Folks always ask me what to see at the NAB shows each year. Obviously most of my “must sees” revolve around Post Production since that is the main focus of me business, but I do try to walk the entire show at last once to see what’s out there.
If you want to find me to say hello, at will be in Booth SL7425 with Small Tree Communications on Monday and Tuesday. Super cool, nerdy geeky guys who make that awesome Ethernet based shared storage system we’ve been using for years.
So in no particular order, here’s some things you might find of interest at this year’s NAB Show. Word of warning, Autodesk and Adobe are right next to each other so expect huge jams of people in that area, particularly Monday / Tuesday.
Creative COW, Booth SL13317. If it were not for the Cow I would not have had the opportunity to meet so many of you through the years on the many incredible forums of creativecow.net. Stop by and say hello, or maybe a moooo to the best creative media resource on the planet.
Small Tree Communications, Booth SL7425. You’ve heard me tout their ethernet based storage for years that has allowed us to connect Mac Pros, Laptops and iMacs to the 48 TB media array. We’ve had up to 12 computers hitting the storage at one time playing back ProRes 720 and 1080 HD. This year they are rolling out Titanium which is the next step forward in the concept. This is going to be great for both remote and facility based production houses.
Autodesk, Booth SL3315. The mantra “Smoke is Changing” is absolutely correct. It’s obvious the design team has spent a lot of time and effort to create this new version that is a complete game changer. I have not been this excited about new software in a very very long time. Autodesk promises a more open and inviting booth this year too so stop by and give the new Smoke a spin.
Avid, Booth SU902. You already know that Symphony is $995 for a cross grade. If you haven’t seen Avid in a while, stop by and see why this is by far the best deal that will come out of NAB this year. I am installing multiple Symphony seats in my shop next week as we have transitions our facility to a more Avid centric workflow.
Adobe Systems, Booth SL2624. The brand new Creative Suite 6 really is a major improvement by the Adobe team. As someone that was able to test the product line, I can tell you that across the board everything has been upgraded. SpeedGrade has been brought to the product family adding the only thing that was missing from the lineup, a color finishing tool.
Flanders Scientific, Booth SL13707. Hands down THE best reference monitors I have ever used. Head to head against much more expensive monitors, I take these every time and we have 7 of them in our shop. Check out the 2461W when you go. Outstanding tech support and service after the sale. Also one of the nicest companies you will ever do business with.
AJA Video Systems. Booth SL3305. If you follow me you know I run their Kona boards throughout the shop, but am eyeing their Thunderbolt based IoXT to replace them. They are definitely a leader in video technology (i/o boards, converters, test generators, to name a few) and watch for some cool new products this year. You should also find Avid, Adobe and Autodesk products running in this booth so you can see first hand how those products interact with the AJA hardware.
BlackMagic Design, Booth SL220. If you somehow miss this gargantuan booth at the entrance to South Hall, you might want to get your eyes checked. If they follow suit from last year, they actually have one of the most accessible and easy to approach booths in the entire show and very approachable. The Resolve and those beautiful control panels are still the star of the booth for me, but BMD offers so much today for the Post and Production professional, you really need to look through this entire booth to make sure you see everything.
FilmLight, Booth SL2420. Baselight color grading plug in for Avid for under $1000. Need I say more?
Plug In Pavilion, Booth SL2024. Multiple plug in vendors including Red Giant Software and others with really cool toys for all NLEs and effects software.
AlterMedia, Booth SL7410. The makers of StudioSuite which is a great production and facility management tool that fits on top of FileMaker Pro. I get a lot of questions on how to manage the facility and this has really fit the bill for us the past few years. VERY in depth and we barely use everything that its capable of. One of the most reasonably priced options I’ve come across too.
Dell / NVidia, Booth 9215. If you follow my blog you know that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Dell Precision T5500 workstation running Adobe and Avid. Some Dell workstations will be on display in the NVidia Booth, so check them out for yourself along with all those NVidia products you keep reading about.
CRU Dataport, Booth SL10225. You may not know their name but they purchased WeibeTech a few years ago and those are the excellent trayless SATA drive units we use both for RAIDs and our data archiving. We run the RTX 200 and 400 in our shop.
ProMax Systems, Booth 5424. One of the most respected VARs in the country has introduced one of the most beastly editing workstations I’ve read about. The ProMax One looks like the ultimate post production box. I’ll be testing one after NAB.
Canon, Booth C4325. I’ve never wanted to purchase a camera for my company until I saw the C300. And of course they just keep announcing even more digital goodness in the lead up to NAB.
ATTO Technology, Booth SL6320. Makers of host bus adapters that connect to our high speed media arrays. Watch for thunderbolt products this year.
Cache-A Corp, Booth SL10508. Serious archive solutions to protect your data.
ArtBeats, Booth SL5620. Excellent stock footage and more. Quite honestly they keep adding so much stuff I can’t keep up with it all. Really nice folks too.
Pond 5, Booth SL7409. Another excellent source of stock footage.
Hewlett Packard, Booth N5106. Their Z800 is the machine most of my colleagues recommended to me for Post production.
CineBags, Booth C7641. Excellent production bags to protect your gear.
CineToys, Booth 4837. Cool, nerdy stuff for your camera shoots.
Da-Lite Screen Company, Booth SL4920. If you have a projector in your shop, these screens really do make a difference. We have a 7 footer in our screening room.
KB Covers, Booth SL8619. Keyboard skins with shortcuts for multiple editing platforms.
Bella Corp, Booth SL2812. Keyboards, skins and stickers for multiple editing platforms.
GoPro, Booth C3628. Mini cameras.
Contour, Booth C10045. My favorite mini cameras. They’re tube style, not boxy.