The 2016 NAB Show can probably be best summed up by one word: “overwhelming.” There are so many, many exhibitors here, ready to show their latest technologies, that it’s just about impossible to see everything in even one of the three vast halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. In my strolls thus far around the Central Hall, a number of products did catch my eye. Here’s a look at a few of them.
❶ CAMERA ON A STICK
Filmpower’s Roxor gimbal camera is a looker. This little red and white cutie does 4K, has Wi-Fi connectivity, can be con- trolled by a smartphone, has a built-in stereo mic, and boasts three-axis image stabilization. Booth C12435 passers-by just can’t keep their hands off this tiny camera.
❷ DRILLING DOWN REALLY DEEP
As much as I hate to admit it, my eye- sight isn’t what it used to be — and I’m not the only one with this experience, based on the attention that the Rose Micro Solutions folks are getting in booth C12047. Co-owner Mark Overhoff caught my eye by posing in a rather unusual bit of eyewear. He finally convinced me to don a pair of his “power specs,” and lo and behold, I could clearly see surface-mount chips on printed circuit boards once again!
❸ SETS YOU DON’T HAVE TO STORE
Another attention grabber is located at C10845. This is the Pallas “seamless LCD wall.” Well, if you got really close to this billboard-sized high-resolution video dis- play, you could see the seams, but that would be cheating and beside the point. This display product is being shown as a TV stu- dio background (not to be confused with a virtual set), but with its size, resolution, col- or and clarity, a static image displayed be- hind studio talent could easily be mistaken for the real thing.
❹ HANDHELD 360-DEGREE CAMERA
❻ FIREWORKS ON THE FLOOR!
Everyone loves fireworks, and DSSP has ’em in their booth. (No, not the live gunpowder exploding kind, but rather a “synthetic” version that’s reusable!) So what are even reusable fireworks doing at the NAB Show? Actually, this is a special effects thing. The company says the fireworks are reusable up to a thousand times and can be set off remotely via DMX control. You just gotta see (and hear) this system. (But you might want to bring earplugs, or at least keep your ears covered.) It’s at booth C12445.
❼ A LIGHTING FIXTURE THAT LOVES ABUSE
We’ve been seeing LED lighting instruments at this show for years now, and they’ve become, well, ho-hum. Not so the Westcott LED panels at C12626. I pushed my way through the crowd just in time to see Wescott’s Ruben Cruz bending and even rolling up a lit panel. As a finale, he tossed it on the floor and danced a jig on it, with no visible damage to him or the lighting instrument.