TV TECHNOLOGY: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2017 NAB Show?
SHAWN MAYNARD:I believe we are beginning to see IP connectivity for video workflow taking a significant leap. We have reached early adopter stage and are moving quickly into early majority for ST-2022-6 in the production space. This is really exciting and opens up a plethora of possibilities. The most exciting transition as we enter the innovator stage for ST-2110 for a more comprehensive playout format. This is truly a game changer. Lastly, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the possibilities being explored in virtualization and cloud computing utilization. Truly exciting times.
TVT: What will be your most important product news?
MAYNARD:Acuitas is our integrated playout platform and has been hugely successful for us. We continue to expand our offerings for our customers to take advantage of more flexible playout options. I believe we will be in a hybrid SDI/IP world for several years within a content creator’s facility so we will continue to have our off-the-shelf solution that uses IT industry servers (HPE) with hardware codecs (Matrox) for those who want handles on their environment. For those growing and experimenting in the cloud computing space, whether private or secured public, we also will be showing a virtualized solution as well.
Of course, we also continue to expand our Smart Central suite of tools which allows users to interact with their automation, inventory and playout ecosystem from any PC through a webserver. These tools offer nearly unlimited flexibility for how to manage their on-air environment. Really cool stuff.
TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
MAYNARD:I love what we can do in software these days. It’s a lot of fun. As a broadcaster I am just amazed by our capabilities and our offerings for the industry. I ran a hub operation for a network stations group back in the day and I could only dream about what we are doing on a daily basis. That’s really saying something because we were innovators and risk-takers in our space. What distinguishes Florical’s offerings is that our solutions work and are not marketing hype. We are very transparent and honest about what is possible today and that sets us apart. We can do what others only talk about. Since we are innovators at heart we also invite our partners, which are our customers, to dream alongside us. We dare to whiteboard and create the impossible. We have a great team of engineers that make miracles happen. If we say it will work you can take that to the bank. We hang our reputation on it.
TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
MAYNARD:No doubt NAB Show is the show for the broadcaster. Over time this may change. We are quickly moving into a commodity and IT industry standards era, which will shift which shows will be important for the content creators. But at this time NAB is still the sweetest place to be to see the latest and greatest in our space.
