The predictable technology winners at NAB 2016 were 4K and drones. However, I was a little surprised by the attention that was being paid to video over IP and HDR video. Many companies talked around or about these technologies, but standardizing them seems to be a bit of a hang up. The transition from SD to HD was recent enough and ugly enough that everyone still seems a little gun shy when it comes to creating the standards for these emerging technologies.
HDR
One of this hot topics on the show floor was High Dynamic Range (HDR) video. I personally find this very interesting, because as an amateur photographer, I enjoy taking HDR photos. With HDR photography you take multiple pictures at multiple exposures, then process them together in a way that gets the proper exposure information from the proper picture in all the right places. Really, it's all about keeping the data in the image useable and accurate even in the darkest blacks and whitest whites.
In video, the process is going to be similar to the photography process. Currently, many cameras shoot HDR, but once it's shot, the process and work flow for finishing is pretty much up in the air. Much like HD and more recently 4K, the issue with HDR revolves around standardization. HDR video is still the wild west, but I would expect standards to be codified in the near future.
What does this mean in the short run? Not much. Most of the conversation was focused around what would be possible. That said, if you like being on the cutting edge of imaging for content creation, your investments moving forward need to be HDR-compatible. Small HD, for example, released monitors that were capable of viewing HDR previews through their LUT engine, so they would be capable of viewing HDR images while they are being shot. Atomos announced all their monitor/recorder line is HDR-compatible thanks to their Atom HDR monitoring upgrade. I think this is going to be the technology to watch. On the show floor, I heard several times “HDR will be bigger then 4K” and I don't think anyone was talking about pixel count.
4K
Just when you think the market is totally saturated with 4K, you look at all the 4K products released in the last year and realize it's not. While the content is still not really there yet on the consumer side, all the manufacturers are offering it as an option. 4K made a strong showing at last year's NAB Show, and this year just proved that it isn't going anywhere just yet. Despite the fact that some mainstream companies have ventured in the realm of 8K, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Much like HDR, 4K is really a content creation technology. It's still a little way off from being mainstream in the live production side of things, but it is making progress. How far off? Well, Sony announced that Mosaic Church in Southern California has gone exclusively 4K for their live production. But while the Sony announcement tells us that 4K from glass to glass (camera lens to projector lens) in the church market is starting to happen, I think it's still a little on the bleeding edge.
However, many companies are really taking advantage of this larger imaging size being captured to pan and scan down to HD resolutions, giving lots of options on the capture side. For example, Ikegami released the UHK-430 4K at the show. Black Magic announced they are currently shipping the URSA mini 4.6K, and Atomos released their Shogun Inferno 4K recorder. So I don't think a standardization on 4K is as far off as I previously believed. In fact, it was mentioned that an unnamed big box store will no longer be carrying HD TV's in their stores, only 4K or better. The consumer side is almost ready for 4K and the professional side certainly has released enough products into the space, I think it's only a matter of time before the pressure gets applied to broadcasters.
DRONES
While it seemed like drones were all the rage last year, this year the drone pavilion was even larger. In fact, anyone in the front half of the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall had a hard time talking over the low roar of literally hundreds of drones. Several companies were highlighting their advances such as; quieter, larger payloads, and more stable flight. The big showoffs here were DJI, 3DR, and Yuneec. The real effect drones are having on the market, much like 4K, is in the content creation side. Since the price of the drones has come down so much, it's not out of the question for a post production crew in a small church to bring in the big budget-looking shots from a drone. However, I think the real advantage the drones are bringing is to the stabilization side of things. Many drone companies have gone on to offer their drone gimbal as stand-alones and drone compatible offerings. This is also driving down the the cost of stabilizers like the Freefly Movi M5, DJI Ronin, Yuneec Action Cam. All of these products do an incredible job of stabilizing the shots. Expect to see more on this technology coming to a creative services department near you.
VIDEO OVER IP
More companies are working on ways to get video over IP into a platform that has practical applications in the live event market. But like 4K and HDR, standardization on video over IP is a work in progress, with many of the larger manufacturers announcing cooperation with the AIMS (Alliance for IP Media Solutions) coalition and others mentioning an affinity for New Tek's NDI (Network Device Interface) open protocol.
Many companies were releasing cameras that could go straight to the web, like the Livestream MEVO, a 4K and video-over-IP offering. Broadcast Pix reminded everyone that they were an early adopter in this technology by releasing their BP Command Live Production Control Interface.
Again, like HDR, everyone is trying to figure out the best way to do video over IP. I predict it will have an even larger presence at NAB 2017.
PRICE
One of the more surprising things I saw this year was the price of many of the new products. With so many great companies releasing great new products, there has been a bit of a race to the bottom. Blackmagic Design has certainly been a driving factor and real force leading the way in the price war. However, this year more companies released products that were aiming for this lower price point. The great part is, most of them didn't compromise on the products themselves. For example, the aforementioned Livestream MEVO a 4K streaming product, at a sub $400 price. That is correct you could conceivably achieve multi-cam streaming productions for less then the cost of a GoPro. Small HD released their most competitively priced on-camera monitors with their 701lite. Ross Video released a sub $5,000 switcher with their new Carbonite Black Solo. Even SAM (Snell Advanced Media) famous for the high-end production switchers released a switcher product that will be competitive in church market with their new Kula. So in the race to the bottom it looks like the winner is the consumer. Great products at great prices are going to make it a buyers' market.
The good news about all the conversations on standards (4K, HDR and video over IP) is that hopefully the market will come up with a solid platform that we can be confident in the near future. Until then the details of how things are going to be working is still a little up in the air. One thing is certain, with all the changes, now is a great time to involved in the professional video industry. Especially because if you don't like what you see, just wait till the next NAB, chances are good we will be onto something else.
