By Shirish Nadkarni
There can be no two opinions about it – NAB 2023, in its 100th edition, has been a resounding success, attracting record crowds that have been milling around in the large halls of the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
“We are really happy with both the quality and quantity of the visitors to our booth on the very first day of the exhibition,” says Alison Pavitt, Director of Sales & Marketing for Pebble, a leader in the field of broadcast automation — and a regular exhibitor at NAB shows.
“We did not exhibit anything last year, when the show was in a very muted state; we only had some private meetings with our loyal as well as prospective clients.
“It’s been very rewarding to get face-to-face with them this year, and to actually demonstrate to them our hybrid Cloud messaging and other offerings. Meeting them has been the biggest gain for us.”
Although COVID-19 has not been eradicated, most of the restrictions that accompanied it have been relaxed, and the NAB 2023 Centennial has seen the boisterous camaraderie that all stakeholders of the broadcast industry demonstrated when they encountered one another.
In all the happy reunions of buyers and sellers, there has been a lot of conjecture as to what lies in store for the broadcast industry in the foreseeable future. The release of the IABM Technology & Trend Roadmap on April 16 and the ensuing discussions highlighted interesting “you-need-to-know” technologies for 2023/24, including using metadata to stay relevant.
Andreas Hillmer, Chief Marketing Officer for Lawo, said, “The future will be about optimising infrastructure and enabling elasticity. If you look at the broadcast infrastructure today, there are lots of unused gear and processes.
“Take a look at multiviewers, for example. Are you using every single feature of that box?
“Most of the time, you use barely 50% of the features. But you need to buy it to get the functionality. And if you look at the rack of a studio, is every one of the units used in the production? No, it isn’t! So, there is more wasted processing in there. Is a studio operational all the time? It isn’t.
“So, in current designs, we invested in a lot of gear that is always not in use. Our approach is to future-proof that, to optimise your investment, by introducing elasticity – which means that the processing can be optimised for many applications, that it can be attached to different products.
“Everyone in future will be looking to maximise the returns from his or her investment.”
Russell Johnson, Director, Hitomi Broadcast, added, “Technologically speaking, there is more and more Cloud production going on, so software is the key. We have a hardware product, but we have simultaneously developed a software version of our analyser, which can be deployed in the Cloud.
“My prediction of the future trend in broadcast is that equipment manufacturers will have to develop software to work their own hardware, rather than relying on external sources.”
Anthony Tan, Director of Sales Engineering – APAC, Cobalt Digital, agreed, “We need to manage enhanced customer expectations, and try to move them to the Cloud. At the same time, we need to take care of their current requirements. It is a great balancing job that we have to do.”
Some broadcasters looking for NDI-enabled equipment were seen heading for Apantac booth as it won a “Best of Show” award for its Mi-16 NDI-UHD Multiviewer. Others were looking for solutions on how best to monetise their content on various platforms. And some just want to protect their content and systems being compromised.
Indeed, NAB convention/exhibition has become a treasure trove of innovative broadcast and entertainment solutions, something for every trade visitor.
For me, a first timer at NAB, it has been a hectic but exciting week. Let’s take a break and meet in June at BroadcastAsia 2023 at Singapore Expo, the venue of Asia’s premier media event.