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The new Carbonite Black Solo switcher from Ross Video comes in three different form factors with prices starting at under $5,000.
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The NAB Show has an outdated name. Calling it the National Association of Broadcasters Show conjures up the perception of radio and television stations as being the primary target market. That may have been the case 30-plus years ago, but no more. Yet instead of renaming the show, which would be a huge mistake (it's one of the largest and most successful convention/tradeshows in the United States), the organization has correctly positioned the event with the new tag line, “Where content comes to life.”
That's right, NAB is all about content creation and distribution, whether it be over-the-air broadcast, cable, satellite, closed circuit, Internet, or, in the case of many churches, content created for playback to a live audience. Filmmaking, if you will.
It's a huge, dynamic show with almost 1,800 exhibitors spread out over a million square feet of exhibit space. Held each April at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the NAB Show attracts well over 100,000 attendees.
For the church tech, it's enough to put you into “overload.” Some of the booths are so huge … well, put it this way, one exhibitor told us they pay over $20,000 just to have the carpets vacuumed. With nearly 1,800 separate tradeshow booths, some of them bigger than a basketball court, you can imagine how many products were on display.
Church Production staffers were on site for six days and attended over 200 press conferences, booth appointments or business meetings. It's an exhausting but inspiring event. The innovation in the products on display is truly awe-inspiring.
We asked our staff, writers (we had several at the event) and subscribers (dozens stopped by our booth) to tell us about products that caught their attention. While the list of possibilities was quite long, we've distilled it down to, in alphabetical order, the Top Five Products for Churches from NAB 2016.
AJA Helo Streaming and Recording Interface
With 3G-SDI and HDMI inputs, the new Helo from AJA allows users to simultaneously stream H.264 content to a delivery network while recording either to an SD card, USB drives, or network-based storage using designated record and stream buttons ideal for volunteer church techs. It also comes with dual RCA jacks for audio monitoring and an additional USB port for IP address configuration and firmware updates via the online UI. To top it off, it's reasonably priced at $1,295 List.
Datavideo KMU-100 4K Multi-camera Unit
We've seen demonstrations of pulling HD “windows” from 4K camera feeds for the sports video market at NAB for several years, but this is the first product that we're aware of that affordably applies the concept for the church market. Using Datavideo's new KMU-100 4K Multi-camera Unit users can pan, tilt and zoom to pull four 1080p “windows” from a single 4K camera signal. Each smaller full HD signal can be sent to any HD-SDI switcher. It gives the illusion of a multi-camera production, when in reality there's just one 4K camera. Additional 4K cameras can be connected to allow up to eight defined outputs from the two 4K signals.
Ross Video Carbonite Black Solo Switcher
One person who stopped by the Church Production booth said, “I could start a video production company with a couple cameras and a new Carbonite Black Solo switcher.” The new unit from Ross Video introduced at NAB 2016 is truly remarkable. Three separate configurations (see below) each offer six SD/HD-SDI connections and three
HDMI inputs and five SDI and one HDMI output. All are completely assignable.
The new Black Solo features six floating frame synchronizers with format converters that can be assigned to any input. It also features four, full-featured keyers, a transition keyer for DVE and media wipes, and two UltraChrome chroma keyers. And if that's not enough, Ross Video is throwing in a copy of the company's Xpression Live CG software for creating static graphics, including lower-thirds.
The single-rack unit with a software/tablet-based interface will sell for $4,995. An all-in-one I/O, processing and control surface version will be available for $7,995. Pricing for a third configuration with a separate rack-mounted I/O frame and control surface has yet to be announced.
SAM Kula Live Production Switcher
In an effort to capitalize on the success of the renowned Snell Kahuna series video switchers, SAM (recently formed by the merger of Snell and Quantel) introduces the new, more affordable Kula line of multi-format (SD, HD and 4K) live production switchers. The new Kula models offer a choice of three different sized control panels, single and dual M/E versions with up to five key layers per M/E, 20 channels of DVE and up to 36 inputs and 18 assignable outputs. Besides a boatload of features, a $17,000 switcher with the Snell name attached is certainly worth paying attention to.
Tiger Technologies Project Serve Content Management and Storage
No church gets very far into content creation without realizing the importance of content management and storage. At NAB 2016, Tiger Technologies introduced a new system called Project Serve that offers churches a reasonably affordable, easy-to-use, full-featured storage solution. Project Serve is a cross-application and cross-platform system that works with Mac, Windows and Linux computers. Simply connect it to an NAS (network attached storage) and the Workflow Manager transforms it into a complete shared-storage, managed-workflow system for digital production environments of all scopes and sizes.
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