With so much to see, and so many opportunities to interact with people and products, the annual NAB show in Las Vegas is a difficult event to cover. Over 90,000 professionals from over 150 countries descend upon the Convention Center to fill over 745,000 net square feet of space with information and exhibits. It’s not an event people attend looking to purchase goods, but there are plenty of products on display that will shape the future of the film, audio, and video industries. Advancements in technology ranging from patch chords to gigantic mobile television studios are on display for both consumers and producers. The event offers a fantastic glimpse at the future of communications technology, and I had a blast exploring as much of the show as time and energy would allow.
My day began at noon. This being Las Vegas, I didn’t get to bed until after the sun had risen. I grabbed a double-shot latte and met the Midnight Snacks crew, who would be both my guides to NAB and whose work was on display at not one but two different exhibits in the convention center! We walked over to the monorail station at MGM and I cracked a bunch of Simpsons jokes to no one in particular. As the caffeine worked its way into my system I started feeling a bit more frisky and excitable. I hadn’t thought much about what exactly I wanted to see at the show. Ken and KT had some ideas. They mentioned a few, but I was too busy pointing at people on the monorail and on the walk to the convention center and saying, “Nerd!” “Nerd!” “Super-Nerd!” “Asian Nerd!” like a hyperactive child.
We entered Center Hall to retrieve our badge holders and check-in. Our first stop was Panther, where my friend Sebastian was hard at work promoting his company’s film equipment. Although it wasn’t playing at the time, Ken and KT had provided some motion graphics to a promotional trailer that Tom directed for the company. They rent equipment to a ton of productions, and their modern designs were eliciting positive responses from passersby at the show.
Center Hall also featured exhibits for companies ranging from Canon and Sony to Audio-Technica, Leica, and a half-dozen or more small-sized mobile production units. At the exhibit for Aural Sonic, a man by the name of Scott showed off some of the products he manufactures. Sound enhancement panels like those you might use to improve audio fidelity during an on-camera interview were explained, and he quickly demonstrated how some of his amazing insulating/soundproofing materials weaken or diffuse sound waves. They were under an inch in thickness yet eliminated all sound emanating from a small Fender amplifier. Very cool.
Elsewhere in Center Hall there were Panasonic Integrated Twin-lens 3D Camera Recorders, beautiful Leica lenses, and all manner of gear large and small. At the Canon exhibit we were allowed to hop up on a riser and play around with their cameras, which were trained on a makeshift television studio with an actress seated at a table pretending to (or actually?) resurfacing a wooden chair. The scene might have been odd, but the set and the cameras were both fascinating.
We moved to South Hall. First we searched for the exhibit for LHSE, a company Ken and KT did some work for, whose promotional video was narrated by Hornet Montana! It was funny to hear his voice describing a company I’ve never heard of before. South Hall was easily the most impressive of the three spaces in the convention center. Companies such as Microsoft, BlackMagic Design, Autodesk, Red Digital Cameras, Adobe, NVIDIA and Wacom were represented. We watched a demonstration on color correction technology at the Adobe exhibit/stage. It was amazing to see how the software made by LookLabs could instantaneously transform raw digital film data into major motion picture quality video. Their software is, like, Instagram for color correction. Truly fascinating. The next speaker at the Adobe stage was Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot. He showed off how he used Adobe After Effects to help create the main title sequences for TV shows like Person Of Interest and Fringe. Remarkable stuff. They were also previewing the CS6 Suite, which should be shipping shortly. Ken and KT won a copy of the full suite at a raffle drawing!
From South Hall we ventured out to the beer garden, grabbing some free beer and chips on the way from a Norweigan company called Stergen, a company that develops 2D to 3D Real Time video conversion technologies and 3D displays for televisions and smartphones. Their exhibit also contained a great telestrater that could be used for live, on-the-fly play-by-play during sporting events. Outside the hall were a number of mobile/vehicle exhibits. The best by far was NEP, who is a leading provider of technology for remote productions. Their exhibit consisted of a large ESPN 3D production truck. The vehicle was broken down into three rooms. One was dedicated solely to audio, one which was a 3D production unit, and a post-production room with an area for on-the-fly editing/color correction. Never having seen a 3D television transmission before, it was interesting to experience it firsthand. I would have thought the quality would be a little clunky, but the ESPN displays seem to be pretty much top-of-the-line in terms of quality. I can’t imagine how much one of those trucks cost.
We concluded our day with a visit to North Hall, which was dedicated to management and systems, and featured exhibits by companies such as Harris, Evertz, Ross and Miranda. Although some of the live production stages were incredible (you could be the proud owner of an entire TV studio that’s the size of your bedroom with two robotic cameramen!), it was the least fun Hall to explore. Also, after walking around a huge convention center for several hours, we were all pretty tired and hungry. Plus, you know, we needed our power naps so we could spend the night and morning drinking our faces off.
Had I not received a free pass, attending NAB would have been a cost-prohibitive venture. If you have the opportunity though, I suggest you go next year. Especially if you have an interest in communications technologies, or work in the audio, visual or film industries. I haven’t even touched on half of what I saw on the floor during my time at the show. All the incredible cameras, 3D glasses, audio recording equipment, microphones…I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I have — at best — a passing interest in what was on display. I can only imagine what someone who works in a related field would feel seeing all this stuff in person. Also you can take the monorail to the convention center and make a bunch of Simpsons jokes!
Black Dice – Glazin’ [MP3]
