NAB 2008

NABwebThis year between 14 – 17 April, saw the latest instalment of the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show. With over 1600 exhibitors, the show is the sounding board for all new, emerging, tried and proven technologies for the broadcast industry.

The NAB (www.nab.org) is a trade association located in Washington, D.C. that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts.

The main theme of this year's show was the phasing out of analogue TV. The impending switch off date in the US is 17 February, 2009 (2013 in Australia) where digital TV will be the only medium available for both pay TV and Free to Air broadcasting. The show also set out to showcase the advances in digital technology, content storage & management and trade tools necessary for today’s broadcasters.

My main focus at the show was to visit one of our suppliers – Clear-Com. Clear-Com have been one of the major manufacturers for production intercoms and Matrix communications for over 30 years, being famed as making the first mass produced wired party-line beltpack. Starting with some intense training for upgrading both the Eclipse and FreeSpeak components, I moved onto the show bright and early Monday morning spending my day with the Clear-Com AE’s and product managers getting intimate with their latest product releases. The next day after a meeting with Clear-Com, I had a chance to walk around the mammoth trade show floor and have a look at some emerging technologies.

Two major releases on show for Clear-Com was the new IP based communications solution Concert, and the latest release of the powerful Eclipse Configuration Software (ECS).

Concert is an IP based conferencing system with the ability to scale into the 000’s of users. Utilising standard computer hardware and network infrastructure this low latency, highly secure (AES 128 bit) conferencing software does not dramatically strain your existing IT network. Features like ad hoc calling, text messaging, presence indicators and whisper channels during conferencing will make this product a unique solution for both business, broadcast and production communication needs.

ECS 5.0 (which we are currently one of the proud beta testers) brings a multitude of feature upgrades. With the implementation of the online panel key assignment and IFB source to destination routing without resets, E1/T1 trunk routing between matricies over a telecom network and an offline /online internal audio DSP mixer for the new V series panel, ECS 5.0 promises to be a giant leap forward for Eclipse matrix users.

Other exciting releases include, the AES-6 interface cards on RJ45 and Coax, plus a new release of the FreeSpeak software, filled with advanced new features which will see this product become more and more the tool of choice for wireless communications users.

Clear-Com is definitely a power house when it comes to communication solutions. They have pushed their products for both production and broadcast into the future with these releases. The NAB trade show is a must see for any broadcast company looking for new and inventive products to ensure their company will remain viable in digital future.

Mitchell Lockyer-Lane
Audio Systems Specialist - Technical Resource Group.