The economy may be cloudy at best, but the skies over Las Vegas are seasonably sunny and warm today as the doors open at the Consumer Electronics Show, the industry showcase for new technology. The show promises some 20,000 new-product announcements. Those began yesterday, at news conferences by major manufacturers attended by hundred of media representatives, including Consumer Reports staffers.

Here are my video impressions of the mood of the show, and some of the themes woven through the initial announcements. (Click on the embedded player at right, or watch a larger video on ConsumerReports.org.) We hope to post a number of such video blogs over the course of the show, which runs through Saturday. Also, our colleagues at Which?, the independent consumer magazine in the United Kingdom, are also posting videos about CES on their site, including some from yesterday's news conferences.

Of course, our staffers have already begun posting news from CES here on our Electronics Blog—with many more to come.

—Paul Reynolds