from Debby Rogers, Executive Director / CEO of Falmouth Community Television (FCTV)
Having just attended my first NAB, I was asked to share my experience with our ACM members.
Many people who know me were shocked that i had never attended NAB and now having been, I have to say I am somewhat surprised myself.
So why after 30 years in this industry did I decide to go and take my Director of Operations? Simple because we are looking to build a production van and really wanted to go to one place where we could see a wide variety of vehicles of differing prices in order to gather information on what we like, what we don’t like, what we can afford and what we could learn from others experiences.
We got all that and so much more.
Walking in I was fortunate to be with veteran attendees Keri Stokstad and Todd Thayer to what otherwise would have been an incredibly overwhelming experience. Three gargantuan halls were filled to capacity with equipment vendors (and rooms with workshops on the outskirts). It was quite simply a video – audio – techie geek paradise. What took me so long?
According to the NAB website – “With more than 93,000 Attendees from 156 countries and 1,550+ Exhibitors, NAB Show is the ultimate marketplace for digital media and entertainment” And it is. For three days I walked the North, Central and South (upper and lower) halls and outside exhibit areas looking at not just production vehicles but at cameras, servers, monitors, transmission equipment, lighting, cablecast equipment, switchers and more. I had numerous demos and learned so much.
Granted there are things for sale that we would not be able to afford or use but how cool to see and even if we never buy a drone and videotape high over Cape Cod, I sure saw many many things we could use such as the camera embedded in glasses with interchangeable lenses (clear – yellow and sunglass). I could imagine sitting in a meeting and record, pan and tilt just by moving my head or even cover a sporting event. So neat. I enjoyed the switcher demos, cablecasting demos, had the opportunity to try out a camera we were planning on purchasing and confirming that we had made the right choice, learned about upcoming products and spent many hours looking and sitting in production vehicles and talking with many people about battery and generator placement, flooring, walls, audio, manual vs electric lifts, lighting and all the details large and small that I needed to consider before going to my board with a final proposal.
I was also heartened in speaking with many of the vendors that they are aware of us in community television and want very much to work with us and attend our regional and national conferences. Best of all was the opportunity, to again meet up with peers in community media from across the country. Several of us shared a lunch together and learned about some nifty equipment being used with the kids at Access Humboldt (thank you to my new friend Juan Carrillo).
I was asked, would I attend again and was it worth it? I would unequivocally say yes and yes. It was not only my first time at NAB but my first time in Las Vegas. An interesting place to say the least but for me the value of the experience and lessons learned was worth the trip and I hope to be able to attend next year.
