DAY 1

April 7, 2003
Bally's Hotel, Las Vegas

OK... I realize I have not done my homework on time. I should have had an update to you much sooner. The only excuse I can give... I'm having a blast in Vegas. The b-roll.net TRAVEL PARTY is made up of 8 friends and former colleagues who hold true to the edict "all work and no play makes Kevin a dull boy." So I have NOT fought the temptation to go out and play.

We're staying at the Bally's Hotel in the middle of the strip. The location is great, the view of the mountains is beautiful, and the casinos actually let me leave with more than I started (sometimes).

I did actually make it to the show!

The NAB show looks and feels a lot like last year's show. I'm not noticing a lot of "blow me away" breakthroughs being demonstrated on the floor. Many of the "new" products are slight improvements on the tried and true.

The biggest sector that I've seen growing rapidly is media movement and management. We have great cameras that take wonderful pictures. We have great linear and non-linear editors to put those images into a moving visual statement. The newest equipment is server and non-tape based delivery systems.

Much like what we're seeing overseas with the war coverage, there are many ways to get the story back to the states. It isn't about beaming audio and video into the sky and back to the your newsroom. Now it can be an simple as "e-mailing" a story back to your station... which goes directly into the server... which can be played from any computer in the office and automatically finds its place in the rundown.... and tells the producer what the TRT is... and where the supers go... automatically.

Many operations are using this technology, but it is constantly growing and improving. The dish to the right was mounted onto a nicely equipped HUMMER. We talked with Cecilia Westling of SWE-DISH, who says all of their portable and fly-away sat dishes can become broadband internet connections, which are then used to send MPEG stories over the web. This gives new meaning to "web video."

Speaking of web video, I ran into Jeanne Sartor and Dan Friedell of theNewsMarket.com a site that distributes broadcast quality b-roll over a typical broadband internet connections. No satellite... No problem. Pretty cool technology.

I spoke with Ohad Cohen, Head of Design and R&D for KATA. These are the guys making the cool black neoprene-like camera covers and hardy gear bags. They are giving Portabrace a run for their money. Many great design ideas have gone into these hip looking "camera gloves."

That's all the fun my feet could handle for one day. Tomorrow we do it all again.

main | next