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MillimeterNAB 2006
Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By S. D. Katz, D. W. Leitner, Dan Ochiva, and Jan Ozer
Bitcasting Arrives
Avid Interplay
Anyone who attended the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention came away with one shared feeling: The industry is doing fine. Whether you consider yourself production only, or range between that and post, you saw new gear from Arri (Kodak, take heart — the Munich, Germany team came up with a totally new Super 16 camera) to Assimilate (this price-competitive DI system is making smart alliances with vendors like high-speed storage maker Facilis.)
Lots of commotion attended the final debut of full-on versions of lower-cost camcorders employing everything from Flash RAM to Blu-ray-style laser, and petite hard drives for storage. Canon, JVC, Grass Valley, Hitachi, Ikegami, Panasonic, and Sony all had significant new products debut. That's not even including all the show floor buzz that next-gen systems from RED and Silicon Imaging garnered. (See D.W. Leitner's coverage here, as well as at his blogs at blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/nab from the show for more on these two controversial offerings.)
Avid surprised many with its strong showing. Its burgeoning list of products — from a software-only Media Composer to Avid Interplay's soup-to-nuts infrastructure — demonstrated that the Tewksbury, Mass.-based company wasn't taking its top-of-the-hill position lightly, but engaging in an aggressive pursuit of the high ground in post and broadcasting. While Apple didn't throw a press conference, its new Intel-powered MacBook Pro and Boot Camp software drew kudos.
Meanwhile, for the first time, a whole new networked world of telcos, wireless, and IPTV companies, and manufacturers of streaming gear and codec cards made it clear that it really might be time to change out “broadcasters” for “bitcasters” in the NAB acronym.
For additional coverage on camcorders, NLEs, monitors, storage, and more, don't forget to visit digitalcontentproducer.com.
