NAB: Where Content Comes to Life

As I sit here trying to think about bedtime, I’m amazed at how fast this past year has gone by.

Last year at this time I was driving with an associate of mine to Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters convention. It was a last-minute decision to go, as we got a sponsor for a hotel at the last minute. I was a virgin to the convention last year and it was a bit overwhelming.

The title of the NAB Show Guide last year was “The Great Content Shift.” It was about ¾ of an inch thick, complete with maps of the three show floors exhibitors, and also the educational speakers that you could go hear.

When we arrived, what I was really interested in was the new technology, but when I started to read what was offered in the way of seminars, I changed my mind quickly.

Topics such as: “Storytelling Inside the Box,” and “The Walking Dead- Creating A Thinking Person’s Zombie Drama,” or “TV Everywhere: PayTV On Any Device,” were just some of the hundreds covered.

Sections in the guide had headings such as: Broadcast Management, Broadcast Engineering, Postproduction World, Digital Strategies Exchange for Radio, Technology Summit On Cinema, Military and Government Summit, and a Disruptive Media Conference within the NAB Conference.

The super sessions had the president of Warner Bruce Rosenblum talking, heads of Cameron/Pace Group that spoke about making 3D profitable, and Mobile Video and Movie TV- Beyond YouTube.

Post-production advice … yes, yes please. I was on my way to hear some talks and got side tracked.

I was told by many people there that the conference has shrunk to a little more than 90,000 people now. In the heydays of broadcasting, there were more than 200,000 people that would attend.

Apparently the good media parties are on the weekend before NAB starts. Missed that last year, darn it, and I will miss them again this year, too.

When I got side tracked, it was day two for me and it was supposed to be a half-day. I only made it through two of the three show floors. All the big companies were there, the usual, but there were many companies that I had never heard of before. It took hours to walk through those two buildings and I was told it’s about 15 miles if you walk it all.

When we were leaving the conference I grabbed a handful of trade publications: Broadcast Engineering, The Business of Broadcast Television & Cable, Film & Video, Daily Variety, China Broadcasting Directory, NAB Daily, CED Magazine, and Broadcast TECH.

I attended the 2013 NAB April 6-11, so keep an eye out for the review of what cool media equipment is available. In this age of self-publishing, we all need to be informed.