THE FINAL BUZZER
WILL NAB SIGNAL THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE? By Ken Kerschbaumer Sports Video Group, Executive Director, Editorial This column has been a long time coming, around 1,108 days to be exact. That’s the time that has passed since the last time the industry came together at NAB in Las Vegas. I will be the first to admit it might take a few minutes to shake off the rust. First, I need to get used to new locations like the West Hall, which is located where the old parking lot used to be across from North Hall. I also need to get used to not going to old locations like the South Hall. And then there are the great mysteries like how my feet will hold up and whether the new show hours will be a hit or a miss with attendees and exhibitors. The one thing I won’t need to shake off is the desire to see industry colleagues, check out some new technology, and get a sense of where the industry is headed. It’s amazing to think that it has been three years since the industry has gotten together to celebrate tremendous advances and changes. Even more amazing is that those advances and changes happened without the industry gathering together in a meaningful way. Does the reality that the industry seemed to get along fine without trade shows mean that trade shows are irrelevant? No. First, it’s important to remember that, while the industry did manage to innovate and — in some instances — even thrive during the past three years, there is a good chance that innovation would have accelerated even faster with trade shows. Trade shows provide the kind of opportunities for discovery that can lead to kismet that, in turn, can result in stronger companies, better technologies, and improved workflows. Simply put, a small company has a much better chance to thrive if its technology can be discovered on an exhibit floor rather than via a Google search. And larger companies can more easily get a sense of whether a new strategic direction is a winner or a loser and then retool accordingly. So, what am I looking forward to at this year’s show? We’ve had three years of development around virtualized hardware, new remote production workflows, and cloud-based live production, but I want to see how the pieces from various manufacturers will come together in a cohesive manner. I also want to see how compression will make a difference for signal quality as 4K and HDR continue to become of more interest to industry professionals. And, sure, let’s toss in nextgeneration broadcasting via ATSC 3.0, cool demonstrations of camera tracking and automated production, immersive audio, and lots of mind-blowing augmented reality technologies. But those are only the things I expect to see. The real fun is always in the new discovery. I am not sure if a lot of the smaller companies that have existed in the nooks and crannies of NAB over the years will be there this year. It’s possible the continuing pandemic, inflation, and transportation costs will keep attendance down and that smaller companies will wait another year. But I hope that is not the case. I hope that NAB is filled with old friendly faces. I hope that NAB is filled with opportunities to meet new friendly faces. And I hope that NAB signals a new dawn in sports content creation workflows, technologies, and possibilities. <
PUBLISHED BY SPORTS VIDEO GROUP 19 West 21st St., Ste. 301 • New York, NY 10010 Tel: 212.481.8140 • Fax: 212.696.1783 www.sportsvideo.org EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS PAUL GALLO, Executive Director
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SportsTech Journal is produced and published by The Sports Video Group.
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