Advanced Interactive Media/Other Topics/The NAB Experience

The NAB Experience
Here is a place where students can comment on the NAB experience they had in the Spring of 2007.

Jonathan's Reflections
Well, I have had a few days to think about and process all of the amazing content we as a class got to experience at the NAB conference in Las Vegas. It was in one word, breathtaking. As you walked into the doors of the conference, it was a smack in the face of all media companies, tools, systems, and software that you could imagine. If there was one word that could describe the goal of many of the companies there it would be integration. Everything was adaptable to different software and worked parallel with that software. It was almost overwhelming. Much of the innovations started in the software category. Something quite amazing was a new plug in for the Final Cut Studio 3 called color. It made color correction a thing of the past, now you can virtually paint on your work and make it crisp and clear. As far as equipment goes, the newest and well simply worldchanging piece of equipment was the Red Camera. It records digital footage in 4k lines of resolution. And the most impressive thing about it is its price. starting at under $20,000, it's affordable! Peter Jackson shot a short film with it; using it only for 2 days of shooting. I had the opportunity to view the film, and the picture quality is the best I have ever seen. Another important aspect of the camera is the digitizing stage. Recording in what they call Raw Red. The compression for the footage is remarkable. I got to see the newest technologies and experience something that I will never forget. I am definitely going back.

Alyssa's Reflections
The NAB is a multi-media experience like nothing else in the world. It is where all the best in the business get together for one week and show their latest and greatest technologies. I was amazed at all the knowledge in one place. The learning experience is unlike anything I could have ever got in school. I learned more in four days than I could of in four weeks of class at school. I went from booth to booth talking to the experts about their specialty in multi-media. My favorite booth was the Adobe booth. One Adobe design expert took 45 minutes and showed me how all their new Adobe suite CS3 is all integrated together. He explained it in such an easy fashion, I learned stuff about programs that I even have on my computer, which I never knew about. Even when I went to a booth about surge protectors, the guy that worked there explained to me why surge protectors are needed and how they work. The people at the booths, for the most part, were so nice and explained their equipment very thoroughly. On Tuesday for lunch we shared a table with two guys from the Panasonic booths and they shared with us what they did. One of the guys was an independent film producer from LA and the other was a commercial producer from Phoenix. Where else do you get to sit down and talk with film producers from LA, then the NAB? On Wednesday for lunch we sat with three guys that run their own equipment rental company out of Atlanta, and they shared with us some of their expertise. So, despite the horrible perversion that Las Vegas represents, the show itself was a very worthwhile experience. I learned so much about multi-media and got to meet so many cool people.