More than 104,000 electronic media professionals from 130 countries and 1,400 exhibiting companies turned out for this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas. The all-star line-up included Jay Leno (I had lunch with him and 500 of his not so closest friends), Ivan Seidenberg, John Gage, Lowry Mays, Hector Ruiz, Mark Cuban, Jeff Greenfield and many more. Charles Osgood and Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico appeared as part of RTNDA@NAB (the radio dedicated portion of the show).

Every spring the density of Las Vegas is weighted with a “nerdy” population that most residents don’t understand. Hours upon hours of milling to the left on hard concrete floors, looking, looking, and more looking (I found myself looking for the ultra-exhibits, pavilions with all that thick “cushy” padding; no time to eat, no time to party or sleep, and certainly no time to gamble. It’s a travesty, but it is so.

The big buzz again this year is HD and digital. I was struck by huge partnerships amongst mega companies purposefully complementary to sort through all the demands of HD, including processing, workflow, storage, and a myriad of other issues all requiring good solutions in the demand of record time.

It’s an opportunity to peer into the future, but no guarantee that it will come true. I peered around for New  England exhibitors and attendees. When I found them, I collected their experiences and impressions of and in the vast thinking tank called The NAB Show.

I met Karl and Sondra Renwanz in the exhibit of Snell & Wilcox. They’re the industry leader in standards conversion equipment (PAL, NTSC, SECAM, etc) and digital switching and processing equipment. I met Roderick Snell with whom Renwanz has been doing business for over 20-years and I don’t think it is because Snell & Wilcox offers a most civilized item in their booth: Lunch! They know standards having been the watchdog for the BBC for many years.

Renwanz told me, “NAB remains the cutting edge show for broadcast and production. This year's show proved that nearly everyone can enter the world of HD production. The world's top electronic firms continue to develop improved High Definition technology such as the Sony HD SR and Panasonic DVCPRO HD EX lines of equipment.  They are still,” he went on to say, “in pursuit of the ‘look’ of film.”

“On the lower end of the HD spectrum, both Sony and JVC have introduced HD DV camcorders that allow entry into the HD world at about $5000,” said Renwanz

The DTV awareness is growing. Television is making every effort to make its benefits known to the average consumer.  More than 2500 hours of HD programming is now being broadcast each year with stations reaching more than 99.9 percent of U.S. television households. “Television has really reached the tipping point with digital, and broadcasters are certainly leading the way,” said NAB Senior Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton, pointing to the fact that more than 60 cities across the nation have transitioned every station in their market to digital. Wharton continued, “The Broadcasters have done their job and built out the digital system. Now we’re depending on consumers for the next step.”

At the Panasonic exhibit, I could see that they were doing their part to entice the consumer.

David Lyman, of The Film Workshops in Rockport,  Maine gave me his unofficial report.

“High Definition has been slowly coming into its own, but it has taken 15 years. The word on the floor I heard regarding HD came from Sony with their new HDV camera and VCR at $4000 and $5000 respectively (HDR-FX1 HDV Handycam® Camcorder). The camera is aggressively priced, obviously to get new producers started down the Sony pathway. JVC came out last year with an HDV camera that was actually an empty box. Lots of promises but little usable hardware. This year the JVC was back with product, but a booth that was obviously aiming their HDV camera system at the television ENG market, with a news van occupying most of their booth.

 ”Panasonic announced its AG-HVX200 camera to go head-to-head with JVC and Sony, but the new P2 record process will slow sales if not turn customers (who loved their AG-DVX100A 24-P camera) to Sony. Panasonic’s P2 record process was introduced at last year NBA show, primarily for the network ENG market. It involves a revolutionary new, tapeless, credit card size chip. While this may be the way of the future, the chips cost $4000 each, capture only 12-minutes of content, and two are required for the system to work. So, the $4000 cost of the camera just increased to over $12,000. Panasonic is interested in the network news market, which wants to go tapeless. So, independent filmmakers will in all likelihood shy away from Panasonic’s new HDV system.  The Panasonic 24P camera (XX 100, using conventional tape) is still a hot seller, competing effectively with Canon.

 ”Canon came out with the new mini-DV camera, the XL-2, to compete with Panavision AG-DVX100A, but too late for NAB last year, introducing the camera in June at the DV Expo in New York City.  The XL-2 goes head to head with the AG-DVX100A, and has the added advantage of interchangeable lenses, the only mini-DV camera that does so. Canon does not have, yet, an entry into the HD or HDV market, but wait a few months and we are sure Canon will make the appropriate announcement.

 ”Is HD taking over for film? Not yet it isn’t. Arri is still selling 16mm and 35mm film cameras, and in 2004 Kodak sold more 16mm film stock than in any of the preceding 20 years. Many of the television shows that converted to HD from 35mm film, have returned to film, finding that HD is, well . . . just too costly. Conversations I had on the NAB floor with pros and manufacturers report that postproduction costs for HD out weigh any film costs savings that HD might have offered. It takes longer to set up shots, most DPs and crews are still getting familiar with HD cameras and technology, and then too an additional technician has to be hired. And, since HD is tape, directors are inclined to make many more “takes,” which add to the cost and the decision-making process in postproduction.

“For those filmmakers shooting on tape and transferring to 35mm for theatrical release, HD appears to be less an option than the Panasonic SDX 900. This camera as a similar menu and image controls as does the Panasonic HD Vericam. It is 24P and 16 by 9, and costs considerably less, but is still a NTSC format video, but when transferred to 35mm, has a better ‘film look’ than HD.

 ”What makes the film look? According to Peter Fasciano, the co-founder of Avid and a technology futurist, it’s the 24-frame flicker. The imperceptible flicker we have become use to, accounts, accord to Peter, for 80% of the film-look, Color management is the rest.

 ”I bought a Panasonic SDX-900 last summer and do not plan any new camera acquisitions for this year. Not until the HDV work flow systems stabilizes, and I see what Canon has coming out.” David Lyman was in “chat-mode” all while he was on the floor, in his booth. Lyman told me the preponderance of his visitors were Film and Television Workshops alums!

We get a little different take on the show from Barbizon Lighting’s Victor Lloyd (Woburn, MA).

“Always a good show, the NAB annual conference in Las Vegas this year was exceptionally interesting. It seems clear that many broadcast facilities are taking advantage of the small economic upturn of this past year to make some capital investments in their venues. Participation by people from South and Central America is still not as great as it was four years ago, but the upsurge in religious broadcast facilities over the past few years brought many new participants to this years’ show.”

“Barbizon offered four different lighting seminars each day at the booth and these were very well attended (Boston’s John Gates conducts some of these). Seminars have been offered in previous years but the greater attendance this year supports the observation that there is an increase in production around the country,” according to Lloyd.

Glidecam Industries booth was a continuous bustle of cameramen from everywhere trying on and out their new Glidecam Smooth Shooter, which they introduced this year at NAB. Thomas Howie could barely stand still long enough to have his photo taken as eager seekers kept him surrounded.

Wolf Coach, Inc., Auburn,  MA is the leading innovative source for Mobile Telecommunications Systems. I visited them once for a SMPTE meeting and I was duly impressed, but became even more impressed as I got the personal testimony of one of their clients whose HD “truck” was on the display floor NAB. Bruce Fauser, Peak Uplink (New Castle, CO) has purchased 5 “trucks” from Wolf. He says, “Wolf builds a damn good truck.” He likes their customer support and the people who work at Wolf like Broadcast Sales Manager Thomas Jennings, Telecommunication Systems Design Engineer Emeric Feldmar, and Customer Service Manager Peter S. Deary. It seems business is brisk, especially in Boston right now for this company. 

My last night in Las Vegas is always dedicated to the Final Cut Pro get-together: This year is was  Final Cut and THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES teaming up in Vegas at NAB for many a combination of cutting edge technology in filmmaking and social networking, highlighted by the Fourth Annual Final Cut Pro User Group Network NAB Soiree, held at the Stardust Hotel on the same night that Vegas icon Wayne Newton gave his final "Dankeshane" at the Vegas landmark. Daniel Berube, Co-Producer of the Soiree and Leader of the Boston Final Cut Pro User Group, invited Director John Stimpson and Senior Editor David Bigelow of Moody Street Pictures onstage for the event to screen the trailer to THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES shot on HD with the Panasonic Varicam and edited in large part on a PowerBook with Final Cut Pro HD. Stimpson and Bigelow premiered exciting special effects footage of the ghost of Lucy Keyes from the film for the first time before a packed audience and the largest gathering of Final Cut Pro editors during NAB.

The preview was followed by FCP Senior Product Designer Brian Meaney and Product Manager Paul Saccone of Apple for an in-depth question and answer period on the release of Final Cut Pro 5 and Final Cut Studio.

I had the extraordinary opportunity to attend many of the NAB Super Sessions. I was so excited to view 10 minutes of the “last” STAR WARS prequel, split screen, top being what was shot, bottom how it was digitally rendered. Wow! And Madagascar, we’ve never seen anything like this! It’ll change everything. Go Lucas! But, I have to say, I was thrilled to see the “ghost” for the first time, THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES. Good work! PUB