NAB Show 2016 – What We Saw Trending
Among the world’s largest annual conventions, The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas is one of the most engaging, stimulating events you can imagine. Exhibit halls are packed with the newest products, and there is tremendous opportunity for productive conversations and networking with vendors and clients from around the world. The 2016 NAB Show was no exception. The event drew an estimated attendance of 103,000 people, featured 1,874 companies and spanned more than a million net square feet of exhibit space.
At Chesapeake Systems, we were excited to be in this sphere with vendors, clients, and even competitors, checking out the newest products and technologies.
We’d like to share a couple of emerging products and trends presented by the video and electronics industry that we think will be of genuine interest to consumers.
#1 Going Virtual
There is a real buzz around virtual reality. But to fully describe just how cool VR headsets really are, we’re going to take you far from the exhibit halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and instead plunge you 30-100 feet deep beneath the ocean’s surface. Here you’re going to swim with the world’s largest predators (sperm whales) that are the length of a school bus and communicate with a cracking sound that will vibrate your chest.
While real-life free divers are actually making this journey into the depths of the ocean to study the clicking communication of sperm whales, which make the loudest animal sounds on the planet, it is the consumer who can experience “The Click Effect,” thanks to the latest innovations in virtual reality technology.
“There is this 360-degree video, or what I like to call immersive video, where you set a camera down, but really it might be made of six to 12 cameras pointing in different directions,” said Nick Gold, Chief Revenue Officer and Solutions Consultant for Chesapeake Systems. “Because of the angles of the cameras in the 360-degree rig, you can now turn your head in all directions and feel as though you’re in the video as opposed to watching it through a tiny window. That’s huge.”
The New York Times has created a VR app that lets consumers dive underwater to swim with sperm whales, which happen to have the largest brains ever known – about six times the size of the human brain.
“If you slide your iPhone in Google Cardboard viewers, you’ll feel like you’re in the middle of the flipping ocean with these whales that are supposed to be vicious and predatory and are instead getting along marvelously with these divers,” Gold said. “It just goes so beyond watching it on a screen — it’s difficult to even put into words.”
To learn more about “The Click Effect,” and to try out the New York Times’ app, click here.
#2 Drone On
“The energy around drones has really been building, and this year it hit its stride,” Gold said. “Camera operators are having to learn to be pilots, and there is a lot taking place in the legal realm that will make it easier for companies to use the devices for commercial purposes.”
Drones are rapidly becoming advanced and more affordable. You can even map out routes on your iPhone where you would like the drone to fly. And, drone manufacturers are also starting to look at the possibilities involving the 360-degree video experience.
“It blows my mind how quickly that has started to mature, and we’re still in the early days of it,” Gold noted. “It’s some amazing stuff.”
We left the NAB Show feeling there are real, exciting and genuinely novel advanced technologies that are really allowing us to do compelling new things. And people are very excited about it. At Chesapeake Systems, we look forward to re-initiating our Podcast, “The Workflow Show,” to talk about these innovations and trends and how we can help our clients stay ahead of the curve. Visit our recently redesigned website, chesa.com to follow our podcast, our blog and to sign up for our e-newsletter.
