I got a ride to the Chinatown area of Washington DC and it was there that I caught a bus to make my way to New York. Awaiting me was a roomful of Panasonic electronics as part of their Touch The Future tour.
In New York the tour was being held at the Penn Pavilion, across the street from Penn Station and the largest post office I’ve ever seen. When you walk in you’re not sure if you’re going to attend a showing of electronics or if it’s a sample sale. The only thing I could see when I walked inside was a bunch of security guards who were more concerned with telling dirty jokes than if I had any plans of stealing anything. As I took the escalator up I saw the picture you see above welcoming me to the show.
The biggest attraction was their 3D HDTV. They had a TC-P50VT25 model setup hooked to one of their home theaters but the excited started once you put the glasses on.
I already wear glasses and putting on the Panasonic 3D shades felt great. After watching Avatar in 3D, I was completely turned off because I spent the whole time fighting to keep the 3D glasses on. These fit great and once they were are turned on the 3D is what I was hoping would come out my whole life. The shocking part is that the glasses will cost $100 per pair!! – That could make watching the Super Bowl in 3D really really expensive. The video sample showed several action shots with people white-water rafting and also hot air balloons moving across the sky. At that point I was curious about two things: how soon, and how much.
I also checked out Panasonic offering of LED HDTVs. I told the people there that I don’t see how they’ll be able to beat Samsung, Sony, Sharp, Toshiba, or Vizio with this first year offering. Panasonic has pretty wide distribution and their televisions are usually available at most retail stores but with their smallest LED TV coming in at 37″ they may have a long fight ahead of them.
Panasonic will continue showing their televisions and other electronics through the middle of April. Want to know when they’re coming to a city near you – check out the tour’s schedule.
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