NAB 2006Technical Review

With way too many things to see and not nearly enough time to see it all, I snapped off as many photos as I could and decided to soak it all in and wait until later to think about it.



I liked the sign at the Hitachi booth, because it set the tone. It truely is a candy shop.



So we've been throwing about this term, "Backpack Journalist" but the guys and girls from Easy Rig taken it to the next level. There is actually a review on B-roll.net about this unique looking contraption.



I wished I would have tried it on, or had time to. It sounds like it really relieves shoulder stress by putting all the weight on the hips and any New Photog worth his/her weight could use a little of that.



But we had to move on to our next stop and Easy Rig wasn't an official stop on our checklist, but definately worth pausing for.



Around the corner, or maybe in another building, we found this Ford Excursion with a telescoping mast attached to the trailer hitch connection.



On top of the Mast a Gyro Stabilized color camera and infared camera and a digital microwave transmitter. Inside the vehicle are all of the controls to make great TV.



A iron clad version of this truck sees battle in Iraq.



The company won a technical achievement award for the vehicle.



This might be a great news helo for small and medium market stations. I'm not sure how many people it takes to run the thing but I've seen it in use for NASCAR races and I liked what I saw. It's a lot more efficient than a full size chopper, and it could be great in some news situations, but it's more a a production rental.



Moving on down to a new location.....I saw the biggest freakin' edit screen in the world. This one's only so people at the back of the room could see the demo, but it made a lot of folks stop and look.



And luring people to stop at your booth in a sea of colors and sounds isn't as easy as just setting up shop.



And finding a particular booth in this ocean of TV Gadgets was no piece of cake either.



Here's one we stopped at and Kevin Johnson asked a bunch of questions about. It is a hard drive that accepts a Firewire input and various codecs and allows many hours of recording, depending on the size drive and which type of signal is input.



Here is a great long lens for High Def Cameras. I didn't get any details, but it sure was fun to look at. It was only there as a Demo for the Hitachi Camera.



Also at the Hitachi booth was their Z-DR1 camera that records on a Hard Drive or Solid State removable media.



Whichever media type you choose, it can be removed and plugged directly into the NLE of your choice. As soon as you are plugged in you can edit from your clips with no download or digitizing required. See the video on B-Roll.net.



If you're into movie making you might be interested in this big ass jib crane. It was huge. It looked more like it belonged on a construction site somewhere!



It has this 35mm film camera attatched to the other end of it.



On the smaller, more budget conscious side, there were plenty of smaller jibs at a bunch of booths.



In terms of new technology, this is one of the more "revolutionary" products we saw during our tour. Hydrogen Powered Batteries.



Using this refillable Hydrogen canister attached to a reactor/adapter, you create 12 volts of renewable power that creates water as a by-product.



It's a little bigger than your standard brick for the back of a camera, but it lasts a lot longer. When the Hydrogen canister is empty you just fill it back up with Hydrogen (from a large tank that you can purchase in any city).



The Hydrogen power is marketed by Jadoo. Now if only they could get us a car powered by Hydrogen!



Of course the Grandaddy of NAB has to be SONY. If you wanted to lose yourself in a sea of people get anywhere within 100 yards of the Sony Corridor.



Outside there were more interesting odd and ins. A steadycam mounted on a Seguay. As smooth as I've seen a Steadycam in a full sprint by the operator, this Sequay mounted version must just be for the lazy photog in us all! There were a couple of different incarnations of the Steadycam Seguay. On this model the operator could carry the full weight Steadycam or mount it directly to the Seguay.



Prepare to be caught on camera anywhere and everywhere at NAB.



Coming Soon....

The Girls of NAB

The Limo Ride