LAS VEGAS (AP) — The power outage at the CES tech show is being blamed on heavy rainfall this week.
Power has been restored.
Some showrooms and hallways went dark inside the vast Las Vegas Convention Center for about two hours on Wednesday. Sony, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm and LG are among the companies with bigger booths in Central Hall, the area that was most affected and evacuated during the blackout. Some meeting rooms in the South Hall also lost power, but it was restored within minutes.
A joint statement from show organizers, the convention center and the power company says that a preliminary assessment points to condensation from heavy rainfall, causing "a flashover on one of the facility's transformers." It was raining in Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday — rare for a desert city.
The show runs through Friday.
Several brands used the opportunity to pitch their wares. One vendor invited people to visit its booth to check out a battery pack, for instance. Intel had a tongue-in-cheek announcement for a product called "Blackout."