Hailed as the world’s largest electronic media show, this year’s NAB held April 17 - 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada had something for everyone of the 92,000 who attended. Digital technology was present in every corner of the convention - in its conference sessions, on the exhibit floor, as part of its Digital Cinema Showcase (a lot of education on digital technology), even while networking at the DTV Drafthouse you could find a substantial number of New Englanders; here are some of their comments and experiences.

Karl Renwanz: “This years’ NAB show was the largest and most expansive show I can remember. With three halls filled with technology from digital broadcasting to High Definition to futuristic multimedia, there were items for every electronic gadget owner or user. For our four media related companies, there were options for helping us do our multimedia work faster and with higher quality. Vendors were willing to work with you to “cut a deal” in order to move their product a bit more than in recent years-perhaps related to the economy, or just their attempt to gain early market share. In either case, it is effective. One issue that I faced was sifting through the plethora of vendors and “opportunities” to seek out the products that will help keep our companies in their market leadership positions. NAB is always a challenge. It is one place you go and wish you had a clone.” Karl heads up four media related companies Video Transfer and High Speed Video in Massachusetts, Transfer West in Las Vegas, and Video Labs Corporation in Maryland.

John Rule: “This year’s NAB was, for me,” he said, “one of the most enjoyable since 1999. There were many more people on the floor than last year or the year before, and there was a palpable sense of excitement among the attendees, offering a stark contrast to the lugubrious tone of the last two years. There was a broad cross-section of our industry there, from Independent producers to filmmakers to students to engineers, whereas past crowds have seemed to be less integrated. One of the best things about the show is that since last year, all of the exhibitors have been housed in one venue, which eliminates the annoying shuttle between the Sands Convention Center and the Las Vegas Convention Center. And for a techno-geek like myself, it was gratifying to see so much innovative thinking in one place.

It was exciting to see the developments on two fronts: Tapeless acquisition and HD. In every booth, HD dominated the scene. And, whereas in past years, new product announcements had centered on either cameras or post, this year there were innovative HD solutions in every single part of the production chain. One particularly noteworthy aspect of HD’s ubiquity was the expanded offerings at the very bottom and top of the production spectrum. At the low end, the incorporation of HDV into almost every NLE available ensures the future success of the new format, and at the high end, Electronic Cinematography cameras from Arriflex, Dalsa, Kinetta and others are going to be making serious inroads into feature films and high-end commercials.

In the brave new world of tapeless video, Panasonic proffered their RAM-card based approach, and Sony served up their optical disk-based lineup of products. But up and down the aisles, many of the smaller manufacturers were showing tapeless cameras and recorders that suggested to this traveler that this was an idea whose time has truly come. Here at Rule Broadcast we’ve already taken delivery of the Sony XDCAM system, and we’re extremely bullish on it’s approach to solving many of the inherent problems of videotape. We also like the FireStore for the ease with which it fits into the standard everyday workflow.

NAB, the show, is changing. Once intended exclusively for those in the Broadcast side of the business, it is now by necessity inclusive of all areas of the business. Conventional wisdom has it that the Comdex show will soon be extinct, as CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) and NAB offer a more broad-based appeal. This means that future NAB shows will be even more vibrant and diverse than this year’s, and that’s a tough act to follow,” said John Rule.

While Karl Renwanz, John Rule, The Camera Company’s Marty Feldman, Boston Camera’s Richard Wurman and John MacNeil (also moody street pictures), your publisher and many others were up and down the aisles, searching their programs for booth locations, other New Englanders were ensconced as exhibitors, in their booths, selling, demonstrating, teaching, and taking names. I liked the booths that had padded floors and tended to spend more time in them.

HD was virtually everywhere, and while I was still wondering why no one could just put it in a box with good instructions, I found 1 Beyond, a Somerville, MA manufacturer making broadcast history with a new line of HD solutions.

One of the most impressive elements of the 1 Beyond HD line is the 1 Beyond HarmonyTM SAN. Harmony allows multiple HD workstations (from 2 to 32 editing, compositing and on-air systems) to access full 10-bit uncompressed HD video simultaneously. This system is expandable up to 256 TBs and allows for storing both SD and HD on the same volumes, and each workstation has an automatically variable amount of storage - there is no maximum storage limit per workstation. There is a great set of media asset management tools as well. And most importantly, it is a very cost-effective. Major networks and large-scale users have installed these integrated HD systems and components. They are already proven in real-world scenarios.

“Harmony is the result of 20 man years of development and the culmination of a close collaboration between 1 Beyond and some of the top storage component manufacturers,” explains Terry Cullen, 1 Beyond’s founder and CEO.

When I found Barbizon Lighting Company’s display, Boston “lighter” John Gates was instructing a class in his usual upbeat, fun fashion. You wouldn’t know he was getting ready to fly back to Boston and then off to the Middle East where he had seven days to put a television station on the air!

Victor Lloyd, Barbizon’s General Manager from Woburn, MA, commented, “I found NAB very encouraging (this year). The previous two years’ attendance was smaller and the people who went seemed financially less able to think about equipment acquisition. This years’ attendance was greater and many of the people with whom I spoke were talking about particular projects and equipment needs. Interestingly, I spoke to quite a few people who were involved in video production for houses of worship. There were certainly a higher proportion of people in that marketplace at NAB than I have seen before.

…As usual, with any trade show in Las Vegas there was a preponderance of attendants from the West Coast. I would love to see more people from New England there-The beauty of NAB is that for the world of video broadcasting it has everything one needs to see over the course of a year in terms of new or improved equipment,” Lloyd went on to say.

I landed at the CrewStar booth a couple of times because I, and others, could find it. We set it up as a meeting spot and for visits with Joe Maiella. “For CrewStar,” he said, “NAB is the chance to get our name and services in front of producers and managers from broadcast to corporate settings. We met a great number of people, including old friends, clients, and crew from all over the world; and we made many new acquaintances as well. This year’s conference continued the NAB tradition of being the premiere production technology showcase for the industry. We were happy to be there!”

Boris FX Marketing Manager, J.C. Bouvier: “Las Vegas hosted the best The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in recent memory, with Avid and Apple blasting demonstrations at one another like wobbling galleons on rough seas. Crowds packed both their and every other booth looking for the latest industry software, hardware and insight. The show by all accounts was a complete success and I look forward to next years attempt to top it!”