Brad on Broadcast

According to many, okay some, the NAB convention will highlight mobile TV applications, showing live demonstrations (again). Lest those in the broadcast industry think we are the only ones pushing mobile TV, it is worth a bit of effort to see what other giants in this space are saying and have planned. more

The next stop on my NYC trip was the Library Hotel in midtown Manhattan. There, I met with Jennie Evans, of Manor Marketing, and five of her clients for a relaxing roundtable of discussions at the top of the hotel in the Poetry Room.

The Library Hotel in New York City offers its guests more than 6000 volumes of books organized by the Dewey Decimal System. Each floor of the hotel honors one of the 10 categories of the DDS, including Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion. And each of the 60 rooms is uniquely adorned with a collection of books and art exploring a distinctive topic within the category to which it belongs.

However, you’ll miss the hotel if you don’t look hard. I never did see an outside sign — just a storefront filled with lots of old-looking books. I asked the doorman for the location of the meeting and he directed me to the fourteenth floor. Upon embarking the elevator, I found myself entering a quiet lounge, complete with a rooftop patio. It was a pleasant evening coupled with the perfect rooftop location for leisurely business discussions. more

Also new from Panasonic (exhibiting at NAB booths C3712 and C3327) are a pair of high-resolution LCD HD production monitors — the 25.5in BT-LH2550 and the 17in BT-LH1710.

The larger LH2550 provides a 1920 x 1200 pixel In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel with an expanded color gamut that exceeds the NTSC standard. It offers six color space settings, therefore supporting a wide range of high-end applications. The monitor’s image processing engine has a 3-D look-up table that calibrates it to reproduce content according to the selected color standard. The monitor is lighter than its predecessor and features a full range of inputs including DVI-D, two auto-switching SDI (HS/SSD, component and RGB), as well as standard RS-232C and GPI remote inputs. more

I’m into doing unique things. Like running marathons, 13 miles up the Barr Trail on Pikes Peak and then 13 miles back down in one day. Or, running across all but one of the burrow bridges in New York City. Or, finding the very beginning of the Avenue of the Americas.

Okay, the last unique thing I did was practically an accident, but I did discover the beginning of the famous NYC street Avenue of the Americas. Have you ever been to the beginning of a street — the absolute starting point? Well, now I have. I stumbled upon 2 Avenue of the Americas, the location of the Tribeca Grand Hotel and the 2009 Panasonic pre-NAB press conference.

At the press conference, Panasonic unveiled what it claims to be the world’s first affordable 10-bit, 4:2:2 professional HD camcorder, featuring individual frame AVC-Intra recording, native 2.2-megapixel imagers and variable frame rates. more

Looking to support broadcasters’ desires to do more with less, Harris will be demonstrating an integrated master control solution at NAB booth N2502. The demonstration will use the company’s full breadth of interoperable capabilities to prepare content for playout to a variety of distribution channels. more

With today’s totally unreasonable travel costs, Harris (exhibiting this year at NAB booth N2502) decided to allow all of us editors to stay at home and listen to its pre-NAB press conference via the telephone. Given that I often have to fly US Airways, where every bag costs $15 and even a carbonated beverage costs $2, staying home is okay with me!

This year’s NAB Show attendees are going to be focused on two things: improved efficiency (fewer people doing more) and building new revenue streams. Harris plans to address both needs. more

If you’re in the content mastering or transcoding business, you know AmberFin. If not, let me introduce you to the company.

AmberFin (exhibiting at NAB booth SU4323) is privately held by Advent Venture Partners and is part of the Snell & Wilcox Group, headquartered in Basingstoke, UK. Its solutions focus on enabling content owners to maximize the value of their TV, film and video content and increase those revenues by reducing costs, saving time and eliminating incompatibility issues. more

My good, long-time friend Joe Zaller, VP corporate development for Snell & Wilcox (exhibiting at NAB booths SU1917 and SU1717), joined me for an NYC breakfast last week and used the opportunity to highlight some the company’s new products for NAB 2009. Prior to the meeting, he forwarded a PowerPoint presentation and asked that I bring it with me.

Alas, I tried. Unfortunately, the Hilton Garden Inn had only one business center printer — and it was busted. I asked the front desk how the hotel only had one printer and was told, “We’ll fix it. Just come back later.” I thought, “OK, but my meeting is now …”

Despite not having a copy of the requisite PowerPoint presentation, Zaller was kind enough to walk me through his copy of the document. He highlighted some of the new IQ Modular intelligent infrastructure range, which offers more than 400 intelligent component building blocks. This includes 26 new 3Gb/s-capable modules. more

If I told you I was in the “Windy City,” you’d probably think I was in Chicago. Normally that’d be true, but last Thursday, the very windy city was NYC. With 50mph winds whipping through Manhattan, it became a real challenge to navigate from my hotel to lunch with my friend Dave Walton from JVC.

Later, I discovered that the news Dave and JVC’s Digital Video Division VP, Larry Librach, had to show me was well worth the walk from my hotel to the nearby Tribeca Grill at 375 Greenwich St. at the corner of Franklin Street. (See, I can find my way around Manhattan. If you missed the story of me getting lost in wonderful lower Manhattan, check it out.)

Let me cut to the chase about our luncheon meeting. While the food was really good, it was JVC’s new camera that blew me away. more

The next stop on my pre-NAB press conference tour was OmniBus, exhibiting at booth SU5417 at the NAB Show. I remember when Broadcast Engineering’s IBC Pick Hits judges tried to award a Pick Hit to OmniBus for its iTX back in September 2008. The problem was, the company wasn’t ready to announce the product and had only shown it to a limited number of attendees. Our judges were well ahead of other convention awards.

Broadcast Engineering readers will recognize the iTX as an enterprise-class automation system that provides a configurable and responsive end-to-end solution for a wide array of operating environments — ranging from mobile to IPTV and from centralized multichannel operations through to single-channel stations. Building upon its extensive SD capabilities, iTX now delivers 1080p24 and built-in Dolby 5.1 capability. more