As the media and entertainment industry meets again in Las Vegas, NAB Show kicks off the beginning of its second century. Organizers describe an agenda suited to the individual needs of tens of thousands of broadcasters, filmmakers, content creators and others from around the world who are looking for answers in a marketplace transformed by the internet and cloud technology. 

“At the 2024 NAB Show we, as an industry, have the opportunity to set the tone for the next 100 years,” said Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director of NAB Global Connections and Events. “It’s an exciting time to see technology reach a point where truly extraordinary advances are possible — in how content is produced, distributed and consumed.”

Attendees at the show are being greeted by a Las Vegas Convention Center in the middle of a $600 million renovation. For this year’s show, the North Hall is closed for its facelift.

“NAB Show is dedicated to providing a seamless and exciting experience for all attendees during the North Hall renovation,” said Brown. “When South Hall was closed in 2023, we adapted and even grew the show. This year we are approaching our plans with the same mentality.”

The Vegas Loop can be used for fast and convenient transportation between halls. “The system offers quick and efficient movement underground across the LVCC campus with stops that connect the West Hall to the front of the Central Hall, and from there, it is a quick walk to South,” he said. Golf cart transportation is also being offered to make trips between Central and South Halls more convenient. 

The Zones are back on the show floor as a place for interactive discovery, learning and networking. They are curated around each of the three major pillars Create, Connect and Capitalize. Brown said the Community Zones provide insight into the major tech and content workflow trends within each pillar to help attendees connect with relevant exhibitors and products.

“These are must-see stops for every attendee to engage in a planned activity or just drop in to see what’s happening,” said Brown. The Connect and Capitalize Zones are located in West Hall; the Create Zone is in South Hall. 

The latest trends, technology and techniques for the M&E industry are front and center at NAB Show. “Our agenda is shaped to ensure there are answers, or at least very good clues, to help everyone sort out the challenges and opportunities they face daily,” said Brown.

Of course, it is impossible to talk about trends without focusing on artificial intelligence and, in particular, generative AI. There are more than 120 sessions and 130 exhibitors at the show featuring AI. Industry heavyweights will be on the Main Stage discussing “AI in Media and Entertainment,” as well as speaking at dozens of exciting sessions including “AI in the Newsroom: The Good, the Bad, and What’s Ahead for the Industry,” “Convergence of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Broadcasting” and “AI Strategies for Sales, Marketing and Operations.”

One new activation featuring AI is a demonstration developed in partnership with Microsoft. In the Capitalize Zone, through a partnership that leverages Microsoft’s technologies, show attendees can immerse themselves in new details, trivia, interactive quizzes and personalized insights from beloved, television shows, transforming the viewing process into a competitive interactive space. 

Brown said, “Leveraging AI and machine-learning algorithms, the platform can analyze users’ past behavior to predict what content and challenges might interest them, creating a truly personalized viewing experience.”

Consumer consumption habits are driving everything from production to business models. As FAST channels have proliferated, so has the move to ad-supported tiers and new bundles. The economics have driven up subscription fees. 

“As all of this takes shape, it is hard not to see how it is all coming back to a relatively familiar monthly price point for the average viewer or family,” Brown said. “The good news is it is driving more choice, and, while there has been some dampening — due to the strikes, and those same economics — there is more content. Across the entire television, film and video landscape there is evermore video-centric content being created.” 

The internet and related advances in production tools have made high-quality content creation something much more attainable for all. Nowhere has this trend manifested itself with more impact than in the Content Creator space, Brown said. 

Copyright NAB 2024.

LAS VEGAS—Year one of the NAB Show’s second century is shaping up to be a window on a future that broadcasters will be able to imagine a little more confidently than in recent years.

“As an industry, we have the opportunity to set the tone for the next 100 years,” says Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director of NAB Global Connections and Events. “It’s an exciting time to see technology reach a point where truly extraordinary advances are possible—in how content is produced, distributed and consumed.”

‘Foundation of Optimism’
For TV stations and their network affiliates, putting these technologies to work across OTA, MVPD, CTV, and streaming outlets to keep audiences engaged while preserving the primacy of broadcast’s role in serving the public is the priority, abetted by new avenues to lowering costs across legacy as well as next-generation operations. While broadcasters­—like other segments of the M&E industry—are dealing with serious “headwinds,” as Brown puts it, unlike recent events in the Covid and post-pandemic era, this year’s show is built on a “foundation of optimism with improving macroeconomic conditions.”

(Note: Brown is being succeeded this year by Karen Chupka, former executive vice president of CES and CTA chief strategy officer) 

Along with highlighting an unprecedented confluence of advanced technologies that have simultaneously reached commercial viability for the entire M&E industry, the 2024 show—April 14-17 in Las Vegas—will feature an expanded agenda specifically tuned to broadcasters’ interests. 

For example, there will be “roughly double” the number of sessions in the annual Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) conference NAB jointly sponsors with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and a return to providing the off-floor “Broadcast District,” in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center which was introduced last year as a focal point for networking and learning that Brown says worked “spectacularly well.”

Standing Out from the Crowd
The upheaval in the streaming market, driven by consolidation and the popularity of ad-supported and FAST services, is forcing companies to distinguish themselves in an increasingly crowded market.

“There’s a lot happening,” says Rick Ducey, managing director at local advertising consultancy BIA Advisory Services. “Everybody is trying to be creative and trying to find the space where they can have that differentiator against the competition.” 

It’s an audience retention and building agenda that’s essential to driving ad revenue. While the explosion in ad-supported OTT services is squeezing the local TV ad take, “we still see it growing,” Ducey says. “All the TV groups have streaming plays and digital plays.”

A major factor shaping the future of TV advertising is broadcasters’ growing reliance on programmatic technology in conjunction with various modes of targeted ad placements streamed to connected TVs (CTVs), which, as Ducey says, are now “the runaway hit in advertising generally.” 

TV groups’ efforts to maintain growth momentum is “really more about product expansion, and that means distribution of the current content and even producing additional content for things like the FAST CTV services they’re managing under their own brands or distributing through other platforms.”

Focus on NextGen TV
And then there’s the looming business expansion opportunity embodied in the launch of ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”). Attention devoted to the advanced broadcast standard will be more pervasive than ever at this show. 

“ATSC 3.0 is becoming more and more of a mainstream technology in the broadcast industry and hence also at the NAB Show,” Brown says. “With broadcast transmissions available in markets covering 75% plus of the U.S. population, vendors are pretty much all integrating ATSC 3.0 into their commercial product lines. So the technology will be widespread on the exhibit floor.”

Once again the Advanced Television Systems Committee will be in the West Hall showcasing current and future applications of ATSC 3.0 technology, consumer receivers and set-top boxes, as well as highlighting ATSC 3.0 applications and services outside the U.S. ATSC 3.0 topics will also be addressed during the four-day BEIT Conference.  

No station owner has been more aggressive about driving NextGen TV to market than Sinclair Broadcast Group. Achieving 75% coverage demonstrates ATSC 3.0 is now “on the map,” says Del Parks, Sinclair Broadcast Group president of technology. “That’s kind of a prelude to the next step,” which is “when can we sunset 1.0? That’s the real question.”

Sinclair and its station group allies in tandem with the NAB-led Future of Television task force are pressing hard for cooperation from CE manufacturers and retail dealers not only to create and market 3.0 TVs, media player dongles, and set-top boxes, but to let the public know what’s in store for viewers. That means 3.0 OTA channels now up and running have to deliver “better experiences and additional features,” Parks says. 

Toward that end, one of the strategies Sinclair is pursuing involves utilizing Technicolor’s Advanced HDR platform based on the Single Layer (SL) HDR standard to convert their SDR-formatted programming to HDR for viewing on SL-HDR-compatible TV sets. While SL-HDR 1 is way behind the other leading HDR formats in garnering support from TV OEMs, Sinclair isn’t alone moving in this direction, Parks says. “I believe there are other station groups adopting it,” he notes without naming them. 

Parks says he’s “really optimistic” about the outlook for NextGen TV. Along with delivering HDR and 4K, “there’s a laundry list of experiences we can deliver to the consumer,” including “enhanced sound, advanced emergency information, HTML overlays that consumers can select or we can pop up.” 

Public broadcasters, too, want to get ATSC 3.0 off the ground, but they have a tougher row to hoe than the commercial stations, says Nebraska Public Media CTO Ling Ling Sun. Noting the successes of commercial lighthouse alignments, she says, “We haven’t been able to be part of that. However, we are upgrading our system to be ready to broadcast in 3.0.”

NPM is testing audience responses to potential 3.0-enabled features with an app supporting service enhancements and 4K HDR delivery over its internet feed. And there’s also a possibility of aligning its Omaha transmitter in a lighthouse arrangement with Iowa PBS.

Content Creators
As always, production and postproduction will be a primary topic at the NAB Show with a focus on cutting-edge technology supporting cost-saving efficiency and content innovation. “The internet and related advances in production tools have made high-quality content creation, at or near professional levels, something much more attainable for all,” Brown says. 

Points of coverage at the Post|Production World Conference and show floor will include production virtualization, cloud-based and remote production and “an overall shift from hardware-based to software-based infrastructure,” he adds. “Of note, we will have a unique demonstration of a cloud-based workflow in the ‘Connect Zone’ in the West Hall, produced in partnership with Diversified. We will also be featuring an AWS News Studio in the West Hall lobby using a cloud-based workflow.” 

The show will provide much-needed help for producers unsure of how far to go in putting these new technologies to use, says Dave Van Hoy, president of the Advanced Systems Group (ASG) consultancy. “One of the big challenges today is there are so many options in ways to approach production, it takes a lot of sorting out to find the right way, not only for each client but each production that client does,” he says. For example, “there’s a lot of talk around in-cloud tools,” he notes. But before assuming going to public cloud-based workflows is a slam dunk, producers “have to decide what the goal is.” 

Generally speaking, “It’s pretty unclear that using public cloud technology actually saves you money over a period of time,” he says. “If you’re an ongoing operator with egress and ingress costs, I’m not sure [the public cloud] is less expensive” unless the goal is to save money by supporting remote collaboration.

In any event, Van Hoy adds, the major benefit resulting from reliance on cloud-based workflows is “it allows you to be more nimble by quite a bit.” Coming to this year’s NAB Show, ASG customers are looking at how to accommodate “more software-defined productions, even in on-premises hardware like software-defined switchers and routers, so they can be agile at the least possible costs.”

Another production-related topic which the NAB Show will again shine a light on is the question of whether to apply SMPTE ST 2110 techniques to move out of SDI to IP-based workflows. While the cost-saving case for doing so in many instances “is a no brainer,” there’s still a lot of hesitation in the marketplace, Van Hoy says. 

However, in the case of virtual production technology and the use of LED walls, while adoption isn’t universal, the benefits are well understood with usage growing “up and down the chain” from broadcast news operations to big productions, Van Hoy says. Even producers who don’t yet have the in-house skillsets to use the technology want “to make sure they’re prepared with power and lighting laid out to where that infrastructure can be added as an option,” he adds.

Broadcasters will also have an opportunity for in-depth exploration of AI’s ramifications for their businesses. “This trend is important and pervasive enough that we are creating a Guide to AI that will point to the programs and exhibitors that focus on some aspect of AI,” Brown says. 

To register for the show, visit www.nabshow.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced that trade show veteran Karen Chupka will succeed Chris Brown as managing director and executive vice president, Global Connections and Events, effective January 1, 2024. 

Brown announced in July that he is transitioning out of NAB following the 2024 NAB Show, after 25 years of service to the organization.

Chupka comes to NAB after more than three decades of leadership experience with the Consumer Technology Association, including executive vice president of CES and chief strategy officer. 

In her new role at NAB, Chupka will set the strategy, manage the business and oversee the people that produce NAB Show, NAB Show New York and NAB Amplify, an online community of innovators and content creators.

"The future of NAB Show is bright with Karen at the helm and we are thrilled to welcome her to the NAB team," said NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. "With her long track record of exemplary leadership managing and growing one of the largest trade shows in the world, NAB Show exhibitors and attendees will be well-served by her unparalleled expertise and experience. As the NAB Show continues to grow, we look forward to the extraordinary experiences Karen and her team will create for our community.”

"I also want to again thank Chris Brown for his more than two decades of service to NAB. His leadership has been critical to the growth and success of NAB Show,” he continued. “I am grateful for his many years of dedicated service and his role in shepherding a smooth transition."

"I am excited to step into this role and work alongside the incredible team at NAB to produce the premier trade show serving the media and entertainment industry," said Chupka. "NAB Show is a widely respected and unrivaled marketplace of innovative products, services and ideas that are driving the future of the media industry. I look forward to leveraging our collective expertise and passion to continue to provide a remarkable experience for our exhibitors, attendees and partners."

LAS VEGAS—Both the tough struggles and fortuitous pathways forged by the disruptions of the last three years have resulted in a revamped and refreshed media industry eager to capitalize on what’s next at the upcoming 2023 NAB Show, April 15-19.

While familiar players and familiar themes will certainly be on hand when the show kicks off on April 15 (exhibit floor opens April 16), in Las Vegas—marking 100 years since the first NAB show in 1923—the show continues to mirror the shakeup of the entire industry, from decentralized production to the boom in streaming to a renewed focus on unique forms of content. 

Transformation of Priorities
For broadcasters, that means a transformation of priorities across all levels of business operations—be that automation, data-driven personalization or cloud-based workflows—each designed to improve operations by reducing media chain costs from both linear and digital distribution chains.  

NAB has revamped the show by building it around a set of curated content pillars—Create, Connect and Capitalize—which Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president of conventions and business operations, said not only reflects how the industry works but better makes it easier for every attendee to navigate the show and find what is relevant to them. A fourth destination, called Intelligent Content, represents an emerging side of the business and includes data and the enormous influence it has across the content lifecycle, he said.

This year, that approach will be refined by shuffling around locations so that categories are linked and expanding the show’s set of Experiential Zones, which are intended to be focal points for each major area within the show. The goal, Brown said, is to help visitors understand what they should be looking at within each pillar. “The zones provide this focus by examining the pillars from three perspectives—one for inspiration, one for innovation and one focused on implementation,” Brown said.

As a home base, these are areas where attendees can take in free learning sessions, see technology briefings and demonstrations, meet with startups and network both informally and more formally with a series of open, peer-to-peer roundtables. The NABiQ program will also return; this hackathon concept introduced last year brings visitors together in teams to tackle shared problems or develop new product ideas. 

 Also new is the “Broadcast District” in the West Hall that will include educational sessions, networking and special events focused on radio and TV broadcasters. At this centralized location, “TV and radio broadcasters will receive tangible takeaways to help them generate revenue, streamline expenses and innovate while getting insights into what’s next for their business through a tailored experience designed to meet their needs,” said April Carty-Sipp, NAB executive vice president of industry affairs.

Big Themes
For the broadcast industry, one of the biggest stories at the show will be NextGen TV. There are viable business opportunities that come hand in hand with the shutdown of ATSC 1.0, said Del Parks, president of technology for Sinclair Broadcast. “If the industry can set and stick to a deadline, that will help accelerate the adoption of NextGen TV across the U.S. and allow local broadcasters and viewers to begin to take advantage of the power of NextGen TV,” Parks said. 

“TV broadcast stations and groups deserve a lot of credit for the degree of cooperation on the roll out efforts,” he said, noting that at the end of Q1 of 2023, 61 percent of the total U.S. households in 69 DMAs will have access to an over-the-air NextGen TV signal. 

Others believe there is much more work to be done on the consumer side. “Is there even consumer awareness of NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0?” asked Josh Stinehour, principal analyst of Devoncroft Partners, which will hold an industry summit during the show. “The measure of a new consumer service is consumer adoption.” In Steinhour’s opinion, the business and marketing side of the broadcast industry has “let down” the engineering-side of the sector.

Another Key Focus: The Future of Streaming
Some believe that bubble popped in 2022 and will never reinflate. “Cheap money, M&A and an irrational exuberance for streaming covered up the concerning economic trend in media organizations,” Stinehour said. “With recent increased regulatory scrutiny, M&A is largely a relic of the past in the media industry, and money is much less abundant than the heady days of 2020 and 2021.”

The gold rush days of streaming are behind us. “A gold rush is the correct analogy because there really wasn’t much gold,” Stinehour said. “Where fortunes were made, the primary basis was selling picks and shovels to the dreamers or selling the dream to a bigger fool. The same observations pertain to the history of streaming.

“Notwithstanding, it is a multi-platform world going-forward,” he said. “We as an industry need to figure out how to make the new economics work because, as of early 2023, they do not.”

Others see streaming platforms as the media industry’s present and future. “We are in the business of providing news and entertainment content to our viewers on whatever platform they wish to view us on, and we have the distribution rights,” Parks said. 

NAB’s Brown said that while there has certainly been some shake out, as you would expect with any emerging side of the industry, there is still plenty of activity in the space and plenty of need to continue a dialogue around everything from business models to content development to user and tech interface, including the Streaming Summit conference, on-floor engagement at the Streaming Experience and interest in the FAST free streaming channel trend and its impact on the overall streaming and wider broadcast industry. According to Brown, there are now more than 1,500 FAST channels in the U.S., with one research company reporting that FAST channel revenues are expected to reach $12 billion in 2027. 

Cloud and Virtualization
Another key sector to be explored at the show: virtualization and the cloud. “I believe virtualization generally, and cloud specifically, are the salvation of the media technology sector,” Stinehour said. “The transition is fundamental and is a once-in-a-career, second bite at the apple to correct the business models of market participants.”

“On the production and post production side, virtualization and remote production tools continue to drive new dynamics, as do advances in VFX technology via game engine technology and exciting tools like ‘volumetric’ displays,” Brown said. This year the show will also introduce a virtual production studio on wheels, called "the MagicBox," in the Create Inspiration Zone.  

Other technologies to look out for: 5G, Artificial Intelligence, data-driven personalization, workflow automation software and virtualization.

“In my estimation, the most significant disruption of the next decade is going to happen in content creation,” Stinehour said. “I am all-in on virtual production (LED volumes). The early business returns are breathtaking.” 

Above all, the NAB said it was focused on creating a vibrant marketplace as well as programs and services that deliver substantial direct value to our community. 

“This centennial year is more important than ever as it provides the perfect opportunity to celebrate how far we’ve come as an industry but more importantly where we are headed,” said the NAB’s Brown. “Think about how far the industry has come in that time, from a strictly audio medium to the introduction of moving images to the dawn of film, TV, cable, satellite, streaming—and all the amazing technology that has driven those incredible advances.  NAB Show has both been a reflection of those changes and a catalyst for changes to come.” l

Visit nabshow.com to register.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on our sister brand Systems Contractor News. 

It’s been three (long) years since the last NAB Show in Las Vegas. In this interview with SCN, Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director of NAB Global Connections and Events, shared his thoughts on what changes attendees can expect and what topics will be generating buzz on the show floor.

SCN: Since no one expects the 2022 NAB Show to break attendance records, how will you define success for this year’s event? 
Chris Brown: Registration numbers are picking up rapidly, but the NAB Show has always been about so much more than metrics. It is in many ways about setting a tone for the industry and helping to point the way to new opportunities. It is about getting re-energized around the creativity and business opportunities in media and entertainment. 

It’s an exciting business and the NAB Show community is highly passionate about what they do. This is their opportunity to come together to see, feel, touch, soak in the industry—maybe above all to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. There is nothing like it. So, in some respects the victory will be in just being able to produce the show, bring the industry together, and help inspire forward progress.

We are confident the show will bring the right people together—those who are coming to do business and engage in true knowledge exchange, and those who are on a mission and serious about their visit and ready to get things done. This by itself could make this one of the most productive shows in recent history, with a higher buyer-to-seller ratio than we would see in a typical year. 

SCN: What will be different for returning attendees?
CB: Among the big changes are a new schedule, new convention hall, new featured exhibit category, and perhaps most importantly, a brand-new way of organizing the entire show. 

We will be opening the show on Sunday for the first time—versus the traditional Monday opening. And we will be closing on Wednesday instead of Thursday. This change is being implemented to make it easier for those involved in live and other studio production projects, as well as those who may find it difficult to get away during the week or want to minimize time away from work. The idea was driven by feedback received in the past, and we expect this will open a path to stronger overall attendance for the show.

The layout of the show will also be different. The exposition and educational programs will still be spread across three buildings at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), but this year we will be adding the LVCC’s new West Hall (and dropping the South Hall). A state-of-the-art facility, the new West Hall totally changes the whole look and feel of the LVCC campus. 

In keeping with that state-of-the art theme, we have placed some of the more leading-edge categories in the West Hall. Specifically, we will be launching a new featured exhibit area here—dubbed "Intelligent Content." With the enormous influence that data and new data-driven technologies are having on every aspect of content creation and distribution, we felt it was time to place the spotlight on this trend. 

The area will feature a strong lineup of anchor exhibitors, including Microsoft, AWS, and Mediakind. The focus will be on everything from employing data to drive more personalized content experiences, to advanced advertising technology to AI, blockchain, and the evolution to the Metaverse. Other feature areas in the West Hall include Connected Media IP and the Future of Delivery areas. 

Layered over all of this is perhaps the biggest change we have implemented in quite a while. The show will now be organized around three major content pillars—Create, Connect, and Capitalize. These three pillars reflect how the industry works, and organizing the show around these concepts will help every attendee navigate the show and find what is most relevant to them. The idea is to help everyone maximize their time. 

From a physical space perspective, Create will be featured in the Central Hall and part of the North Hall, Connect will be the focus in the new West Hall, while Capitalize will find its home in the North Hall. Our conference programming has been reorganized around these three pillars as well, and will include a mix of legacy programs, such as the Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference, and new elements.

To further curate the experience for every visitor, we have created unique Experiential Zones tied to each of the pillars that will help bring focus to the key trends that are relevant to each area. These hubs—two in each hall—will provide a variety of engagement opportunities for visitors, from theaters running daily education content to hands-on demonstrations to startup displays and unique networking forums. 

With respect to the latter, we are introducing a series of roundtable discussions in the Experiential Zones that will provide great networking and the opportunity to dive deep on key industry topics with peers. 

We are also introducing NABiQ, an “idea hackathon,” which is designed as a variation on the traditional hackathon, with the objective in this case to “build” a new idea. Groups of peers will be matched up in a competition to see who can create the next great idea in helping solve for a pre-determined technology or industry issue. Winners in each of the three pillar categories will be selected. These should be fun, and we expect they will yield some terrific new ideas that can be shared with the entire industry. 

SCN: What topics are shaping up to be the buzz at this year’s show?
CB: Obviously, we think data is a huge driver for the industry in many ways, and that is why we have introduced the new Intelligent Content area. Covered in this will be a range of buzz-worthy technologies, including AI machine learning and what it can do to create efficiency in various sides of the content creation funnel, whether capture, editing, distribution, you name it. You will also see tech that is enabling content creators to build more personalized experiences for audiences and develop new business models to capitalize on this engagement. 

Beyond this, I think you will see a great deal of focus on tech that drives remote workflows. The whole move to virtual production has been greatly accelerated by the pandemic, and the industry has shown that there are effective and efficient ways to produce remotely. A number of our major anchor exhibitors, including Ross, Grass Valley, and Vizrt, have adapted quickly around this trend, and will be must-see stops for those looking to explore the possibilities in remote production. 

The metaverse is also definitely going to be a topic of conversation throughout the show, not only in terms of debate around what that actually looks like, but just in looking at the technologies that are already underpinned by a mix of reality and augmented reality. 

There will be plenty of virtual and mixed reality set technology on display, and the show will feature a number of specific demonstrations in the Experience Zones tied to these developments. These will include a unique mixed reality demo developed by ARRI in the Create area (Central Hall), and an AI-driven demo by Microsoft in the Intelligent Content area (West Hall). 

SCN: Beyond the typical exhibit hall exploration, what will be some of the main attractions for systems integrators attending the show?
CB: Systems integrators should plan on investing time in the various zones to discover how technology solution providers are working collaboratively and building interoperable workflows in the areas of ATSC 3.0, virtual production and IP. All the education on the show floor is, of course, free for anyone to attend. So, it is really a great way to gain some broader perspective before diving into specific conversations with vendors on the show floor.

For more information on the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, visit nabshow.com/2022/.

LAS VEGAS — The 2018 NAB Show is launching a new conference focusing on the emerging eSports market.

“eSports: Get in on the Action” will get underway starting at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 11, as part of the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The conference, which is produced in partnership with the eSports Ad Bureau and takes place in North Hall Meeting Rooms N253 and N257, comprises six sessions focused on audience targeting and growth, sponsorship opportunities and real-world success stories.

• Provide information on how to utilize demographic indicators to identify and nurture specific audiences, in addition to how media companies can leverage numerous technologies, device habits and trends to create successful multiplatform campaigns;
• Feature companies that develop engaging content opportunities that best connect with audiences;
• Provide an overview of what is needed to create unique sponsorship options;
• Include agencies, producers, media sellers, buyers and clients sharing their insights on successfully implemented sponsorship and branding campaigns.

[Read: What Can Attendees Expect at the 2018 NAB Show?]

“The new eSports conference will combine practical business information with the latest technology and insight from sports-savvy professionals,” said NAB Executive Vice President of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown. “We look forward to exploring the forces that are shaping the future of the eSports global phenomenon.”

For more information the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

The National Association of Broadcasters said 244 companies will be first-time exhibitors at the NAB Show in April.

The list includes Blubrry Podcasting, Libsyn, Padcaster, Women in Media, Sohonet, Deity Microphones, Red Bee Media and StreamShark. (See the list.) Some have appeared at the show in the past in other booths, such as Audinate, found in the Bosch/RTS in the past; others are likely to be entirely unfamiliar. The show will have approximately 1,700 total exhibitors including 819 from outside the United States.

We asked NAB Executive Vice President of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown for some insights into this aspect of the event.

Radio World:What can we glean from the list of companies — what technology sectors seem hottest, and in what kind of new tech areas is the show growing?

Chris Brown: It is a great list of new companies and they tend to reflect the breadth of the show and the trends that are driving innovation. We have companies covering all ends of the content lifecycle from acquisition to management to distribution — with a slight leaning, a little more than a third, representing acquisition and production technologies. From a tech and trends perspective we are seeing healthy interest in streaming technologies, advanced advertising, social media, cloud, storage and IP. Our focus every year is to dig for companies that are developing leading edge technologies or serving particular segments of our audience with specialized products or services.

RW: Do you know which NAB Show exhibitor is the longest-tenured?

Brown: Unfortunately we don’t have accurate enough history (and remember, the show has been around since 1923) to confirm this definitively. But we certainly have a healthy list of companies that have exhibited with us for a very long time; these include companies like Sony, Panasonic, Imagine and GatesAir (formerly Harris Corp.), Grass Valley, Avid and Ross just to name a few.

[Read: An NAB Show Sampler for Managers]

RW: What will be the three largest booths at the show?

Brown: Sony, Blackmagic Design and Canon. Beyond these and others that have been exhibiting for some time, we have a number of other important brands that are emerging with an increasing presence in the show. A couple of good examples would be AWS Elemental and Google. The combination of AWS and Elemental has matched the enormous resources AWS with the deep industry expertise of Elemental to create an entity that is having a major impact on the industry. In the case of Google, not much needs to be said — they play a vital, varied and growing role within the media and entertainment ecosystem. Just two years ago they were not even participating as an exhibitor.

RW: How does this year’s exhibit space compare to last year?

Brown: Between exhibit space and exhibitor activity in meeting rooms and suites, the show will once again cover more than 1 million square feet of activity. It will essentially cover the same area as last year.

RW:What are other platforms at the show where attendees can find up-and-coming companies?

Brown: We have an area of the show that is all about up-and-coming; we call it the Innovation Pipeline, and it covers the companies and trends from inception to full launch. Three distinct areas are included: NAB Pilot’s Futures Park, which represents the true R&D side of the equation, with research and other companies showing technologies that are still in the lab stage. Then there is Startup Loft, an area that features companies that are in their true infancy, with products or services that are baked but only on the market for a year or a year and a half. These are the “garage” entrepreneurs of our business. And as a final phase, there is Sprockit. Sprockit is a program that identifies the most promising young companies in the media and entertainment space and brings them into the spotlight at the show. These are companies that are bringing technology that can revolutionize, even disrupt, the industry.

We also will be featuring a number of technology pavilions that will lean forward and will feature companies that are relatively new to NAB Show. These include our Immersive Storytelling Pavilion (North Hall), the Game Developers Gallery (North Hall) and the Podcasting Pavilion (South Hall).