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.”)
Pete Putman, president of ROAM Consulting:
Q1.How many NAB Shows have you attended?
P. P. This is No. 22, I think.
Q2.What, in your opinion, were the main themes of the show this year?
P. P. UHD, IP infrastructure, drones (they’ve already become annoying), advances in encoding (H.264, H.265), not so much display except for HDR and some WCG [high dynamic range and wide color gamut].
Q3.What were some examples of these themes?
P.P. Walk by the Fuji, Deluxe, and other booths and you see “4K! UHD!” plastered all over the signage. Hitachi and others showed HDR cameras. Lots of encoding demos with HDR. Probably the best encoding demo was Fraunhofer—Ultra HD with 10-bit HDR, 60 Hz, at 16 MB/s CBR. Samsung showed their tone-mapping HDR algorithm which they’ve submitted to NAB as a candidate for SMPTE 2094 and they’ll make it available royalty and license-free.
Q4.Do you foresee any or all of these technologies or initiatives taking hold?
P.P. Yep. I’d expect to see more H.265 hardware-based encoders and decoders come to market. Still costly to implement. Saw two nice 55-inch OLEDs for broadcast and monitoring applications. I expect to see more as LG Display ramps up production. (Tip: Keep an eye on Sony’s TV line next January.)
Q5.What technology that impressed you most at a past show didn’t see the light of day?
P.P. Can’t remember, but I’m sure there were a few. Probably Canon’s SED display, which still looks better than any OLED display. But legal issues, costs, and licensing problems killed it.
