Our trip to CES 09- Las Vegas

We got into Vegas last night at midnight and took part in the press conference today. Lots of cool stuff coming up! Since it was Matthew's birthday, we made him an "I am Living in HD on my birthday" shirt. We also made buttons that say "Happy Living in HD Birthday Matthew". Greg Harper took Matthew over to the top brass of the Panasonic North America Corporation and had him give buttons to all of them. Pretty amazing.

Everybody we have met has been great.

Panasonic unveiled a bunch of great stuff. First off- 3D HD...Panasonic plans to have a working format for Blu-Ray by 2010...They are also working to standardize it within the industry so it becomes a reality for all. This is next year we're talking about, people! They will have a demonstration of it tomorrow!

Speaking of Blu-Ray, How about a portable Blu-Ray player? Here's a picture of it (I apologize for the quality- I was trying to manage the kids while taking pictures):

How would you like to have a flat screen tv that had NO WIRES and full 1080p HD? On the way. How about a 600mHz screen?

Got Viera Cast? (If not, you're missing out)- Good news! Panasonic will be partnering with Amazon to provide HD movies on demand! Gotta love it!

Think that's cool? How about a flat panel tv that's only 1/3 of an inch deep? Here's a shot of it from the front, then as compared to the width of an iphone. And they are creating all of this stuff while making everything more energy efficient and reducing emissions!

Amazing, no?

There is way more cool stuff to come as the Calandros continue our Vegas CES Panasonic adventure. We'll keep posting and keep you posted!

What it means to Live in HD

Living in HD has been a fantastic experience. First of all, we have a ton of phenomenal equipment. Our family is very busy and used the technology we had prior to having the "right"equipment. Since we have gotten our Panasonic suite of products, everything we do is just better, easier, and faster. We have burned videos of parties and events for friends and families, we have created awesome slideshows to share with each other and as gifts for friends, we have learned how to post photos, video, and content to the web, and we have taken our laptop to places we never thought we would (more on that in another post...).

Our family has had a long standing "Pizza Night". Every Friday we make a pizza and watch a movie. We have been doing this for 9 years now. It is the only night of the week that we eat in front of the tv. Having a Blu-Ray player and a 1080p incredible 50" Viera Plasma tv has pumped that up to a whole new experience. One of our friends commented that the quality on our tv was better than we'd get in any theater! He's right, and with the price of taking a family to the theater these days (over $50 just to get our family in the door-before concessions!), the tv would pay for itself in just a few movies!

The greatest thing about being a LiHD family is the new community of people we now have in our lives. The families that we have heard from in the LiHD project have all been wonderfully welcoming and friendly people. I think it's because Panasonic is looking for the everyday person to be a part of ths project and, contrary to what the news may have us believe, everyday people are generally kind, welcoming, and helpful. You can see this in the videos on Panasonic's Living in HD website- livinginhd.com , and in the other blogs developed by families.

The people at the Panasonic corporation and the people that they have sent to us to train us on how to use our equipment have been phenomenal. Greg Harper is a genius and has more energy than 10 people. You'll see him pop up on the videos on the Panasonic site. He's met all of the families in the project and is a driving force behind this whole thing. He has the ability to fit in anywhere and talk to anyone. He tells great stories and always seems to be available to us no matter what the issue.

Naomi at Panasonic has been so patient with all of our requests, questions, and random ideas. She is incredible and we appreciate her tremendously.

Adam Broitman came to us to help us out with posting content to the internet. He has a great sense of humor and is a natural teacher. He is also a powerhouse in his industry (you can check him out at www.crayonville.com). He became family quickly in our household and joined us for Pizza Night!

Jody Gnant came with Adam. They made a great team! She helped me to Twitter and has more hands-on web information than we had time to share. She also joined us for Pizza night and all three boys were enamored of her! You can check her out at jodygnant.com. (Oh, did I mention she's got a great voice?)

Our friends and family are enjoying our new LiHD life, too. In addition to receiving way more pictures, videos, and information than they ever have from us (because it is sooo much easier now), they have gotten to enjoy our equipment. The highlight of Christmas was watching my mother and my 5-year-old do boxing on the Wii. It was truly hysterical and my mother was better at it than any of us expected!

Living in HD is awesome. I can't wait to meet more of the families and continuing the Panasonic adventure.

Our next adventure is at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. If you're in the area or at the show, come on by and see us in the Panasonic booth. We'd love to meet you and make you part of our LiHD life!

The Equipment

On October 9th we had our installation date. After having a friend run an outlet to behind where the television would be, our installers came in and put everything together- that's a story for another time...While the installers were assemlinb everything upstairs in our family room, Greg Harper (our Panasonic rep), was downstairs showing us how to use the computer, the cameras, and the HD camcorder. The boys got their hands on the equipment and had a great time. Miles, the 3 year old, calls the wireless camera his "special camera" and has taken to picking it up at odd times and taking pictures.

Greg told the installers not to connect anything until he told them to. This, of course, led to much grumbling once he was out of earshot...They were complaining that they had been doing this for 20 years and knew what they were doing. Greg explained to them how the Viera link worked and connected all of the components.

Then he turned on the Blu-Ray player...and the television and receiver automatically turned on with it. The installers were impressed! The Viera link makes using all of the equipment so easy because every piece of equipment automatically turns on any other piece that it needs to function properly.

We fired up the television and were blown away by the picture and sound! It finally felt like our family room was complete!

Next post, a review of the equipment!

Four big boxes

Our contact from Panasonic called us about a week and a half after we had found out that we had won. He explained the program to us:

We are family 39 and they are adding more families throughout the year. We would be asked to participate in weekly surveys and would be encouraged to use and share our equipment. Panasonic really is interested in knowing what we think about all of the equipment we would be receiving and would use the information we provided to improve and enhance future products. The entire family is encouraged to use all of it and we are expected to report the good and the bad.

A few weeks later, we finally had a date set to receive all of our equipment. Before the equipment was shipped, we participated in a family pre-interview that asked about our family, our viewing habits, our use of technology, and how we thought things would be different when we got the equipment.

To be honest, at that point, it was really hard to imagine...What would it be like to have all of this new equipment in the house. When my wife and I sat down to think about it, we realized it was very rare for us to buy the best of anything (mostly because we can't afford it). Here we were, about to receive not only all of the technology that I had ever wanted, but it was the best equipment there was- and we were getting all of it...at once...and it was all going to be installed!

A few weeks later, Here is what we saw:

Four big boxes- The TV (WOW!!), a big mystery box simply labeled "39 Calandro ", some speaker stands, and another long box...The box was delivered while I was at work. I had to sit through a rather long meeting knowing that it was all there...waiting... My wife was kind enough to wait for me!

Needless to say, the boys were excited.

And were dying to see what was inside the big box, which contained a ton of stuff!

Like the video camera (note the stunned look on my face- not my best look!), the receiver, the speakers, two digital cameras, power strips, cables,

the Wii (the boys' favorite thing!),

and a big bag of other stuff- cables, SD cards, blu-rays, Wii games!!! Wahoo!

The youngest, of course, just wanted to play with the box from the computer.

The excitement was beginning to peak...We opened everything up and charged all of the batteries so we would be ready for the installation....