LAS VEGAS – There were just over 105,000 delegates at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters annual convention (with over 1,200 members of the press alone).
The show floor was packed Monday and Tuesday (see photo) but with the sweeps period kicking off Thursday, many of the American TV broadcasters were heading back to their desks as of Wednesday.
It’s a big, big show (seriously, the SONY booth is the size of a city block. I’ve been to entire trade shows that weren’t that big), but here are the few things we saw on the floor Wednesday. We counted 51 Canadian suppliers on the floor, from ATI and Broadview to Ward-Beck and WinRadio.
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Markham-based chipmaker ATI had no big reveals at the show but are instead on a mission to show how great over-the-air HD can be on televisions with their latest Xilleon/Theater combined chip. Deployed in certain SONY and Samsung models, the Theater demodulator and Xilleon MPEG decoders work seamlessly to deliver pristine over the air HD signals, even under adverse conditions other chips can’t handle. While some believe most viewing is done via cable or satellite link, true HD aficionados know that cable delivers HD pretty well compressed (11 to 16 Mbps) while an OTA signal is a full 90+ meg signal. Plus, ATI marketing manager Brian Matthews told cartt.ca, the company estimates there are 80 million TV sets in the U.S. that only get their signals from antennas (in bedrooms or kitchens) which will have to be replaced and will certainly be replaced with a digital TV. www.ati.com
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Saying it is "addressing the mobile generation’s expectation for wireless, broadcast-quality programming," satellite company SES Americom and Hiwire, a subsidiary of Aloha Partners (owners of 700 MHz spectrum across the States), announced at the show they will deliver a Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) mobile TV and entertainment trial to consumers in Las Vegas this fall. The trial service, planned for launch later this year, will deliver twice the channels and higher quality pictures than current mobile TV offerings by leveraging Hiwire’s unmatched 12 MHz capacity of UHF spectrum and wireless knowledge, together with SES Americom’s satellites and distribution platforms, programmer relationships, and experience in IPTV delivery. www.ses-americom.com
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Winnipeg’s OMT Technologies was showing off its iMediaLogger, version 2.6, but what had some booth visitors buzzing was its microCasting introduction. As an add-on to its pre-existing technology, the microCasting software lets radio stations quickly branch out into sending music from OMT’s 750,000 titles to PDAs and other mobile devices via podcast – over any Internet connection, automatically. "This is where the world is going – like it or not, it’s one-to-one," said OMT founder Ron Paley. The microCasting technology was what OMT picked up and has developed further when it bought MusicMusicMusic out of bankruptcy two years ago. www.omt.net
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Think 1080p is the cat’s pajamas when it comes to HD resolution. Then you haven’t seen Japanese broadcaster NHK’s 4320-scanning line system. According to the broadcaster, when viewers see it, they want to reach out and touch what they’re viewing. No word on the bandwidth such an enormous number of bits would require. www.nhk.or.jp
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Ross Video’s openGear was an award-winner at the show. It won an NAB AIM award for innovation in media and a "best-in-show" trophy from TV Technology Magazine. OpenGear says it all in it’s name. The gear, is open. Its flexible and advanced terminal equipment based on the open-architecture 2RU (two rack-unit) openGear modular frame designed by Ross Video, which makes video switching, processing and distribution technologies. The adoption of the openGear frame by other terminal equipment vendors, such as founding partners Cobalt Digital and Ward-Beck Systems, provides customers with a unique opportunity to select products from a range of technology leaders without the requirement or investment in multiple frame standards. Also announced at the show was an additional partner, Claratech, which specializes in digital video fibre optic conversion. Pictured are, from left, Cobalt president Gene Zimmerman, Ross president Jeff Moore and WBS sales director Michael Jordan. www.rossvideo.com
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For a real-world look at how broadcasting is changing, Toronto-based broadcast management software company Specialty Data Systems president David Cole reports giving demos to executives from Google and telecom supplier Qualcomm. www.sdsunified.com
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Billing it as "music scheduling reinvented," says the press release, the new GSelector from RCS was on display at NAB. Working with radio programmers and consultants during the development process, the new GSelector incorporates today’s technology and workflow patterns to create music logs containing the best possible song sequences. "Users can dynamically see in real-time the natural demand of each song, artist or attribute like tempo, theme or sound code. They adjust it right there on the graphic display and can view the resulting changes instantly," said Philippe Generali, RCS president. "Secondly, for today’s modern way of making radio, you need a truly modern tool. Managing multiple channels is nearly universal. GSelector users can handle all their channels from one shared music library." www.gselector.com
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Quebec-based Davicom unveiled its next generation MAC (monitoring, alarm and control), which is designed to be future-proofed. But most important for deployment overseas is that the user interface software can be set for any language – and a remote call over the phone can be voiced in many languages, too. www.davicom.com
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With an HD LCD screen showing a steady loop of the Grammy Awards, where Holophone microphones were used, the Toronto-based company was introducing its new H4 Supermini, a discreet 5.1-channel camera mountable surround microphone. The system offers an integrated multi-channel pre-amplifier, virtual surround headphone monitor and matrix surround encoder for six-channel processing of live audio from the concert hall and sports stadium to fast-paced ENG applications. The H4 is suited for all live event television broadcasters, live music producers and engineers and film and video location crews who are interested in real-time surround audio for delivery to an ever increasing home theatre audience. www.holophone.com
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Toronto software company Broadview is in the midst of a big job, installing its program acquisition, ad sales, program scheduling, traffic, master control automation interfacing, and reporting software in dozens of PBS stations. www.broadviewsoftware.com
Photos by Greg O’Brien
