From The Desk Of DV Dude: April 2017

Friday, April 28, 2017

NAB 2017: Just Outside Vegas

DV Dude took his rental car out for a spin after NAB closed, and fled the city. His travels took him north up to Mount Charleston. This tiny little town is a tourist area a mere 45 minutes from the strip, off Hwy 95.

Mountains, clear air, winding roads - all good for the soul, and a good antidote to Las Vegas.

NAB 2017: UP UP AND AWAY!!

DV Dude has been meaning for a while to take a ride on the High Roller, the 550 feet ferris wheel that overlooks the Las Vegas Strip.

It is the tallest ferris wheel in the world.

The view at night is quite spectacular.

NAB 2017: Final Notes, Thoughts and Observations

AB 2017 seemed more quiet this year, on both announcements and attendance. NAB claims 103,000 attendees, but the show felt more empty this year. As for the announcements, there were a lot of "pre" announcements this year, coming weeks ahead of NAB, so that might have contributed to the feeling of less announcements. But there was also some holding back from companies that normally would use NAB to launch new product. For example, the photo above is of a mystery camera that Panasonic will announce at CineGear in June. Canon will more than likely also announce a new camera there as well. Red didn't have a booth this year at NAB, instead wanting to exhibit only at CineGear. Mmm… is there some conspiracy against NAB amongst the camera companies?

Other notes and observations:
- The Go Pro booth was the quietest I have ever seen it at NAB. Normally you have to fight your way in there - this year, no problems.

- The enthusiasm quotient seemed low this year. People weren't hyper excited about anything. We are in a period of refinement now, not breaking new ground.

- NABs can have a dominant theme - drones, 3D, gimbals, 4K, 360 VR, etc. This year had no theme to it. We've seen everything already. We're just making it better.

Anyway, saw some cool new things, made new contacts that will bear fruit in the next month or so, so there will be a lot of new product coming to The DV Shop for our 16th Anniversary.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

NAB 2017: NHK Still Dreaming In 8K

Every year those crazy engineers at Japan's NHK show off their advances in 8K technology, just to drive all of us nuts who are still struggling with 4K. So this year they showed off 8K wireless transmission, and Fujinon showed off an 8K lens (it was massive with very little focal range). NHK is dreaming of giant screens in every home showing 8K, and this was their demo of it.

As a token effort to get Canadians aboard the 8K train, NHK showed off some 8K footage of hockey. It wasn't particularly a good hockey game (in fact it was pretty terrible), but this Canadian appreciated the effort.

NAB 2017: Cool Camera Mounts

NAB always has interesting tools that the vast majority of users will never get to use, but make for great eye-candy. This modified SeaDoo has a nice big camera mount on the back of it, perfect for your next water shot of the kiddies on the lake.

Here we have a nice big arm on the front of a motorbike.

But the coolest camera mount was on this beauty that had not one, but two mounts going at the same time. Everyone needs one of these. Everyone.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

NAB 2017: Where DV Dude Was This Morning

Even though I have been to Vegas over 20 times, I have never taken a photo of the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Well this morning at 5:30 I hopped into my rental car (a Porsche Panamera but that is a whole other story), and got to the sign at sunrise. Mission accomplished. And the first bus load of tourists arrived about 20 minutes later.

NAB 2017: 360 VR Is Still Alive

Did the North Hall first as I normally do, and the 360VR Section was there. While there wasn't quite the same excitement and crowds as last year, there were crowds, and a lot of new product. One thing that caught my eye was this small 360VR camera for your iPhone - the Insta360

A very cool remote camera dolly from a British company called Motion Impossible. This is the Mantis 360 Plus, and you mount your 360VR camera on it, and control it remotely.

There were a lot of 360 camera rigs at the show, usually for smaller cameras such as a Go Pro. But this was the real deal - 8 Alexa Minis sandwiched in there.

NAB 2017: Walk Down Memory Lane

Wth NAB being a show all about the new, it was nice to see the old being on display as well. The Museum of Broadcast Technology has a small corner in the hallway outside the North Hall, where they are showcasing some very old RCA video cameras.

These RCA cameras would have been State of the Art in their day. I do think cameras have become better looking - that drab, industrial, almost Soviet Bloc styling doesn't age well.