The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show is one of the largest trade events in our extended industry. The final attendance count for the 2012 show in Las Vegas was 92,112, up from 91,932 in 2011. Some 1,600 exhibitors occupied 815,000 net square feet of exhibit space, up from 1,550 exhibitors and 745,000 square feet the year before.
Along with the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the 2012 show spilled over into the LVH (formerly Las Vegas Hilton). Four days sounds like plenty of time to see everything… wrong! That is, unless you stick to the facts, and just the facts, ma’am. In fact, that is what we will be doing here in the 2012 NAB Show Report, just the facts.
Fact one: Do not underestimate the value of well-padded and comfortable shoes. Fact two: Two people can cover the show better than one, especially when that one person has sore feet. Vickie Claiborne’s contribution to PLSN’s team coverage follows my report below.
A.C. Lighting demonstrated their TV-and-film-friendly LED series of Chroma-Q fixtures, Studio Force. The fixtures are available in Daylight White and Variable White versions, in 12, 48 and 72-inch lengths.
Analog Way featured Eikos, an award-winning mixer, matrix scaler and multi-viewer equipped with four scalers; Smart MatriX, a high-end scaled native matrix; Pulse, a multi-layer mixer scaler seamless switcher with full high resolution digital processing, and Axion2, a powerful event controller for live events and multi-screen venues. Recent Axion2 upgrades include automatic display of IP addresses and all the connected devices on the screen’s setup page.
ARRI featured their L7-C and L7-T LED Fresnels. L stands for LED and 7 for the 7-inch Fresnel-like lens shared by both models. The difference is in color output: the L7-T is 3200° K (matching tungsten); the L7-C is color-controllable.
Barbizon held daily seminars in their booth. Emmy award-winning LDs Jim Sippel and John Gates led sessions on lighting designs for TV production and low-budget films. The also covered topics including DSLRs and LEDs.
Bulbtronics demonstrated FlexAray, a line of stage and studio LED luminaires available in RGBAW, Variable White and Static White. Key features include the shape (hexagonal), which enables the fixture to be interconnected with other FlexAray LED fixtures. The Variable White LED fixtures offer a color temperature range of 2000-6000° K. The Static White LED fixtures are available in 3200° K, 4400° K, and 5600° K color temperatures.
Checkers Industrial Products, which purchased Yellow Jacket Inc. in 2011, displayed Guard Dog and Yellow Jacket-branded cable protection products.
Christie debuted two new digital projectors, the LX501 and LX601i. Both projectors are the first in the company’s new 3LCD product platform: The Christie LX501 is a 5000-lumen XGA (1024 x 768 resolution) projector with up to 3000:1 contrast ratio. The professional-grade Christie LX601i XGA projector offers 6000 lumens.
Coolux gave sneak previews of some of the features to be offered with the company’s forthcoming Pandoras Box version 5.1. They include video export and video recording from live inputs, the Aeon FX engine, the FireFly 3D Particle System, Quad HD outputs and ASIO multi-channel audio.
Daktronics’ lightweight, easy-to-setup 4mm indoor modular display system made its North American debut. The company also demonstrated their Show Control System, a live events production solution that provides control over video processors and clip players through a touchscreen interface.
DeSisti introduce 40W, 90W and 120W LED Fresnels. They come with a Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) either balanced to Tungsten or Daylight.
Elation Professional launched its ELED Fresnel II, a silent warm white 100W LED with three DMX channels, internal DMX for dimmer/strobe and barn doors. Elation’s battery-powered TVL Series LED panels were also featured. There are three different size options for this collection of silent, flicker-free LED panels, with warm and cool white LEDs that go from warm tungsten to cool daylight. Elation also featured the Opti Tri WH, a high-output LED color changer with full tri-white color mixing capabilities using 18 cool white, 18 warm white and 18 amber LEDs.
Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) demonstrated how their Selador-branded fixtures can be used in a layering strategy with both LED and non-LED light sources. The company also presented new Source Four LED options including the full-color Lustr+, warm-white Tungsten and Daylight luminaires.
Litepanels had their Hilio LED panel fixture on display. In addition to 120V power, the Hilio can run on standard camera batteries. The company also launched its Inca series of tungsten-balanced LED Fresnels, along with a new addition to the existing Sola series of daylight-balanced Fresnels, the compact Sola 4.
Mole-Richardson had two prototype fixtures on display, including a compact fluorescent space light similar in size and output to a 6K tungsten fixture and an LED space light with medium screw base sockets for PAR30 LED lamps.
Morpheus Lighting had a few new LED products from Ayrton on display, including that company’s WildSun 500 K series fixtures. They are calibrated white LEDs and can produce 18,000 lumens of light.
Ocean Thin Films featured the new HMI version of the SeaChanger color changing system. The body of the fixture still uses the ETC Source Four lens assembly but incorporates a 575W HMI lamp. (See “Road Test,” PLSN, Feb. 2012, page 27).
Philips Selecon featured their new Studio Panel LED. The 14-by-14-inch panel features an array of warm and cool white LEDs — 288 LEDs in all. Drawing just 60W, the fixture features auto sensing power from 90-240 VAC.
Production Resource Group’s (PRG) TruColor HS digital light fixture uses Remote Phosphor Technology (RPT) to increase output and extend CRI, while generating a 160° beam spread. It uses 400W of AC power.
Roland Systems launched their new V-800HD Multi-Format Video Switcher. With eight mixing buses and four SDI inputs, the V-800HD lets users tap into a wide variety of analog and video sources, manipulate the imagery and display clean, sharp video, even on large LED displays. (For more details, see “Product Spotlight,” PLSN, April 2012, page 46).
Rosco expanded its LitePad line of LED lighting fixtures with the LitePad Loop. It is a lightweight ring light designed to work with a wide array of camera and lens systems. Its two-part design allows for quick and easy attachment to the camera while its soft, diffused light is well-suited for close-up photography. The loop, with plastic housing, is just over 9 inches in diameter with a 4.4-inch center hole.
TMB demonstrated the new ProPlex RMT (Remote Media Transceiver) system. The RMT is a video, audio and serial data transmission and distribution system that transmits data, video and audio signals over a fiber-optic cable. The RMT is available in rack mount and portable mount versions.
TVOne featured their C3-540 CORIOmaster, which makes use of the company’s CORIO3 technology to combine edge blending, video wall processing, multiviewing, windowing, image warping and video processing with Up, Down, and Cross Conversion in one device. 16 AV universal module slots are available, and the CORIOmaster automatically recognizes the modules inserted as an input or output module. Any analog or digital format, from composite video to 3G-SDI, is accommodated.
Videssence launched the ExceLED 225, a 225W LED fixture that offers an adjustable beam spread by focusing the nine LED blocks. Two adjustment knobs at the top of the fixture slide to move the three cubes on the left and right independently of the three cubes in the center row. They can then be locked into place. The ExceLED 225 generates a concentrated beam of light with even coverage of 3200° K light (5600° K optional).
NAB 2012 — South Hall
The Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall was buzzing with content developers, media creation software companies and hardware for TV, video and broadcast studios. Here are some of the highlights.
Adobe Systems held free hourly demonstrations, seminars and guest presentations from such projects as The Avengers to showcase their entire product range. Especially worth mentioning is Adobe’s newest package, Premiere Pro CS6, which features an updated user interface, a 64-bit Adobe Mercury Playback Engine and other improvements like WARP stabilizer, dynamic timeline trimming and 3-way color correction.
Autodesk featured free hourly demonstrations of its range of content-editing software, including its newly-redesigned-from-the-ground-up Autodesk Smoke 2013.
AJA’s new products from its line of post-production tools and broadcast-quality convertors includedKi Pro, Io XT (which uses Thunderbolt technology), KONA video capture cards and KUMO SDI routers.
AVID featured some of its most popular products, including Media Composer 6 film and video editing software, AVID DS 10.5.1, Pro Tools and its M-Audio family of digital audio and MIDI devices.
Blackmagic Design (BMD) displayed its latest technology for film and video in this year’s sizable NAB booth, including its Blackmagic Cinema Camera, DaVinci Resolve 9 and a plethora of other devices ranging from Videohub routers to SSD recorders.
Chryon featured its line of graphics (LYRIC PRO) and asset management (CAMIO) tools aimed at the live broadcast market.
Grass Valley’s hardware for broadcasting included LDK Cameras, Kayak and Indigo switchers, ADVC convertors and Trinix NXT routers.
Maxon offered frequent and free short tutorials covering all aspects of modeling using its 3D animation software, Cinema 4D.
RED Digital Cinema’s enclosed, theatrical-style viewing room showcased its line of RED cameras and workflow editing tools.
—Vickie Claiborne
