A look back at NAB 2007

By Jose B. Javier, Contributor
INQUIRER.net

AS the publication Euromedia puts it, “If it’s April, it must be Las Vegas. And if it’s Las Vegas, it’s the NAB” or the National Association of Broadcasters of America Convention.

The latest annual gathering of broadcasters from around the world was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center from April 16-19.

The buzzwords in this year’s gathering were “interoperability” and “re-purposing content” as manufacturers of broadcast equipment tried their best to demonstrate why and how their systems were the natural choices if the networks wanted seamless delivery of production outputs. For the second straight year and in what has become a “high-definition”-bound world, HDTV equipment from content acquisition, post-production, management and delivery dominated the exposition.

Representatives of Philippine broadcast networks, including ABS-CBN, ABC, RPN, NBN, Dream TV and local suppliers, were among the 100, 000 professionals who attended the convention. 1,400 exhibitors from 130 countries showed their latest products and participated in about 15 conferences to discuss wide-ranging issues such as the transition to high-definition, mobile video and IPTV (internet protocol broadcasts) and new technology in content creation.

These are interesting times indeed as the world changes from satellite transmissions of structured networks to the world of web-sharing of content. Nowhere is the shift from traditional media distribution to web-sharing more evident than the popularity of sites such as YouTube. They enable every individual to be a station owner, cinematographer, program host, editor and broadcaster all by himself. To the networks, however, it provides another revenue stream. As Susan Ashworth of TV Technology says, “The trick, it seems, is to find the right business model and to keep a close tab on lucrative copyrighted content.”

YouTube also moved the NAB to a different direction somewhat this year with the emphasis on video compression. Cameron Francis, CEO of the US division of Norway’s Network Electronics predicts that “people will eventually expect to see a similar quality over the Internet as they do on their home TV screens.” For the record, however, the MacTV group has been podcasting in high-definition for nearly a year now and the video is simply amazing.

The display of hardware at the NAB is always dazzling, from new high-def cameras from Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon to media management tools from Harris Corp., Microsoft and even comebacking IBM. The duel in post-production systems continue to be between Avid and Final Cut Studio. Apple unveiled the new Final Cut Studio 2 suite at the NAB which includes really impressive additions to Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack and Compressor.

Recalling that I had an interesting experience at an AVID session with Jabez Olssen, one of the editors of the movie “King Kong,” at last year’s NAB, I sat in, this time, on the session with Virginia Katz, A.C.E. who edited the award-winning film “Dreamgirls” which starred Beyonce and Eddie Murphy. Katz showed the sequence on Murphy’s song number with the girls doing the backup when their career was just starting up in the film. Katz told the audience the materials on the song number alone took her three days to scan because of the complexity of the shots. It also gave us an indication of the ratio of footage Hollywood studios shoot against the length of film actually used in movies. Katz avoided technical jargon and emphasized the importance of story-telling in all aspects of film production. Anyone with a good story, she said, ought to know how to tell it.

For the news-oriented, there is a Radio and Television News Directors (RTNDA) convention being held at the same time at the Convention Center. This year, the RTNDA honored Christianne Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent of CNN, with its highest award, the Paul White Award, named after the first news director of CBS network. Amanpour was cited for distinguishing herself in the coverage of conflict zones and disaster areas from the ground, independently, to ensure that viewers get the unvarnished truth.

Back at the NAB, the world of graphics and animation seems still secure in the hands of the leaders in the industry, namely, Chyron, vizRT, Quantell, Miranda and Da Vinci among others. NAB 2007 also saw the launch of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 which includes the popular editing softwares Premiere and After Effects. Adobe products are equipped with new plug-ins, enough to satisfy professionals and aspiring editors alike.

More than high definition TV broadcasts, which will entail a lot of transition expense for the networks, mobile video appears to be the imminent future for the Philippines. For one, competing local firms Philippine Multi-Media Systems, Inc. (PMSI) and Smart were then gearing to launch digital broadcasts of content to mobile phones that double up as receivers. Both PMSI and Smart (PLDT) delegates to the convention were seen in separate informal meetings with Composite Technology, Inc. head honcho Rick Padrinao at the convention. Cellular companies, such as Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson also displayed their mobile video wares at the show.

The world has hardly had a fill of high-definition TV, with the Philippines still to that technology take off, when what do the Japanese do but introduce a new one! Ultra-high definition TV. High definition TV resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is why its video is known either as 1080i (for interlaced video, or lines on your screen being scanned alternately) or 1080p (for progressive video or lines being scanned one after the other so it is sharper). NHK, the giant Japanese TV network, launched a system developed by its Science and Research Laboratory which it called Ultra High Definition. People, including this writer, queued for the preview of the system and what a fantastic experience it was. Two people in hang gliders swooped over the ocean and hovered on different scenes including an NFL All-Star game in Hawaii and whale watching in the Pacific, with never-before-seen clarity. Hold on to your seats folks because UHD TV has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, four times the quality of the current HDTV! For the preview, NHK used one of the very first 4K digital projectors in existence scanning 4320 lines. The audio for the event was piped through a mind-boggling 22.2 multi-channel system using 3 vertical layers of speakers. The sound system was developed specially for UHD TV.

Indeed, the world is headed towards a clearer, if not brighter, broadcasting future. But one recalls the adage among broadcasters that “content is king.” If nothing else new is imagined at this time, Mark Gray, of SAMMA systems, a New York-based media preservation firm, says, “There is an infinite amount of broadcast content sitting on analog tapes that need to be digitized and monetized.” I completely agree with him because even as I am exposed to new technology every day of my working life, my favorite programs are still on American Movie Classics, old black-and-white movies that have been re-mastered and never looked or sounded better than before.

In fact, just before I wrote this piece, I bought a new DVD copy of the movie “The Grapes of Wrath” with Henry Fonda and watched it. That, to me, is what’s good about digital technology. I still hope to watch “Casablanca” in UHD TV someday. Then everything old will really be new again.

(Editor’s note: The author is the director for Allied Businesses and Special Projects of broadcast network ABC-5.)

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