NAB 2015

With strong attendance and exhibitor presence, the annual gathering also offered intriguing looks to the future. Among the major hot topcs: the incentive auction, a spectrum repack and the possibility that a next-generation digital TV standard is well on its way to fruition.

Devlin Design Group returned from this year’s NAB Show with some honors. First, for the fourth year in a row, the company was awarded NewscastStudio’s “Set of the Year” trophy […]

With estimates on the post-auction repack now running as high as $2.6 billion, the NAB is trying to increase the government reimbursemend fund, now capped at $1.75 billion. But NAB also needs to get to work on increasing the time broadcasters will have to move their channels during the repack. The current 39 months just isn’t enough, given the capacities of tower and transmission companies.

Japan’s government and NHK are bullish about giving Japan a broadcast system that supports ultra-sharp 8K — 16 times the resolution of HD — in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And now, Japan’s public broadcaster is not ruling out virtual reality as a possible future use of the format.

Burst | Booth SL3312 | Website: www.burst.com Burst, a technology platform that helps content creators unlock the power of mobile video, announced it is joining the NewTek Developer Network, a […]

Perseus, a new video compression technology unveiled at the NAB Show by V-Nova promises to allow more efficient use of spectrum to deliver SD, HD and even 4K ultra HD as part of a next-generation digital TV standard than previously thought possible.

This year’s NAB Show offered up a picture of broadcast’s digital side in full-blown frenetic mode. Broadcasters are perpetually spinning up new products and verging into multiple platform distribution territories that likely mean tectonic changes for the industry in the next few years. Talk of over-the-top television, new mobile and social distribution strategies and programmatic have graduated from peripheral concerns to full-blown centerpiece issues at the show.

Ooyala | Booth N1937 | Website: Ooyala, a Telstra subsidiary specializing in premium video publishing, analytics and monetization, is making it fast and simple for Ooyala customers to syndicate video […]

Bart Feder, Tribune’s SVP of news, says that while stations can take a page from digital news and become “more authentic and gutsier,” their big advantage is their proximity to their viewers. “We talk about the second screen, but we are the second screen a lot. We are the companion. That puts the onus on us to continually call the audience back.” Key is to move away from the long-standing practice — and mindset — that producing stories for on-air broadcasts comes before all else.

Jonathan Mitchell, news chief at KNTV San Francisco, explains how the NBC O&O built what today, he says, is the biggest investigative unit in the country — and at the same time created an enterprise culture in the newsroom.

What’s standing in the way of drones for news isn’t the aerial technology, the cameras, the uplinks, downlinks or the operators; what’s standing in the way is the Federal Aviation Administration and the byzantine rulemaking process endemic to Washington. Congress, meanwhile, is putting a lot of pressure on the FAA to get commercial drones in the air, fearing that the U.S. will find itself behind the technology drone curve compared to European countries. The FAA put out a notice of proposed rulemaking in February that will simplify the process of getting news drones in the air.

While panelists couldn’t agree on how much it will cost stations to add streaming, they were unanimous in their conviction that such a move is inevitable. “We’re very, very bullish on the continued growth of more and more video content being consumed [via streaming],” said Disney’s J.R. Grant. “We want to put the content in front of as many eyeballs as we can.”

Stepping out from behind the podium in a symbolic gesture of breaking down barriers with a tough audience, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler used his NAB Show keynote speech to return to now-familiar themes to convince broadcasters that the auction was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He addressed some of the broadcasters’ questions, but not all of them, leaving the biggest concerns about the auction at home in Washington.

After getting a look at what the network plans for its fall schedule, the affiliates held a closed-door session without Fox officials, during which they discussed the apparently vexing issue of how to increase the leverage of the affiliate body in its dealings with Fox, particularly the terms Fox demands at affiliation-renewal time. And the closed-door session revealed a palpable undercurrent of worry about the future vitality of the network-affiliate relationship as alternative means of distributing network programming are developed — means such as on-line streaming scenarios in which broadcasters would play no role.

The accomplishments of TVNewsCheck’s annual Women in Technology honorees, including 2015 award winner Cindy Hutter Cavell (second from left), were celebrated at the NAB Show Tuesday evening in Las Vegas. Cavell was joined by (l-r):TVNewsCheck Publisher Kathy Haley; TVNewsCheck Women to Watch honoree Sara Kudrle, product marketing manager for infrastructure, monitoring and control within the Strategic Marketing Group of Grass Valley; and Harry Jessell, TVNewsCheck editor. (Photo by John Staley)

The network outlines its summer programming plans and status of development for the upcoming fall schedule in a Las Vegas meeting with its affiliates.

The massive $325,000 indecency fine levied on the Schurz Communications CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va., puzzles an NAB Show panel. The infraction was fleeting, it was a fraction of the screen, it was news and most importantly, it was a mistake,” said attorney Dennis Corbett. In addition, the ruling did nothing to clarify the commission’s stated goal of going after only “egregious” indecency cases.

Covering emergency-related stories has become more complicated for stations. “Security is a much bigger issue than people recognize,” says KDSK’s Marvin Danielski. And Hearst Television’s Barbara Maushard says being “really responsible” is of primary importance in covering emergencies now that incorporating information from platforms such as social media — and distributing it digitally as well as on TV — becomes increasingly common.

Reactions from affiliates after a briefing on the CBS All Access streaming service show recognition that the move into program streaming is inevitable, and not unwelcome, in their view, despite the many challenges still to be overcome.

Estimates of the cost of the TV band repack following the FCC’s incentive auction next year range from $250 million to $1.25 billion more than the $1.75 billion the government has set aside.

A Tuesday NAB panel explores the changing nature of how — and why — advertisers partner with local media, and the role traditional outlets play in driving consumers to the Web and, ultimately, business. One consensus: local media still has unmatched reach and clout.

“I come with a bit of a different approach. I think about prevention, and not just enforcement,” says FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. He argues that his approach should be better for the industry. “We’re moving faster, we’re not holding up renewals — there’s certainty. It’s a much better world than it was a few years ago.”

The showrunner of ABC’s entire Thursday primetime programming block received accolades from the National Association of Broadcasters on Monday, at a luncheon that honored diversity by moving the conversation forward from honoring diversity. “Everyone makes a big deal about how I broke all these barriers in terms of diversity, so I know that I have to talk about it,” Rhimes said in accepting her induction into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame. So Rhimes took a few minutes to address — and dismiss — the conversation that has become an increasingly frustrating part of her media presence.

Digital Nirvana | Booth SU8813 | Website: www.digital-nirvana.com Digital Nirvana, developers of a media management platform for content creation, capture and delivery, announced an integration with Nexidia Illuminate, a media […]

NAB CEO Gordon Smith: “A glimpse of the NAB Show floor demonstrates the unmatched resiliency of broadcasting. Even with a dizzying array of programming options now available to consumers, local radio and TV stations remain the preeminent platform for distributing content most valued by Americans. More than 240 million Americans listen to local radio each week, while 90 of the weekly top TV shows are on broadcast TV. And broadcasters are not resting on their laurels.”

Videa | Booth N2530-29 | Website: www.videa.tv Videa, a Cox-backed supply-side platform bringing automation and data-driven decision making to broadcast television, has entered into a multi-year partnership agreement with Videology, […]

EVS | Booth SL3817 | Website: www.evs.com EVS, a provider of live video production systems, announces new integration with Adobe Anywhere, Adobe’s collaborative video workflow platform. “Adobe Anywhere enables teams […]

Vitec | Booth SL6305 | Website: www.vitec.com Vitec is displaying what it’s calling “the industry’s first entirely portable HEVC hardware encoder. The MGW Ace takes the benefits of HEVC encoding […]

PESA | Booth SU621E1 & SL4617 | Website: www.pesa.com PESA, a designer and manufacturer of streaming solutions as well as professional audio and video distribution products, announced the availability of […]

TVLogic | Booth C7533 | Website: www.tvlogicusa.com TVLogic, designer and manufacturer of LCD and OLED high-definition displays, is launching a 12 new models at NAB 2015 to address the increasing […]

After listening to Ben Sherwood, Disney/ABC Television Group president, and other ABC execs, the affiliates are said to be “pleased” and “satisfied that whatever they do, it will be done with the affiliates.”

Evertz | Booth N1502 | Website: www.evertz.com Evertz is introducing the 7881IRD series — Evertz’s next-generation professional integrated receiver decoder  (IRD) platform.  7881IRD series provides both ASI and IP outputs, […]

TVB President Steve Lanzano: “This will be the first presidential election where there isn’t an incumbent [running] for president since the Citizens United decision, and the Koch brothers are already talking about spending $1billion, which would be more than they spent for the last presidential election.” But outside of political, Lanzano said local TV will see just  2%-2.5% growth this year. Network, said CBS’s David Poltrack, looks to be flat in the first half of 2015.

The nascent OTT service took up most of Monday’s meeting between the network and the CBS Affiliate Advisory Board and is likely to be the topic of today’s special meeting of all the affils, who now have the contract language that calls for CBS to increase payments to participating affiliates as they reach various goals.

Meeting in Las Vegas, the affiliates hear good news on the network’s break-out hit and talk about how to hasten progress on the new TV Everywhere offering.

The keys, an NAB panel says, are having compelling programming, to embrace viewers regardless of on which platform they consume content and step up their use of audience data to create that compelling programming.

At a Monday NAB Show panel on how — and whether — to regulate online video, there was no consensus. Broadcasters are on different sides of the issue, with affiliates favoring reclassifying some online linear video as MVPDs and network owners opposing the move. And online video services also disagree about what the FCC should do.