Deborah McAdams is the Executive Editor of TV Technology.
LAS VEGAS: Presenting my predictions for the NAB Show this year: Betty White will draw the biggest crowd the Barron Room has ever held. The woman has single-handedly out-cooled the hybrid-driving Internet entrepreneur set with amazingly graceful longevity and a catalog of deft one-liners. She will undoubtedly say very nice things about the industry upon which she has built a 60-year career and through which she met her beloved husband Allen Ludden.
Nice get, NAB.
FCC chief Julius Genachowski will deliver a "view from the top" the day before Betty's breakfast because having him follow her would be just cruel. Genachowski will assure broadcasters that broadcasting will be preserved before launching into a lengthy, fervent testimonial about wireless broadband saving the world. He will also give a shout-out to community radio even as the commission considers pulling the plug on 10-watt licenses.
Radio pirates will stage a reactive broadcast from an undisclosed location that turns out to be the ballroom where 1,000 ham radio operators converge every year for cocktails. Fisticuffs in the form of a spirited debate about third-order intermodulation interference will ensue.
Back over in the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton), TV station executives will walk out of affiliate meetings frustrated.
On the show floor, NHK will demonstrate interactive holography, 32K resolution and a fully functioning tractor beam. On a chip.
There will not be nearly as many 3D displays on the floor to the great relief of millions of ocular motor neurons. 4K will be the new 3D.
There will be news drones, and not just those little helicopters. And someone will have reduced the live news backpack down to a holster and smartglasses.
And finally, a personal forecast—I attended my first NAB Show in four-inch spike heels. I predict this will never occur again during this or any other lunar calendar.
Enjoy the show!
