The Doors Close On Another NAB...

As I emerge from the customary post-NAB haze and try to formulate a coherent analysis of the 2016 show, perhaps the most striking realisation is that despite pacing the halls for four long days, I barely scratched the surface, writes Duncan Payne, Regional Director, Azule Finance.

The scale of the event, much like Las Vegas itself, is simply extraordinary, with over 100,000 attendees and nearly 1,900 exhibitors. Right from the first morning of the show, my social media feeds have been full of reviews of "amazing products" and "technical advancements", many of which I just didn't get time to see. Here, however, are some highlights of the things I did manage to get to.

Even before the show properly started, Ross staged an impressive 800 seat mini-conference, with David Ross evangelising on the new product lines. Among a plethora of new toys was the surprising launch of quite possibly the only sub-4k camera seen at NAB. Their "ACID" camera has been developed specifically with green-screen applications in mind. Whilst the cameras they've introduced are only HD, crucially they are 4:4:4 sampling, giving the full colour range for the best results in chroma-key environments.

AVID's Isis on-line storage range is being superseded by Nexis, which is a totally configurable and scalable storage solution, with 120Tb of storage available in a 4u chassis for around the £40K mark. One of the key changes is a move from a Windows-based technology to Linux. The existing Isis 2500 and 5500 are due to go end-of-life in December with the 7500 following six months later, but AVID will still support the product for five years, as there are so many still in the market. Another key technology development announced is that files can now be edited in Adobe Premier.

Sony announced a couple of new and interesting products. The HDC-4800 is their new 4K studio camera and the first solution capable of shooting 4K in a higher than real-time frame rate. Up to 8x is possible in 4K, and 16x in HD, but it's a single Super35mm sensor with a PL mount, so the same shallow depth of field issues will apply that made shooting sports on the F55 tricky. Also, such is the volume of data coming off of the block that you require a dedicated HDCU-2000 and a BPU-4800 video server. Sony also announced the PXW-Z450, a new shoulder-mount 4K camcorder. However, rather than using the 3 x 2/3" 4K sensor configuration that they employ in the HDC-4300, they're using just one of these sensors in the camcorder, making it a 4K, single sensor 2/3" camcorder. There are also 3 viewfinder options – the L10, L20 and L30 – to give the beleaguered cameraman a fighting chance of getting the shot in focus.

Fujinon had a number of new lenses, including the longest lens in its class, the 107x box lens. They also had their 80x lens which had a feature I really liked. Sports generally like a 95x zoom as this covers most football stadia. Fujinon made the 80x lens that covers most other sporting arenas, and as with any box lenses it has a 2x extender which doubles the magnification but significantly reduces the light passing through the lens. Uniquely, the 80x lens has a 1.2x extender in addition to the 2x extender, which gives the magnification required, and loses significantly less light than the 2x extender. There were also a couple of ENG style 4K barrel lenses launched, and I doubt we will see another HD lens launched now, such is the move to 4K.

Newtek are never backward in coming forward with new technological advancements, and they are leading the way with an open-platform NDI technology which allows for easier sharing of files. All of their products are compatible with this protocol, and I gather that over 200 companies have announced products embracing this technology. One specific development I particularly liked is their Skype Talkshow, which now allows for 4 channels of Skype to be managed through a single 1ru box.

Whilst walking the halls, it's possible to become a little immune to the incredible equipment on show. Mind-blowing technology and resolution that a non-industry person would find dazzling has become the workplace norm for us. I confess I felt this sense of 'tech fatigue' until I saw the Cooke Anamorphic zoom lens. It gave me that real "wow" factor from the moment I saw what it produced. It's a front anamorphic lens, not a rear anamorphic lens, meaning the "squeezing" lens is in front of the iris. And it's a consistent T3.1 throughout its 35-140mm range. But that's just detail. Immediately, as I sat in front of the lens I was suddenly in a feature film, such was the effect that the lens gave on screen. I see this lens being in huge demand, despite the c18 month lead time. Great, innovative work Cooke.

www.azule.co.uk

This article is also available to read at BFV online here.

(JP/MH)