LAS VEGAS—TV Technology asked a cross-section of NAB Show-goers a series of five questions regarding what they considered the main themes, evidence of those, whether or not these initiatives will take hold, and what promising technologies from past NAB Shows did not see daylight. (A complete list of quotes from respondents and links to their full 5Qs is at “NAB 2016 in 21 Quotes.”)
Christy King, consultant:
Q1.How many NAB Shows have you attended?
C.K. About 10. I took a few years off in the early 2000s when NAB went through the phase where everyone pretended the Internet didn’t exist. Once everyone got over their fear of the series of tubes, NAB content became relevant to me again.
Q2.What, in your opinion, were the main themes of the show this year?
C.K. VR and drones, though I was more struck by the lack of themes this year. Last year, everybody was marketing “cloud everything.” The year before, everyone in South Hall was a MAM. This year, everyone seemed unintentionally focused on anti-vaporware: Promoting functionality that actually worked and existed today, rather than promising things that were “coming soon.”
Q3.What were some examples of these themes?
C.K. Every demo I saw specifically mentioned that their products/features were not “vaporware” and showed actual execution instead of “slides” from a Power Point.
Q4.Do you foresee any or all of these technologies or initiatives taking hold?
C.K. I think people who got burned by the 3D fantasy are struggling mightily to jump on the VR bandwagon. VR makes a ton of sense for specific applications: Training, gaming, tourism, real estate, but may not be so quick to invade theaters or our living rooms.
Q5.What technology that impressed you most at a past show didn’t see the light of day?
C.K. Surprised that there is still so much resistance to public cloud applications. Especially the security arguments strike me as odd, but maybe that’s because I don’t send embarrassing emails to my clients or co-workers?
