NAB 2011

Mark Siegel, president of Advanced Broadcast Solutions, went to the NAB Show with a critical eye on the exhibitors and their offerings. He recaps the big trends (multiplatform distribution, cloud processing and centralcasting) as well as traffic replacing master control as the heart of TV stations, rapid developments in lighting, IP for ENG and his surprise at the lack of enthusiasm by stations for virtual news sets.

The FCC chairman’s speech to advance his plan to move TV spectrum to wireless broadband fell on mostly deaf ears. Genachowski recognized broadcasters’ concerns, but really didn’t address them. What he did make clear is that he views wireless broadband as the big game and that it is his job to feed it with as much spectrum as he can find. In his mind, broadcasting is nice; broadband is “essential.”

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski met with most of a hundred state broadcasters out in Las Vegas this week to talk about the FCC’s spectrum auction plan, according to an FCC official familiar with the meeting. The chairman was there to address the NAB Show on that very topic.

The consulting firm launches a practice for delivering video to set-tops, broadband devices.

Aspera Inc. today introduced its fasp-AIR mobile transport technology that enables faster data transfer speeds for wireless networks. NAB attendees are getting the first look at Aspera’s new Android transfer […]

The monumental disaster continuing to plague Japan was felt throughout the NAB convention, as many companies, most with Japanese roots, said that while manufacturing had been stabilized in factories that had escaped initial earthquake and tsunami, many component suppliers had been negatively affected. This in turn, could cause a delay in product shipments later this year.

Paul S. Rotella, the state broadcasting group’s CEO, updated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on the “antiquated” state of New Jersey’s Emergency Alert Service. He applauds  the commission’s call for a national test of the EAS, but cautioned that “this national test should be viewed and used as a diagnostic tool only, given the benign neglect some parties have engaged in for decades regarding EAS.”

Several station representatives come away from the meeting of Fox affiliates dismayed over the network’s continuing hard-line stance on retrans sharing. One manager said Fox repeated that it would no longer try to negotiate with the affiliate board, and reiterated that individual stations would have to agree to Fox’s price tag or risk losing their affiliation. “It sounded like a threat to me.”

The NAB president says that an FCC spectrum auction must be totally voluntary, and even at that there need to be assurances that it “doesn’t harm another station that wants to stay in business and is excited about the future.”

The FCC chairman tries to reassure broadcasters that any incentive auction plan of TV spectrum would be voluntary, saying it’s “essential that broadcasters be treated fairly.” He reinforces his claim that such action is needed to meet a growing need for wireless broadband services, saying, “If we wait until there’s a crisis to reallocate spectrum, we’ll have waited too long — for consumers, for our global competitiveness — and, I believe, for broadcasters.”

2011 NAB Show Preview Quintech Electronics Booth SU60131 Quintech Electronics designs and manufactures state-of-the-art proprietary hardware solutions (DC to 40 GHz) to facilitate RF signal management for Satellite uplink and […]

Key partners include LG Electronics and its U.S. R&D subsidiary, Zenith, which will develop handheld mobile DTV devices to receive the new alerts and will provide funding for the project.

The new head of CBS News tells the CBS Affiliates Board that he’s focused on improving the CBS Morning News and the CBS Evening News. Said WGCL’s Kirk Black: “He’s passionate and seems really motivated, almost like a station guy. He wants to get out there and get things pointed in the right direction.” Other issues on the board’s agenda were the new NCAA March Madness deal and the fate of the locked-out NFL.

Just as the NAB opened its annual convention in Las Vegas on Monday, the Consumer Electronics Association released a survey purportedly demonstrating that Americans want spectrum devoted to wireless Internet and not television. The timing of the release of the CEA-commissioned survey was no accident; it was meant to rile broadcasters as they fight to hold on to spectrum.

The importance of tailoring mobile DTV business models to meet evolving consumer needs was one of the topics at Monday’s panel on the new medium and potential revenue stream for broadcasters. Others include lessons from more mature mobile markets overseas and updates from representatives of the Mobile Content Venture and the Mobile 500 Alliance.

As part of an NAB Show panel on the FCC’s spectrum plans, Post-Newsweek President Alan Frank says the proposal to auction spectrum to aid broadband  is not so much how such a voluntary auction will affect the minority of broadcasters who choose to participate in it, but rather how it will affect the majority who choose not to. And then there’s that word “voluntary.” “I had the honor of serving in the Army and I understand voluntary,” Frank said. Responding was FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, who promised that it was not the FCC’s intention to degrade TV service in any way.

Smart TVs will understand the viewers’ needs and choices well enough to make useful suggestions on content and services.

Sales consultant Jim Doyle tells an NAB audience that both traditional and digital account executives tend to undervalue, even disparage the “other” medium. That should change.

The NAB’s former president, Eddie Fritts, who was forced out in 2006, is recognized for his 24 years at the helm with the association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

James Cameron, the director known for championing 3D technology, told an overflow crowd at the NAB Show in Las Vegas that 3D won’t work on TV if production companies can’t utilize the talent they already have.

Earthquake damage to the plant that makes HDCAM tape has stopped production until summer. The company has developed a new 3D camera that will be used to shoot the finals of this year’s Wimbledon tennis championships.

Ross Video is at the NAB Show with lots of new products, many aimed at mid-market and mid-size operators, as best evidenced by its new Carbonite switcher. The Carbonite offers […]

Since its merger with Omneon last year, Harmonic now serves customers on the both the content and delivery chain.

The new app will let viewers at home watching a program to simultaneously interact with it — to buy a product, for example, or play along with a game show — using a mobile device.

Its new line of products includes BlueNet, a system that promises to streamline end-to-end graphic workflows. Sinclair Sinclair Broadcast Group is implementing BlueNet at 13 of its news-producing stations, hoping to achieve fully automated news graphics production and distribution.

The equipment supplier new owners want to quell any uncertainty about its future and unveil a number of new products and improvements, including the its new Stratus media flow application suite, which helps users deal with the hassles of multiplatform content delivery.

As it upgrades to HD news, the station group owner is adding 25 studio cameras and 107 ENG cameras. The ProHD units use non-proprietary SDHC cards and feature native file recording for Adobe Premiere Pro, which is already in use throughout the station group.

Helping the network land the 2014 and 2016 Games is part of the discussions the network’s affils have in Las Vegas. Judging from the demeanor of board members as they left the two-hour closed-door meeting Sunday, whatever issues that exist between the network and affiliates don’t seem to be very contentious.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has selected Panasonic’s P2 HD camcorder for all 12 of its news producing stations. The order comes on the heels of other investments in Panasonic solutions.

Word from NAB is that there will be a memorial to Tack Nail, the late, great media reporter, at next week’s convention in Las Vegas. It will be a vacant chair in the press room, accompanied by pictures of Nail, according to NAB spokesman and former media scribe Dennis Wharton.

2011 NAB Show Preview Ensemble Designs Booth N1323 Ensemble Designs is a provider of signal processing and infrastructure products to the professional broadcast industry and other government and commercial applications. […]

News Synergy provides television, newspaper and radio properties with a mobile app solution that leverages the local brand, maintains local control and delivers local and national revenue opportunities.

The prediction by the Open Mobile Video Coalition that mobile DTV will reach more than 71 million households — or 61% of all viewers in America — in the next 12 months comes as the group, along with ATSC and NAB, prepare to open the doors on the Mobile DTV Pavilion at next week’s NAB Show in Las Vegas. The Pavilion will highlight new consumer products, applications and services along with technology demonstrations from major equipment providers.