Adult Entertainment Expo 2005
Tarinder Sandhu took time off from the serious business of putting out a daily newspaper at CES to check out the Adult Entertainment Expo – just for you, of courseMost historians on my side of the pond credit the creation of the home video market to Andre Blay. In 1977, Blay formed a company called Magnetic Video and convinced 20th Century Fox to do something no other major motion picture studio had ever done - make feature films available for sale to consumers.
Blay acquired non-exclusive rights to sell videocassette copies of 100 of Fox’s older movies and, the following year, he introduced a library of 50 films on Betamax cassettes – explaining that his biggest headache was getting enough VCRs to duplicate tapes in the quantities being demanded by his customers.
But Blay was not alone. That same year the first X-rated porno tapes began showing up and kicked off a consumer buying frenzy that quickly caught the attention of other studios.
How did the representatives come up with the all the VCRs they needed? I don’t know, but having met the porn producers of that period, I suspect they made US VCR distributors offers they couldn’t refuse.
Adult video firms made their first appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 1979 and created a two-sided furore. Problem one was they upset the ranks of conventional video and audio hardware exhibitors because the generally unadorned X-rated booths always had long lines of retail buyers lined up to get pictures and posters signed by the female stars in attendance.
Problem two was that the wives of such major exhibitors as RCA, Magnavox, Sylvania and Motorola raised holy hell with CES management.
As a reporter covering the show I naturally visited the questionable exhibits to discuss the state of the business. It was odd, but no one was ever available to chat with the media (except for the girls, who, while fascinating to talk to weren’t too well informed) even though the curtained-off private conference areas usually had several gentlemen in them.
They made up groups evenly divided between those wearing fedoras and overcoats (in Las Vegas!) and those in open necked shirts wearing a half-dozen large gold chains and exquisite tans.
CES reacted by first setting up a separate walled-off area for adult video exhibits. Then, when that proved to be unacceptable to the ladies, it moved the exhibits out of the Las Vegas Convention Center to one located down the street at the Sahara Hotel.
But, it soon dawned on those exhibitors that what they effectively now had was their own show. So, rather than pay to be a part of CES, they formed their own exhibition company and launched a show of their own.
This year, as it has many times in the past, the Adult Entertainment Expo was held in Las Vegas concurrent with the CES (January 6-9; Thursday-Sunday).
My CES duties for TWICE, the USA’s leading consumer electronics trade publication kept me busy at the Convention Center - we were putting out a daily paper at the event - but those responsibilities ended Saturday afternoon.
That left me free to drift over to the Sands Convention Center the next day to check on the X-rated producers’ level of hi-tech.
I found the 2005 AEE to be a far cry from the X-rated exhibits of yesteryear. To start with, the show was its biggest ever, with more than 250 companies on the floor.
And, the simple boxy booths of the past were replaced by many with large floor space decorated with flashy physically and electronically animated adornments, and almost as many flat wide-screen plasma video displays as could be found at CES. Well not as many, but proportionately the same as at the 2,800-exhibit CES.
My interest was strictly professional, but it was impossible not to notice the also upgraded quality of the young ladies adorning the exhibits. They were on view in all colours and all ages, too, though 18-25 was the seemingly preferred range for those greeting the public.
That public, by the way, included “fans” as well as members of the trade. Fans paid $40-$45 per head for the right to walk the aisles, take photos of and with the stars and collect autographed pictures.
There were at least 300 fans on hand on Sunday, and that was the show’s slowest day. Drawing a lesser degree of fan interest was the show’s first-ever gay section, where a variety of leather toys, as well as videos, were being offered for sale.
The adult video industry was ahead of the curve back when the video software market first opened up, and the AEE showed that, to a degree, it still is.
On the basic consumer front, DVD titles now outsell VHS counterparts, as they do in the general video market, but the adult producers are moving much faster into high definition.
Several production houses are offering to shoot adult features in HD and then provide both HD and standard definition for replication.
One company, Lurid Entertainment, now shoots all its production in the 1080-interlace mode, and releases in both 780-progressive and standard versions. One best-seller, Island Fever 3, was released on DVD as a two-disc set - one disc standard definition, the other HD.
Several companies now are internet-only, making their material available on a pay-per-view basis. One, Hot Movies, offers a pay-per-minute service on its three internet sites (HotMovies; FetishMovies and GayHotmovies).
a cable modem or DSL connection to bring
five channels of TV into the home - two of them live
The industry has also gone internet interactive. Sinulate offers, at US$99, remote-controlled computerized sex toys for boys and girls, and says, “Connect two Sinulators together over the internet to have CyberSex: remotely control each other’s toys”.
country to have sex with someone
The highlight of the AEE was the Saturday night Adult Video News Awards dinner and presentation. The event presents award for such categories as: Best All-Girl Feature, Best Amateur Release, Best Oral Themed Feature and Best Group Sex Scene. The award for Best Film went to The Masseuse, and Best Video Feature went to Bella Loves Jenna. Best HD production was Island Fever 3.
I was invited but couldn’t make it. Instead went to Best Japanese Restaurant In Las Vegas.
