In Broadcast - May 2014 - 24

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 31 - MAY 2014

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InREVIEW

NAB Show 2014 In Retrospect
A look back at the latest product offerings showcased at NAB 2014...
By David Kirk
Contributing Editor

24

"They are nearly all up for sale," a
Telecom Skylife, Intelsat, Measat,
veteran exhibitor conﬁded on the
and Sky Sports.
ﬁrst day of the April 7-10 2014 NAB
Given the subjective excellence of
Show. He was referring not to the
HD on a modern domestic display,
products variously displayed on the
particularly the phenomenal new
1,746 exhibition booths but to the
55EA980W 55 inch curved OLED
TV from LG, what is the central
exhibiting companies themselves.
Corporate
acquisition
sales pitch for 4K? There is only
announcements made shortly before
one answer: wall-sized television
the show included Amberﬁn being
video displays will soon be within
acquired by Dalet, Aspera by IBM,
reach of many consumers willing
Autocue and elements of SIS-Live
to give them house-room.
by Vitec Videocom, Conex by
Kudelski, Digital Rapids by Imagine
Content Acquisition
Communications, Grass Valley by
Astro Design demonstrated a fully
Belden, Mosart by Vizrt, Pebble
working 8K camera head measuring
Beach Systems by Vislink and Pilat
just 5 x 5 x 6 inches WHD and
Media by SintechMedia.
weighing 4.5 pounds. This has
An increasing proportion of the
advanced from being a concept
tools needed for television and
model at NAB 2013.
radio production, post-production
and distribution have become
routine commodities rather than
specialised high-markup hardware.
Audio editing fell into the commodity
category decades ago with the
introduction of efﬁcient low-cost
PC-based software such as
Cool Edit Pro.
The same pattern followed in video
editing, digital content storage and
graphics. High-end tools such as
Quantel's Paintbox had to compete
Astro Design's 8K camera
with 'commodity' packages such as
Adobe Photoshop. For hardware
Atomos exhibited what it
claims is the world's first 12G
manufacturers, software developers
and service-providers, survival now
SDI and 4K HDMI I/O HDD/SSD
depends on offering features or
recorder. The Shogun is designed
skills that are speciﬁc to the core
for use with cameras such as the
broadcast market.
Panasonic GH4; it has a genlock
Little wonder that the biggest
input for synchronised playout
players are pushing for the early
and features a 1920 x 1080 7-inch
adoption of a more ambitious
touchscreen monitor plus optional
Wi-Fi for remote control from iOS or
production and transmission
standard than the current 1920
Android devices.
x 1080 display format. The NAB
Camera Corps introduced its
presented
its
2014
Innovation
Award
to
Ericsson for the
transmissions e r v i c e p r o v i d e r 's
efforts
in
promoting
4K UHDTV1.
Ericsson has
performed 25
live trials of 4K
with partners
such as BT Jeff White (Camera Corps) with Q3 (left) and Q-Ball2 robotic
Sports, Korea camera heads

Panasonic's booth at NAB 2014

new Q3 compact robotic head.
Five years on from the launch
of the original Q-Ball, Q3
incorporates double the zoom
power, a higher specification
camera and a greatly expanded
feature set. It is compatible with
multiple serial data formats
including IP plus Camera Corps'
own audio-based data system.
Lawo demonstrated a fully working
IP-based stagebox system for video,
audio, intercom and control. This
is based on
Lawo's new V__
link4 video-overIP interfaces and
can operate in
local stagebox
applications
such as an OB
truck and in IPbased remote
productions.
Panasonic
showed its new
VariCam 35 4K
camera/recorder. This incorporates
a new super 35 mm MOS image
sensor and 4K-capable AVC-ULTRA
codecs. The camera is capable
of 4K raw output to an external
recorder. Features include 14 stops
of dynamic range, standard PL lens
mount and an OLED viewfinder.
Photon Beard showed its first
LED luminiare, the PhotonBeam 80
LED. Based on remote phosphor
technology, this consumes 80

Sony's PXW-X180
handheld camcorder

watts power and provides similar
light output to a 300 watt open face
redhead. Powered from mains or
11 to 17 volts direct current, the
PhotonBeam 80 can operate on
standard V or Gold mount camera
batteries.

Sony A7S camera can
output 4K video

Sony launched the PXW-X180
handheld camcorder, designed for
broadcast and professional video
production applications. It has
three 1/3 inch HD CMOS sensors
and a newly
developed 25x
zoom lens with
26 millmetre
wide angle.
T
h
e
PXW-X180
records
in
MPEG HD422
at 50 megabits
per second,
X AV C I n t r a
and Long GOP
to solid-state

Sim Larn (Photon Beard) with PhotonBeam 80 LED luminare CONTINUED
ON PAGE 26

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