The most ambitious on-site TV coverage ever attempted of an NAB show got underway here this week with a few relatively minor technical glitches (such as a faulty fiber optic line between exhibit halls). Yet overall, it’s coming off so far as a rather impressive project that would make most local broadcasters proud--especially for a working HD station that was assembled in a far corner of an exhibit hall (Central Hall, if you’re reading this in Vegas) in barely four days.
The daily programming is being fed to LG monitors (which appear to be both HD and SD) throughout the LVCC.
This year’s station, known as NAB-HD, which premiered in a somewhat more modest form at last year’s show, includes a control room, a transmission center, and a fully dressed studio set. Most impressive, perhaps, is the fact that it’s running all-original programming--much if it live--from 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, when a taped version of the day’s schedule is featured in about 75,000 hotel rooms across Las Vegas.
This week’s production also features a roving helicopter hovering high above the convention center that’s providing live reports in HD. The project again is being run by industry veteran Nigel Spratling, with input and advice, as well as a lot of dedicated state-of-the-art hardware/software on loan from more than two dozen companies.
