NEWS
The Future is Now!
Or at Least in April at NAB in Las Vegas
by Pam Malouf
photo by Tomm Carroll
 The rage on the floor at NAB 2005 was video t-shirts. Photo by Tomm Carroll |
Virtually every country and city in every part of the world has some sort of broadcast station. Picture and sound editing, as well as mixing, plays a huge part of what is seen on television every day, so nearly every Guild member will find elements of interest at NAB, which has become the world’s largest electronic media show.
The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show annually boasts more than 100,000 professional attendees and 1,400 exhibiting companies from over 130 countries around the world. The theme for NAB 2006 show is: “Immediate Future: Immediate Educ-ation, Immediate Inspiration, Immediate Innovation.”
The big event takes place April 22-27 (exhibits open April 24) at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a 4.4-million-square-foot facility of meeting rooms and convention space located in one of the most exciting convention destinations in the world.
This is the city whose Convention and Visitors Authority’s 2003 advertising campaign coined the catchy phrase, “What Happens Here, Stays Here”––commonly paraphrased as “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” In 2004, the Las Vegas Monorail, a $654-million mass transit system, opened to the public. This still-new monorail has a convenient stop right at the convention center. For the exact route and fares visit www.lvmono-rail.com.
NAB 2006 will have booths displaying everything from miniature helicopters
with mounted 35mm cameras for filming in hard-to-reach locations,
to the most advanced and largest video displays (Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo,
Panasonic, etc.) and television screens, camera equipment, virtual
sets and, of course, the latest in visual effects and editing software
programs. The editing booths (including Avid and Final Cut Pro) will
have experts who will demonstrate their latest programs and be available
to answer all your questions.
Package deals on purchasing your own editing equipment from companies,
including ProMax, are also offered, as are specials on stock, music
and sound effects libraries. Every type of company related to the
broadcast industry will be represented, including data storage and
sound companies such as Bose. In other words, if you want orange or
purple gaffers tape, you’ll be able to find it here.
Show attendees will gain insights into the new and emerging technologies that are shaping the future of our industry. Additionally, any editor who doesn’t want to spend the rest of his or her life working in Los Angeles might find the NABEF-BEA-RTNDA Career Fair of particular interest. For a taste of what will be offered, check out the job offerings at www.nab.org, then click on “Career Center” and scroll down to the “Job Seekers––Find Your New Job” heading.
Pavilions
While you’re busy walking around, seeing the cool booths and
collecting all the little freebies, don’t forget about the Technology
and Educational Pavilions on the exhibit floor to see the latest in
electronic media.
• The China Manufacturers Pavilion will feature the latest
technologies from China and a showcase of emerging companies from
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• The Digital Asset Management Pavilion offers the latest in
digital asset management, data backup, storage management, SAN, NAS,
metadata management…the list goes on and on.
• The Digital Media Theater will present the latest encoding,
transcoding, ingest, compression, editing, digital asset management,
digital rights management and delivery technologies.
• The Avid Developer Community is returning to NAB with even
more innovative solutions for the digital media industry. Members
of Avid’s AVX, MetaSync, Digidesign and Softimage/SDK Partner
Programs will enable you to maximize and get the most out of your
Avid system.
• The NAB-HD Pavilion will provide a hands-on look at a functioning
station right on the exhibit floor! From capture to editing to delivery,
this interactive area is an opportunity to learn about high definition.
• The 5.1 Audio Pavilion returns for the second year.
Additional Pavilions include: the Sound Mixing Pavilion, an MPEG (Motion
Picture Experts Group, not the Motion Picture Editors Guild) Forum,
the RTNDA@NAB Showcase Sessions, the Satellite & Business Technology
Pavilion and the Technologies for Worship Exhibits.
Conferences
There are five conferences which can be referenced at www.nabshow.com;
one of which is worthy of mention here: the NAB Post/Production World
Conference designed for film and video editors, visual effects editors,
animators, filmmakers, sound designers, producers and web multi-media
designers. An elite team of instructors, industry power users and
celebrity digital artists will represent the largest one-of-a-kind
resource for post-production education in the world, in the form of
more than 230 sessions on the hottest topics designed to expand your
professional expertise.
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is a full-service trade association
that promotes and protects free, over-the-air local radio and television
stations’ interests in Washington and around the world. NAB
is the broadcasters’ voice before Con-gress, federal agencies
and the courts.
This year, former network television news anchors Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and the late Peter Jennings will be presented with distinguished service awards recognized worldwide as one of the pre-eminent honors in the broadcasting industry. The NAB 2006 keynote speakers are editors Dylan Tichenor, ACE (ACE-nominated for Brokeback Mountain) and Hughes Winborne (Oscar-nominated for Crash).
Details
Up-to-the-minute NAB 2006 details are available at www.nabshow.com.
If you are looking for a hotel, there may still be some NAB special
rates available; check by clicking on the “Hotel & Travel”
link.
I hope to see you at the show! For a free VIP exhibits pass, just ask your editing equipment rental company, your online editing vendor or the Editors Guild itself.
The Guild has a limited number of complimentary passes to NAB 2006. Call Fred Arteaga at 323-876-4770, ext. 243 to request a pair of passes. First come, first served.
Pam Malouf is a Picture Editor, an Assistant Director and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at pamedit@aol.com.
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