The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is having its annual trade show in Las Vegas this week. So far, there are108,232 registered attendees, up about 3% from last year. International attendees set a record of 26,824, up about 4% from 2006. I had never been to NAB before, but pretty much knew what to expect. 1) It is too big to see everything, don’t even think about trying. 2)There is everything there except displays. I was right about the first notion, but not the second.Q3.

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

There are plenty of displays at NAB, but none of the consumer television systems I am accustomed to seeing at trade shows like SID and the CES. At NAB, the displays are all professional displays and nothing for the consumer is on view.

The NAB is a trade association of broadcasters, i.e. radio and television stations. Many of the vendors are there to serve this market. For example, if you need a 2000′ transmitting tower, Richland Towers is there to discuss it with you. You need a Skycam? Talk to Bell Helicopters. But if you need a video transcoder to deliver video over IP and you have a killer business model to put broadcasters out of business, plenty of exhibitors at NAB will be happy to show you their product.

This is Display Daily, not Broadcaster Daily, so I better talk about displays. Certainly the most spectacular demonstration I saw was a pair of dual stacked Sony SXRD 10k projectors showing the NBA All-Star game in 3D. This was a replay of the video we discussed in Display Daily on February 14th. I can see why this first demonstration of live 3D sportscasting got rave reviews: the images were spectacular.

Another projector with a spectacular image was the Christie Roadie HD+30K projector. This 3-chip DLP projector with 2048 x 1080 resolution is the world’s brightest projector at 30,000 lumens, according to Christie. They had to turn it down to "only" about 18,000 lumens because their booth wasn’t big enough for a screen with a 30,000 lumen image. Note that while this projector has digital cinema resolution, this is not a "DCI Compliant" projector. In fact, it is a "portable" projector, intended for the rental and staging market. Christie also had its HD7Kc projector on display. This is primarily a professional projector that Christie says has been sold to some high-end home theater installations because of its "film-like" colors. Again, it isn’t DCI compliant, but it has a very good image with an expanded color gamut.

On a less grand scale, there were a number of companies displaying LCD monitors for production and post-production applications. I had discussed many of these companies previously in DD on January 24th. At the SMPTE meeting covered by that DD, the CRT reference monitor was from Sony but there was no Sony LCD monitor. They were on exhibit at NAB, however. Sony had their current line of Luma monitors, including a 42" one coming in the fall of 2007. List price is TBD, but don’t expect a bargain since the 23" monitor is about $25K.

The Luma series has conventional florescent backlights, but Sony also showed its new 23" Trimaster BVM-L230 monitor with an LED backlight. This monitor is also unpriced, but is expected to be in the same $25K range. It should ship in September, or maybe October. They also showed a mock-up of a 42" Trimaster LED monitor. I was told that (maybe) it would be at NAB 2008 as a working demonstration.

For more details on my visit to NAB 2007, including a discussion of studio monitors from Panasonic, frontNICHE and others, see the May issue of Projection Monthly with Flat Panel Coverage.