NABbed Me Again

Gambling capital Las Vegas, Nevada holds no particular fascination for me. Not for the usual reasons, anyway.

But each year I take a four or five-day dive into Sin City to make a beeline for the National Association of Broadcaster's exhibition, an invitation-only event for those of us in the broadcast and cable industry. I've been privileged to attend annually since late last century. I'd go if I had to walk, because each year I'm struck with new products as if with a baseball bat.

For example, this year at NAB2007 I expected to see progress in the accepted format of High Definition (HD) television, but I wasn't at all prepared to see that the HD format has taken over virtually everything produced to make film and do post-production. Virtually every camera, every patch bay, every type of input and editing and output gear was all HD... and at a low cost that left me scratching my head in wonder.

For well under US$20,000 I could completely replace my anal-igital production studio from A to Z, bypassing SD cameras, large Sony FXE switching units, titling generators, and all the other "boat anchors" holding down the concrete. Truly, fully 1080i HD production could well be made with three units-- an HD video camera, my beat-up old laptop, and a BluRay DVD burner... and on my lap at the beach, no less!

Speaking of the beach, I had a long chat (in Japanese) with the heads of the powerful Japanese "PBS" empire, Nihon Hosou Kyoku (NHK), who demonstrated "the next big thing," SUPER HD, broadcasting in 4300+ ...more than four times the definition of HD! They were displaying a prototype camera that probably weighed in at half a ton, but man, what a view!

For example, I saw a video shot from (apparently) the top of Hawaii's Diamond Head, looking about five miles out into the ocean. I not only could see EVERY whitecap, but could see virtually all coral and seaweed in perhaps 1000 acres spread out before my eyes.

But wait! There's more!

At some point I tired of gawking at the seaweed. I kept thinking "There's got to be a limit to what the human eye can see..." when I noticed I could see fish! FROM FIVE MILES AWAY I could see each fish flitting through the coral! I supposed that if I kept refocusing my eyes I would eventually see plankton and sea monkeys, too.

Whereas telco and cable broadcast marketing is my personal expertise, not to mention being foremost in consulting for international HD cell phone delivery technology via 4G (after August), I can't help but remember my jungle roots making 35mm films and studying cinematography at Emerson College in Boston. I think how amazing it is that HD production has made startling visuals so affordable and pervasive that I can pack an entire Hollywood production studio into the back of my van (photo attached).

It's an amazing (and amazingly fast) world we live in. Keep on top of it (as by attending NAB or CES). Don't get stuck in a professional rut, or an amazing world of wonder can pass you right by... and put you right out of a job.

Cheers!