The power just went out at CES, the biggest electronics conference of the year

pulse

January 10, 2018 8:10 PM

Attendees at CES in Las Vegas ran into a small problem Wednesday, just one day after a rainstorm flooded the Central Hall.

The power went out on Wednesday at CES, the giant tech conference taking place in Las Vegas this week.
The outage primarily impacted the Central Hall, the same area of the conference that flooded on Tuesday as the Nevada desert experienced a rare bout of rainfall.
Central Hall is where large tech companies like Intel, Sony, and Samsung have their exhibits set up
Power was fully restored around 1:30 p.m. PT, over two hours after it first went out.

Mayhem erupted at CES Wednesday as a power outage in the Central Hall shut down the giant tech conference, taking place in Las Vegas this week.

Staff were told to close all entrances to Central Hall, according to show management. Not even exhibitors were allowed into some areas.

The power outages appeared to be isolated to Central Hall, the exhibit space with tech companies like Intel, Sony, and Samsung.

The other exhibit spaces, North and South Halls, had normal power. Both remained open to CES attendees, though some entrances with access to the Central Hall were closed down.

Power was fully restored around 1:30 p.m. PT, over two hours after it first went out.

CES issued the following statement on Wednesday afternoon:

Today at approximately 11:15 a.m., the Central Hall and South Hall bridge meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Convention Center lost power. Power in the South Hall was restored within minutes, and power has now been fully restored to all areas. A preliminary assessment indicates that condensation from heavy rainfall caused a flashover on one of the facility's transformers. We are grateful to NV Energy for their swift assistance, to our customers and their clients for their patience and to the staff for ensuring the safety and security of all attendees and exhibitors.

Before the power came back on, though, organizers of the event sent a tweet to attendees encouraging them to "get outside."

While we work through this ... @ CES

Here's what attendees were seeing on the ground:

Introducing Blackout#emo#: The ... @ Intel

Power#emo#s out here at #CES201... @ Lisa Fischer

Juggler making most of #lig... @ Ty Pendlebury

Lights out at CES: Giant tr... @ Rare Intro

Here's more photos from the scene:

pulse