Jim's 2014 NAB notes

NAB is one of the largest TV and broadcast conferences in the world. In April I spent two days checking out what was new in gear and technology. Here are some highlights of what I saw.

4K was everywhere (4096×2160 or higher). 4K displays, 4K cameras, 4K projectors.... This is interesting since it's not an accepted broadcast format. Just as broadcasters had to prepare for the upgrade to digital and HD from the analog NTSC days, the industry seems to be preparing for a similar bump up to 4K. I do not see this happening in the very near future.

Virtual Sets drew a lot of attention. While the high end models are impressive, companies like Newtek and their Tricaster are making this affordable to lower end users.

Ross Virtual Set

Drone systems were scattered throughout Central Hall. Many had GoPros, and other smaller cameras- but some had RED cameras and Canon 5Ds mounted to them. Here is a good recap from DJI.

Canon
Canon had a notable presence - a huge area with booths showing off their lenses, cameras, repair staff, and a stage- where DPs and photographers talked about their craft. Their 1D5Ds, C300s and C500s could be seen everywhere across the convention as other vendors used their gear to show off their own tripods, sliders, jibs, and lenses. Nothing huge/earth shattering from them but they did have a dual pixel focusing upgrade for their cine cameras and a few interesting smaller camcorders:

• XF200 & XF205

These are both wifi-contrallable and can record both MXF and MP4s (for web) simultaneously.

Do you wish you had a servo lense for your C300 or other full-frame camera? You can get one of these for about $31,000.

Sony, Panasonic & JVC all had new cameras, as did Red with their "Dragon" series.

Black Magic
Black Magic might've had the show stealer with their new 4K Ursa and Studio Cameras. They also had new switcher and an upgrade to their DaVinci Resolve color correction software adding editing functionality.

AJA had a number of new interfaces and were showing off their new 4K Cion camera.

The Studio Prime Awards are a good showcase of some other NAB 2014 highlights.

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