At CES – The product that surprised me most!

At huge trade shows, such as CES, every once in a while you stumble across a hidden gem of a product at an inconspicuous location. I was heading to the escalators at the Las Vegas Convention Center when I stumbled across what looked to be a small living room tucked underneath the “down” escalators. There was great music coming from a crowd. I thought it might be a live artist playing guitar on the couch. When I got closer, however, I noticed that it was actually a show booth for a company called Soundolier.

The booth was a mock-up of a contemporary living room playing great music … but where was the sound coming from … there were no floor or wall-mounted speakers anywhere? Answer: The floor lamps and the ceiling fan overhead. Soundolier builds attractive furniture with built-in wireless speakers. Absolutely brilliant.

If you’ve ever set-up a surround sound system, you know how hard it is to place and install the side and rear speakers. Plus, once you start drilling holes and running cables through your walls and ceiling these placements are permanent. So take a couple of Soundolier floor lamps and place them behind your viewing sofa, add the wireless controller to your A/V receiver and you’re good to go. Wireless speakers built-in to cool furniture – a stroke of genius.