We are gearing up for NAB 2012 and are excited to once again bring you video coverage of the show. In the meantime you can check out what was coverage last year by watching the video below or visiting our YouTube Channel.

Broadcast Engineering has announced the winners of its Pick Hits awards for NAB 2010. With a long history, Pick Hits are the most prestigious technical awards given at NAB. A panel of independent judges toured the show floor for three days, looking for innovative products and technology. The judges then met to make their selections based on several criteria, including the technical and financial improvements the product can bring to a facility’s operation. Our editors and publishers have no vote in the selection process.

Congratulations to the following manufacturers for their creative technology solutions! more

I attended a panel discusion on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and EAS this morning. There were reps from FEMA and the FCC there; the session was well attended. The panel talked about the history of EBS and EAS and the evolution to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). more

With the growing interest in stereoscopic 3-D television, Grass Valley was quick to emphasize its expertise in video compression and content processing technologies at this year’s NAB. The company demonstrated products targeted at transport applications for both backhaul (contribution links) and delivery to the home.

(See Broadcast Engineering TV’s coverage of Grass Valley here.)

Speaking with Scott Murphy, he emphasized “[that] sports will be the likely driver for stereoscopic 3-D television.” These high-end applications create the need for high reliability and quality contribution links from the remote site back to the studio. more

The systems integration company Azzurro is exhibiting in the North Hall, N 615. The company recently won a Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award for its work on NY1 News, Time Warner Cable’s 24-hour news channel in New York City. It is one of the most advanced newsgathering operations in the world, according to company officials.

Marc Bressack reviewed the company’s lineage for me, emphasizing the depth of experience it has in its staff. Many of the company’s executives are long-time broadcast and system integrators, so they know the territory — and most importantly the technology.

New York broadcasters and content producers will recognize the company from its division, “The Switch,” which handles much of the routing of video traffic in the Northeast.

Need help in your next project? Check them out at, www.azzurrohd.com.

FOR-A, a manufacturer of video and audio systems for the broadcast and professional video industries, introduced the LTR-100HS Video Archive Recorder at the 2010 NAB Show. The new recorder supports LTO-5 technology, the latest standard in long-term, high-capacity tape storage, to provide a simple and effective archive solution.

Check out Broadcast Engineering TV’s coverage of the LTR-100HS here.

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Lori Hazen, Gepco marketing manager, gave me a brief run through of the company’s newest fiber-optic products. While fiber isn’t new to Gepco, these new solutions greatly complement the company’s line of optical cable products.

New additions to Gepco’s hybrid fiber distribution systems include HMD hybrid fiber modular distribution racks, HMS hybrid fiber fusion splice racks, HDR1 high-density distribution racks, HSB fusion splice boxes, HDB SMPTE field and studio boxes, HMP8-Bxx SMPTE 304M breakout racks, and HMP8 modular hybrid fiber and Triax panels. The focus of these introductions is to simplify and improve the cable installation process with a modular and expandable design configuration.

To round out the fiber platform, Gepco is also showing other fiber products including the Neutrik OpticalCon, the Amphenol TAC-4 and TAC-12, and the LEMO SMTPE 304M hybrid fiber camera cable assemblies. The company offers a full line of ST/SC/LC multimode and single-mode snakes as well as indoor permanent installation cables. You can view these and other Gepco products at C5643.

Point your browsers to BE on 3-D to get L.T. Martin’s view of 3-D at NAB 2010. He’s skeptical about broadcast stereo 3-D, but those OLED 3-D monitors seem to have caught his eye. Read more.

Belo, Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Fox, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television, ION Television, Media General, Meredith, NBC, Post-Newsweek Stations, and Raycom Media announced plans to form a joint venture to develop a new national mobile content service. Using existing broadcast spectrum, the service will allow member companies to provide content to mobile devices, including live and on-demand video, local and national news from print and electronic sources, and sports and entertainment programming. more

3-D is everywhere at NAB this year. Panasonic’s 3-D camera was being shown on the floor. It was outputting two HD-SDI signals to feed the monitors, and the picture looked great. Panasonic also was showing a compact 3-D production switcher to go with the camera.

I attended a session on broadcast media file exchange by Todd Roth. In it he talked about how to choose between the different file types as well as the good and bad about the various storage systems out there.

There was another session about how to make ATSC M/H work financialy and the shift in revenue flow in other media sectors. Did you know that the music biz actually made more money last year, it just didn’t go to the record companies. We could see a simular shift in broadcast TV, including mobile.