The Producers & Engineers Wing made an unprecedented splash at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 4–7. P&E Wing Executive Director Maureen Droney worked closely with Karen Chupka, Consumer Electronics Association vice president of events & conferences, to schedule a wide array of activities for members of the P&E Wing Advisory Council and Recording Academy staff.

The CEA rolled out the red carpet for P&E Wing leaders by providing a number of activities and perks: CES all-conference badges, VIP seating for the State Of The Industry with CEA chief executive Gary Shapiro; keynotes by business icons Bill Gates of Microsoft, Howard Stringer of Sony, and Terry Semel of Yahoo; passes to attend the Mobile Entertainment Summit; VIP tours of the CES Show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands, which featured high-end audio, studio at home and legal downloading exhibits; and complimentary VIP luncheon tickets for all four days.

P&E Wing CES delegates were also invited to four exclusive parties: a private VIP reception with Gary Shapiro and various manufacturers, retailers, government officials, CEA board members and other prominent industry professionals; The Mix Party at The Studio At The Palms (co-sponsored by the P&E Wing); the CES Concord Records Jazz Club at the Bellagio; and the Monster Retailer Awards and party at the Paris Hotel, which featured a performance by Stevie Wonder.

CEA also provided the venue for a P&E Wing GRAMMY Professional Development Event, an invitation-only RoundTable titled "Convenience Plus Quality: Joining Together To Grow The Business" at the Venetian hotel. At this private event, 14 key industry figures came together to discuss new ideas on how to continue pairing convenience and cutting-edge technology while also accommodating a high resolution audio experience. Panel members included Gary Arnold, Best Buy senior vice president of Entertainment; Michael Bishop, chief recording engineer for Telarc Records and five-time GRAMMY winner; Paul Bishow, vice president of marketing, new formats for Universal Music Group's eLabs; Ted Cohen, senior vice president of digital development & distribution for EMI Music; Tom Dunn, Panasonic senior manager of marketing; Kathy Gornik, co-owner and president of Thiel Audio and former chairperson of the CEA; Jon Kertzer, manager of business development for Microsoft-MSN Entertainment; Nathaniel Kunkel, Emmy- and Surround Music Award-winning producer/engineer; Noel Lee, founder of Monster Cable/Monster Music; Eric Logan, XM Radio executive vice president of programming; George Massenburg, GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer; Tommy Tallarico, game music producer, composer, and founder of  the Game Audio Network Guild; and Dave Ulmer, Motorola's senior director of marketing for Digital Media Services.

The P&E Wing also supplemented activities provided by CEA with a special P&E Wing gathering at the Hilton, Las Vegas, where both Karen Chupka and Gary Shapiro stopped in to meet our participating P&E Wing leaders and Recording Academy staff.

P&E Wing Co-Chairman Bob Ludwig took part in the "Taking It Up A Notch With High-End Audio" panel moderated by Neil Gader of The Absolute Sound and featuring David Bales of Pioneer; Tomlinson Holman of Audyssey Laboratories; Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio; and Brian Towne of DTS. The panel discussed problems within the retail arena in properly demonstrating surround sound, as well as the promise and respective merits of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray technology. Also discussed was the need for public education on the merits of both surround and high quality audio. Gader proposed a touring program to introduce high school students to the enhanced listening experience of surround, which garnered agreement from the panel, and Ludwig added comments on the success of the P&E Wing's initial Surround Music Alliance presentation that was held in Nashville in June 2004.
 
Academy Vice President of Advocacy & Government Relations Daryl Friedman also participated in a heated panel discussion titled "Taking Sides: Music Industry Vs. File-Sharing Consumers," moderated by Benny Evangelista of the San Francisco Chronicle with panelists Andy Moss of Microsoft, former Napster CEO Hank Barry and attorneys Russ Frackman and Bruce Joseph. "Taking Sides" examined the arguments surrounding the Grokster case and discussed the fine line between copyright and innovation, specifically, when should the distributor of a multi-purpose tool be held liable for the infringements that may be committed by end-users of that tool? The panel also debated the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the Sony Betamax ruling, which found that a distributor cannot be held liable for users' infringement so long as the tool is capable of substantial non-infringing uses.