NAB Show 2010 Company Profiles 1-10

The annual National Association of Broadcasters Show (April 10-15; exhibits April 12-15) offers the world’s largest array of all things A/V. To help you make your way through this wondrous yet often confounding bonanza of creative gadgetry, we present this set of company profiles covering a wide variety of NAB exhibitors. During the show, check back for our (Almost) Live NAB Blog, which will feature NAB news and updates as they happen during the event.

Below is our first batch of profiles, 1-10, in alpha order. All NAB Show booth numbers are accurate as of press time.

Compiled by Jay Holben, Oliver Peters, Iain Stasukevich, Ned Soltz and David E. Williams

Adobe Systems
Booths SL3320, SL2401MR, SL2406MR | www.adobe.com
Expect to get a healthy peek at Creative Suite 5, which will be released in a few months. Although exact details are under NDA as of press time, a lot has been posted by Adobe on various Web sites. The biggest news will be 64-bit processing for all the applications and new editing horsepower for Premiere Pro courtesy of Nvidia. Adobe is branding this the Mercury Playback Engine, but it’s essentially software optimization designed to work with certain Nvidia graphics cards (GeForce GTX285, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5800, Quadro CX). This yields more real-time performance than ever before. Adobe has also been tweaking its native RED workflow and has shown demos of up to four layers of native RED 4K playback, thanks to its RED optimization and the Mercury Playback Engine. Other aspects of CS5 are under wraps, but you can be sure Adobe will continue to build on the rich metadata integration that started with CS4. In particular, check out Adobe Story, which has been in public beta at the Adobe Labs Web site.

AJA Video Systems
Booth SL920 | www.aja.com
AJA made a huge splash at the show last year with Ki Pro. New software is out that adds Apple ProRes 422 (LT) and ProRes 422 (Proxy), along with variable frame rate support. The rugged tapeless video recording device interfaces with virtually any type of camera and records high-quality Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files onto computer-friendly media via SD/HD-SDI, HDMI and analog inputs.

Version 7.5 software has been released for the entire KONA family of products. This adds Apple ProRes 4444 RGB support, plus the ability to transfer at double-speed from supported VTRs, like the Sony SRW-5800. This software version allows users for the first time to use multiple KONA cards on the same system. The AJA KONA 3 is currently the only capture card qualified for Autodesk’s Smoke for the Mac.

Anton/Bauer
Booth C6025 | www.antonbauer.com
Anton/Bauer, a leading provider of batteries, chargers, lighting and other mobile power systems for the professional broadcast, video and film industries, will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a press conference on Monday, April 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at its booth. The company will introduce an addition to its innovative Dionic HC battery line and will debut the Tandem 150 modular power system and ULHM-LED and EledZ LED light solutions.

Artbeats
Booth SU1703 | www.artbeats.com
The 20-year veteran of the stock footage industry will be making special NAB discounts, available to everyone. Artbeats recently launched its “no strings attached” Daily Free Clip program, which offers HD clips valued at $299 each as a free download for 24 hours. This amounts to $8,000 in royalty-free HD content each month for those who collect them all.

Audio-Technica
Booth C1632 | www. audio-technica.com
A leading innovator in transducer technolog, for more than 45 years, A-T recently introduced updates to its 3000 Series Frequency-Agile True Diversity UHF wireless systems, now offering up to 1001 selectable UHF frequencies in 25 kHz spacing in three available frequency bands (including the new I Band). Nine new pre-coordinated frequency scan groups simplify selection of usable frequencies in a multi-channel wireless system. The UniPak body-pack transmitter features a backlit screen for easy reading in low-light situations and a locking battery door for added security. A three-position sliding cover on the transmitter’s control panel prevents accidental shutoff or channel switching. The 3000 Series is available with either a dynamic or condenser handheld transmitter featuring robust metal construction and slim ergonomic design. The ATW-T341b handheld transmitter includes the Artist Elite AE4100 Cardioid Dynamic element, while the ATW-T371b handheld transmitter features the Artist Series ATM710 Cardioid Condenser element.

Automatic Duck
Booth SL3930 (Plug-In Pavilion) | www.automaticduck.com
The software company will debut a number of key enhancements to its family of timeline translation tools, including powerful new versions of Pro Import AE and Media Copy. During the show, Automatic Duck president and founder Wes Plate will be on hand to demonstrate new features and capabilities of the industry-popular Pro Import AE importer solution for After Effects users, which is compatibile withthe highly anticipated Adobe Creative Suite 5. Plate will also demonstrate the capabilities of Media Copy v3.0, which will emphasize project and bin file support for one of the industry’s leading NLEs. Details will be announced at the show.

Autoscript
Booth C6025 | www.autoscript.tv
Teleprompter company Autoscript will demo high-brightness LED TFT flat screens that utilize recent advances in LED technology to provide superior brightness, higher contrast levels and improved reliability and energy efficiency. In addition, visitors will see the first fully featured demonstrations in the U.S. of the Xbox Ultra and X-Lite portable prompting systems, which were seen as prototypes at IBC 2009. Based on the successful Xbox USB external box solution, the Xbox Ultra connects via USB port to a laptop or PC and provides enhanced features and capabilities that make the system particularly useful for portable prompting. Now featuring four outputs, it can power twice as many on-camera units, and it features a smooth on-screen scroll on the computer screen that eliminates the need for an external preview monitor. The video output is standard composite PAL or NTSC and is compatible with all Autoscript on-camera units.

Avid
Booth S215LMR | www.avid.com
Having consolidated the Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Pinnacle and Sebelius product lines into the ubiquitous Avid moniker last yearr, the newly rebranded company seems to be more comfortable playing up the transformation angle than they are about spilling the beans about whatever new products and services might be on display at this year’s NAB show.
 
There’s no doubt the company will spotlight the latest versions of its flagship software suites: Media Composer, Pro Tools 8 and Sebelius (incidentally, all part of the Avatar post pipeline). Also sure to be on display is its “Content Anywhere” business model. Hot on the heels of its 2009 acquisition of U.K. firm Blue Order, Avid is shifting its Interplay production asset management solution into a full media asset management solution, forming the foundation of the new Avid Integrated Media Enterprise framework. Think Unity online touting robust, multiple platform support with as little as a 1 Mb/s network connection.

Avid introduced Media Composer version 4 last year, which features Stereo 3D, Mix and Match (the ability to mix frame rates) and AMA (Avid Media Access). Expect to see more development centered on AMA, an architecture designed to work with native camera codecs and metadata. Avid editors hope this will include QuickTime files (like ProRes) in order to level the playing field with the competition. That’s uncertain, but I’m sure you’ll see AMA support for additional formats beyond XDCAM, P2 and GFcam. At the very least, AMA is likely to include Canon’s new MPEG-2 codec and Sony’s NXCAM.
 
What Avid is promising attendees are keynote speeches from industry thought-leaders, an audio and video creative tools showcase (along with the latest innovations in workflows for RED, XDCAM HD, P2, 3D stereoscopy, music creation and surround mixing, among others), presentations on media asset and workflow management, productivity-enhancing broadcast solutions, and one-on-one consultations with Avid experts and executives.

Band Pro Film & Digital
Booth C10308 | www.bandpro.com
The company will be showcasing its new Mystery Prime Lenses, a 10-lens set of T1.4 PL mount optics. They will also demo new Fujinon PL zooms with focal range choices from 14.5mm to 400mm, the new Sony SRW-9000 2/3" HDCAM SR camera with 1-50fps speeds. Band Pro offers 3D production solutions, Silicon Imaging’s SI-3D with 3D software, Sony HDC-P1 cameras with Element Technica’s Quasar rig, and Astro Design’s 24" 3D monitors.

Blackmagic Design
Booth SL6020 | www.blackmagicdesign.com
Blackmagic plans a strong presence anchored by its extensive lineup of video editing capture cards, SDI converters, routers, color correctors, film restoration software and waveform monitors.

The Da Vinci Resolve 4K/stereoscopic color-correction system and Revival film restoration suite make their debuts under the Blackmagic banner this year, after all assets of Da Vinci were purchased by Blackmagic in late 2009. Expect these two products to be the primary focus of the Da Vinci brand name for the foreseeable future.

Among the familiar and new products on display is DeckLink Studio (announced at IBC 2009), a capture card designed as a replacement for standard-definition cards, with increased analog connectivity for older analog equipment (analog component, S-Video, composite video) as well as independent SDI/HD-SDI, and HDMI connections for the latest cutting-edge digital equipment, like the HDLink Pro DisplayPort, a new model of the popular HDLink Pro monitoring converter range that allows deep color DisplayPort computer monitors to be used for SDI monitoring.

Also look for the updated version of their award-winning UltraScope.

Coming up: Profiles 11-20...