WASHINGTON—The 2016 Government Video Expo & National Drone Show flung open the doors to its exhibition floor at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and attendees streamed in to see the goodies. As expected, the Drone Show’s flying cage was a hot spot, as were the presentations at the Government Video Theater.
In particular, the kick-off session called “The Rise of the Drones” was standing-room only.
Miguel Enongene of the Costar Group tries on the Brother AirScouter, a head-worn video display for video shooting and drone operation.
Through the hall, people stopped at booths to learn more about and see a variety of products. One that stopped me in my tracks was the Brother AirScouter, a head-worn eyepiece reminiscent of a “Star Trek” Borg character. The AirScouter is a high-resolution monitor that you can connect to the HDMI port on a camera to allow you to hold the camera at unusual angles and still see the image. It can also be used to view live video from a drone… er, UAV.
Another head turner was the Alzo Smoothy Radius and Linear curved camera slider, an affordable product that quickly converts from a straight to a curved slider. If that’s not eye-catching enough, the Alzo Smoothy now has an available drive motor that moves a camera silently between two magnets that can be positioned anywhere on the slider. To call it all affordable is an understatement—five years ago, it would have been hard to imagine such a product at three times the price.
Stewart Lamb of Panasonic describes the features of the company’s AK-UC3000 4K camera to Amy Carter of St. Mary’s County Government Video.
There were lots of exhibitors with interested attendees at their booths. Amy Carter, a video specialist for St. Mary’s County in Maryland, spent several minutes at the Panasonic booth examining the AK-UC3000 4K camera. Although she said that St. Mary’s County is not ready to commit to an all 4K studio (Do you know any county that is?), it’s great to see what’s available, kick the tires and learn more.
“I’m here to look around and see what to dream about,” she said. “We’re a taxpayer-funded organization, so funds are always scarce, but you always have to be ready to think about the future.”
As for the GV Expo, Carter had been there only a short time but it had made an impression.
“I’m a little overwhelmed,” she said.
