NAB: Best Event of the Year

The National Association of Broadcasters NAB Show, held April 16-21, 2016 in Las Vegas, is the world's largest electronic media show covering the creation, management and delivery of content across all platforms. With 103,000 attendees from 166 countries and 1,700+ exhibitors, the world's largest annual convention covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. The exhibition featured 1,874 companies spanning 1,063,380 net square feet of exhibit space.

The day began with “FOX’s ‘Empire’: Inside the Megahit Broadcast Series.” Michael Schneider, executive editor at Indiewire and editor-at-large at Variety, led a lively, candid discussion between Gary Newman and Dana Walden, longtime chairmen and CEOs of FOX Television Group; Ilene Chaiken, executive producer and showrunner; and Bryshere “Yazz” Gray, who plays Hakeem Lyon on “Empire.” The group talked about casting the show, its impact on the television landscape, and how music informs the trajectory of the series.

During “Lytro Cinema and the Future of Filmmaking,” attendees were shown the short film “Life,” produced by Academy Award winners Robert Stromberg, DGA and David Stump, ASC, in association with the Virtual Reality Company (VRC). The film was shot with Lytro Cinema, the world’s first professional Light Field cinematography solution. Jon Karafin, head of Light Field video and Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Lytro then provided attendees with a technical deep-dive into the making of “Life,” their revolutionary platform, and how Light Field technology will change cinematography as we know it.

In “’Deadpool:’ Leveraging Technology to Create a Stunning Superhero Film,” the post-production team behind the surprise smash hit -- Vashi Nedomansky, post-production workflow and editorial consultant; Joan Bierman, post supervisor; Jonathan Rothbart, VFX supervisor; and Matt Carson, first assistant editor – delved into the processes they used to bring the unconventional comic book antihero to the big screen.

The Aerial Robotics and Drone Pavilion offered several sessions that highlight advances in aerial content creation and will also feature an enclosed “flying cage” which will show the latest drone technology in action. “Heavy Lifter Drones” featured commercial network television directors of photography described what type of drone technology they are currently using, “Drones in Live Broadcast”  discussed how best to use drones to augment live broadcasts, and “Drones on the Big Screen” shared behind-the-scenes stories of their favorite drone cinematography and the gear they used to capture it. From Monday, April 18 through Thursday, April 21, “ASL Battle Drones/Drone Racing Demo” featured another side of drone technology – racing – with demonstrations of this remote-controlled sport. “FAA Section 333 for Commercial Drones”  explained the ins-and-outs of the most recent FAA regulations concerning the commercial use of drones.

"There has to be rules so you can't fly your drone over Buckingham Palace...or into a 747 trying to land at LAX."

From the time NAB opened its doors..  there were at least 10 Drone give-a-ways.  I guess it was a good thing i didn't win one.....  I would be one of those people trying to fly it over places I know I should not attempt to take it...   The FAA would be knocking at my door for sure.

The next exciting thing I saw:

Revolutionary New 4K Blackmagic Duplicator

Blackmagic shot their press conference in 4K live and immediately afterward they handed the attendees an SD Card with entire event on it in 4K.

Each Duplicator has 25 SD card recorders. You can stack Duplicators allowing an unlimited number of SD cards to be recorded. The SD cards can be used for SD, HD and Ultra HD video up to 2160p60 and are compatible with Windows 10 computers. With the addition of a USB adapter, SD cards can even be plugged directly into most consumer Ultra HD televisions for immediate playback of the video.

The front panel controls are designed to make duplicating content as easy as possible and feature 6 large illuminated buttons for record, stop, lock, append, menu and remote. The lock button prevents accidental interruption of recording during an event, and the append record button seamlessly combines recordings from different parts of an event into a single file.  See  Blackmagic Media Conference below.

DaVinci Resolve 12.5 surprised the audience with over 1,000 enhancements and 250 new features. The best part is that the public beta version of the software is already available for download and further testing. Along with the tiny refinements, the BMD engineering team has also added a bunch of more significant features to Resolve 12.5, some of which are covered in a great detail in the following video link below. 

 Here are some links to other products showcased from various media at the event.    Enjoy.. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-gwlc9gbzE