It was great to be back at NAB Show last week, my first one back since the pandemic.
And it was busy! With official attendance figures of over 65,000 and 1,200 exhibitors, there was plenty to see on the show floor.
Going into the show, it seemed that everyone was talking about artificial intelligence, particularly the rise of generative AI and chatbots such as ChatGPT, but actually, in Vegas, not many vendors were talking about it. Maybe we’ll hear more in Amsterdam.
Talking of Amsterdam, at IBC last year I spent a lot of time discussing FAST. Not so at NAB. Is that because FAST has become standard and vendors feel that content owners have got to grips with the technology needed to launch their own FAST channels?
Cloud continues to dominate all discussions at trade shows. We’re still hearing lots of vendors and broadcasters using the word “hybrid” which to be honest they’ve been using since my first trade show in 2017. I don’t know if we’ll ever move completely to the cloud, but it does feel like more and more vendors are seeing the importance of offering technology within it. Just look at AWS’ stand (always one of the busiest) which included 63 partners and a further 25 on the show floor.
It was good to hear a few vendors discussing sustainability – a topic that I believe we need to be discussing much more. I hope that’s going to become more of a focus for NAB 2024.
I’m also intrigued by the adoption of apps by a number of vendors. This is something I’ve been talking about for a while. If the media tech industry wants to encourage the next generation into the industry then vendors need to be making tech that they understand, and they understand nothing more than an app on their mobile phone or tablet. They don’t want hardware with buttons, they want something they can control wherever they are and in a way that’s as easy as possible.
Overall, it was great to be back on the show floor catching up with industry colleagues. Roll on April 13-17, 2024!
