Talk of the town

Following the success of this year's CABSAT show in Dubai, technology vendors, production staff and broadcasters prepare to descend on Las Vegas for another colossal NAB Show. Digital Broadcast identifies some of the event's highlights.

The NAB Show, the broadcast industry's largest trade event is once more upon us. While much of the talk will be dominated by the impact of the economic downturn, there are plenty of other talking points among the 80,000 delegates.

At the time of press, the show had confirmed the inclusion of 1600 exhibitors including 430 international exhibitors and 70 debutants for 2009.

"The NAB Show has been the leading electronic media event for more than 80 years, showcasing every stage of the content lifecycle, from creation to consumption," says Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president of conventions and business operations. "Each year we see new exhibitors from a variety of media platforms, and we look forward to learning about the unique opportunities that these new companies will bring to this year's show."

Several of the new exhibitors represent the 3D production and broadcast industry, a topic that will feature heavily, as it did at IBC 2008.

Philips 3D Solutions, 3ality and 3DTV Corp all make their first appearance at the show and will take their place in the new 3D pavilion.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will be highlighting its latest findings in the fields of holographic TV and 3D HD transmission technologies.

The conference programme continues to reflect the expanding role of the broadcast industry with the addition of three new streams. The Military and Government Summit will look at some of the technologies that bridge the gap between these two industries and may encourage some technology vendors to consider what they can offer this vertical market.

The Advertising Innovations event will offer broadcasters a comprehensive overview of the latest trends in advertising and help them to discover how to maximise ad revenues in a multiplatform environment. A particularly pertinent issue for FTA networks looking to capture their share of an increasingly competitive market.

The final new entry to the conference is the Mobile Entertainment Summit. The agenda will reach beyond the scope of mobile TV to look at all content and media driven phone applications including social networks, music and video downloads, iPhone applications.

Further broadening the scope of the show will be the new content commerce pavilion. The new feature will include film studio MGM, one of the world's largest games production houses Electronic Arts, online video specialist Brightcove and the American Film Institute (AFI). The aim of the new pavilion is to unite all members of what NAB calls "the content community".

AmberFin: Stand No. SU4323

In the latest upgrade to its flagship content mastering and transcoding software solutions, AmberFin announces the immediate availability of iCR 4.5. The company claims the latest version enhances file-based workflow efficiency and raises the bar on image quality, while reducing cost per deliverable.

The latest version of iCR introduces a wide range of enhancements, including increased interoperability with tapeless cameras, VTRs, editing and server systems and simultaneous ingest and transcoding allows conversions and transcoding to be pipelined with ingest operations.

Native support for Avid DNxHD and Final Cut Pro, offering instant interoperability with Avid and Apple editing systems, extended industry-leading MXF support of native Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM as well as Avid Op Atom MXF.

File-based standard definition motion compensated frame rate conversion is now a standard feature on all iCR systems.

Netia: Stand no. SU822

Netia will introduce its Radio-Assist 8.0 range of digital audio automation software at the exhibition.

Equipped with a broad range of tools for end-to-end multimedia workflows, the newest version of Netia's acclaimed software suite now extends beyond traditional broadcasting by allowing users to prepare publication at an early stage of the workflow.

Integration with Netia's Media Asset Management system is compatible with all media including video, images, texts and audio.

Radio-Assist 8.0 gives instant access to all types of media, archived or online, according to Netia. Regardless of the storage medium, items can be previewed and restored for repurposing and distribution, both for broadcasting and for multi-platform distribution.

By interfacing with Netia's Media Asset Management system, Radio-Assist 8.0 also responds efficiently to the needs of media groups having to manage and share media throughout their entities.

Omnibus: Stand ZE-21 SU5417

Automation, content management and workflow systems provider OmniBus will demonstrate its iTX software suite at this year's show. The company claims that iTX combines and exceeds all the functions of a conventional transmission chain in a single, integrated suite of software applications.

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