INTC Intel Corporation

By Katherine Bindley 

LAS VEGAS -- The lights went out at the nation's premier consumer-technology conference, leaving thousands of attendees and a legion of shiny gadgets in the dark.

The culprit was a power outage at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where tech enthusiasts, corporate vendors and members of the media were on hand for the annual CES show.

The illumination from scores of smartphones equipped with bright screens and flashlight-camera apps filled the massive central hall, home to the booths of Samsung Electronics Co., Intel Corp., Huawei Technologies Co. and dozens of other companies.

While heavy rainfall the prior day flooded the streets around the convention center -- buckets were still scattered throughout the convention halls collecting water from leaks -- the cause of the outage, which went on for more than an hour, wasn't clear.

The Consumer Technology Association, which runs the conference, said it was limiting access to the convention center as it gradually restored power.

Josiah Nuzum was standing near an area where people could sit and experience an automated-driving demo. "This indeed does require power," Mr. Nuzum, a sports-marketing manager with Intel, said sarcastically.

"Most technology" does, he added.

Write to Katie Bindley at Katie.Bindley@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 10, 2018 17:36 ET (22:36 GMT)

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