Although IBC in Amsterdam is the technology trade show favoured by most South
African broadcast engineers, some did attend the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas,
dubbed the world’s largest electronic media show.
Chief technology officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Richard
Waghorn went to NAB for the first time this year. “I have to say that I prefer IBC
because it has a more global feel. NAB came across as more US focused, and certainly
some of the suppliers there did not have their Africa and Middle East representatives on
hand.
“At the show I learnt a lot about the intricacies of delivering players to multiple
platforms. It was a good opportunity to discuss architectures with a number of vendors,
particularly about transcoding content in multiple formats, the integration with and
enhancement of existing systems, and of formatting players for multiple
platforms.’
One product that stood out for Waghorn was the synchronised companion application
from never.no, which enables users to interact with broadcasters through social media
and email and to use that content to contribute to live broadcasts.
“I was also impressed with the really compact, lightweight clip-on HD cameras designed
for the extreme sports market that produce amazing picture quality, but that can be
deployed for other types of programming,’ comments Waghorn.
He notes that 3D no longer appears to be all the rage at NAB. “Many of the 3D demos
were not always front of stand – sometimes they were “hidden’ towards the back. A
number of comments were made that 3D is currently much more relevant for the movie
and gaming markets than for the broadcast market.’
Kim Smith of Johannesburg-based production and post-production facility Sasani
Studios agrees that 3D seemed to have cooled off at NAB. “There didn’t seem to be as
much hype around 3D as last year although there were still lots of 3D technologies on
show.’
Smith attended NAB specifically to look for products pertinent to his studio set up.
“Because my days were spent networking with suppliers and meeting with their
designers, I didn’t’ have that much time to take in the whole show. But I did notice a
definite focus on the collaboration of art and technology as per the NAB 2011 theme,
which was integration.’
According to Smith NAB2011 was much busier than previous years. “One exhibitor
launched around a hundred new products at the show. It’s great to see some of the
innovations at NAB a little ahead of release.’
Jess Goedhals of Sony SA found the show fairly busy but not as hectic as some years
ago. “I didn’t have a chance to walk around as I was tied to the Sony stand. But looking
around at adjacent stands it seemed that 3D is still definitely making a big impact. Sony
launched two 3D cameras at NAB. One is a professional 3D palmcorder and the other is
an XDCAM-based shoulder mount 3D camera with half inch sensors – the biggest in the
market.’
Sony also demonstrated the prototype of its new 4K camera, the F65. “They showed a
movie shot on this prototype and the images were stunning,’ says Goedhals. “I think
we’re definitely at the stage now where we can produce a true film look on a video
camera. The F65 has a 20 megapixel 8k sensor to capture 4K images.’
