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs says he has never seen a political pivot that could impact tech such as the results from the 2024 election cycle. “There is a lot of talk going on about how all of the political change and the impact the new administration will have on radio,” he says.
Changes are also coming to the next-gen vehicle space, Jacobs says. A sub-trend discovered at CES is more elaborate in-car heads up displays. In fact, Hyundai has a full windshield heads-up display.
“It’s the screenification of the windshield if you will. They’ve been playing around with a new glass display of various kinds the past few years and it feels like it is becoming a bigger deal. That means radio will have to be ready for that,” Jacobs said.
One company to keep an eye on is Quu, he says, which provides tools for radio stations to deploy visual content, including metadata on in-car dashboards
[Related: “Quu Refines Its Visual Message Offerings”]
“We’ll see how Quu’s technology will translate to the larger heads-up display. The cool thing is that radio has the potential to look better than many of the sources of audio and entertainment in the car,” Jacobs said.
The tech company has a presence at the Xperi exhibit at CES, which is in the West Hall in booth 5840. Quu announced earlier this week that it has hired Alan Jurison, the former senior operations director at iHeartRadio, to focus on special projects and innovation.
CES runs through Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and a variety of locations across the city. There are 12 official venues that span more than 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space.
