President Trump criticized ABC and NBC for their decisions not to air his primetime address about his claims of “election fraud” live on Thursday night, saying their actions “should mean a revocation of their licenses.”

When the president announced the subject of his speech would be about “election integrity,” earlier this week, media outlets debated about how to cover it. It was expected that he would dredge up old conspiracy theories that have long been debunked and to which the majority of Americans don't share his conclusion that the 2020 election was "stolen."

Much of what he said last night did follow that pattern along with the announcement that the administration would release new unclassified material that would implicate that China meddled in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Cable news channels decided their own path of coverage, with CNN fact-checking Trump’s speech in real-time, while MS NOW ran regular programming but broke in with analysis when warranted. Fox News, stung by a 2022 defamation lawsuit that forced the network to fork over $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, reminded its viewers that it has seen no proof to Trump’s claims.

“Fox News has not seen that evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement and claims at this time,” a reporter said during the speech.

Tony Dokoupil, news anchor for CBS News, which has come under considerable criticism from Trump’s opponents, was candid in his response to the speech.

“This is a vitally, vitally important topic, and the president has a terrible track record on it,” he said.

While both NBC and ABC chose not to air the speech live, they did break in when appropriate and held post-speech analysis special reports.

The networks’ decisions on whether to air the speech are not unprecedented. Networks have declined to cover certain speeches by Trump’s predecessors as well.

This didn’t mollify the president, though.

‘“They and others in the media are part of a plot,” he claimed. “They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can’t have a great country. And that’s true. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the president for his threats.

"It is ridiculous to call for broadcasters to lose their license simply for making the same editorial decisions they've made under presidents of both parties," Gomez said. "Those editorial decisions are protected by the First Amendment, and the FCC has no authority to punish a station for refusing to air a blatantly political speech. This is a naked attempt to bully broadcasters, and the FCC should have no part in it."

Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR color verification tool as well as its Matchbox Panorama timing solution at IBC2026, Sept. 11-14 at the RAI Amsterdam. Expanding its capabilities beyond timing and synchronization, Spectra helps engineers confirm that color remains accurate as pictures move through complex production and distribution routes, the company said.

Live workflows now carry more formats and versions through the same facility, including SDR and HDR outputs from a single production. As signals pass through converters, routers, processors, LUTs and software workflows, one configuration error can leave the program technically wrong even when the picture looks acceptable during initial checks.

“In the pressure of set-up, errors in a video source can be missed because there is a recognizable picture,” said Russell Johnson, Director at Hitomi. “If the color path is wrong, that problem can travel through the workflow and affect the final program.

“Engineers are dealing with more sources, more formats and more delivery paths than ever before,” Johnson added. “With MatchBox, we made timing checks fast, objective and simple. With Spectra, we are applying the same thinking, giving teams certainty that the image is being handled correctly before it reaches the viewer.”

Hitomi’s color verification solution generates a defined set of test colors at the source, sends them through the normal program route and analyzes them at the end. By comparing the received colors with the expected result, it can highlight incorrect LUTs, unexpected conversions and routing errors between SDR and HDR paths.

That gives engineers a fast, objective check which reduces reliance on visual judgement alone and helps catch configuration errors before they become visible on air, according to the company.

MatchBox Panorama will also make its IBC debut following its launch at the 2026 NAB Show in April. Matchbox provides a wide view of timing throughout the entire production workflow of a live broadcast. Panorama brings timing measurements from across complex production workflows into one central view, helping teams identify where delay is being introduced across facilities, remote production and software-based environments.

MatchBox Panorama is a standalone software product designed for larger production environments. It is already proven within the Grass Valley AMPP ecosystem, with further integrations with other manufacturers to be released soon.

Hitomi will be in Stand 10.A40 during the show.

BOTHELL, Wash.—The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), the Video Services Forum (VSF) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have announced the second IPMX Product Testing and Certification Event.

Scheduled for Aug. 24–28 at the EBU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the week-long gathering is open to AIMS and VSF member companies and will expand the growing IPMX-certified product ecosystem while introducing formal certification of new capabilities developed as part of the IPMX roadmap.

The Geneva certification event follows a "dirty hands" interoperability session scheduled for July 20–24 at the Matrox Video facility in Montreal, Canada. That members-only session will give AIMS participants hands-on testing of new IPMX developments ahead of the formal certification event, continuing the model of pre-certification interoperability work that has proven effective throughout the IPMX program.

The August event will introduce certification for capabilities that have been in active development prior to the launch of the full realized standard in 2026. These include Host Key Exchange Protocol (HKEP) and HDCP handling for protected content, and the Privacy Encryption Protocol (PEP) security layer, which enables interoperable content encryption across multi-vendor deployments. HEVC and AVC compression profiles, which have seen strong industry interest in enabling efficient transport across existing infrastructure, are also progressing toward certification.

“The first certification event in January established that IPMX works across vendors at scale,” said Sam Recine, IPMX Pro AV Working Group Chair at AIMS. “The August event is where we take the next steps, expanding the certified product base and validating the capabilities that integrators and end users have been asking about since certification launched. Each event builds on the last, and the momentum we’re seeing from member companies reflects real confidence in where IPMX is headed.”

IPMX is a set of open standards and specifications designed to bring ST 2110-based media transport and NMOS-based control to a broader range of markets, including Pro AV, live events, corporate media, education, and beyond. Building on the certified product base of 48 products from 11 manufacturers introduced at ISE 2026, the certification program continues to evolve with new capabilities that address the practical requirements of deployed systems.

More information about AIMS and its work is available at www.aimsalliance.org.

As broadcasters continue transitioning to IP-based workflows, industry leaders are exploring new approaches that could improve interoperability, collaboration and operational flexibility.

At the heart of these discussions is the Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) and related Media eXchange Layer (MXL), emerging frameworks intended to help broadcasters determine how the next generation of software-defined workflows could work.

The topic was explored during a panel hosted by the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), in conjunction with the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), featuring moderator Steve Reynolds, CEO, Imagine Communications, and guest speakers Naveed Aslam, senior vice president of Production Technology and Engineering, CBS/Paramount; John Mailhot, senior vice president of Product Management, Imagine Communications; Willem Vermost, senior IP media technology architect, EBU; and Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear.

“Much of media processing now runs in software, in a combination of on-premises and in the cloud,” Reynolds said. “And so, if everything is now moving to software, we have to ask the question: are we still designing our facilities in the right way?”

Panelists said DMF was created to address this question, driving the industry forward while solving key business challenges such as how to improve efficiency and allow broadcasters and their partners to share “very expensive resources” amongst more productions.

“I think, from our perspective, SMPTE ST 2110 and IP-based workflows have largely been understood and embraced as being the next industry evolutionary step,” Aslam said. “From our perspective, the DMF initiative is truly the key to start unlocking the practical and technological benefits that we can derive from an IP infrastructure, the opportunities that arise from that, and it just truly starts to give us an opportunity to explore what IP workflows can be.”

The panel explained that neither DMF nor MXL are meant to replace SMPTE ST 2110, the technical standards that gives broadcasters a means to transport broadcast-quality signals over IP networks, enabling them to scale workflows and providing a foundation for interoperability.

Rather, all three are designed to work together: DMF provides a framework for the next generation of more dynamic, software-defined facilities, while MXL provides a specific mode for connecting applications and services, effectively enabling interoperability inside of a computing cluster.

“It’s really the goal of the DMF to organize those upper layers so that you can actually have a dynamic facility,” Mailhot said. “I think that 2110 and MXL will work together to achieve that, but there’s a lot of work to do to fill in all those blanks.”

“If we work in an asynchronous way, suddenly more media functions can be run than ever before. Within the same time frame, of a frame, multiple operations can be run,” Vermost said.

“If you look at it from that point of view, it seems like a revolution. But, if you look at it from your broadcast plant and how you operate it, it’s an evolution. We’ll get there step by step.”

Panel discussion is available on demand on NABA's YouTube channel.

TV Tech is now accepting nominations for the IBC2026 Best of Show Award.

The awards are open to IBC2026 show exhibitors and offer a valuable platform for companies to raise awareness for the new products and solutions they will be launching or showcasing at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 11-14.

Participating brands include TV Tech, TVBEurope, Radio World, AV Technology, Installation, Sound & Video Contractor and ITPro. Each publication announces its own list of winners, which will be announced at the show.

All award entrants will receive a placard at the show for display, with winners receiving an additional placard to display their success.

The nomination page includes answers to frequently asked questions. Deadline for entry is August 28th.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — As media technology workflows become increasingly software-defined, IP-based, and interconnected, organizations need professionals with the skills to implement, manage and support them. To help meet that need, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is expanding access to practical, industry-focused education through open standards, foundational learning, instructor-led education, and hands-on training.

Building on its open-access Standards Library, SMPTE's education offerings help professionals progress from learning the fundamentals to applying them in real-world IP media environments. The journey begins with the free, self-paced ”Essentials of Media over IP (EMIP)” course available on-demand, and continues with the instructor-led “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110” virtual course, beginning July 21.

Developed in collaboration with EVS, the free EMIP course introduces the fundamentals of IP networking for media. Participants can then continue with “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110,” where live instruction, demonstrations, and interactive discussions explore the standards, technologies, and workflows used in professional IP media facilities.

Graduates of Understanding SMPTE ST 2110 are eligible to participate in the SMPTE ST 2110 Practical Lab, an immersive hands-on experience developed in collaboration with Lawo. Understanding SMPTE ST 2110 is a prerequisite for the Practical Lab, where participants configure, synchronize, test, and troubleshoot IP media systems using technologies from leading industry partners including Lawo, Arista Networks, Meinberg, Bridge Technologies, Matrox Video, AJA Video Systems, Macnica, Leader Electronics, NVIDIA, Embrionix, and others.

The course is led by Willem Vermost (EBU), Wim Van Roy (Lawo), Gerard Phillips (Arista Networks), Chris Lapp (Cisco) and Leigh Whitcomb (Meinberg). Guest lecturers include Felix Poulin (Radio-Canada), Andreas Hildebrand (Lawo), Olivier Ettlin (Simplexity), Pedro Ferreira (Bisect), Stefan Ledergerber (Simplexity) and François Legrand (Radio-Canada).

“Making SMPTE standards freely accessible was the first step,” said Maja Davidovic, director of education at SMPTE. “We’re building on that foundation with a connected learning experience that takes professionals from foundational knowledge to practical application, helping them develop the skills needed for today's evolving media technology landscape.”

Beyond its online courses and hands-on training, SMPTE delivers immersive education through the SMPTE Roadshow at NAB Show New York, technical programming at IBC and the annual SMPTE Media Technology Summit, giving media professionals opportunities to continue developing their expertise throughout the year.

Registration is now open for the next session of “Understanding SMPTE ST 2110,” beginning July 21. Learn more and register here.

Registration for NAB Show New York, set for Oct. 21-22 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is now open.

Last year's event drew 11,500 registered attendees from 95 countries, according to NAB, adding that roughly 10% of attendees came from outside the U.S., and 62% were first-time participants—evidence of the show’s expanding international reach and a fresh wave of creators, producers and decision-makers, organizers said.

Attendees will discover practical insights, evolving workflows, emerging business models, technology adoption and new opportunities across the media ecosystem. Sessions and programming will center on AI, the creator economy, streaming, sports and TV/radio broadcasting for a total of about 80 hours.

On the show floor, four unique theaters offer free educational programming, including keynote presentations, technology showcases, AI and creator sessions and specialized programming focused on sports media and professional audio.

Brands that will be represented include Sony, B&H, Blackmagic Design, EVS, Evertz, Ross Video, Grass Valley, Canon, Enco, Riedel Communications, Lawo and Facilis Technology. More than 200 exhibitors are expected to attend, with 10% of currently registered companies as first-timers.

"The media industry is navigating rapid change in technology, business models and audience behavior, and professionals need opportunities to understand what those changes mean for their work," said Karen Chupka, executive vice president of NAB Show.

"In the media capital of the world and a global hub for live production, NAB Show New York connects big industry conversations with practical insights, new tools and the people shaping what comes next."

TV Tech's complete coverage of the 2025 event can be found here and here.

Click here to register.

ALBANY, N.Y.—The New York State Broadcasters Association, has announced a new class of inductees for the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony will take place at a luncheon gala in the Rainbow Room, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, on Oct. 22.

“The Hall of Fame Class of 2026 sets the ‘gold standard’ for broadcasters throughout New York State and the nation,” NYBSA President David Donovan said. “The inductees represent a lifetime of achievement serving their profession and their communities. We are honored to have them join the Hall of Fame.”

This year’s inductees are:

Bill Ritter — Journalist/ Anchor — WABC-TV, New York
Bill Ritter started at WABC’s “Eyewitness News” in 1998, anchoring weekends while working full time Monday through Friday as a correspondent for ABC News and “20/20”. In 1999, he began anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast and then added the 6 p.m. newscast in 2001. Ritter stepped away from anchoring in June 2026 following a diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s. He will continue to cover special projects for Eyewitness News, with a focus on Alzheimer’s and related conditions.

Ritter has reported major events since joining ABC as founding co-host of “Good Morning America Sunday” in 1993.

Originally from Los Angeles, he reported on both the Rodney King trial and the subsequent riots in the city for Foxearly in his career. Between August 1991 and February 1992, Ritter worked as a reporter for Fox’s nationally syndicated show “Entertainment Daily Journal.” From February 1990 to August 1991, he was an investigative reporter at Fox-owned KTTV-TV Los Angeles, where he also anchored coverage of the Gulf War. He began his television career as a business and investigative reporter for KNSD-TV (an NBC affiliate) in San Diego from February 1987 to January 1990. Before working in television, Ritter was a reporter and business editor for the San Diego County edition of the Los Angeles Times and worked as a reporter and editor at the San Diego Business Journal.

Ritter received the NYSBA Excellence in Broadcasting Award for “Operation 7: Save a Life,” which promoted fire safety. He was a board member and chairman of Crash Inc., a San Diego drug prevention nonprofit, and served on the San Diego State University Business School Advisory Board from 1984 to 1985.

Ritter earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from The New School in Manhattan. He graduated in May 2016, 44 years after initially being expelled from San Diego State University for leading an anti-war protest.

Rosanna Scotto — Journalist/Anchor — WNYW, New York

Rosanna Scotto has been with Fox-owned WNYW News since 1986. The Emmy Award winning journalist is currently co-host of “Good Day New York.” Scotto began her career at WTBS Atlanta, where she was a reporter for two local programs and an associate producer of the station's evening newscast. She returned to her native New York in the early 1980s as a reporter for WABC-TV’s “Good Morning New York,” which eventually became “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.” A year later, Scotto joined WABC-TV's “Eyewitness News" as a reporter, where she remained until she joined Fox 5.

Scotto has covered the tri-state area, and her assignments have taken her to Israel, Rome, across the United States. As a reporter, she won an endless string of coveted assignments including the first exclusive interview with Diana Bianchi, the other woman in the Christie Brinkley divorce case, the Woody Allen/Mia Farrow child custody battle, the notorious "Preppie Murder Trial," and the trials of Joel Steinberg and the "Swiss Nanny." Scotto also led FOX 5 News to the forefront in getting Marty Tankleff a new trial and was granted an exclusive interview with him in jail.

Scotto has won six Emmys for anchoring FOX 5 News at 10 and Good Day New York. She won the 1995 New York State Associated Press First Place Award for her report "New York Survival Guide." She is also the winner of three other Associated Press First Place Awards, including two special Associated Press Award nominations.

Scotto has received a host of honors and awards for her community service work. She is a graduate of Catholic University and received honorary doctorates from Mount St. Mary College and St. John's University. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Scotto lives in the New York area with her husband and their two children.

Sid Rosenberg – Morning Host – 77WABC Radio, New York City

Sid Rosenberg is the nationally known host of the morning show on 77 WABC in New York City. Sid connects with his audience because he is the audience. A native of Brooklyn, Sid is as New York as you can get –- he shares his honest opinion, and he doesn’t hold back. Sid has direct access to some of the most powerful people in New York, the country, and the world. His interviews are insightful and range from informative to entertaining — often both at the same time!

His radio career started in Florida in the late 1990’s, with the syndicated sports radio program, “The Drive on Sports Fan Radio Network.” In 2000, he returned to New York City to co-host WNEW-FM's morning show, the “Sports Guys.” A year later, he joined the “Imus in the Morning” program, sharing sports broadcasting duties with Warner Wolf before becoming the full-time sports reporter. In addition, he became the co-host of the midday show on WFAN, holding both broadcasting positions until 2005. Sid also hosted the radio pre-game shows for New York Giants home games. In 2016, Rosenberg became the co-host of the “Bernie and Sid Show” on 77 WABC, with Bernard McGuirk and was a sports contributor for “Imus in the Morning.” On March 8, 2018, Rosenberg and Bernard McGuirk replaced the retiring Don Imus. Following McGuirk's death, Bernie and Sid in the Morning became known as “Sid and Friends in the Morning.”

He is the author of “You're Wrong and You're Ugly: The Highs and Lows of a Radio Bad Boy” and “Sid-izens United: Salacious Spiels, Stories, Suggestions, and Solutions to Withstand a Woke World.” He has BA in Business from Baruch College. He and his wife Danielle were married in 1992 and have two children.

Dan Miner – Station Manager - WCKM-FM, WCQL-FM, WWSC-AM & FM, and WDKM-FM, Glens Falls

Dan Miner made his on-air debut in 1983 on WGFR-FM, SUNY-Adirondack’s college radio station in Glens Falls, where he was also named student of the year. Miner made his professional debut less than a month later on WIPS-AM in Ticonderoga and WXTY-FM later that year. Miner would go full-time on WXTY after graduation. Miner not only took his regular air shifts, including mornings, but also covered local sports for the combo, including play-by-play duties for football, basketball and baseball. He also covered the Adirondack Red Wings for the stations. Miner was the station’s Operations Manager from 1986 to 1991. In 1991, Miner moved to WENU-FM where he would do afternoon drive, production, play-by-play and cover the Adirondack Red Wings. In the fall of 1992, Miner became the arena host for the Red Wings and host of Red Wings Rap, a weekly hockey show. Miner would take over for morning drive in ’94 on WSTL-FM. In June of 1996, he worked at WHTR-FM, WBZA-AM and WENU-FM as the morning drive host and operations manager. In 1997, Miner found his way to WCKM-FM as the host of “The Morning Club,” where he has been since. Miner is the “go-to” voice for local professional sports, having been on the mic for local professional hockey teams as the pubic-address nnouncer including the Adirondack Thunder since 1999. He was inducted into The Adirondack Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020. Miner is also the PA announcer for the Glens Falls Greenjackets football team. Miner is also the host and owner of The Talkin’ Smack Podcast. Miner, the winner of multiple NYSBA Awards, continues as the station manager for WCKM-FM, WCQL-FM, WWSC-AM & FM, and WDKM-FM.

Pete Cloutier — Morning Co-Host and Sales — WCKM-FM, Glens Falls
Pete Cloutier started on the radio in 1966 on WWSC-AM. Pete’s career started with “Saturday Night a Go-Go,” the first rock ‘n’ roll show in the tri-counties. He took rock ’n’ roll dedications and requests for six hours every Saturday night. Cloutier also brought the first rock ‘n’ roll show to Glens Falls in 1966 with Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Cloutier found his way into promotions with a very successful run of WWSC’s “Battle of the Bands” promotions to standing-room crowds. Cloutier left WWSC in 1983 but found his way back to radio in 1987, creating a new Saturday night show, “Great Gold Plus” on WAYI-FM. Cloutier also made his debut in sales, capitalizing on his on-air popularity. In 1989, Cloutier began producing more concerts. He worked with the top names in the industry for a successful run of shows at the Glens Falls Civic Center and an almost 30-year run of “Summer Jam” shows. Cloutier moved to WKBE-FM for sales, promotions and the continuation of his Saturday night show in 1991. In 1994, Cloutier was on the move again, this time for his last stop on WCKM-FM, once again with sales and promotions and also to take on the sidekick role on “The Morning Club,” which he still holds down today at the age of 81.

Chuck Samuels — VP & General Manager — WHAM-TV, Rochester (retired)
Samuels retired last November following a distinguished 19-year tenure as vice president and general manager of WHAM-TV, Rochester, N.Y.’s ABC and The CW affiliate, and WUHF-TV, Rochester’s Fox affiliate.

A 1983 graduate of the University of Florida with a master’s degree in journalism and communication, Samuels was also an All-America swimmer at Florisa. He began his broadcasting career at country music station WDVH Gainesville, Fla., where he reported and anchored afternoon drive newscasts. He also contributed color commentary and pool-deck interviews for swimming events televised by ESPN. Samuels later held producing roles in Jacksonville and Tampa before joining KDKA-TV Pittsburgh in 1988, where he advanced to executive producer and assistant news director.

In 1993, Samuels was named News Director at WKBW-TV Buffalo, N.Y. Three years later, he moved to WHAM-TV Rochester, where he was news director for nearly a decade, then was promoted to vice president and general manager in 2006. Under Samuels’ leadership, WHAM earned three National Edward R. Murrow Awards and numerous regional honors. His team also launched Buffalo Plus, a successful podcast focused on the Buffalo Bills.

Samuels was actively involved in the Rochester community, serving on boards for organizations including the Rochester Ad Council, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Cancer Society. From 2008 until his retirement, Samuels served on the board of the New York State Broadcasters and served on the Executive Committee. Following his retirement, Samuels returned to Gainesville with his wife, Diane, bringing his career full circle.

Bob Krummenacker — VP & General Manager — WBNG-TV, Binghamton (retired)
Bob Krummenacker retired last October after a 44-year career with Gray Media’s Binghamton, N.Y., properties, WBNG-TV (CBS), Binghamton’s CW and MeTV, serving in his final role as Vice President and General Manager. Bob dedicated the last 14 years to developing the leadership and driving strategic direction of the market’s dominant station and news leader. In that time, Bob managed a complete station rebrand from on-air graphics, news set, and marketing to the station’s ever-expanding digital capabilities. He guided the sales operation to execute multiple new revenue-generating programs to leverage the station’s leading position and strengths to deliver record-setting accomplishments and business results to create value for WBNG-TV and its partners.

Krummenacker started his television career at WBNG-TV in 1981 as an Account Executive. His strong business skills and personable demeanor helped him advance quickly to other positions at the station, including local sales manager, regional sales manager, new business development manager and general sales manager. Throughout his career, Krummenacker committed to industry excellence through his involvement in the National Association of Broadcasters and the New York State Broadcasters Association. He is a graduate of NAB’s Broadcast Leadership Program completed through Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. In addition, he served as a past chairman of the New York State Broadcasters Association. As a long-time member of the board of directors, he also served on the Finance Board and Investment committee for NYSBA. For his contributions to the industry, Krummenacker was recognized by the Radio & Television Business Report as a Top Local TV Leader in 2020.

Krummenacker’s commitment to the people of Binghamton is unsurpassed, serving as a founding board member of the Binghamton Ad Club, co-founder of Sock Out Cancer, giving more than 15 years of service to both the Binghamton Boys and Girls Club and the American Red Cross. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Visions Veterans Memorial Arena and the Friends of the Forum.

Bob graduated from Fredonia University, earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a minor in economics. Prior to WBNG-TV, he was an account executive at WQYT radio in Binghamton, rounding out a remarkable 46-year career in media in a single local marketplace.

For information about the New York State Broadcasters Association’s Hall of Fame, visit the NYSBA website.

HACKENSACK, NJ—LAt the 2026 IBC Show, Sept. 11-14, LiveU will showcase what it refers to as its "Q Era," which uses AI-driven connectivity intelligence in a modular, open IP-video EcoSystem to automate live production workflows across news, sports, entertainment and other live events.

Among the highlights at its booth are the LU900Q, LiveU's Intelligent Production Unit, the first unit built natively around LiveU IQ (LIQ). The unit applies AI-driven connectivity intelligence and smart operator selection to optimize performance in real time, helping crews stay reliably connected in challenging conditions, according to the company.

Built for multi-camera workflows, the LU900Q combines native LIQ connectivity, advanced eSIM technology, optimized 5G modems and a MIMO antenna array with support for SDI, HDMI, USB and IP camera input. It delivers HD/4K transmission with 10-bit HDR 4:2:2 encoding, up to 32 audio channels, dual video return, dual intercom with built-in Bluetooth audio and wireless file transfer for faster field-to-production turnaround.

LiveU will also showcase its expanded collaboration with Sony Corporation, first announced at the 2026 NAB Show. On display, and currently available, will be the LiveU TX1—a compact, camera-mounted unit purpose-built for Sony's professional camera range—delivering fast, reliable bonded file transfer directly from the camera. Also demonstrated will be the Sony RXS Connection License, enabling direct file transfer from compatible Sony cameras to the PWA-RXS solution via supported LiveU field units, starting with the compact LU300S.

LiveU has also announced that Cuez has signed up as its latest EcoSystem partner, extending workflow automation into cloud-based newsroom and rundown management.

As a member of the EBU's working group, LiveU is actively involved in advancing the MXL shared-memory architecture – enabling multiple applications to access the same video frame simultaneously, eliminating redundant processing and reducing latency.

Together, these developments reflect the broader LiveU EcoSystem approach, supporting the full arc of live production, across live and file-based workflows.

Also at the LiveU booth is LiveU Nexus, a universal gateway for digital and IP workflows that converts, normalizes, and routes feeds across LRT, SRT, and RTMP, bridging social, online, and remote sources with traditional broadcast operations. As well as offering seamless digital source integration for Zoom, Teams and YouTube, it can be used as a scan converter for any web content, the company said.

LiveU Studio is a cloud-native production service for video switching, audio mixing, graphics, and more. It enables multi-output cloud production, allowing teams to deliver multiple feeds in multiple formats from a single production. Together, Nexus and Studio give newsrooms and digital teams a faster, leaner path from live event to published content—across every platform simultaneously.

Also on tap, LiveU Ingest, which replaces fragmented, manual processes with a single story-centric workflow for live and file based—from planning and scheduling through ingest, and metadata enrichment.

Actus Digital, a LiveU company, will showcase the latest capabilities of Actus X – a modular, browser-based platform that unifies compliance logging, low-latency multiviewing, QA monitoring, clip creation, and AI-powered media intelligence.

LiveU will be in Stand 7.C24 at the RAI Amsterdam.

About one third of the way through the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Fox Sports is assessing the first two weeks of coverage in the quadrennial tournament. As the host U.S. broadcaster, Fox Sports is working out of the International Broadcast Center at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, where HBS, (Host Broadcaster Services). The facility serves as HBS's global broadcast operations center for 180 broadcasters covering the tournament taking place across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the USA, June 11-July 19.

As expected, the technical operations have run smoothly with the biggest challenges being pure logistics and preparing for the unexpected, according to Kevin Callahan, senior vice president of field operations and engineering for Fox Sports.

“The biggest challenge is by far the weather and travel in North America and the size and enormity of the coverage,” he said. Criss-crossing between stadiums on the west coast to the east coast in one day while managing coverage of multiple matches simultaneously is no easy task but Callahan believes the network has created the kind of memorable event that resonates with soccer fans.

“What we are bringing to the viewer is truly amazing,” he said. “We want to be where the fans are, we want to create that sense of FOMO for fans—if you're not out at the matches, you're missing the big party of this tournament.”

NEVER ENOUGH
In broadcast, one can never have enough redundancy and that philosophy extends to the World Cup like perhaps no other event, especially one played in the middle of summer when weather plays such an important role, from whether a game is played on schedule or technical or on-air talent have to travel from city to city.

“We have plans in place for every scenario that we can think of,” Callahan said. "I have a firm belief, if you have one, you have none; if you have two, you have one. So, when it comes to equipment redundancy, we have that in place. We have some personnel redundancy, but we also have backup plans when it comes to travel.”

One area that Callahan noted was the impact of construction on maintaining connections.

“It’s construction season in the summer in the U.S., particularly in northern routes, and we've certainly dealt with our fair share of fiber cuts,” Callahan said, adding that none of those cuts have resulted in the loss of signal “because of the diversity that our network engineering and architecture team has put in place.”

All matches have commentators in-venue, but Fox Sports’ studio show travels to venues across the three countries as well, giving Fox a presence inside each stadium while keeping much of the production engine in familiar facilities.

Fox Sports is leaning on its HRP (Home Run Productions) workflows for both its match and studio coverage. Upgraded for the World Cup, HRP’s REMI infrastructure is a standards-based IP workflow that uses Appear’s X platform to support both JPEG XS and low-latency HEVC on a single platform.

Although the matches themselves are produced by HBS on behalf of FIFA, Fox picks up the feed at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and sends it to production facilities in L.A.

The link between traveling studio teams and the L.A.-based hub includes Fox’s BRISK systems, which Callahan describes as ST 2110-based flypacks that integrate with the company’s permanent facilities, with JPEG XS encoding from Appear used to support low-latency feeds from venues back to the control rooms.

In practical terms, the model allows Fox to keep the live feel of a stadium production without having to replicate the same full-scale setup in every city. Commentators and hosts can remain close to the action, while core production staff work from a consistent base.

'MASTERS OF RESILIENCY'
When the HBS opened last month, FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailed the facility as "the most technologically advanced and top of the art international broadcast center that the world has ever seen."

Callahan sang the praises of HBS as well.

“They truly are masters of resiliency and redundancy as well—they have a plan for everything,” Callahan said. “The signals that they've been able to provide us in the world have been, the signals themselves look pristine. The super slow mo replays that they've added more of this year have been fantastic and really help share the emotion of the tournament.”

Callahan was particularly happy with HBS’s increased attention to audio.

"Over the years, we've been commenting to HBS that we want more field effects—we want to hear more of what's actually going on on the pitch,” Callahan said. “One of the challenges that you face when it comes to soccer is just the sheer size of the pitch and the distance you can actually put a microphone from where the sound is coming from. HBS has done a fantastic job at being able to capture those close ball effects a lot better, and what's going on on the pitch a lot better, and I think this tournament they've nailed it more than anything.”

Since early May, Fox Sports has produced all its content in HDR, and Callahan noted the progress the network has made on the standard.

“Fox switched our entire facility to HDR for the first time, so everything that we're doing in the building is coming natively as HDR, Callahan said. “In the past, when we've done these events, [some of] our studio programming would have originated in SDR. So this is the first time that truly everything is HDR.”

Having a consistent look throughout the expanded 104-match tournament has been a goal from the first day and Callahan says HBS’s role is crucial in this respect.

“You'll be hard pressed to be able to tell the difference between one vs. the other when it comes to the quality of replays, the quality of coverage, they're all consistent, which is really what you want.”

WASHINGTON—The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) today announced the release of a new series of pre‑produced radio and television spots as part of its “Before It Was History, It Was Broadcast” initiative supporting America’s 250th Anniversary.

The new :30 spots feature archival audio and visuals drawn from the Library of American Broadcasting Special Collection at the University of Maryland. Each piece highlights the essential role radio and television stations have played in documenting the nation’s most defining moments as they unfolded. Topics covered range from children’s programming and game shows to I Love Lucy and historic moments of national consequence.

These pre‑produced messages complement the customizable shells LABF previously released, giving stations two ways to participate in the national commemoration. The new versions are fully produced and ready for immediate on‑air use, complete with narration, archival elements, and royalty‑free music. Television spots also include patriotic visuals reflecting the campaign’s theme.

“Broadcasters have always been the trusted link between historic events and the communities they serve,” said LABF Co-Chairs Deborah Parenti and Dave “Chachi” Denes. “These spots celebrate the journalists, storytellers, and stations that have brought defining moments into America’s homes. They also showcase the incredible depth of the Library’s archival treasures.”

Stations may download the pre‑produced spots—along with the previously released customizable shells – by contacting Mary Collins, Executive Director, at Mary@LABFMedia.org or 847‑910‑8878.

This week organizers for the annual IBC Show offered a preview of its plans for the upcoming annual event, Sept. 11-14 at the RAI Amsterdam.

IBC CEO Mike Crimp said the show will increase its emphasis on networking opportunities both at the show and online.

To that end, the show is launching the “Braindate Lounge” an initiative that will help attendees prepare in advance of the show.

Braindate Lounge will enable attendees to form their own peer groups online prior to the show and will be seeded with expert discussions from IBC consultants and from the show’s conference program around key topics, according to Crimp.

“People can go on there and form their own key topics and gather a group of people around them to do that,” he said. “I suppose the power of IBC is, in a way, is the power to convene, so all of those people will be able to take their meetings online to create an actual meeting between them on site in the Braindate Lounge, and they will be able to sit down, discuss their topics, discuss what they've seen, create their own knowledge networks.”

The show’s “Future Tech” zone, in Hall 14, will increase its focus on startups with the launch of “Future Tech Ignite,” dedicated to startups, emerging tech, future talent, and the creative community, according to Joe.

“We're also extending our partnership with EIT Culture and Creativity, and they are going to become the Future Tech Ignite innovation partner, which will really help strengthen IBC links with Europe's creative innovation communities,” said Jo Mayer, head of marketing for IBC.

Expanded from a single day to all four days of the show, “Ignite Stage”in the Future Tech area, will feature startup pitches, future-focused sessions, and talent/skills content across all four days of the show, Mayer added.

Key themes for this year’s show are: the transformation of sport, trust and authenticity, and new commercial models, which tie into the show’s three guiding pillars of shifting business models, transformative tech, and increasingly, people and purpose, according to Crimp.

“Those pillars are a consistent framework for the conversations that matter most to the industry,” he said.

Exhibition space itself should exceed 45,000 square meters this year with more than 1,200 exhibitors across 14 halls, according to Steve Connolly, IBC’s director of sales.

Last year, the show had 46,000 square meters of exhibition space and an estimated 1,300 exhibitors.

“Some key areas of the show are performing particularly strongly,” Connolly said. “Future Tech in Hall 14 and Content Everywhere in Hall 5 are both significantly ahead of last year in terms of bookings.”

Crimp said that they’re confident that attendance will be strong and that they'll be able to weather some of the issues that plagued the NAB Show in April, where attendance was softer than previous years.

“I think at the moment we are tracking really strongly against last year,” Crimp said. “We're an international show and a very welcoming show. Who knows what’s going to happen in the Middle East, if that's going to get worse, but I at the moment we're very confident that we will deliver numbers sort of in line with last year."

To register for the show, visit https://show.ibc.org.

HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair’s One Media Technologies has announced that it will host its annual ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV Interoperability Event from June 23-26, 2026, at its headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

The in-person event will bring together receiver manufacturers, technology partners, broadcasters, and industry stakeholders to test and validate interoperability across a broad range of NextGen TV services and applications.

During the event, participants will have access to live over-the-air ATSC 3.0 broadcasts in the Baltimore market, as well as a comprehensive suite of interoperability and performance testing scenarios designed to support continued advancement of the NextGen TV ecosystem.

“The continued success of NextGen TV relies on interoperability across devices, networks, and services,” said Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group and President of One Media Technologies. “Our annual event provides an important opportunity for industry participants to collaborate, validate implementations, and accelerate innovation across the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem.”

During this year’s event areas of focus will include:

• Broadcaster Application interoperability, including Run3 TV Framework testing and Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) functionality
• Digital Rights Management (DRM) and signal signing validation across DASH and MMT environments
• Signaling enhancements, including new service categories, broadband signaling servers, dynamic service changes, and RSAT implementation
• Hybrid broadcast and broadband service delivery
• Physical layer performance, including dynamic ModCod changes, Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM), and Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) testing
• Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) implementation and A/344 API testing
• MIMO backward-compatible configurations
• App-based services including ROXi and GameLoop
• Testing of the Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV (BEST) channel and live Baltimore ATSC 3.0 OTA signals

More information is available at www.onemedia.tech.

Caretta Research has released its latest forecast predicting record revenues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A record $8.9 billion in total revenue is expected, said the company, representing a 54% increase over the 2022 tournament. Growth will predominantly be driven by the rise in commercial and matchday revenues, with sports rights also having an effect.

FIFA’s decision to increase the number of teams from 32 to 48 is seen as a key driver for growth, with the number of games rising from 64 in 2022 to 104 this year, providing further opportunities to sell content. Commercial revenue is expected to rise by nearly $300 million, as traditional advertising opportunities are augmented with the inclusion of cooling breaks and an expanded half-time Super Bowl-style show.

Revenue from sports rights sold to media organizations is predicted to grow by $1 billion, a 32% increase on 2022, although its overall share will be reduced, falling below to per cent for the first time since at least 1998, said Caretta. The higher number of matches to be broadcast has diluted the rights value per game, which has decreased by 19%.

Regional time differences present a “significant difficulty for international media,’ said the company. The total volume of broadcast deals has fallen to 443 from 495 in 2022, a decrease of 11%. This highlights FIFA’s shift towards fewer broadcast partnerships with substantially higher individual values. Secondary broadcasters and sub-licensers have stepped away from the market, due to the challenges presented by time zone differences.

A clear regional split has been defined, with the total number of broadcast deals across Latin American and the Caribbean increasing by 18% while in Asia, the number fell by 21%.

Commenting on the findings, Evangelos Vrysellas, research analyst at Caretta Research, said, “Even though FIFA is set for record-breaking total revenue in 2026, the international broadcast landscape is becoming increasingly difficult. Media rights now represent a smaller portion of the overall revenue pie, with the value of each individual match dropping by 19%. The combination of middle-of-the-night kick-offs for major global markets and rising production expenses has discouraged many potential bidders, leading to a 11% drop in the total number of broadcast deals”.

This article original appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley is launching AMPP Edge Live, a purpose-built production system designed to bring professional production capabilities to enterprise teams. The company will unveil AMPP Edge Live at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas, June 17 to 19 (North Hall: N7369-MR).

Media production teams within enterprise organizations such as education, government, corporate communications, houses of worship and live events are often asked to do more with limited resources, yet existing production systems often lack the flexibility to support new workflows without significant additional investment, Grass Valley said.

AMPP Edge Live addresses this challenge by providing a flexible production foundation that grows with organizational needs, by combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration and AMPP OS in a single solution, according to the company.

“Production requirements are constantly evolving as audience expectations shift, creating challenges for enterprise organizations whose production infrastructures were not designed for today’s demands,” said Jonathan Lyth, Product Director for Enterprise Media, Grass Valley. “Businesses need production platforms that combine operational agility with the confidence of reliable performance. AMPP Edge Live delivers both, enabling organizations to adapt and scale production capabilities without adding operational complexity.”

The solution is available in two models that serve different production demands:

AMPP Edge Live 4000 is ideal for live event production and provides the performance to run solutions such as Event Producer X, which brings production switching, graphics, audio mixing, recording, streaming, monitoring and production control into a single browser-based interface.

AMPP Edge Live 6000 adds processing performance for more demanding production requirements and supports Sport Producer X, which combines switching, graphics, scoring, timing, data integration and instant replay for sports production.

Across both models, operators can manage workflows that previously required multiple specialist systems and dedicated personnel, all through one production environment, Grass Valley said.

AMPP Edge Live also simplifies lifecycle management through a unified ownership model. Grass Valley designs, validates and supports AMPP Edge Live as a complete solution, managing hardware validation, software compatibility, updates and support through a single point of accountability. This removes much of the integration burden associated with multi-vendor environments while helping ensure organizations remain ready for future production requirements.

AMPP Edge Live is built on a short-depth 4 RU chassis with redundant power and modular AMPP I/O cards, so connectivity can be tailored to each workflow. It includes enterprise-grade security, centralized management and role-based access controls, and forms part of the Grass Valley Media Universe, supporting on-premise, hybrid and cloud-connected workflows.

AMPP Edge Live is available now in the L4000 and L6000 appliance models, with SDI 8 and SDI 12 AMPP I/O card options and media storage choices of 2 TB or 4 TB.

CINCINNATI—The E.W. Scripps Company is kicking off extensive coverage leading up to America’s 250^th birthday on July 4.

Scripps’ local and national media platforms will bring Americans together around the stories, people and places that define the nation’s past and shape its future.

“America’s 250th anniversary is an opportunity to connect neighbors, share stories that inspire pride in our country and reaffirm the freedoms that make those stories possible,” said Dean Littleton, Scripps executive vice president of media broadcast operations. “Scripps has been that connection point since 1878. Our coverage will not only mark the milestone in our nation’s history but also reflect the very mission on which we were founded: to give light and the people will find their own way.”

Anchored by Scripps News special events anchor Alisyn Camerota, Scripps News will produce a 60-minute special to air on July 4, which will celebrate the people that embody the spirit of America. The program will combine local reporting with in-depth national storytelling and will be available across all Scripps local stations and Scripps News Group streaming platforms.

During the special, Scripps News Group is partnering with the Scripps Howard Fund to surprise five nonprofit organizations with a total of $75,000 in grants to further their mission and impact. From supporting children and families and fighting hunger, to creating jobs for people with special needs and providing service dogs to veterans, five organizations will each receive $15,000.

“These organizations are doing extraordinary work to uplift their communities,” said Meredith Delaney, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Fund. “Behind every neighborhood is a network of nonprofit organizations that educate, heal and connect people. Leveraging the power of Scripps’ nationwide footprint, we’re able to highlight their remarkable work to a national audience. By sharing their stories broadly, we aim to spark compassion, service and generosity that turns community needs into community solutions all across America.”

Scripps News Group coverage July 4 includes:

• 3 p.m. EDT: “JFK: Fact & Fable.”
• 4 p.m. EDT: “250: Celebrating America.”
• 5 p.m. EDT: “Happy Birthday, USA!”
• 6 p.m.-midnight: “4^th of July –Live from the Capitol.”

Throughout the summer, local Scripps TV stations will bring viewers original stories from the communities they serve, told by journalists who know those neighborhoods best. Coverage will capture local traditions, events and perspectives – from small-town parades and concerts to historical reenactments and civic ceremonies – highlighting how America 250 celebrations are bringing people together and showcasing the resilience and innovation at the heart of the American experience.

Scripps will also air a series of America 250 vignettes on its local stations and on Scripps News. These short features will honor everyday heroes, such as nurses, teachers and firefighters, alongside moments of innovation and cultural significance that embody the American spirit.

The station group has launched a dedicated “America 250” digital hub on all Scripps local station websites and ScrippsNews.com, offering event information, coverage highlights and stories from communities across the country.

Scripps’ “America 250” coverage is available online.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be one of the most-watched sporting events in streaming history. It will also be one of the most complicated for viewers to navigate.

For fans, the question sounds simple: where do I watch the match? But across connected TV, the answer is no longer as straightforward as turning on a channel. Viewers may encounter the tournament through a smart TV home screen, sports hub, streaming app, platform search, voice navigation, YouTube preview, or AI-powered recommendation.

With 104 matches and 48 teams, combined with multilingual coverage across multiple platforms, YouTube’s first 10-minute viewing window, and connected TV operating systems playing a larger role in content discovery, the tournament is shaping up to be a major test of the modern streaming experience.

The Home Screen Is the New Sports Guide
Today, the TV home screen is becoming the front door to live sports. The apps a viewer sees first, the events promoted in hero banners, the matches surfaced in live sports rows, and the results returned through search can all influence where audiences go and what they watch.

That matters because live sports discovery is different from entertainment discovery. A movie can be found later. A series can sit on a watchlist. But a live match has a start time, a halftime, and a final whistle. If fans cannot quickly find the right destination, the moment may be missed.

Because of that urgency, placement, timing, accuracy, and context all matter. A World Cup match prominently promoted on a TV home screen has a very different discovery advantage from one buried behind multiple clicks or unclear app navigation.

Live Sports Merchandising Is More Complex
The scale of the World Cup will make this even more complex. The tournament will include multiple daily matches, different kickoff times, national teams with varying levels of audience demand, and different viewing preferences across language, region, and platform. FIFA has predicted that 6 billion viewers will watch the tournament.

A fan searching for “Mexico live,” “World Cup highlights,” “soccer on now,” or “watch Argentina” may expect an instant answer. Whether that answer appears clearly will depend on how well platforms organize, tag, promote, and surface live sports content.

Apps still matter, but operating systems increasingly shape the path viewers take before they ever open an app. Sports hubs, recommendation rows, search tools, voice assistants, and AI-driven prompts can all guide fans toward one viewing path over another.

YouTube Could Reshape the Funnel
For the 2026 World Cup, match discovery could increasingly begin on YouTube, where official media partners will have the option to stream the first 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube channels.

That model adds an important new dimension to the viewing journey. By giving rights-holding broadcasters a way to showcase the opening minutes live on YouTube, FIFA is creating a new top-of-funnel entry point for fans who may encounter matches through previews, clips, creators, search, or algorithmic recommendations.

YouTube could become a powerful discovery channel, particularly for younger viewers and casual fans. But the real test will be the handoff: once the preview ends, can viewers easily find the full match on the correct app, language feed, or platform destination?

The more friction involved, the greater the risk that viewers drop off before reaching the full match experience.

Small UI Errors Can Create Big Problems
The 2026 World Cup will also expose the operational challenges behind live sports merchandising. At Looper Insights, our data has found an average of 1.3 user interface errors per live sports event. These can include incorrect tiles, incorrect start time listings, outdated promotions, missing event information, broken navigation paths, or inconsistent placement across devices.

For general entertainment, these issues are frustrating. For live sports, they can be costly. When a fan is trying to find a match already underway, even a small error can mean missed viewing time, confusion, or abandonment.

The impact extends to advertisers as well. If fans miss the opening minutes of a major World Cup match because the game is difficult to find, brands lose access to some of the most valuable live viewing moments: pre-game build-up, kick-off, early in-game attention, and the shared urgency that makes sports advertising so powerful. For sponsors and media buyers investing in marquee matches, discovery friction can weaken the value of campaigns that depend on audiences arriving on time and at scale.

That is why verification will matter as much as promotion. Broadcasters, streamers, rights holders, and platforms will need to know whether placements appeared as planned, whether event information was accurate, and whether issues were resolved before they affected viewers. At the World Cup scale, a missing tile, outdated promotion, or incorrect start time can affect tune-in, advertiser value, and the overall fan experience.

The Winners Will Make Discovery Effortless
The companies that perform best during the World Cup will not simply be those with the biggest campaigns. They will be the ones that make the viewing journey effortless: surfacing the right match at the right time, guiding fans from previews to full-match viewing, and ensuring promotions accurately reflect what is live now.

As streaming becomes more fragmented, visibility becomes more valuable. For live sports, visibility is not just about awareness. It is about access, timing, and conversion.

The match may start on the pitch, but for millions of viewers, the journey will begin on the home screen.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE has launched its summer 2026 education lineup, which includes two standalone courses, an intensive boot camp and a hands-on practical lab built to develop expertise in IP networking and SMPTE ST 2110.

Introduction to IP Networks and the ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp begin June 11, with Understanding ST 2110 starting later in the summer.

Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN), June 11-July 9, provides a foundation in IP networking suited to those new to the field as well as experienced professionals seeking a refresher. Participants work through every layer of the network stack, cover multicast and protocols, such as DNS and RTP, and gain hands-on experience with Wireshark, earning a certificate of completion and eligibility for the SMPTE Practical Lab.

The comprehensive ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp for IP Networking Professionals, June 11-Sept. 1, includes 20 modules across three courses, Introduction to IP Networks, Understanding ST 2110 and IP Network Design. Participants progress from networking fundamentals through PTP timing, synchronization and redundancy, network design and operational change management. Live coaching sessions, led by technologists from organizations, including the EBU, Lawo, Arista, Cisco and Meinberg, run Tuesdays and Thursdays and are recorded for on-demand access. Participants who complete the program and pass the final exam earn the industry-recognized SMPTE Certificate of Achievement.

Starting later in the summer, Understanding ST 2110, July 21-Sept. 1, offers an in-depth, practical exploration of the ST 2110 standard, covering uncompressed and compressed video, audio and data encapsulation, timing and synchronization, redundancy and network traffic shaping.

The SMPTE Practical Lab, available to those who complete Introduction to IP Networks, Understanding ST 2110 or the full Boot Camp, provides a sandbox environment in which to design, sync and troubleshoot live-production workflows. The Practical Lab is made possible by the support of partners, including Lawo Academy, Arista, Blackmagic Design, Meinberg, Bridge Technologies, Matrox and AJA Video Systems.

The standalone courses and the boot camp are instructor-led with live coaching sessions recorded and available on demand within 24 hours so participants can take part from any time zone.

“The move to IP is one of the most significant shifts our industry has seen, and our goal is to make the expertise behind it accessible to everyone who needs it,” said Maja Davidovic, director of education at SMPTE. “Our instructors are real-world practitioners who design and run these systems every day, our live sessions bring in special guest participants, and the learning stays hands-on and interactive throughout. Whether you’re taking your first steps in IP networking or preparing to lead a full ST 2110 migration, you'll be working through real challenges alongside the people shaping the field.”

SMPTE is offering member and non-member pricing for the courses, including:

• Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN): $399 for members and $599 for nonmembers.
• Understanding ST 2110: $399 and $599.
• ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp: $799 and $999.
• Practical Lab: $99 and $199.

Student and hardship discounts are always available for all SMPTE Education courses. Registration is available online.

WASHINGTON and OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) and ACA Connects have released further details about the program and events at the 21st annual Independent Show, which is themed “Imagination Meets Innovation”.

The event will take place July 26-29 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and reflect NCTC’s commitment to delivering practical value and resources for its members by focusing on turning industry innovation into immediate operational results, it said. Both the NCTC and ACAC represent smaller, independent cable operators.

“This year’s TIS is designed to make scaling networks, launching advanced services and supporting customers easier than ever for independent ISPs,” NCTC CEO Lou Borrelli said. “Every session, workshop and keynote will equip members with the strategies and turnkey solutions needed to expand and compete at enterprise scale as more broadband choices and smarter connectivity reshape the market. Attendees will leave Florida with a practical framework for enhancing the subscriber experience, whether through profitable mobile bundles, smart AI tools or seamless network convergence.”

Building on NCTC's growing portfolio of mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), programming, and network infrastructure solutions, The Independent Show will introduce expanded tactical workshops focused on mobile device strategies, bundling frameworks and network optimization, equipping members with the tools to offer converged services and increase long-term subscriber retention. These sessions will address the industry's evolving regulatory landscape while guiding members toward seamless customer experiences through the convergence of fiber, Wi-Fi, mobile and video.

Attendees will also learn about NCTC’s latest initiatives in AI, broadband, streaming and other areas shaping the future of connectivity, it said.

“On every front, we’re empowering independent operators to innovate, prepare for the future, and invest in their networks,” ACAC President and CEO Grant Spellmeyer said. “ACA Connects looks forward to leading conversations at The Independent Show with the most influential leaders driving broadband, video, and mobile policy, including FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty. Attendees will not just leave with a more strategic playbook to navigate the regulatory world; they will gain the confidence they need to run their businesses and win.”

ACAC will also deliver an insider analysis for Independent Show attendees, breaking down key policy debates in ways that will help the industry navigate upcoming regulatory and deregulatory changes in Washington.

Expert-led panels and interactive breakout sessions will also focus on topics such as:

• Mobile bundling strategies to strengthen broadband value and customer retention.
• AI deployment, data readiness and governance for B2B applications,
• The evolving video ecosystem and driving customer stickiness with NCTC Broadband TV.
• Network infrastructure optimization and convergence across fiber, Wi-Fi and mobile.
• Regulatory shifts, including permitting reform, AI oversight, universal service reform and changes to the video marketplace.

Keynotes and general sessions on the show’s agenda include:

• Noelle Russell, Founder & Chief AI Officer of the AI Leadership Institute – In the show’s opening keynote, Russell will share practical, real‑world insights on how independents can use AI to strengthen operations, serve customers better and stay competitive without losing what makes them unique.
• Olivia Trusty, FCC Commissioner – Shortly after the keynote on Monday, Trusty will join Spellmeyer for a fireside chat on empowering independent providers to expand broadband access, drive investment and strengthen rural communities.
• David and Jonah Stillman, Generational Experts – In Tuesday’s keynote, a father‑and‑son duo representing Gen X and Gen Z will share research on how different age groups influence technology adoption, culture and team dynamics.
• Jimmy Zasowski, President, Platform Distribution, Disney Entertainment and ESPN – Directly following Tuesday’s keynotes, Zasowki will share new insights in an exclusive fireside chat with NCTC's CEO.

In a pre-show event on July 26, the Marketing Innovators Group (NCTC members only) offers a hands-on AI workshop for marketers to sharpen competitive strategies, user groups to learn from peers and a welcome party at Epcot Pavilion, where guests can experience all four Disney parks in one night.

More information is available here.

WASHINGTON—When the FCC gave the green light for ATSC 3.0 in 2017, the focus was on improving television broadcasting by combining IP with RF to bring a new range of consumer applications, better reception and enhanced picture and audio quality. While there were discussions of datacasting and enterprise solutions at the time, the idea that the standard—also branded as “NextGen TV”—had enormous potential beyond traditional television was still nascent.

Nine years later, any doubt that ATSC 3.0 could impact U.S. communications infrastructure has been erased. That reality took center stage at this week’s annual ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference here, with three of the six sessions focused entirely on applications outside the traditional broadcast environment.

Nevertheless, the standard remains in a state of policy limbo. Broadcasters are actively petitioning the FCC to set a definitive sunset date for ATSC 1.0 so stations can drop the burden of simulcasting and unleash the full potential of ATSC 3.0.

ATSC President Madeleine Noland aptly characterized this state of transition in her opening speech.

“The current U.S. situation, as one broadcaster in this room put it, feels kind of like 'the worst of both worlds' as we straddle between a 25-year-old technology with ATSC 1.0 and the tremendous opportunities in front of us with ATSC 3.0,” she said.

Maintaining Perspective
Although NextGen TV sets have been on the consumer market since late 2020—with about 18 million units sold, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)—widespread consumer adoption and enthusiasm have lagged. Noland looked to history to contextualize the current conundrum.

“We have to put these things in perspective—the issues we face today are similar to the issues of yesterday,” Noland said. “But perhaps more urgent, as technology and consumer habits are evolving at an ever-increasing pace, we don't quite have the luxury of a decade-plus to get things right in this media landscape.”

Despite sluggish hardware adoption, Noland touted the operational progress broadcasters have made with the standard.

“My estimate is that 1.3 million people in the United States today are enjoying High Dynamic Range (HDR) over the air for free for the first time; over half a million are enjoying Dolby Atmos; 1.2 million have access to interactive services, and over a half a million of those can use ‘Start Over TV,’” she said. “This is today, for free, in the United States over the air for the first time ever. So these numbers are growing, and growing fast.”

Noland also hailed the increased international attention on ATSC 3.0 in light of Brazil's adoption of the physical layer of 3.0 last summer.

“For many years, when we talked about ATSC, we naturally led with better television, better picture quality, better audio, better reception, better emergency information, more interactive viewer experiences,” she said. “And those benefits remain absolutely central to the transition now underway in the United States and Brazil and other countries.

“But around the world, governments, regulators, broadcasters and technology companies are increasingly recognizing something even bigger—ATSC 3.0 is not just a television system; it is a flexible IP-based broadcast communications platform capable of delivering many kinds of data services and public interest applications efficiently, securely and at scale,” she added. “In some countries, that broader capability is becoming the starting point of the conversation, whether it’s educational content delivery, resilient emergency communications, automotive applications, software distribution, positioning technology, smart city infrastructure or direct-to-mobile service.”

Shifting the Bipartisan Conversation
In a fireside chat with Noland, National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt praised the technology's momentum but offered a cautious perspective on the timeline for an FCC regulatory decision. In February, the NAB asked the commission to mandate an ATSC 1.0 sunset in the top 75 markets by the end of 2028, with the remaining markets following by the end of 2030.

“We understand that at any particular moment the FCC has a lot of competing priorities, and we need to ensure that the nationwide deployment of ATSC 3.0 is at the very top of that list,” LeGeyt said. “Shifting the conversation from whether ATSC 3.0 is going to be the standard of the future to how we are going to get there is tactical, given the Washington environment we are in.”

LeGeyt also emphasized the rare bipartisan support the standard has maintained on Capitol Hill.

“In a very polarized Washington environment, ATSC 3.0 doesn’t register Republican or Democrat; it registers local,” he said. “And that’s why you've got such positive remarks—maybe emphasizing different features of the technology—from each of the commissioners, as well as the Chairman…this is a transition that's going to need to transcend politics."

BPS Spinoff
LeGeyt used the event to announce the NAB’s launch of Merkhet Solutions, an independent company focused on the commercial deployment of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS). BPS utilizes the NextGen TV standard to deliver precise terrestrial timing and location signals over existing broadcast towers, functioning as a vital backup to satellite-based GPS.

“BPS represents a powerful intersection of innovation, public safety, and opportunity for broadcasters,” LeGeyt said in a statement. “Launching Merkhet Solutions is the next step in commercializing this technology and ensuring it reaches the critical infrastructure operators who need it most, while continuing to create meaningful long-term opportunities for local stations.”

Speaking to attendees, LeGeyt added that BPS offers an opportunity to solve a massive public policy vulnerability while generating an entirely new revenue stream to help accelerate the 3.0 transition.

“We made the determination that for BPS to recognize its full potential—that we at NAB certainly believe that it has, and the NAB member companies on our board of directors believe that it has—not only to solve this important public policy issue, but also as a potential revenue stream for broadcasters, and as an accelerant to ATSC 3.0,” he said.

Sam Matheny, who previously led the NAB’s internal BPS initiatives, has been named CEO of the spinoff.

“BPS solves a problem we can no longer afford to ignore: an entire economy and national security posture resting on a single, contested signal from space,” Matheny said. “We built BPS at NAB because broadcast infrastructure is uniquely suited to deliver assured terrestrial timing at scale. We’re launching Merkhet Solutions because the time to operationalize this technology is now.”

Matheny updated the audience on real-world testing of the system in the Washington, D.C., area.

“We are at an actual critical infrastructure site—that was one of the requirements,” Matheny explained. “Our partner is Dominion Energy. We are at one of the largest power substations on the East Coast and we have put our leader-follower, self-synchronizing network in place with them.”

Plans will initially focus on regional rollouts. “Let’s do more relationships like we have with Dominion Energy, where we can hear directly from critical infrastructure partners on how they want to use it…and how we can best provide BPS as a complement to their GPS,” Matheny said.

Dr. Andrew Hansen, a prominent expert in navigation and timing who was instrumental in developing three global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), was profuse in his praise of BPS, calling the initial testing data "stunning."

“I am jealous—I’ve lived in standards my entire professional career, and 3.0 is a good one,” Hansen remarked. “GPS was a gift to the world; the idea that you can synchronize time around the world to ones of nanoseconds shook physical principles. The idea that we can now do this to ones of nanoseconds with BPS layered on ATSC 3.0 is remarkable.”

Improving the Viewer Experience
While enterprise infrastructure dominated the headlines, the “Better TV” session focused on local enhancements, including interactive applications, content curation and localized accessibility features.

Jason Quinn, director of engineering at New Mexico PBS, highlighted how the technology solves deep structural communication issues in rural, tribal areas. Covering the 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation, the network is working with partners Ateme and Heartland Video Systems to deploy real-time AI translations and multi-language captioning.

“A lot of unique challenges that communities are facing have nothing to do with broadcast television, but have everything to do with the transfer of information,” Quinn said. Recent over-the-air tests successfully broadcast simultaneous Spanish and Vietnamese AI-translated caption tracks alongside standard English.

On the commercial datacasting side, Joe Fabiano, chief technology officer of EdgeBeam Wireless—a joint venture backed by E.W. Scripps, Gray Media, Nexstar Media Group, and Sinclair—updated attendees on the JV’s tech pipeline.

“We’re helping ATSC advance the standards to bring full IP networking, routing, and peering capabilities into the standard,” Fabiano said, noting that EdgeBeam’s ultimate goal is to blend seamlessly into background consumer ecosystems. “We’re not creating hardware and platforms for the purposes of becoming a hardware manufacturer. We're doing it for the purposes of bridging, so that we disappear into consumer electronics.”

The Race Against Wireless Competitors
The transition isn’t without immediate external competitive threats. During a panel focused on Advanced Emergency Information (AEI), So Vang, vice president of emerging technology at Sinclair subsidiary ONE Media 3.0, issued a blunt warning regarding impending features from the commercial wireless sector.

“We’re talking about keeping broadcasters relevant,” Vang cautioned. “If wireless alerting is going to do exactly what AEI is doing, we better step up and do it…The wireless industry is moving ahead. They will very likely roll out features like AEI—not with full interactivity, but at least with the ability to get a photo or a map to the handset. There’s a live FCC proceeding on that.”

Edward Czarnecki, vice president of global and government affairs at Digital Alert Systems, reminded the room that broadcasters possess a distinct structural advantage. Unlike wireless carriers, which hold blanket legal indemnification from emergency alert liabilities, broadcasters operate under strict statutory local obligations and hold far superior delivery capacity.

“AEI is an informational service, not an alert service,” Czarnecki noted. “We can do a lot more with languages, accessibility and multimedia than the wireless industry can because of our bandwidth and the versatility of the app environment.”

Chicken-and-Egg Redux
NAB’s LeGeyt compared the current 3.0 landscape to the classic “chicken-and-egg” hardware vs. content dilemma that defined the original digital transition decades ago—only this time, the stakes are exponentially higher.

“In order for consumers to see the value proposition of the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV experience, we need to be implementing and deploying new features that are going to make this really attractive,” LeGeyt said. “And that goes beyond just a great picture. It's all the features that, frankly, may have been an innovation story 10 years ago, but really are just table stakes to compete in this media landscape today.”

The ATSC concluded the day by announcing the recipients of its two most coveted awards. Mark Aitken was named recipient of the Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal and Julia Kenyon of the CTA received the 2026 Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the only way to get the news out to the new nation’s 2.5 million citizens was via fledgling newspapers, with dispatches carried on horseback and by ships traversing coastal ports. Compare this to today’s United States, with 330-plus million inhabitants and the technology to instantaneously reach almost anyone with HD video.

To get ready for the event called by a name few people will probably use—”Semiquincentennial”—TV networks and station groups are offering hundreds of hours of special-event programming and taking advantage of 21st-century technologies to deliver it to anyone within reach of a TV or mobile device.

Plenty of Celebratory Fare Already Underway
ABC’s “Good Morning America” is running “50 States in 50 Weeks,” a yearlong series where a “GMA” anchor or correspondent will visit different states in order of their admission into the Union, a network spokesperson said. The feature showcases a state’s history, notable landmarks, culture and traditions.

Station group Sinclair initiated special event programming last December with the first installment of “Amazing America 250: From Neighborhood to Nation,” which aired in connection with the annual Army-Navy football game.

Additionally, Sinclair stations are featuring stories spotlighting American innovation, U.S. heroes, and everyday Americans making a difference in various communities where Sinclair has a presence. This series, “The National News Desk…America’s News Now,” airs weekly through July.

“‘Amazing America 250’ is a reflection of Sinclair’s mission to enrich local lives in every community we serve,” Sinclair President and CEO Chris Ripley said. “From national specials to local stories, from everyday heroes in our neighborhoods to defining moments in our shared history, this campaign honors and celebrates America’s journey.”

NBCUniversal Local’s NBC and Telemundo stations began a 100-day celebration of the 250th in March, with the initial airing of “Our 250th” (“Nuestros 250” in Spanish), featuring news coverage, historical vignettes and other programming celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s independence. The final segment airs July 4th with six hours of live coverage of the “Sail4th 250” event from New York Harbor, an event billed as the largest assemblage in history of international ships in U.S. waters.

“We’re excited to launch this special initiative to inform, entertain and support our communities as we count down the final 100 days to our national celebration on Independence Day, which we’re proud to commemorate by presenting Sail4th 250’s festivities to audiences nationwide,” NBCU Local Chairman Valari Dobson Staab said.

NBC and Telemundo stations will also air programming tailored to their communities highlighting local traditions and historically notable individuals and locales.

Fox News Media is also celebrating the country’s 250th birthday in a big way.

“Fox News Media will be the place for Americans to experience the celebration of America’s 250th—with comprehensive coverage designed to meet audiences wherever they are,” Fox News Media Senior Vice President of Politics Jessica Loker said. “Viewers can count on Fox News to be on the ground for the signature celebrations in Washington, such as ‘Rededicate 250’ on the National Mall, the National Observance of Memorial Day, the Great American State Fair and Salute to America on the Fourth of July. Beyond the capital, Fox News will broadcast live from Sail4th in New York and the opening of the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota.”

Fox News began its special Semiquincentennial programming last New Year’s Eve, Loker noted, with coverage of the six-night special illumination of the Washington Monument and the celebratory fireworks that officially kicked off the nation’s 250th birthday event.

Fox’s special programming for the 250th concludes July 4, with that day dedicated to “expansive, live multiplatform coverage creating a unifying, immersive all-day experience across all screens,” said Loker. “Through real-time reporting and live broadcasts, Americans can come together to watch the celebrations unfold as they happen.”

‘My American Story’
Nexstar Media Group has also been commemorating the country’s birthday event with its share of special programming, including a cross-platform initiative, “My American Story.”

“As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, Nexstar and our new content studio are uniquely positioned to tell the nation’s story—not from one city or one network, but from every community across the country,” said Dan Lanzano, Nexstar’s president of national advertising sales, adding that the content initiative “reflects the heart of who we are” and is “deeply connected to the people and places that make this country extraordinary.”

The series is available on the group’s national and local outlets as well as a website, myamericanstory.tv. Other special Nexstar programming includes “Main Street USA,” which highlights the revitalization of small communities, and “Celebrating Main Street on Route 66,” which honors the nation’s 100-year-old “Mother Road.”

Although CBS hadn’t finalized its coverage plans at press time, it did reveal what its owned-and-operated stations had in store.

Special coverage in the New York market served by WCBS-TV began in April with

“Tri-State 250: Our Legacy of Liberty,” a series airing three times each day and spotlighting Revolutionary-era sites and stories across New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

KYW-TV, CBS’s Philadelphia operation, is airing programming focusing on that region’s role in America’s founding and its continuing influence today. The series “Founded in Philly” includes historic neighborhoods, civic institutions and community events.

In Detroit, CBS’s WWJ-TV is featuring historical and cultural subjects including the city’s automotive industry, Motown Records and the Underground Railroad.

The network is planning expanded coverage of major July 4th commemorative and civic celebrations, including a number of large-scale events taking place in metropolitan New York City.

The National Association of Broadcasters has also been very much involved in Semiquincentennial-year doings, issuing targeted spot announcements and information and suggestions to assist stations in engaging with their communities of license in connection with the big event.

“As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, we are proud to spotlight the unique role broadcasters play as trusted recorders of history,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said.

Marking an 18th-Century Event With 21st-Century Technology
Our country’s last big birthday celebration was in 1976. While television played a large role in making Bicentennial events accessible to the general population—save for the use of some early minicams and a few satellite-delivered remotes—there was little in the way of “high tech.” Things have changed a lot in 50 years.

The last time the U.S. celebrated its birthday in a really big way was in 1976. While television played a large role in making major Bicentennial events accessible to the general population, save for use of a few minicams that arrived with the ENG movement a year or so earlier and some satellite-delivered remote feeds (NBC was bold enough to attempt a July 4 live feed from Yellowstone National Park using yet-unproven Ku-band spectrum), there was little in the way of “high tech.” Things have changed a lot in that regard in the past 50 years.

All coverage of the 250th will be delivered in high definition, and most programming will be available over-the-air and streamed to smartphones and tablets in formats customized for those devices.

With such a multiplatform approach, “we have the ability to lift up smaller, deeply local stories and share them far beyond a single newscast or market,” Tegna Chief Content Officer Adrienne Roark said. “Rather than focusing on a single, national, over-the-top production that showcases new technology, we’re using our streaming and mobile resources to meet audiences where they are and using these tools to make local stories national in scope.”

Additional tech that was unthinkable back in the analog days of 1976 is also enhancing the viewing experience.

“Our field operations and production teams are taking advantage of HDR technology when appropriate,” noted Fox News Media’s Loker, adding that drones will play a major role in that network’s July 4th coverage. “If there is one technology that truly elevates these broadcasts, it is the use of drones. The Fox Flight team will be deployed to capture sweeping aerial views and showcase celebrations from unique perspectives across the country.”

Sinclair stations will use ATSC 3.0 over-the-air broadcasts to “to deliver enhanced visual storytelling and immersive viewing experiences [to ensure] audiences can engage with the cele­bration of America’s 250th anniversary across multiple platforms,” spokesperson Jessica Bellucci said.

CBS O&Os are even leveraging augmented and virtual reality in their coverage.

“Many of our stations are unique in the sense that they are the only station group that has augmented reality/virtual reality technology-driven studios,” said Elita Fielder Adjei, senior vice president of communications at CBS Stations. “Viewers will be able to see special programming that is produced within this environment.”

CBS’s KPIX San Francisco will be using AR/VR “to tell historical stories, giving viewers an immersive look at life for Indigenous communities in 1776,” Adjei noted, while KYW-TV will also tap AR/VR “in connection with its ‘Founded in Philly’ initiatives, including ‘Philly Is Proud,’ ‘Philly Is Innovative’ and ‘Philly Is a Vibe.’”

This year is certain to be remembered as a very special one for our country and for the special television coverage that’s being made available to viewers.

LAS VEGAS—IAMT, formerly known as IABM, has announced it will be offering an extensive program of sessions at InfoComm 2026, which runs from June 17 to 19, 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Events include the InfoComm Spotlight Stage Partner Sessions, featuring an exciting panel of experts exploring everything from the rise of enterprise media production to how organizations are rethinking storytelling and content creation in the workplace.

It will so be hosting the IAMT Social Hour, where attendees can relax and unwind with the IAMT team and global MediaTech community on June 17 and 18 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the IAMT Hub – N7055.

The full program is available here.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) will hold its annual NextGen Broadcast Conference at National Association of Broadcasters headquarters in Washington, D.C., next week.

The two day conference, June 2-3, will explore advances in datacasting, emergency communications, Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) technologies, hybrid broadcast-broadband architectures, cloud-native workflows, AI-enabled operations, and converged ATSC 3.0/5G Broadcast services.

The conference will also recognize individuals whose leadership and technical excellence continue to shape the future of broadcasting, ATSC said. Following tradition, the organization will unveil the winner of the 2026 Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award, which recognizes an individual representative of the membership whose technical and leadership contributions to ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary.

Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media Technologies, senior vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair and the recipient of the Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal, will also be recognized.

“It will be a great honor to bestow the Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal to Mark Aitken of ONE Media/Sinclair, recognizing the many achievements he has done to champion ATSC technologies throughout the world,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland said.

“The NextGen Broadcast Conference offers the opportunity to reconnect, exchange ideas, and continue building the future of broadcasting together,” Noland said. “The conversations taking place among engineers, broadcasters, policymakers, researchers, and innovators will help define how broadcasting serves viewers, communities, industries, and nations in the years ahead.”

Click here for more information.

The organizers of the 2026 NAB show have announced that more than 200 videos from sessions on a wide range of topics are now available on demand.

The move allows attendees who had a packed schedule during the show to watch sessions they may have missed.

Sessions from the Main Stage, show floor and Streaming Summit are available, covering a wide variety of topics and labels, including:

• All Sessions
• Main Stage
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cloud Virtualization
• Creator Economy
• Sports
• Streaming

Breakdowns by additional categories such as NextGen TV are available here.

Feld Entertainment, family owned and operated, is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live touring family entertainment experiences that bring people together and uplift the human spirit.

Properties include Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Monster Jam, Disney On Ice, Monster Energy AMA Supercross, and the SuperMotocross World Championship. Across the brand portfolio, Feld Entertainment has entertained millions of families in more than 80 countries and on six continents.

For nearly 60 years, Feld Entertainment has brought Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, The Greatest Show On Earth to audiences across the country. In 2026, the 148^th edition was introduced, reimagined for today’s families and touring nationwide, with the clear ambition to evolve the circus into a modern, high-energy experience built for a new generation.

Branded as The Greatest Party On Earth, this new production set out the audience into participants by creating a live environment that feels contemporary, interactive, and immersive, while still maintaining the precision and reliability required for a fast-moving arena tour operating in some of the largest and most technically complex venues in the world.

The Challenge
A key component of this vision was real-time audience integration. Feld aimed to capture and feature authentic, in-the-moment, fan reactions and audience participation during the show by streaming live video directly from the crowd and showcasing live reactions on the large arena (or IMAG) screens in the arenas. This required performers to move freely throughout the audience while seamlessly capturing and transmitting broadcast-quality video.

“To create this fun atmosphere for The Greatest Party on Earth, we wanted to encourage more audience interaction and get everyone up and dancing,” said Brian Hanley, Senior Video Operations Manager at Feld Entertainment. “We thought that by filming from that first person experience from a mobile phone, it would create that social media influencer vibe on the live screen for the whole audience to see.”

Delivering on this vision introduced a complex technical challenge. The solution needed to provide a stable wireless connection, ultra-low latency to ensure real-time synchronization with IMAG screens, and professional-grade video quality—all within highly dynamic, unpredictable environments.

With each performance taking place in a different arena with its own infrastructure, RF environment, and network limitations, Feld was faced with several significant challenges such as wireless congestion from thousands of audience members, varying venue layouts, and limited setup time. These challenges created a live production set up where traditional fixed cameras and infrastructure-heavy solutions were impractical for traversing the crowd and producing the immersive experience they were trying to create.

The Result
With the need for a reliable and portable solution, Feld Entertainment implemented a Haivision-based mobile live video contribution and streaming workflow to support and enhance audience interaction.

Performers now film with smartphones with the Haivision MoJoPro professional camera app installed, which captures live video and wirelessly streams it to the production control environment where a Haivision StreamHub receiver distributes it to the IMAG screens for the audience to see.

By deploying high-powered access points around the performance space, they were able to establish a controlled, high-priority WiFi environment within the venue, allowing for an effective point-to-point connection. This connection and solution enables live video to be displayed at low latency, allowing audience members to see themselves on the screen without delays.

“One of the biggest issues was latency and we did not want to deal with relying on the internet. We didn't want to have to deal with the stream coming back with too much delay. We wanted everything to stay local,” said Hanley. “We don’t always get internet in every arena, so we also needed something that could help with that.”

In addition to performers capturing footage from within the audience, trapeze artists take the experience even further—using MoJoPro-equipped mobile devices while soaring through the air to film breathtaking, first-person perspectives. These dynamic, never-before-seen angles deepen the sense of immersion and bring audiences closer to the action than ever before—something only possible with a fully flexible and highly reliable solution.

Ease-of-use was also important when choosing MoJoPro for the show. Performers are operating the app, so it’s vital that the solution is lightweight, and is very simple to use.

The deployment of the Haivision solution is enabling Feld Entertainment to deliver an immersive Ringling Bros. Circus experience that connects the audience directly to the performers and involves them in the storytelling, enhancing engagement without disrupting the flow of the performance.

WASHINGTON—ATSC, The Broadcast Standards Association, today announced that Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media and senior vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair Broadcast Group, will be honored on June 2 as the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal.

This annual award honors individuals or teams who demonstrate exemplary leadership in advancing ATSC’s mission and embody the vision, tenacity, and commitment that defined the legacy of former longtime ATSC President Mark Richer. Richer led the organization through two decades of transformative innovation, from the original ATSC 1.0 standard to the launch of ATSC 3.0 next-generation standards.

The 2026 Richer Medal will be presented to Aitken during ATSC’s 2026 NextGen Broadcast Conference during the first week of June in Washington. Registration is now open for the event.

The ATSC board of directors awarded Aitken the Richer Medal for his longtime work to advance next-generation broadcasting in the U.S. and throughout the world. Promoting ATSC 3.0 as the most flexible IP-based broadcasting option available to broadcasters, Aitken has invested significant energy and time in developing new avenues for ATSC 3.0—particularly in India.

“From the beginning, as ATSC members began discussing how broadcasting should evolve to meet the changing needs of the industry and consumers, Mark Aitken has played a pivotal role in helping to build support for next-generation broadcasting as both an obvious upgrade for viewers but also for the new business opportunities that emerge with ATSC 3.0,“ ATSC President Madeleine Noland said. “With Mark’s leadership and personal engagement, the ATSC 3.0 standards have rapidly advanced to meet the needs of stakeholders and consumers throughout the world. Mark has also been instrumental as we sought to reimagine ATSC itself, not just as a television standards body but as THE Broadcast Standards Association. He exemplifies the very qualities that Mark Richer himself embodied during his leadership of ATSC.”

Said Aitken: “I am deeply honored to receive the ATSC Mark Richer Medal, an award that carries special meaning because of Mark’s extraordinary legacy of technical leadership, collaboration and service to the broadcasting community. This recognition belongs as much to the colleagues and partners who have worked alongside me to advance the future of broadcasting as it does to me.“

Aitken has spent more than four decades shaping the evolution of modern broadcasting technologies and standards, joining Sinclair in 1999 after accumulating more than 25 years of industry experience with companies including CCA Electronics and COMARK, where he specialized in advanced RF and transmission technologies. Since joining Sinclair, he has led the company’s efforts in emerging broadcast technologies, spectrum innovation, advanced networking systems, and digital television deployment.

As President of ONE Media Technologies, Aitken helped establish Sinclair’s technology innovation platform focused on developing advanced broadcast systems that integrate broadband, mobile connectivity, datacasting and enhanced video delivery. Aitken currently serves on the boards of the ATSC and the Advanced Television Broadcast Alliance (ATBA), and previously served as a board member of Saankhya Labs, a semiconductor and software-defined networking company specializing in broadcast and wireless technologies. He is also an active member of professional organizations including IEEE, SMPTE, and the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE).

An accomplished inventor and author, Aitken holds multiple patents related to RF devices, broadcast architectures and next-generation communication systems. He has written numerous technical papers focused on digital broadcasting strategies, advanced transmission systems, and emerging media technologies. His contributions to the industry have earned him several prestigious honors, including the NAB Television Engineering Achievement Award, the ATSC Bernard Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award, the Broadcasting & Cable Technology Leadership Award, and recognition as a fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

WASHINGTON—The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation has announced the four recipients of its inaugural LABF Preservation Grants. Each of the selected applicants will receive a grant of $2,500 to be used to preserve specific elements of broadcast history.

LABF co-chair Deborah Parenti said, “Grant recipients were chosen for their high scores in areas including historical significance, preservation methodology and feasibility, accessibility and public availability, and impact and contribution to the field.

2026 LABF Preservation Grant Recipients are:

• California Historical Radio Society, which is dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of radio, broadcasting, and electronic communication in the Bay Area and beyond. The LABF grant will be used to preserve and expand access to the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame’s historically significant audio archives, which document decades of broadcasting that shaped Bay Area and California cultural life.
• Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy (SPERDVAC), which, since 1974, has been dedicated to collecting, restoring and sharing the recordings of classic radio programs from the 1930's through the early 1960's. The LABF grant will be used to equip a new Restoration Volunteer to join the restoration team and increase SPERDVACs capacity to restore and share the Society’s content.
• TCMediaNow, a nonprofit organization whose mission is the preservation, digitization, and long-term stewardship of historically significant broadcast television and film materials. LABF’s grant will be used to support the group’s efforts to stabilize, digitize and provide long-term public access to the professional video and film archive of Stan Turner, a legendary Twin Cities broadcaster and Minnesota Broadcast Hall of Fame member.
• WHRO Public Media whose mission is to make its audience smarter and happier through the power of nonprofit media. The company will use the LABF Preservation Grant to preserve a collection of materials from its earliest days of delivering educational content to schools in Hampton Roads, Va. The collection includes 20 hours of media that are at risk of degradation due to their obsolete media formats; major activities will include the digitization of these materials, metadata creation, and ingesting them into WHRO’s Digital Asset Management System for future access.

LABF co-chair Dave “Chachi” Denes added that “We want to thank our five-person selection panel comprised of members of the LABF Board of Directors. Without their contribution of time as well as their specific expertise in areas including broadcasting, preservation, academic and media history, LABF would not have been able to review the applications and select the four outstanding grant recipients.

In addition to the monetary award, grant recipients will be both honored as LABF Preservation Ambassadors on the Foundation’s website (TVRadioLibrary.org) and be recognized on-site during LABF’s Giants of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Gala Luncheon at Gotham Hall in New York City on Tuesday, November 17, 2026.

For more information, visit www.tvradiolibrary.org.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation (NABLF) has announced that Kidde, a leading manufacturer of residential fire and life safety products, will be given the Corporate Leadership Award.

The honor will be awarded during the 2026 Celebration of Service to America Award, presented by Bonneville International and Hearst Television, on June 9 at The Anthem here.

Each year, the Corporate Leadership Award is presented to a business outside of the broadcast industry that shows an outstanding dedication to public service and corporate social responsibility, NABLF said.

Kidde has been a leading home fire-safety brand and a pioneer in smoke and carbon monoxide detection for more than 100 years, NABLF said.

As a part of its focus on education, Kidde is the title sponsor of a new television series, “Home for Good,” produced with Hearst Media Production Group and Epic Entertainment and Media Group and airing weekends on ABC stations nationwide.

“Home for Good” is a home renovation series dedicated to honoring America’s everyday heroes, from first responders and military veterans to community champions. More than just a makeover show, the series bridges the gap between beautiful design and essential home safety, providing viewers with expert do-it-yourself insights and a vital focus on fire and carbon monoxide education through Kidde’s team of fire safety educators, NABLF said.

“We are proud to recognize Kidde for its extraordinary commitment to protecting families and strengthening communities,” NABLF President Michelle Duke said. “Through life-saving fire safety education and programming that elevates everyday heroes, Kidde is helping deliver trusted information that can make a real difference in people’s lives. Their work reflects the same spirit of service that broadcasters bring to communities every day through trusted news, emergency information and public service programming.”

Additionally, Kidde’s Cause for Alarm initiative addresses systemic fire safety inequity by providing resources and support to at-risk communities. Kidde has donated nearly 2 million alarms to fire departments and communities across both the U.S. and Canada through Cause for Alarm and other advocacy efforts.

"At Kidde, we believe every family—in every community—deserves the peace of mind that comes with a safe home,” Kidde President of Global Residential Fire and Safety Isis Wu said. “For more than a century, this belief has guided everything we do. Being recognized by the NAB Leadership Foundation is a tremendous honor because broadcasters play a critical role in advancing this collective mission by helping our safety messages reach the families who need them most. We share this recognition with our fire service, nonprofit and media partners and with the Kidde team, who approach safety not simply as a product category but as a purpose.”

In addition to the Corporate Leadership Award, the Celebration of Service to America Awards will recognize local television and radio stations and broadcast groups for their outstanding public service.

For more information about the awards and event, visit its website.

The GV Forum offers broadcasters and other media professionals the chance to address the pressing issues of the day.

At this year’s forum, April 18 at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas, those issues ranged from software-defined workflows and new operating models for live and linear media production to artificial intelligence and aligning business and tech strategies.

The following snapshot from GV Forum offers a glimpse into some of the insights and experiences of media pros who spoke at the event.

Dynamic Streaming

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, offered CBC/Radio Canada a chance to see if the concept of a Dynamic Media Facility could deliver on its promises of agility, flexibility and scalability, said Francois Legrand, the broadcaster’s senior director at its Innovation Hub.

“We wanted to find a way to improve the production value of our digital streams without increasing the cost and maybe at the same time generate additional revenue,” said Legrand.

For its streaming coverage of curling, CBC replaced an entire production control room with a Grass Valley AMPP-based software-defined production workflow running on a server and an operator controlling the production from a laptop via a custom, CBC-built interface.

“We wanted graphics, video, audio—everything—in the same tool to have the same unified interface, not multiple windows and multiple screens,” he said. The operator could also add commercial breaks via the interface.

CBC found it to be much easier to build the interface than expected due to the “great API,” said Legrand, adding the interface enabled the operator to do bumpers and stings, add graphics, lower-thirds and perform squeeze backs.

The broadcaster targeted operational simplicity when creating the interface, providing only “the right amount of tool to do the job assigned,” thereby minimizing the amount of training time needed and operator expense, he said.

The software-defined workflow proved to be a success. Not only did it support insertion of 676 branded promos during multiple games, production of 144 hours of content and delivery to some 500,000 streaming viewers for some matches, but it also proved to be quite agile and flexible, said Legrand.

Automation, Orchestration and AI

Globo, like other broadcasters, is being asked to address the appetite of viewers for more live sports coverage without significantly larger budgets, creating the need “to do more with less,” said Mauricio Felix Vasconcellos, Globo executive director of technology.

The first step in achieving that goal is to have the right technology in place. “We need a platform that can guarantee that we can orchestrate it and change quickly,” he said.

“We believe we can reduce the operational requirements a lot with automation, orchestration and using artificial intelligence,” said Vasconcellos.

While technology costs money, it can also enhance the efficiency of staff to enable Globo to do more with less. “Today we operate in a control room with six or seven people,” he said. “How can we reduce that to two multi-skilled people so we can do more events at the same time?”

The right technology can make workflows more efficient, transforming the business to achieve this productivity goal, he said.

Getting to a platform that can unlock these workflow benefits, however, will require Globo to transition to IP to leverage the benefits the IT world brings to the table, he said.

“With IP, we can have the flexibility to use the network and infrastructure as we want,” said Vasconcellos. “This is where we want to get, and that is why it is important we keep focusing on our partners.”

The technical component to workflow efficiency also involves an orchestration layer with the intelligence to enable production of multiple sports at the same time or multiple newscasts simultaneously while accommodating the specific capabilities and characteristics of different operators, he said.

The cloud, too, will play an important role going forward. “I see that three years from now, we are going to improve the interoperability between cloud and on premise. MXL is coming. I think in two or three years things are going to get simplified and streamlined.”

Software-Defined Live Production

Enhancing production efficiency is a priority at Warner Bros. Discovery, said company vice president, operations, Chris Brown, and the media giant’s “integration rooms,” the production control rooms sitting between multiple sites, game sites and its studios, have been a great place to start.

“We looked at where we could save a little bit of money, become a little bit more efficient because of all of what it [software-defined production] promises as far as the reduction of staffing,” he said.

Deployed for “some time now,” the GV AMPP-based software-defined live production workflow is enabling Warner Bros. Discovery to run those rooms consistently with no engineering.

To a casual observer, the Warner Bros. Discovery’s integration rooms look a lot like a traditional control room. But upon second glance, there are only control surfaces and some monitoring—no other equipment. “There are just HEVC streams coming from the cloud or on-prem, depending on where you’re running it,” he said.

Production teams simply enter an integration room, decide what they want to do and provision the room as required via GV AMPP’s API orchestration, he said.

Pressing a single button provisions the room to the production requirements of a specific live show. “It will spin up an AWS machine, deploy the GV workspace, spin them all up and wire them all together,” he said. “Then what you see are monitors light up and pictures appear so you can do the production.”

“What we’re hoping to be able to get to is a place where we can then begin to realize an economy of scale with the [Elgato] Stream Deck [control surface] in conjunction with AMPP,” said Brown. “Ideally, we are hoping to keep it that simple.”

AI and simplification: It’s not so easy

One of the biggest challenges facing Sky is the complexity of delivering content across multiple platforms via IP, said Dave Travis, group director of content, broadcast and platforms, at Sky.

“That puts a lot of pressure on our team,” said Travis. “So, our biggest priority is managing that demand and trying to simplify. Simplification is absolutely critical, not just to Sky but to the industry at large. I think in the future, we need to make it easier across the board.”

Artificial intelligence holds the key to simplification, but it is not without risk. Noting Sky would like to introduce AI to address a range of issues, including its software development lifecycle where it could accelerate how Sky develops code, Travis said adopting artificial intelligence remains a challenge due to concerns over security and corporate compliance.

“It is a real big challenge. Some are doing AI really quickly,” he said. “If you're a small organization and don't seem to have the same corporate compliance obstacles, that may be possible. But we're a big organization, and we want to protect ourselves.”

One path forward may be promoting collaboration among various stakeholders in the industry. Still, he fears even these collaborations could lead to “an arms race patching” vulnerabilities—something he is unsure about managing. “I think our CTO conversations and technology leadership calls are going to very much focused on that properly for the foreseeable future. We have to really learn together and find a solution for that problem.”

About Grass Valley

Grass Valley drives the future of media production with seamless, scalable solutions that empower top content creators. Its integrated ecosystem—featuring industry-leading hardware, the AMPP Media Operating System, and a robust Alliance Partner network—enables efficient content production, management, and distribution.

From live global events to browser-based independent projects, Grass Valley maximizes content value, streamlines workflows, and future-proofs media operations.

With over 65 years of innovation and a commitment to open, agile solutions, Grass Valley is leading the media revolution and shaping the future of storytelling. https://www.grassvalley.com/

WASHINGTON—Philanthropist and businesswoman Gayle Benson will receive the 2026 Celebration of Service to America Leadership Award from the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation (NABLF).

Benson will be recognized for her civic and humanitarian contributions during the Celebration of Service to America Awards gala, presented by Bonneville International and Hearst Television, June 9, at The Anthem music venue in Washington, D.C.

One of the most powerful women in sports according to Forbes, Benson is a community investor, advocate and corporate citizen who is focused on growing and enriching the Gulf South region and improving lives through her initiatives in health and wellness, cancer care, education and the arts.

As the owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, Benson has made giving back to the city a hallmark of her leadership. She annually gives millions of dollars annually in financial support, in-kind donations, charitable appearances and goods and services to those in need.

Benson is the steward of the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, carrying forward her husband’s vision and passion for helping others. She works closely alongside organizations like the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

She helped to establish The Gayle and Tom Benson Disaster Relief Fund to support first responders and vulnerable families, and she is particularly devoted to initiatives for young women, such as STEM programs in schools and leadership training. She is also currently building The Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children’s Hospital on the Ochsner Medical Center campus in New Orleans featuring a dedicated pediatric emergency department, a Level IV Surgical NICU and AI technology.

“Gayle Benson truly embodies the values of philanthropy through her work to support, educate and care for others, especially in her hometown of New Orleans and surrounding areas,” said NABLF president Michelle Duke. “We are thrilled to be honoring Mrs. Benson and her legacy of long-term, positive and sustainable impact with the Foundation’s Leadership Award, our highest individual commendation for service.”

Beyond her community impact, Benson is an active and respected leader in professional sports. In 2025, she was appointed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as co-chair of the National Football League (NFL) Legislative Committee, where she helps guide the league’s government relations strategy. She also serves on the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Labor Relations Committee and has been a member of the NBA Foundation Board of Directors since 2020.

Benson also played a key role in launching the Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network (GCSEN), a regional broadcast and digital platform designed to elevate local sports, culture and community storytelling.

More information is available on the NABLF website.

More information about the gala is available online.

LONDON— The Media Talent Manifesto (MTM) has announced the return of the World Skills Café at IBC2026, positioning the event as a critical industry forum to confront the widening talent, skills and diversity gap across the media and entertainment sector.

Taking place Thursday, Sept. 10, 2 PM - 5 PM at the RAI Amsterdam just prior to the show opening, The event will open with a keynote from Evan Shapiro, widely known as the industry’s “Media Cartographer,” who will deliver a data-led perspective on the structural shifts reshaping the workforce and the urgent need for change.

The World Skills Café has rapidly become the industry’s global focal point for tackling workforce challenge—bringing together leaders from across the industry to drive practical solutions and collective accountability, according to Shapiro.

“Let’s stop pretending this is a pipeline problem,” said Evan Shapiro. “The map of media has been completely redrawn by creators, platforms and new economics. But our approach to talent hasn’t caught up. The World Skills Café is where the industry comes to face that truth and start doing something about it.”

Alongside the event, IAMT will publish a new report, ‘Talent Trends in MediaTech’, offering fresh insight into how skills demands are shifting across the sector and where the most urgent gaps remain. The findings will help inform discussions at the World Skills Café and support industry-wide action.

The World Skills Café will once again feature a series of keynotes, panels and expert-led discussions designed to move beyond conversation and toward tangible commitments. Attendees will collaborate to identify the most critical skills gaps, explore new pathways into the industry, and accelerate diversity and inclusion across all levels of the workforce.

Carrie Wootten, Co-Founder of MTM, said “The pace of change across our industry is only accelerating, but the way we attract and develop talent hasn’t kept up. The World Skills Café is about bringing the industry together to address that disconnect head-on. What makes this initiative powerful is its focus on action – ensuring that the ideas and commitments made translate into real progress year-on-year.”

Jo Mayer, Head of Marketing at IBC, added, “Talent and skills development are central to the future of the industry. The World Skills Café plays an important role in bringing these conversations into focus at IBC, creating a space where the industry can come together to address shared challenges and drive meaningful progress.”

The Café will also cover initiatives such as On Air, the world’s largest student-led global broadcast, have emerged directly from the collaboration and ideas generated through the World Skills Café. First launched in 2025 with more than 500 students participating worldwide, the initiative is expanding significantly in 2026 into a multi-channel global broadcast spanning news, sport, film and culture, providing hands-on experience across the full media workflow.

IBC2026 takes place Sept. 11-14 at the RAI Amsterdam. Registration to attend the World Skills Café is now open here. The World Skills Café at IBC2026 is sponsored by AWS, Deluxe, DTG, IAMT, Platform Communications and Vizrt.

Futuresource Consulting’s post-NAB 2026 report has concluded that the long-discussed convergence of pro AV and broadcast is no longer a trend but an established reality, with enterprise clients now expecting broadcast-quality output from pro AV budgets and pro AV teams.

The report, co-authored by Helen Matthews, senior market analyst, pro video & broadcast at Futuresource, points to attendance figures as an early indicator of the shift. Corporate media professionals at NAB 2026 numbered more than 13,000 – almost double the 2025 figure – and NAB introduced a dedicated Enterprise Video Strategies track for the first time. Overall attendance reached just over 58,000, up from 55,000 in 2025, with representation from 146 countries and 132 first-time exhibitors among a total of more than 1,100.

The report identifies IP networking as the primary technical enabler of convergence, with IPMX momentum at the show confirming what Futuresource describes as a clear industry goal – creating a seamless bridge between pro AV and broadcast environments. SMPTE 2110 workflows, previously the preserve of broadcast production infrastructure, are now being specified and supported by enterprise AV teams.

The report cites product launches on the show floor as evidence of how vendor strategies are responding – pointing to Shure’s DCA 901, a compact digital broadcast microphone array designed to deliver eight channels over a single network cable with native REMI workflow support, as an example of a traditionally pro AV manufacturer now pitching directly into broadcast applications.

Virtual production is identified as another area where the boundaries have shifted materially. Tools that originated in film production – LED volumes, real-time compositing, camera tracking – are being packaged and priced for organisations with no post-production team or broadcast engineering resource, with Sony’s virtual production showcase at NAB cited as an explicit illustration of that direction.

The report also outlines where the challenge now sits. Matthews said the gap between a brief that says conference room and a client expectation of broadcast studio is where integration expertise is being tested, and that pro AV integrators who understand broadcast signal chains, IP video standards and production switching infrastructure are in a fundamentally different advisory position to those who do not.

Download the report here.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Installation.

As broadcasters focus their future on ATSC 3.0, one organization in particular is reminding the industry of the importance of maintaining the current ATSC 1.0 infrastructure during the transition.

The National Translator Association, the leading advocate for TV and FM translator systems in the U.S., is holding its annual meeting just up the road from where the industry gathered last week in Las Vegas. During the event, taking place May 6-9 in Reno, Nev. broadcast engineers, regulators and manufacturers will discuss the latest developments and regulatory updates affecting the maintenance of the thousands of translators that ensure reliable transmission for over the air radio and TV broadcast.

'A Mixed World'
One panel, in particular will focus on how broadcasters with the challenges faced during the transition when stations that have deployed ATSC 3.0 also have to maintain their 1.0 signal. Kyle Walker, vice president of technology for Wiegel Broadcasting, will moderate “A Mixed World Of ATSC 3.0 And 1.0,” and will be joined by Mark Colombo, associate division chief of the FCC’s Video Division, Wayne Johnson with Southwest Colorado TV, Mike Schmidt with Heartland Video Systems and long-time TV Tech columnist Doug Lung, vice president of broadcast technology with NBC/Telemundo.

Walker says the panel plans to discuss new techniques and best practices for optimizing translator health in the current hybrid 1.0-3.0 configuration.

“We’re going to talk about maximizing 1.0’s full potential today,” he said, adding that representatives from Harmonic and Heartland Video Systems will be on hand to discuss new developments in encoding.

“Heartland Video, along with Harmonic are going to be showing some different techniques that you can do in 1.0 today that a lot of stations may not be aware of or taking advantage of, and not really just translators, but even full power major group stations," he said.

Walker says he’s eager to see what the companies are doing to “push the 1.0 envelope."

“We are also talking about a potential mixed world of 1.0 and 3.0, and it's not clear at this point that there's going to be a 1.0 sunset,” Walker added. “So what does it look like for broadcasters and translator operators in a mixed 1.0 and 3.0 world and some of the complications that go with that?”

In the session “Building A Reliable, Cost-Effective SRT Network,” Walker will expound on secure reliable transport, open-source video transport protocol developed by Haivision to move high-quality video over unpredictable networks like the public internet, and its increasing importance to broadcasters.

“SRT is starting to be used more and more today by a lot of broadcasters and even major cable providers as a cost effective, effective alternative to traditional dark fibers or dedicated circuits,” Walker said. “One of the challenges we see—from Weigel’s point of view dealing with different affiliates of all makes and models, not just LPTVs, but even some major groups where they have an SRT that's set up— is that they may have video coming out the other end, but the link is not really that resilient. And what we hope to break out in this presentation is to show stations how to build a cost-effective, redundant SRT system that actually has monitoring that an end user would know and understand.

“The ultimate goal is to make an SRT circuit as just as reliable as fiber,” he added.

The Importance of Communication
Walker said the convention will also focus on the challenges imposed by the complex logistics and fragmented management of of today’s translator environment, particularly in western states like Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

“The state of Colorado has two DMAs, Colorado Springs and Denver, with Denver being the vast majority of the state... in Salt Lake City, the entire state of Utah, parts of Idaho, parts of Nevada, make up one DMA,” he said. “And there's no way that a full power station, even on top of a mountain, can even cover 20% of that vast geographical area.

“So they have translators throughout the state, and the challenge with those translators is that in many cases, they're not run by the stations themselves. A lot of times, they're being run by local county government agencies that, like everybody, are on a budget,” he added.

Walker says coordination between station groups, affiliates and regulators is key when it comes to transitioning from 1.0 to 3.0, using a station’s decision to become a lighthouse station to host the transmission facilities of other stations in the same area as an example of the challenges broadcasters face.

When that station decides to flip to a lighthouse (being a 3.0), that station might today be a CBS affiliate in 1.0 currently that's being distributed—in a lot of cases—to 70-80 different translators throughout the DMA, of which most of them they don't even control, Walker added.

“Now imagine a station suddenly decides to convert from 1.0 to 3.0... in many cases, these translator groups have no idea this change is coming down the pipe. And in a lot of cases, that is known once the change has been made,” he said. “So suddenly you have viewers out there that are saying, ‘wait, what happened? Why is my CBS gone?’”

Walker continued, “the government that maintains a portion of those translators is now scrambling to figure out, OK, now they figured out that station converted to 3.0, what do they do? They don't necessarily have $10,000 to buy a converter box for every translator to adapt it back to 1.0. So we're going to talk about the different mechanisms that can be done to better mitigate and manage if a station chooses to make a switch or build a lighthouse so that there's not disruption all the way down the food chain.”

Heartland Video Systems, a leading midwest-based systems integrator and one of the sponsors of the NTA Convention, will participate in several panels, discussing the challenges broadcasters face in deploying ATSC 3.0 including preparations stations should take in the event of a large transition to ATSC 3.0. Mike Schmidt, ATSC 3.0 technologist at HVS, and Gil Yanku, senior director, pre-sales & solutions architecture at Harmonic, will also talk about ways broadcasters can increase ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 channel counts.

“With Heartland Video Systems having taken part in almost every ATSC 3.0 market transition in the U.S, we have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t,” said Schmidt. “I’m looking forward to being able to share some of that experience and knowledge.

“We are currently testing channel loading in our lab at HVS and have found some very surprising results,” he added. “Increased channel loading will be even more important in a post transition world, so this is an exciting and timely topic.”

Additional topics will cover regulatory issues as well as an update on the Broadcast Positioning System from Bob Weller, vice president of spectrum policy for the NAB.

For more information and to register, visit the NTA Convention website.

Every NAB Show gives the media and entertainment industry the chance to assess trends and challenges and create and strengthen personal networking connections, and the 2026 version was no different.

Attendees were greeted with a fully finished Las Vegas Convention Center and, while the National Association of Broadcasters reported an increase in registered attendees at approximately 58,000, attendance felt similar to last year. With a non-NAB event in the South Hall, and with the remodeling and better bridging of the front of the North and Central halls, the visible number of people was harder to gauge.

Nearly half of those 58,000 registered attendees were “first timers,” and their presence was felt on the show floor, in conference rooms and at booth discussions.

Vertical Video and AI
With much of the online video world moving towards 9:16, the integration of vertical video was a hot topic. And where last year’s dominant themes were artificial intelligence and tariffs, this year it was the impact of AI on both creativity and infrastructure.

Vertical films were also part of the show-floor discussions, but it wasn’t about simply how to “flip an image on its side.” Rather, the talk centered on how to switch and compose shots for both horizontal and vertical use and then add multilayered graphics that will work in both 16:9 and 9:16.

Among the standouts in this area were Amazon Web Services (AWS), which showcased its new Elemental Inference, which creates vertical cuts using AI and the power of AWS Cloud, as well as FOR-A, which demonstrated viztrick AiDi, an on-device AI solution developed by Nippon TV, delivered globally by FOR-A and powered by NVIDIA AI infrastructure. The solution's GoVertical! feature provides real-time auto tracking and AI-aided 9:16 autocropping for live streaming to mobile platforms.

Another trend this year was more services. Companies are offering to manage streaming billing and customer service, and using AI for quality control and outsourcing to third parties for content manipulation and even creation.

Deepdub, for example, uses AI and human intervention for quality control. Its process analyzes entire movies, creating scripts and determining which character is delivering the lines. AI chooses the voices, “marking” the video for when script lines begin and end. An editor then monitors and “babysits” the AI voicing, replacing the original dialogue (in a voice the editor/producer chooses, not a recreation of the actor, but a similar voice to match the character).

The entire movie can be revoiced in any of dozens of languages in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.

Agentic AI
A good example of the use of agentic AI could be found in the TVU Networks booth which showcased “TV Cortex,” a service that uses agentic AI to aggregate and manage the audio and video content used to create news stories. TV Cortex has the power to act autonomously and purposefully to achieve an outcome independently of our interaction with it. In theory, operating this way may involve less “human shading” of events and more factual coverage.

According to TVU Networks President Paul Shen, TV Cortex is intended to augment human productivity, not to replace it. If used effectively, the system frees up producers and editors to focus more on the creative aspects of news production, like crafting compelling stories and providing more human context.

“TV Cortex leverages agentic AI, deploying a hierarchy of master and subordinate agents that dynamically scale to handle the volume and complexity of incoming stories,” Shen said. “These agents automate the retrieval, categorization and scoring of stories based on factors such as recency, relevance, market size and customizable editorial priorities.”

ENCO showcased the use of AI in advertising and sales, demonstrating how its SPECai can generate client spec spots using multiple scripts, different background music and dozens of voices, allowing a spec spot to be produced for a client in just seconds.

On the camera side, Sony marked the NAB Show debut of its PXW-Z300, its first ENG camera to capture content and mark it with the C2 PA certification protocol to confirm that it is (in its words) “Genuine…No AI.”

“You’ll be able to see before you distribute the content…a broadcaster, for example, will be able to see what has been done to that media,” Martin Lindsay, head of networked solutions for Sony Professional, said. “It’ll show what’s been edited specifically, if there’s any AI that had been introduced into that clip throughout the [production] chain.”

The Dark Side of AI
But there was another side of AI that became a part of nearly every booth conversation: its impact on software and hardware development.

AI—and the amount of processing seen at the show—is related to what’s in the news today. The data center needs of private enterprise, and in particular the M&E industry, are dominating the headlines. Remember how power-hungry tubes were replaced by transistors and LEDs seemed to be the answer to reducing power consumption?

Processors came about (as did the heat and fans), and we then went back not just to “full power,” but needing even more. Massive data centers are now required to carry the processing load, and this is creating a crisis for our own power grids to the point where we’re seeing a lot of discussions on these data centers: where they’ll go, how many (or few) they’ll employ and who will pay for the infrastructure upgrades needed to deliver the massive amounts of power.

The other, more immediate impact from data centers is the shortage of chips and memory. That raises costs for exhibitors, many of whom admitted they would have to consider raising prices.

“I think everybody has, or will have to [raise prices] shortly, if they haven’t already, because they have no choice,” Jeff Moore, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Ross Video, said. “The pricing changes are so extreme that anybody that’s in the hardware business will have to increase prices.”

NextGen TV
For broadcasters, content delivery was top of mind, particularly in the transition from satellite acquisition and services to IP-delivered content. With reduced “space bandwidth” due to the increase in Earth-bound 5G—and an anticipated Federal Communications Commission auction of C-band spectrum in 2027—we’ve seen more issues with satellite delivery and reliability than in the past.

A number of developments in the industry’s transition to ATSC 3.0 were highlighted on the show floor. The ATSC showcased prototypes of new sub-$60 converter boxes designed to prime consumer demand for NextGen TV at its Central Hall pavilion and celebrated the worldwide expansion of its adoption, hosting communications executives from India, the Caribbean, South Korea and, in particular, Brazil, which announced its adoption of the standard’s physical layer last summer.

The Broadcast Positioning System was also front and center, with the BEIT offering tech updates.

There was also talk about monetizing the standard. GatesAir showcased its work supplying exciters for NAB’s pilot testing of BPS in the Washington, D.C., area. GatesAir Director of Global Marketing Keith Adams discussed BPS’s commercial potential, suggesting that with the federal government considering BPS as a “backup” to GPS, it could be offered as a service to private industry.

BPS and GPS can complement each other, he said, suggesting that financial institutions would be among the first industries to consider its use.

Any business that makes extensive use of GPS is a candidate, Adams added. “I do see a monetary application, absolutely,” he said. “Because once you open that up as an alternative to GPS, some people will say, ‘OK, we’re just going to use BPS period, because I don’t need the GPS at that point,’ right? But then there’s going to be others to say, maybe I want to use both.”

The 2027 NAB Show will take place April 4-7 in Las Vegas.

Another NAB Show has come and gone and thankfully my feet are still talking to me (my sleep-deprived brain, well that’s another story, give me a couple more days). But I’m still coherent enough to share my thoughts about our industry’s largest annual gathering and wanted to do so while my memories are still fresh.

This year was my 30th show and I celebrated my milestone like I mark every show, talking with exhibitors and attendees and gathering their thoughts about new products, services and the trends they are seeing.

This year also marks the 103rd such NAB Show, which began at the dawn of broadcasting in the early 1920s. Radio (and eventually television) are the original “mass electronic media” and this year’s show demonstrated how resilient we are as well as how the show itself is adapting to those changes.

The Reality of ‘Swipe Left’
The NAB Show focused heavily on the content creator economy this year, featuring conversations from the people who are driving the next generation of media. Creators of all shapes and sizes have more options than ever to inform and entertain through outlets such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

In most of those conversations, the new generation of creators (of all ages, by the way) found that they have a lot in common with the generations who were informed and influenced by the evolution of television, in particular; the desire for “broadcast quality,” which so many of us still consider the gold standard.

And when I refer to that term I’m not talking about traditional methods of talking heads, static backdrops and old-style Hollywood production styles, or even video resolutions. No, today’s viewers have far more choices than ever before and that media has to grab your attention immediately. The very definition of television has changed over time (the subject of my first editorial for TV Tech when I started back with the magazine back in 2001) and the demands have become higher.

The meaning of “broadcast quality” has changed and while today’s creators don’t want to necessarily recreate the traditional TV show, their goal is the same: to keep the viewers’ attention, especially since more and more are viewing content on a variety of screens.

In essence, broadcast quality is no longer a set of specifications, but rather a mindset to which creators are approaching on their own terms. Broadcasters are content creators too but as gatekeepers, they’ve opened those gates to a wider community.

Television production was already becoming more “democratized” two decades ago when the dawn of YouTube gave a voice to anyone with an IP connection and digital software-based editing platforms were becoming more widely available. Since the launch of Youtube and social media over the past two decades, we’ve seen an explosion of new production styles that have eventually forced both the TV and film communities to adapt.

The NAB Show has had to evolve to meet the crop of new content creators and the show floor still had a plethora of high-end technology demanded by media companies worldwide.

But those same exhibitors—from AWS, Sony, Blackmagic Design and For-A to Shure and Audio Technica to name just a few—were also talking about new audio techniques and vertical video. In essence, anyone who develops media technology was showcasing (or at least discussing) new media creation technologies and techniques designed for this rapidly expanding media.

I spoke with one such content creator prior to the show. Jefferson Graham, host of the PhotowalksTV travel series on Youtube talked about how having his show broadcast on Scripps stations on a weekly basis impacted his career.

Jefferson said the relationship with Scripps pays off when he visits communities where Scripps owns a local TV station. “I get to work with some of the local people there, so big shout out to WCPO in Cincinnati!” he said. “They spent a day with me shooting and then I also went on the air and did a segment with them, that was fantastic,” adding that he also worked with local broadcasters in Detroit, San Diego and Missoula Mont. as well.

But Content is Still King
The NAB Show’s theme this year was about “unveiling powerful new tools and technologies that put storytelling in everyone’s hands,” according to Karen Chupka, executive vice president of NAB Show, and overall I think they did a great job guiding the discussions and giving those storytellers the opportunity to test drive those new tools on the exhibit floor.

I’ve seen enough NAB Shows to understand the need to adapt and to change. Over the past 30-plus years, I’ve seen the lines blurring between “professional” broadcasters and the creators (who remembers the term “prosumer” which was all the rage 15-20 years ago?), so the trend is not necessarily new. But like my editorial of 25 years ago, when I tried to anticipate the popularity of the Internet and its impact on television, the reality of this evolution just took a bit longer than I anticipated.

Today, it’s no longer a question of if those worlds converge—it’s happening in real time, and NAB Show remains one of the few places where you can see it unfold.

The NAB Show entered my bloodstream three decades ago and with nearly half of this year’s attendees first-timers, it will probably do so for many of them as well. But unlike me, they’re seeing a radically different media landscape that no longer requires a massive budget and where the distinction between broadcaster and creator matters less.

LAS VEGAS—The 2026 NAB Show has announced that it attracted more than 58,000 registered attendees between April 18 and 22, as the show continued to bring in new audiences and explore new topics that reflected a rapidly changing media and entertainment industry.

This year, nearly half (48%) of all attendees were first-timers and international attendees from 146 countries accounted for 22% of attendees.

About 55,000 attended last year’s NAB Show, and the post-COVID high for the event so far has been 65K in 2023, according to Radio World.

“The 2026 NAB Show captured the energy and transformation driving today’s media and entertainment landscape, unveiling powerful new tools and technologies that put storytelling in everyone’s hands,” said Karen Chupka, executive vice president of NAB Show. “This year, we brought together a truly global community to spark innovation, elevate new voices and ignite the conversations shaping what comes next — where anyone, anywhere, can create and share stories

Top figures in the creator economy also weighed in on the value of the Show and its value to a new generation of entrepreneurs and attendees. “NAB Show is a great place to get both sides of the production workflow. ... [It] is incredibly strong on the content creation process ... [and] there’s several sessions on the business sides of how to manage your content creation business as a general thing,” said Jonathan Liu, CEO, Zhong

“If you want to connect with all the best and the greatest in broadcast media technology, this is the place to be. … [T]his is where you will get your lay of the ground, build your community, and also talk directly to the folks who are building the products,” added Nicki Sun, CEO, Nicki Sun Media and NAB Creator Council member

The organizers said that three audience areas in particular are driving growth in both the evolving media landscape the show:

• Content Creators: The number of registered attendees who are content creators increased 140% over 2025, with NAB Show’s Content Creator VIP Program and other initiatives poised to expand that universe.
• Enterprise: More than 13,000 attendees reported that they are corporate media professionals, almost double the 2025 number.
• Sports: The 2026 NAB Show included attendees from about 75 professional sports teams, 22 professional leagues and governing bodies, 30 sports venues, 15 esports/gaming organizations, 35 collegiate athletic departments, and 15 sports content producers/distributors.

The Show featured more than 1,100 exhibitors from around the globe, spanning the equivalent of nearly eight soccer fields and highlighting 132 first-time participants showcasing their innovations. Global brands included Sony, Canon, Ross, Blackmagic Design, Adobe, Google Cloud, AT&T and AWS.

NAB Show returns to New York Oct. 21–22, 2026 and the 2027 NAB Show returns to Las Vegas, April 3–7, 2027 (exhibits April 4–7, 2027).

TV Tech's complete coverage of the 2026 NAB Show can be found here.

LAS VEGAS—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has inducted two legendary figures into the NAB Hall of Fame, honoring their impact on the industry.

This year’s ceremony recognized Rob Lowe for his storied and ongoing excellence in television and John Tesh for his monumental contributions to radio. The inductions took place at the NAB Hall of Fame Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 21, as part of the 2026 NAB Show.

The prestigious honor recognizes individuals and programs that have earned a lasting place in broadcasting history through excellence, innovation and influence. The inductions are part of NAB’s longstanding tradition of recognizing the most impactful voices and visionaries across radio and television.

“Rob Lowe and John Tesh represent the very best of broadcasting — creative pioneers whose work has informed, entertained and inspired audiences for decades,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “Their contributions have shaped the industry in profound and lasting ways, and we are proud to welcome them into the NAB Hall of Fame.”

With a career spanning more than four decades, Rob Lowe has established himself as one of television and film’s most versatile and enduring talents. From iconic roles in “The West Wing” and “Parks and Recreation” to memorable performances in films such as “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “The Outsiders,” Lowe’s work has left an indelible mark on popular culture.

A two-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner with multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, Lowe continues to shape the television landscape. Most recently, he starred in and produced FOX’s hit series “9-1-1: Lone Star,” one of the highest-rated shows on television, and hosts the No. 1 game show, FOX’s “The Floor,” which continues to expand with recent renewals for seasons six and seven.

Lowe also connects with audiences through his podcast, “Literally! With Rob Lowe,” featuring candid conversations with leading figures across entertainment, business and sports, including Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Aniston. His creative range extends further with projects including Netflix’s original comedy “Unstable,” roles in upcoming movies such as Bleecker Street’s horror film “The Third Parent” and an untitled romantic comedy alongside Cameron Diaz.

“Rob Lowe’s career is a masterclass in evolution and longevity in television,” said LeGeyt. “From defining roles in some of the most beloved series in TV history to his continued success as a producer and host, he has remained a dynamic force in the industry, consistently connecting with audiences across generations and platforms.”

An accomplished author, Lowe’s memoirs “Stories I Only Tell My Friends” and “Love Life” are both New York Times bestsellers, further showcasing his storytelling impact beyond the screen.

John Tesh’s remarkable career is a testament to perseverance, reinvention and creative excellence, the NAB said. In television, Tesh served as an award-winning CBS News correspondent covering global sporting events such as the Olympic Games, Tour de France and Wimbledon. He then became a household name as co-host of “Entertainment Tonight,” where he spent a decade before taking a bold leap to fuel his music aspirations.

Tesh’s first PBS music special, “John Tesh: Live at Red Rocks,” became one of the most successful in public television history, propelling a full-time music career that today includes six Emmy Awards, four gold albums, more than 8 million records sold, sold-out concert tours and an induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

As a composer, Tesh created what many have hailed as “the greatest sports theme in television history,” “Roundball Rock.” The song was the theme for the “NBA on NBC” from 1990–2002 and was played an estimated 12,000 times during that run. In October 2025, the song marked its triumphant return to NBC.

In 1999, Tesh reinvented himself yet again, launching a radio show alongside his wife Connie Sellecca and son and co-host Gib Gerard. The concept was unique: a five-hour-long daily program featuring a combination of expert advice and personal development content on the subjects that are important to listeners and their families– all surrounded by listeners’ favorite music.

“The John Tesh Radio Show: Intelligence for Your Life” has grown into an internationally syndicated powerhouse, airing daily in all time slots and on multiple radio formats including Adult Contemporary, Hot AC, Classic Hits, Urban and Oldies. The show, as well as a spin-off, “Intelligence for Your Health with Connie Sellecca,” airs on more than 350 stations and reaches 7.6 million listeners each week.

“John Tesh’s work reflects a unique blend of creativity, risk-taking and reinvention across broadcasting,” said LeGeyt. “From shaping iconic television moments to building one of the most successful syndicated radio programs in the country, his work has consistently pushed boundaries and expanded what’s possible in media.”

LAS VEGAS—TV Tech has announced its Best of Show Awards for the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Future’s Best of Show Awards, which were presented at the 2026 NAB Show by TV Tech, are evaluated by a panel of engineers and industry experts. They are selected based on innovation, feature set, perceived value and application in serving the industry.

Winners received a crystal-glass trophy for display at the NAB Show and will be featured in TV Tech. Winners will also be featured in promotional material for the awards which includes online articles, newsletters, social posts and subscriber-facing emails.

“The products nominated for the Best of Show program, provide an outstanding overview of new technology on the show floor and shine a spotlight on the very best,” said the awards editorial team.

Congratulations to this year's winners (listed here with the company name followed by their winning product):

Adder Technology – Adder API for the ADDERView Matrix Range

Adobe – Frame.io Drive

Advantech Corporation – VEGA-7141

AgileTV – TV Platform

AJA Video Systems – BRIDGE LIVE IP

Akta – Akta AI First Video Platform

Amagi – Amagi Newspulse

Amazon Web Services – Elemental Inference

American Amplifier Technologies – EmPower Controller VNA

Apex RF– Rainier

Appear – VX

Appear – XM

Avid – Avid Content Core

BB&S – CFL Color

BirdDog – XL Ultra

BitFire – Spark Live MCR

Boland Communications – 4K55HDR7SNB Super Narrow Bezel 12G 4K HDR Display

Bolin Technology – R9-L420N Production PTZ Camera

Bridge Technologies – VB440’s Multi-Service AVSync

Calrec Audio – Calrec's ImPulseV Virtualised Audio Mixing Engine

Canon – CINE-SERVO 40-1200mm T5.0-10.8 lens

Cleeng – Cleeng AI Assistant

CloudAscent – Qrate

Cobalt Digital – blueCORE Platform

Comcast Technology Solutions – Comcast Media360

CueScript – CueiT 4.0

Dalet – Dalia

Dejero – TITAN Command

DigitalGlue – creative.space Intelligence

Emergent Vision Technologies – eSDK Pro Software Development Kit

Emergent Vision Technologies – ZENITH 100GigE High Speed / Resolution Cameras with New Sony Sensors

ENCO – SPOTai

ENCO – Qimera Virtual Production

Evergent Technologies – Evergent Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform

Evertz – BRAVO-BLADE

Evertz – ENX

Evertz – X-CALIBER

EVS – Choreon

Flanders Scientific – GaiaColor AutoCal and Analyzer

Frequency – Frequency Blueprints

GlobalM – GMX Cloud

Grass Valley – ACE-3901-Grid MXL Gateway

Haivision – Makito ONE

Harmonic – Spectrum X Plus Media Server

InSync Technology – OG-MCC20 Motion Compensated Frame Rate Converter Module

Interra Systems – ORION Monitoring Platform with BATON Media Player (BMP)

Lawo – Edge One

LiveU – LU900Q

LucidLink – LucidLink Connect

manifold technologies – manifold CLOUD - 400GE

Mediagenix – Mediagenix Scheduling Optimization

Miri Technologies – Miri V410 Encoder/Decoder

Moments Lab – Discovery Agent

NDI – NDI 6.3

Net Insight – Nimbra Live Intelligence

Nevion, a Sony Group Company – MOXELA Software‑based Media Processing Platform

Nippon TV/FOR-A – viztrick AiDi with GoVertical! realtime 9:16 autocropping

OBSBOT – OBSBOT Talent 2

Other World Computing (OWC) – OWC Express 4M2 Ultra

PLISCH GmbH – ATR5000

Proton Camera Innovations GmbH – PROTON 4K 3D

PTZOptics – Move 4K with Horizon

Quickplay – Quickplay AI Studio

Riedel Communications – MediorNet HorizoN ST 2110 Multiviewer App

Ross Video – XPression Tessera

Shure – DCA901 Planar Array Microphone

Signiant – Connected Intelligence

Sony – XYN Spatial Capture Solution

Synamedia – ContentArmor Edge Watermarking

TAG Video Systems – Lens Visual Service Health Analysis

Techex – tx darwin

Telos Alliance – Telos Infinity VIP SE

Tightrope Media Systems – MediaScribe Narrate

TMT Insights – TMT AI

TVU Networks – TVU MediaMesh

Videndum – Vinten VEGA Lite

Wheatstone – Blade 4

Witbe – Witbe AI-Native Infrastructure for QA and Monitoring of Streaming Video

wTVision – R³ Engine macOS Edition

Zixi – Zixi Market Switching

Today’s live venues — sports stadiums, concert halls, corporate facilities and houses of worship — are becoming increasingly sophisticated in both technology and audience experience. With competition from television and streaming services, venues must offer compelling in-person experiences that keep audiences engaged and coming back for more.

Many successful venues are integrating technology that enhances the event rather than distracting from it. Examples include augmented reality visuals that overlay stage performances and interactive mobile apps that connect audiences to the action. System integrators that design and deploy AV systems said understanding the audience is critical when selecting technology. In houses of worship and corporate settings, audio quality typically takes priority, followed by lighting and video.

Hybrid Solutions

At NAB Show, exhibitors and conference sessions are highlighting the tools that make these experiences possible. Professionals increasingly seek systems that combine software-defined flexibility with reliable hardware so they can create and distribute more content efficiently — without exceeding budget limits.

“I think more than ever, system engineers and producers want the biggest bang for the buck,” said Dave Van Hoy, president of Advanced Systems Group (ASG), a longtime systems integrator that installs technology for hundreds of venues each year.

“They’re tasked with producing more content and better distribution systems, but with limited resources. It’s not a new challenge, but it’s getting trickier every year.”

Through technical sessions and panel discussions, attendees are exploring the latest strategies and technologies to support modern venue production.

Despite industry interest, Van Hoy estimated that only about half of live venues have transitioned to SMPTE 2110 IP-based architectures, leaving significant room for upgrades. ASG recently completed such a transition at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the University of Southern California’s football stadium, replacing traditional signal distribution with an IP-based system.

Interactive technology is also reshaping the live event experience. Matt Weiss, vice president of business development and managing partner at BeckTV, said venues increasingly deploy gamified features that encourage participation.

“High-tech, gamified, interactive features help create an intense home-court advantage,” Weiss said. “At the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, the home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, seat sensors track fan cheering and movement to reward engagement. An immersive audio system tailors sound to every seat, making each one feel like the best in the arena.”

Immersive Audio Expands

Audio innovation is another major trend. Beyond traditional stereo, venues are adopting immersive formats such as Dolby 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos systems with up to 22 channels. As streaming services began offering immersive audio to consumers at home, expectations for live events changed quickly.

“We’re seeing multichannel audio systems deployed in all kinds of venues,” Van Hoy said. “Concert halls are obvious, but sports stadiums are adopting them too. Broadcasters want immersive sound both for viewers at home and fans in the stadium. Achieving that often involves additional microphones around the field and improved monitoring systems in control rooms.”

New for 2026 is an expanded four-day Sports Summit in the West Hall’s Sports Theater. The program explores how professional and collegiate stadiums are modernizing their facilities.

Advances in Display Technology

Display technology, another key element of live venues, has also advanced significantly. New LED systems offer higher resolution, lower power consumption and more affordable pricing.

NAB Show attendees are seeing the latest models using technologies such as MicroLED, Chip-on-Board (COB) and Glue-on-Board (GOB), which provide improved reliability and reduced moiré patterns compared with traditional display panels.

One notable development involves the Big 12 Conference, which used LED sports flooring developed by Germany-based ASB GlassFloor at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City for its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The system replaces traditional wood floors with LED surfaces capable of displaying graphics and animations during games or events.

Modern 4K and 8K displays are also integrating artificial intelligence to automatically adjust brightness based on ambient lighting, enhance image sharpness through upscaling and monitor performance to predict potential failures.

While large stadiums typically use professional-grade LED displays, smaller facilities such as houses of worship and corporate venues often rely on consumer-
grade commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) displays. However, these systems may not deliver the same durability or performance.

AI Across Workflows

Artificial intelligence is expanding rapidly across the entire production workflow. At NAB Show, hundreds of new products will demonstrate how AI can automate processes and improve efficiency.

In corporate and worship environments, AI tools can track on-stage talent and quickly locate clips in large video libraries. Sports broadcasters are also using AI to automate highlight generation. For example, ESPN now provides automated highlight clips through mobile apps that fans can access while attending games.

Another technology gaining traction is the unified content management system. Modern venues rely on CMS platforms to centralize control of displays, video distribution and digital content.

“For increased efficiency, reduced costs and a better user experience, many venues are upgrading their CMS platforms,” Weiss said. “They enable multiplatform distribution, live-to-VOD workflows, centralized monitoring, rapid clipping and dynamic advertising insertion.”

A recent example is M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. In collaboration with Ross Video, BeckTV expanded the stadium’s LED display system to enable stadium-wide control. The project added new displays in premium clubs and concourse areas, extending the Ravens’ CMS beyond the main bowl displays.

Better Than 
Watching at Home

To remain competitive, live venues must replicate — and surpass — the production quality audiences experience at home. Today’s facilities are becoming dynamic environments where lighting, sound and visuals respond in real time to performances and audience reactions, often guided by AI-driven analytics.

These efforts reflect a broader trend: Fans increasingly value shared in-person experiences.

A study from venue hosting provider Boldyn Networks suggested 93% of fans prefer attending live events over virtual alternatives.

For venue professionals, NAB Show provides an opportunity to explore these innovations firsthand through exhibit demonstrations, technical sessions and informal discussions with peers.

“NAB Show attendees will discover tools they didn’t even know they needed,” Van Hoy said. “They’ll see technologies still in development that vendors are eager to showcase. It’s an exciting time for venue operators, and NAB Show is the place to see it all in action.”

© 2026 NAB

Brazil’s announcement in August 2025 that it was adopting the physical layer of ATSC 3.0 represented a significant step for international uptake of the U.S.-based broadcast standard.

Bringing it to a nation of more than 212 million people — where 80% of the population watches over-the-air television — creates a multitude of opportunities to advance ATSC 3.0, which combines broadcast with internet protocol.

The standard, which consists of “best-of-breed” technologies, will reside within Brazil’s new DTV+ (aka “TV 3.0”) protocol, due to begin pilot tests in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June.

Regulators and broadcasters hope “football fever” around the world’s largest sporting event will spur consumers to purchase new sets that support TV 3.0.

This was among many topics discussed by broadcast representatives from Brazil, India, South Korea and the Caribbean in Monday’s “NextGen TV and TV 3.0: A Global Conversation on the Future of Broadcasting” panel.

FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty opened the conference, addressing the importance of broadcasters’ public-interest commitments.

She tied those obligations to the opportunities afforded by ATSC 3.0, which has been deployed to about 75% of the U.S. population.

While broadcasters see increased competition in an expanding television universe, Trusty noted the industry’s “unique place in the media ecosystem.” She said it’s “critical” for the FCC to ensure that broadcasters not only survive in today’s competitive environment, but thrive.

“In a marketplace where competition and technologies are evolving, the FCC needs to get its policies right for broadcasters and the communities they serve — from ownership regulation, to the principles guiding the ATSC 3.0 transition, to continually reevaluating its regulations to ensure their benefits truly outweigh their burdens,” she said.

“If the commission achieves that goal, broadcasters will have both the ability and the right incentives to keep serving the public interest, which I see as the best way of advancing those objectives.”

Frederico de Siqueira Filho, Brazil’s minister of communications, described the importance of broadcasting in the country’s culture.

“For decades, broadcasting has played a central role in Brazil. It’s not just media or entertainment, it’s a pillar of democracy, a tool for social inclusion, familial resilience and the primary source of information,” he said.

“Free-to-air television continues to be the most universal communication service in the country, reaching households across our regions, income levels and geographies. As we move into a new technology era, our objective is clear: to preserve these core values while unlocking entirely new capabilities. And TV 3.0 is how we intend to do that.”

Octavio Pieranti, commissioner at Brazilian regulator ANATEL, discussed new proposals to help ensure that TV 3.0 maintains equal footing with streaming services on smart TVs sold in the country.

These include mandating a button on TV remotes dedicated to the standard, part of a group of rules referred to as the “Prominence of TV,” according to Wilson Diniz Wellisch, secretary of broadcasting services from the Ministry of Communications in Brazil.

“The remote control on new TVs must have a specific button that can access DTV+,” he said. “The main app of DTV+ must be at the first position of the app lists on the setup of the TV.”

ATSC President Madeleine Noland, who led the discussion, described Brazil’s progress with TV 3.0 as remarkable.

“We’re seeing momentum across the Caribbean, India and North America … Against that global backdrop, Brazil’s adoption of ATSC 3.0 as the foundation for DTV+ represents one of the most significant developments in next-generation products.”

© 2026 NAB

NAB Show celebrated 50 seasons of CBS’s “Survivor” with the presentation of the NAB Spirit of Broadcasting Award during Monday’s Opening Session.

NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt was joined by “Survivor” host Jeff Probst, who beamed into the session via video from the show’s location in Fiji, and fan-

favorite competitor Cirie Fields to discuss the show’s journey.

Probst learned about “Survivor” while listening to the radio as he drove around Los Angeles. He heard Mark Burnett, the original producer, talking about how he was going to put 16 people on an island and force them to live together while voting each other out.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say, from that moment forward, I wanted to be a part of ‘Survivor,’” Probst recalled.

“And I went after it with everything I could. I tried everything to get their attention. And when I finally got the job, I was so excited. The crazy part is, my enthusiasm is the same today. I love being a part of making ‘Survivor.’”

Probst took over as showrunner in 2010, bringing innovation into the production workflow. He wanted to make the show even more cinematic than it had been under Burnett.

“We have elevated the cinematic experience through our cameras and our microphones, with the intention to fully immerse the audience as much as we can with the disconnect of a screen,” he said.

“We want to say, ‘This is what it’s like to wake up after a storm and look at your fingers, and then you hear a whisper over that person’s shoulder.’ … Between a camera and a microphone, we’re taking you inside their world.”

Fields said the show’s immersive nature is something she particularly enjoys as a viewer.

“When I watch it back now, I can feel that immersion,” she told the audience. “My children can almost feel what I’m feeling when they see me dirty. They can actually see the sand and the grime on me, knowing that I slept just right there in the middle of the camp.”

Cinematic in Live

Cinematic visuals are also finding their way into live production. For Jesse Collins, CEO of Jesse Collins Entertainment and renowned producer of the Grammys, Oscars, BET Awards and Super Bowl halftime show, technology is helping push the boundaries of what’s possible on-screen.

“We are able to use cinematic lenses now. They are enabling us to change the way that we shoot performances,” Collins said in a conversation with entertainment journalist Carolyn Giardina during the Opening Session.

“Technology is everywhere, and when it’s used properly, it helps make the content better.”

Collins cited Lauryn Hill’s performance at this year’s Grammys as an example of how technology has enabled him to bring an amazing visual and audio experience to the screen.

“Ten or 15 years ago, I don’t know if we could have gotten that many live instruments in a live show, but we were able to get it done through advances in audio technology,” he said. In fact, Hill’s performance had more audio inputs than any performance in Grammy’s history.

Collins also shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence and its potential impact on live production. He said the technology is being used to help create visions of what producers want to accomplish. But he doesn’t think it will replace what viewers see on-screen.

“At the end of the day, an artist is going to be an artist. Beyoncé is Beyoncé. People want to see Beyoncé. And, especially in live television, that’s what people want. So I haven’t seen it really creep into the final broadcast.”

Asked if he has a wish list for how technology could help achieve something that’s not currently possible, Collins gave the audience food for thought. During the Super Bowl halftime show, the broadcast is transferred from the broadcast game truck to one that handles just the musical performance. “There’s a terrifying moment leading into that, which is called the point of no return, that last minute when they’ve given us the broadcast and there’s no turning back,” he said. “Sometimes not all the cameras are connected, and then they’re working through it and working through it and working through it. Fortunately, it’s always worked out.

“If someone could create something where at the beginning of the event, everybody’s dialed in, I don’t know if that’s a massive truck with an entertainment side and a live broadcast sports side,” he said. “It would take a lot of that anxiety away in the transition and it would give us more time for entertainment.”

© 2026 NAB

More than ever, technology suppliers in 2026 are meeting media entities where they live and work, with a hybrid, flexible and often invisible ecosystem.

Audio infrastructure manufacturers and providers agree that while the “sound” still must be perfect, the exact location of the gear no longer matters.

“We are not moving towards a future where the physical location of the audio suite doesn’t matter anymore,” said Calrec Director of Product Management Henry Goodman. “We’re already there.”

WHO, HOW AND WHERE

While the “where” has shifted, the “who” remains the foundation of the broadcast. Humans are still largely mixing and shaping program output. “But how and where they do all this has changed beyond recognition,” Goodman said.

The show’s exhibit floor offers ample evidence for television, radio and streaming contexts.

Wheatstone is showcasing its VMX virtual mixing platform, which can serve as a single mixing backend for multiple consoles or surfaces, at its booth.

Marketing Director Dee McVicker said the cost benefits from virtualization are a focal point. “Not to mention removing the massive physical limitations of the studio as we know it,” she said.

For manufacturers, the challenge is ensuring that as consoles move from isolated desks to complex networks — whether on-site, on edge or in the cloud — the engineer’s experience remains intuitive.

Solid State Logic intends to decouple the “big console” experience from the giant desk. Berny Carpenter, SSL’s broadcast product manager, said that through the company’s Virtual Tempest Engine, the software can be deployed across public clouds or private data centers.

Does this flexibility mean that mixing can be performed truly anywhere? Wheatstone’s McVicker offered a nuanced take.

“We’re not taking away from the tactile feel of a fixed console, yet we’re not limiting you to that or where you might be mixing at the moment,” she said.

Goodman too said Calrec’s approach is to provide the “big console” experience in a portable package.

FIXED HARDWARE TO MOBILE APPS

In the West Hall, Lawo is preaching a philosophy of agility through its HOME Apps platform. The concept is a departure from the “one box for each task” style of broadcasting.

For a media outlet using a generic commercial off-the-shelf server, Lawo believes the platform is ideal for managing a succession of workflows, allowing a broadcaster to decide on Monday that it’s an audio mixer and on Tuesday that it’s a multiviewer by switching containerized microservices.

“Hardware infrastructure no longer dictates workflows: Workflows now define the agile processing stack,” said Wolfgang Huber, Lawo’s public relations manager.

According to Huber, that kind of agility is important in mobile production trucks, where every inch of rack space and watt of power counts.

Wheatstone’s VML, an HTML5-based virtual console, can be accessed through a web browser, offering mixing on a laptop, tablet, smartphone or desktop. “You have a lot of flexibility to set up remote broadcasts, temporary studios in a disaster situation or even add on a permanent production studio,” McVicker said.

BY YOUR SIDE

But how does an engineer harness all of the power available now, particularly from AI and automation?

At Telos Alliance, AI is framed as a “mixing assistant riding shotgun,” said Clark Novak, its marketing content manager.

Telos’ flexAI platform utilizes the Jünger Audio Intelligent Companion, an AI-powered automixer.

Novak explained that flexAI pushes background noise down while keeping dialogue consistent, allowing the engineer to focus on the overall mix while the platform handles “small corrective moves.”

SSL offers a similar philosophy with its System T Dialogue Automix. Carpenter said that the system focuses on the active speaker across a large number of sources to reduce crosstalk.

“It allows the operator to focus on the output, rather than reacting to who is currently speaking,” Carpenter said.

Lawo, for its part, sticks to deterministic algorithms in its KICK sports mixing technology, for example, to avoid “AI hallucinations” in high-stakes environments.

But with the platform’s close-ball mixing, which is automated based on camera tracking data, Lawo’s Huber said the technology allows the audio engineer to focus on creative storytelling rather than manual gain-riding.

But a recurring theme is that disappearance of large surfaces. For instance, Telos Alliance’s Axia Altus and Studio Essentials lines allow mixing to be controlled entirely via a web browser.

“Virtual mixing isn’t about replacing the studio,” Novak said, “it’s about expanding it to other locations.”

Wheatstone’s McVicker called it a hardware-agnostic philosophy.

As NAB Show exhibitors will demonstrate, the movement to flexibility is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Most facilities are adopting a hybrid approach — keeping hardware where tactile control is needed, but moving the “heavy lifting” to the cloud.

As Calrec’s Goodman concluded, the tools must provide the operator with the ability to adapt to demanding environments.

Whether the processing happens in a basement rack or a distant data center, the mission remains the same: clear and compelling audio.

© 2026 NAB

The future of news is not just about distribution but about building deeper, more direct relationships with audiences wherever they are.

That was the message of the session “The MS NOW Playbook: Building Community Across Platforms.”

Moderator Lachlan Cartwright of Breaker Media was joined by Marcus Mabry, MS NOW’s senior vice president of content strategy; Ari Melber, anchor and chief legal reporter; and Jen Psaki, anchor of “The Briefing Room With Jen Psaki” and social-media series “Psaki Bombs.”

Their conversation explored how the network is evolving beyond traditional linear television.

They said MS NOW’s independence — after NBCUniversal spun the former MSNBC and most of its other basic-cable networks into Versant in January — has become a strategic advantage.

Independence aligns with the brand’s editorial identity, Melber said. Psaki described the post-transition organization as “smaller, mightier, more agile.”

That shift has allowed the company to invest in areas it had not prioritized before, particularly digital products and audience engagement.

Rather than positioning itself as just another streaming outlet, MS NOW is focused on creating a community product that deepens trust and participation.

Mabry said that MS NOW’s new app, slated to launch this summer, is not a streaming app. Instead, it is meant as a news-first community platform that gives audiences more direct access to talent, reporters and analysis.

The goal is to create a relationship where users can ask questions, interact with journalists and feel part of an ongoing conversation.

The strategy begins with audience needs, not with assumptions from inside the newsroom, Mabry said. It is rooted in research about what viewers want most: trustworthy information, context and a sense of connection in an overwhelming news cycle.

That sense of connection was central to the discussion of “superfans,” a term the panel used to describe the highly engaged viewers who do more than simply tune in.

Psaki said that at live events and in product testing, it became clear that the audience sees itself as part of a community, not just a passive viewership.

Melber added that “people don’t watch the news, they watch people,” noting that audiences connect with hosts through personality, perspective and shared experience. That dynamic, the panel argued, is what differentiates MS NOW in a crowded media market.

The conversation also described an aggressive digital expansion.

Melber discussed his early embrace of YouTube as a way to extend interviews and conversations beyond the limits of linear television. Psaki echoed that point, saying that an hour-long show leaves little room for the lengthier discussions audiences increasingly want.

Both described digital video, YouTube originals, podcasts and short-form social content as ways to reach people who may never watch cable news but still want credible journalism. The network now draws more YouTube views than other news networks, heightening the payoff of that investment.

“The audience is so spread apart,” Psaki said. “You have to capture them where you can find them.”

Looking ahead, the panelists said their success will depend on staying experimental, meeting audiences across platforms and maintaining trust in an era shaped by misinformation and AI-generated content.

For MS NOW, the playbook is not just about audience growth. It is about creating a news brand built on authenticity, accessibility and community.

© 2026 NAB

When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr took to X last month threatening license revocations over broadcasters not operating in the public interest, it became a case study for policy experts, educators and journalists alike.

How much government oversight is too much?

Commissioner Anna Gomez, currently the sole Democrat on the FCC, led a panel of experts who offered perspectives on the government’s role in ensuring that news outlets avoid bias, whether real or perceived.

A focal point was the concept of “jawboning” — government officials using informal pressure, public threats or social media to coerce media organizations into changing their coverage.

Threats raised on social media may not result in a direct policy change, said Joe Flint, entertainment business reporter for The Wall Street Journal, but may weigh heavily on a company looking ahead to its next license renewal.

“That’s where I wonder if the ultimate goal is to be in the back of an outlet’s mind, ‘Well, what lawsuit will this bring?’” Flint asked.

Casey Mattox, vice president of legal strategy at Stand Together, said the pressure can build gradually over time.

“People end up being slowly affected by this sort of accumulation of the gravitational force’s power,” he said.

But Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said jawboning historically has been difficult to prove in court.

“It is going to require a licensee that has had enough and said, ‘We are being affected adversely by all of this pressure being brought on broadcasters, and we would like to put that to the test,’” Corn-Revere said.

You cannot completely remove bias from media, Mattox said, because to be human is to have bias.

Flint referenced the controversies around Howard Stern in his Infinity Broadcasting days to show that pressure from regulators is nothing new.

Mara Gassmann, senior staff attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, pointed to two recent court decisions that are relevant though not directly involving the FCC.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled in March that the Trump administration’s executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS was unconstitutional.

And District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last month that the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Voice of America were “arbitrary and capricious.”

It is unclear where those decisions will lead, though Corn-Revere noted that the use of social media by Carr and others has caught the eye of federal courts.

Gomez pointed out that historically, the FCC has justified regulating broadcast content by arguing that spectrum was a scarce public resource and a “pervasive presence.”

Should that apply in today’s fragmented content landscape?

“We’ve got media literacy programs, media education, but at the bottom end of the day, I don’t think it’s the government’s role to sort out what’s true or what’s false,” said Clay Calvert, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“If everyone just took a little more time trying to listen and understand each other and not immediately go to ‘what is the agenda,’ I think we’d be a lot better off,” Flint said.

Local broadcasters, the panelists concurred, are uniquely positioned to push back and remain objective.

“All of this is sort of downstream of culture,” Mattox said. “You are in the best position, more than just about anybody, to do what is the most necessary thing to protect First Amendment rights going forward.”

© 2026 NAB

As the entire media sector, from broadcasters and streamers to emerging content creators, faces another year of rapid change, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is offering a wide variety of demos, solutions, educational sessions and hands-on training at NAB Show that it says will help attendees capitalize on rapidly changing consumer habits.

Many of these AI- and cloud-based tools are designed to help broadcasters, creators and streamers address some of the thorniest challenges they face, said Stephanie Lone, global leader, Solutions Architecture, Media, Entertainment, Games and Sports Industry at AWS.

“We’re at this amazing inflection moment” of rapidly changing consumer habits that are roiling the M&A sector, she said. “There is research showing that 88% of the streaming content consumed by Gen Z viewers is on their phone” and “users are spending more time watching vertical video than the time they spend time watching Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video on their phones … That puts pressure on broadcasters and streamers to reach these viewers on the devices and with the formats they want to see.”

One example of how AWS helps companies adapt rapidly to a “mobile-first” world, she said, is AWS Elemental Inference, being demoed in the AWS booth (W1701).

This fully managed service applies AI in parallel to live video encoding so that broadcasters and streamers can automatically deliver a vertical feed of live action with only a six- to 10-second delay. “We already have customers like Fox and NBCUniversal that are benefiting from those real-time creation capabilities,” she said.

AWS is also addressing technologies and workflows for the creator sector, which has a much-expanded presence this year.

“Every live broadcast isn’t just competing with their traditional competition; they are also competing with TikTok, Instagram and YouTube,” Lone said, citing a February study from Omdia that found global microdrama revenue will hit $14 billion this year and top $20 billion by 2030.

At the same time, AWS is showcasing technologies to help creators.

“We will have demos in the Builder Space [at the back of the AWS Theater, W1333] where people can go and get hands-on experience with various models,” she said. In addition, AWS is leaning into the creator space with an “AI Studio Startup Spotlight” at the AWS Theater on Wednesday (April 22).

Partnerships on Exhibit

AWS is also providing a host of demos from partners like AMC Networks, Sinclair, FanDuel, the NBA, Graham Media Group and Amazon’s Prime Video, as well as sessions where executives from Fox, Gray Media, Sky and others discuss how they use AI and cloud technologies in their operations.

“Most of our demos at the show are what I call the art of the real, not the art of the possible,” Lone said.

Other practical experiences include the new Builder Lab at the back of the AWS Theater, a place where attendees can see how easy it is to deploy these tools and play around with some of the AI models.

AWS is also hosting the Cloud Court Challenge, a collaboration with Toronto Raptors parent Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) that lets attendees put their basketball skills to the test while they learn how the cloud and AI can influence athletic performance and fan engagement.

Participants in the challenge, located in the West Hall lobby, will receive performance insights through detailed data analysis and computer vision and take home their own player card and social video.

Visitors to the Amazon Entertainment Loft (W235LMR) can see how emerging AWS technology powers Amazon Luna, Prime Video and Fire TV under the hood. The loft also offers opportunities to network, play the latest games, and talk with Amazon subject-matter experts.

The AWS Theater (W1333) is offering more than 20 sessions showing how companies are using Amazon’s cloud and AI solutions to improve operations.

© 2026 NAB

Podcast listening in the U.S. reached new highs over the past year, as the medium continues to expand its audience base.

Yet for this audio-first medium, video is what has people talking.

The recently released 2026 edition of Edison Research’s Infinite Dial reports that 58% of Americans age 12 and older listened to a podcast in February 2026. That’s equal to about 167 million people.

That is the highest monthly podcast reach recorded in the study’s history, according to the Edison Research report.

Just how big is podcasting? Conan O’Brien said his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” allows him to reach more people than he did in late-night TV; in an interview with The New Yorker he said this allows him to be a “master of my own destiny.”

The show told Podcast News Daily that it has amassed some 660 million downloads since its launch.

Radio entities too have been expanding their podcasting capabilities. According to Triton Digital’s U.S. Podcast Report, iHeartMedia averaged 69 million weekly downloads, followed by NPR’s 27.2 million and Audacy recording 14.8 million average weekly downloads.

Optimizing for Video

According to the Triton report, listening is still the predominant method to consume podcasting. But the popularity of video podcasting has grown dramatically, and audio-first brands are expanding quickly into multiplatform operations.

Consumers are leaning into this and expanding how and where they engage with podcasts.

In fact, most consumers both listen and watch. A whopping 80% of respondents 18-plus said they consume podcasts both ways.

(Triton’s report also looked at how various genres behave differently in video; some are “watch-forward,” others “listen-
forward.” People often listen to science, history and fiction. 
They often watch music and sports, while comedy tends to bridge both behaviors.)

iHeartMedia is enhancing its podcast offerings by adding full-length video podcast distribution to iHeartRadio. The company said the move is designed to expand reach for creators.

Beginning later this year, podcasters will be able to distribute full-length video versions of their shows directly into both the app and web versions of iHeartRadio, alongside traditional audio episodes.

iHeartMedia also recently announced a video podcasting partnership with Netflix.

On an investor call in 
March, Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia, called video podcasting “a wonderful expansion of the marketplace.”

AI continues to change podcasting in exciting ways, said Gary Levitt, an audio engineer and co-founder of Future Moments, which releases apps for content creation.

“Because AI can transcribe audio so easily, podcasts are becoming fully searchable by text. It’s turning millions of hours of conversations into an incredible knowledge resource,” Levitt said.

“Now tools like TapeSearch and Listen Notes make it possible to search any topic and instantly find the exact moment it was discussed in a podcast.”

Monetization 
of Podcasts

Podcast advertising also continues to surge, according to research firm Magellan AI.

E-commerce and retail brands remain deeply invested in podcasting, it said, with financial services, telecom and tech remaining the top advertisers.

Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 U.S. podcasts as ranked by Apple Podcasts. It said the top 15 advertisers spent a combined $59.8 million in January.

As part of NAB Show’s Broadcast Management and Monetization Conference, the session “Hot Digital Trends: What to Know About Video, Podcasts and AI” explores where broadcast operations should invest their time and money.

Moderated by multimedia journalist John Wordock of WTOP in Washington, D.C., the panel (2:45 to 3:45 p.m. today in Room N259) will offer insights on these key digital areas.

Wordock said every broadcaster, whether television or radio, whether small market or large market, needs to create a strategy for video podcasts on YouTube.

“Think of YouTube as a storefront window for your podcast,” Wordock said.

The session will feature Andy Slater, head of partnerships at ART19, Amazon’s podcast hosting and monetization platform. A 10-year veteran of the podcasting space, Slater works with top-tier creators and networks to optimize their publishing workflows and scale global ad revenue.

Video will also be the focus of today’s “Creating Automated Video for Podcasting” (C9226 Creator Lab Classroom). The session promises to help creators streamline camera switching, audio, recording and live streaming with smart production tech.

© 2026 NAB

As consumer brands, B2B organizations and government agencies continue to increase their reliance on video to distribute both external and internal messaging, the need to connect creators and storytellers with corporate communicators is growing.

While the latter group may not reside in the traditional realm of broadcasting and entertainment, the companies it represents are, in their own way, fast becoming media platforms, too.

This has driven NAB Show to introduce a new Enterprise Video Strategies education track for 2026.

Designed to demonstrate how organizations are leveraging today’s video production technology to achieve meaningful business results, sessions include: “Efficient by Design: Cloud-Based Production for Modern Brands,” “The Enterprise Studio: Redefining How Organizations Create,” “From Corporate Video to In-House Studio: How Enterprises Are Becoming Media Machines” and “Architecting ROI: Scalable Virtual Production for Enterprise Teams.”

Video Gets More ACCESSIBLE

Lori H. Schwartz, CEO and principal at StoryTech, an experiential marketing firm based in Los Angeles and curator of experiences for NAB Show, said the evolution of enterprise video from simple internal messaging (think corporate training videos) to much more elaborate, external-facing campaigns is, in large part, the result of what she calls the “democratization” of video production technology.

In other words, the hardware and software have become more accessible, easier to operate and in some cases are developed with nonbroadcast users in mind.

This makes it convenient to expand video communications beyond the conventional 30-second television ad into spots specifically designed to run on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Enterprises, Schwartz said, have become their own content creators.

At the same time, many nonbroadcast or nonmedia companies seek the expertise required to develop engaging video content. Schwartz notes that this presents new opportunities to creators and producers who, up until now, have dedicated their work to television and film almost exclusively.

The 2026 NAB Show Enterprise Video Strategies track aims to build a bridge between these two groups.

“[We want] to get the people that need work to see that there are other ways they can use their skills,” Schwartz said.

“We also want to show the enterprise folks that if they come to NAB Show, they would meet the people that have the latest virtual production skill sets [for example]. They would learn about the tools and meet the right people so that they can keep expanding their content pipelines.”

For this first year, Schwartz explained, the sessions that make up the Enterprise Video Strategies track will give attendees a good idea of how the corporate world is applying video content and technology for its communications. In the future, she envisions more specialized themes.

“The best way to start, I believe, is by showing what’s happening out there,” Schwartz said. “I think it will grow over time, and then we can start to get into more niche topics inside of that.”

A Lower Barrier to Entry

At Matrox Video, a video systems developer with headquarters in Dorval, Canada, Manager of Strategic Partnerships Rob Moodey pointed to several technological advancements that have made production technology more accessible to the enterprise. He cited the growth of video-over-IP deployments as an example.

“Instead of relying on traditional interfaces like HDMI, DisplayPort or SDI — all of which are used in [the] enterprise — modern systems increasingly handle video as network-based data streams,” Moodey said.

This means that companies may leverage standard IT infrastructure without having to worry about procuring dedicated switching and cabling.

The same applies to video compression formats, Moodey added. Depending on their requirements related to bandwidth, cost, latency and quality, enterprise video teams may choose between delivering low-latency, uncompressed video; light compression formats like JPEG-XS and NDI-Full; or high compression through H.264 and H.265.

“Importantly, many of these formats can run on standard computing hardware using CPUs or GPUs, reducing the need for highly specialized equipment and lowering the barrier to entry,” Moodey said.

When Video is Mission-Critical

While “traditional” enterprise video may be about connecting customers with brands, there is another category of nonbroadcast organizations that rely heavily on the medium.

Fred Poole is director of space — Intel/Civilian at Haivision MCS, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Haivision, a video networking and visual collaboration systems developer headquartered in Montreal. Haivision MCS serves aerospace, enterprise, government, military and public-safety clients that require mission-critical video solutions.

These customers prioritize technology that can deliver bandwidth efficiency (and the ability to control it), low latency, quality and reliability, Poole said.

He illustrated a standard U.S. Department of Defense video application with a sports analogy.

“The connection between professional sports and what happens in the DOD and the (U.S. Intelligence Community) are very strongly parallel,” Poole said.

“I want the ability to see the best video quality I can for the plays being made. I also want to be able to go back and see: Was he out of bounds? What was he carrying? What was that person doing at that time? Where were they located?”

These types of operations employ a similar number of cameras and camera controls as required in sports broadcasting, Poole explained.

AI: The Big Enabler

As in other industries, artificial intelligence is giving video production professionals every­where the ability to be more efficient by fulfilling some of the more repetitive or mundane tasks associated with creating and managing content. Schwartz pointed to basic camera operation, data analytics and content personalization as several examples of this.

In the context of mission-critical video, Poole noted that AI can serve to decrease latency and improve video quality. “We’re looking [at] what is being developed in the AI world to be able to impact and affect things in the video, how we view it [and] in how it’s delivered,” he said.

For NAB Show, Schwartz underlined that the goal this year is to bring together two different groups of professionals: creators who have traditionally focused on television and film and enterprise-level communications practitioners who can benefit from their knowledge and experience.

“They just need to meet each other,” Schwartz said. “NAB Show has always been good about being that home for people to connect. This is the next bastion of that.”

© 2026 NAB

For broadcasters and streamers, a migration to the cloud is no longer a simple technical upgrade. The era of merely replicating on-premise infrastructure in a virtual environment — the so-called lift and shift — is over.

The most successful organizations are embracing the journey as a fundamental operational and creative transformation, requiring a phased approach that addresses architectural resilience, cultural change and the accelerated adoption of new technologies like AI.

The initial hurdle for many is realizing that the journey to the cloud is less about IT infrastructure and more about people.

“Cloud migration isn’t just a technical decision. It’s a creative and operational one,” Sami Aziz, executive producer and founder of Pale Blue Originals and former head of live broadcasts at NASA, said.

“The organizations that navigate the move to cloud best treat it like a production: a phased approach, very clear communication, investment in training and intentional standardization across tools.”

Any move to the cloud comes with challenges, including managing real-time media workflows that demand low latency and high reliability.

“To tackle this, it’s important to ensure workflows are consistent to reduce training time and use real-time monitoring tools to keep an eye on network and media performance,” said Bryan Bedford, director of consumer industries and business solutions at Cisco Systems.

“Automation and orchestration can simplify operations and help scale efficiently. Plus, collaborating with vendors and adopting open standards ensures everything works well together.”

Reliability Concerns

Reliability, especially for real-time media workflows that demand low latency, remains a constant challenge. Organizations must design their systems to survive multiple problems, from public internet performance issues to data center and region outages.

Mike Pilone, enterprise architect at National Public Radio, suggested that any system deployed in the cloud has to “utilize multiple regions to ensure they can survive an interruption. Using multiple cloud providers can give you an additional layer of availability as well as flexibility if a provider is no longer attractive due to service or pricing changes.”

Content protection and ownership in a cloud-first world are also new challenges facing content owners, especially with the need to protect their assets and set clear parameters in case a platform goes down.

“Most broadcasters don’t ask these questions until something goes wrong,” Aziz said. “Redundancy and contracts with clear data ownership language are two critical starting points. Security should also be treated as an ongoing operational priority, not just a one-time setup. The same care you would apply to protecting a finished master should apply to every stage of your cloud pipeline.”

The growth of AI is also linked to the move beyond a basic cloud deployment. Most AI tools, such as automated captioning, content tagging and quality control, are cloud-based. AI models are resource-intensive operations that may only be practical in a shared computing environment such as the cloud.

“As we see more AI adoption in various use cases, we can expect to see greater use of the cloud to provide the core models and compute,” said Jon Cyphers, senior manager of product and support, distribution at NPR.

AI is transforming how broadcasters operate in the cloud, Bedford agreed, helping to automate and optimize media production and delivery, making workflows more efficient and reducing manual errors.

“Combining AI with cloud and edge computing opens up exciting possibilities like personalized content delivery and intelligent network orchestration,” he said.

“This integration helps broadcasters stay competitive by enhancing efficiency and creating new ways to engage audiences.”

According to Aziz, organizations that have already started migrating to the cloud will be able to adopt and adapt to AI incrementally, with human judgment still a large part of the workflow.

“Organizations still anchored to legacy systems will have a harder time making the leap all at once,” he said. “We’re all watching how quickly AI is evolving. The honest truth is, it’s moving faster than any of us can set editorial and ethical standards, and that’s a conversation our entire industry needs to be having.”

© 2026 NAB

Virtual production is coming of age and entering a phase defined less by experimentation and more by repeatability, scalability and real-world usability.

Industry observers cite a clear shift in how VP technologies are deployed.

“There’s been a notable maturation in how productions think about workflow,” Pixotope Chief Experience Officer Simon Davis said. “The early conversation was largely about what’s possible; now it’s about what’s repeatable and reliable.”

Clients want solutions that their existing teams can operate, rather than relying only on specialist technicians, he said.

“We’ve also seen growing interest in hybrid approaches that blend physical and virtual elements more fluidly, as well as a continued push toward tighter integration between the creative and technical sides of production.”

Davis said Pixotope is working to democratize virtual production. The Oslo-based company announced its latest strategic partnership last month; it is working with Qatar-based systems integrator Ventum Tech to extend the reach of its accessible virtual production and extended reality solutions across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Pixotope sees growing demand for advanced broadcast graphics, extended reality, augmented reality and virtual studios.

Cesar Caceres, product lead at LED processing technology producer Brompton Technology, noted quite a bit of change since the industry last gathered at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Over the past year, virtual production has moved decisively toward greater accessibility and scalability,” he said. “Networked systems now allow studios to expand or reconfigure setups on demand, making workflows far more adaptable. On the hardware side, higher-resolution LED panels combined with next-generation processors have set a new benchmark for control and image quality, enabling consistent in-camera final pixels.”

At the same time, he said, hybrid workflows that blend physical sets with virtual environments have become more common, improving efficiency and creative control.

“More importantly, there’s been a shift in mindset: Productions are no longer building fixed pipelines but flexible ecosystems that can scale from smaller shoots to large, complex volumes,” Caceres said. “That adaptability is becoming a key requirement rather than a differentiator.”

AI Expands Further

AI has also made further significant inroads into virtual production this year. Considering the technology’s impact, Davis anticipated how it might continue to expand.

“Within the Pixotope ecosystem, we already have products such as Fly and Zone that leverage machine-learning algorithms to support through-the-lens camera tracking,” Davis said.

“We see a huge interest in cutting down the work on modelling and creation of environments, and we now support Gaussian splatting formats — this is a technology we’re watching and actively engaging with.”

The ability to capture real-world spaces and objects as photorealistic, renderable scenes in a fraction of the time traditional workflows take is something to watch as technology improves, he said.

“Text- and image-to-3D-object workflows open new possibilities for background creation and asset pipelines. It’s still maturing, and its consistency and accuracy need to improve for it to be a reliable tool.”

Given the rapidly evolving nature of innovation driving the sector, Davis and Caceres each discussed challenges and how their respective companies are positioned to tackle them.

“The biggest challenge is arguably the gap between ambition and operability,” Davis said. “The technology has advanced rapidly, but the pool of people who know how to deploy and run it confidently hasn’t kept pace.”

He said that puts pressure on platform providers to build tools that are more intuitive, better documented and easier for production teams who aren’t virtual production specialists by background to support.

“Beyond skills, we’re seeing hardware prices rise due to the memory demands of the AI boom,” he continued. “Pixotope is slightly removed from that, being a software-only solution, so our customers can shop around for hardware rather than relying on vendor-locked hardware supply chains.”

Workflow standardization and monetization continue to be a struggle for many studios despite technological advances, Caceres added.

Scale Issues

“Smaller teams often find it difficult to scale processes used in larger productions, which can complicate project management and profitability,” he said.

“Integration across multiple vendors’ hardware, real-time engines, servers and processing also remains complex, requiring specialized expertise.

“Balancing quality, cost and operational reliability continues to be a challenge, particularly for smaller studios seeking to compete in an increasingly sophisticated market,” he said.

At the convention, Davis said, “We’ll be talking about the Pixotope platform and a host of quality-of-life improvements for our customers — demonstrating how we’re making real-time virtual production more accessible, stable and scalable for teams of every size.

“With the biggest XR (eXtended Reality) installs under our belt this past year, we’ve continued to focus on workflow. How do you take genuinely complex, multimachine production environments and make them manageable without sacrificing the power that large-scale productions demand?” Pixotope also will announce support for some Gaussian splatting formats.

Brompton, Caceres said, will focus on the evolution of LED processing and display technologies across industries, highlighting the importance of flexibility, scalability and real-time control.

“We will explore how creators are moving beyond static pipelines and adopting IP-based workflows that can support projects of any size. We will also examine how industry evolution and standardization work hand in hand with flexibility, ensuring consistent results across productions.

“Our goal is to show how adaptable systems empower teams to deliver high-quality content efficiently, while remaining creative and responsive on set.”

Davis said technological democratization should continue, with changes driven by those who are creating content. “We anticipate that Gaussian splatting and similar capture technologies will become a mainstream part of asset pipelines, dramatically compressing the time from location to a usable virtual environment,” he said.

“Perhaps most importantly, we see the center of gravity in the market continuing to shift: The next wave of growth won’t come from the biggest productions, but from midmarket broadcasters, sports leagues and content creators who are just now discovering what’s possible — and building the workflows to match.”

© 2026 NAB

It is fitting that the 2026 NAB Show takes place in a Las Vegas Convention Center that recently completed an astounding three-year, $600 million renovation. That makes it the perfect setting for a show that reflects an industry in a constant state of reinvention.

Fitting because like the LVCC, which now efficiently links all of its halls for easy access (and with a Loop transport system to boot), NAB Show will connect a projected 59,000-plus attendees to a media world in which creativity and technology ease the path toward invention and monetization for everyone from a kid with an iPhone to a major media player.

“When you look at what’s happening across the landscape of media and entertainment, everybody’s becoming a storyteller. NAB Show has all the tools you need to do that, but also the community to learn from each other how to further your craft,” said Karen Chupka, executive vice president of global connections and events at the National Association of Broadcasters.

The intersection of community and craft starts front and center for broadcasters with a reimagined TV and Radio HQ, presented by Xperi. It moves this year to a can’t-miss location on the Central Hall show floor. The change is meant to embrace broadcast’s legacy while increasing convenience and engagement, with relevant sessions set in the HQ Theater and with space to network in the inviting NAB Member Lounge.

Spotlight on Sports
In that lounge and on the floor, attendees can expect sports to hold an outsized amount of attention.

“Sports is such a growing category because it is the one thing that everybody still consumes live,” Chupka said.

That emphasis has led to the Sports Summit expanding across four days. Leaders from leagues and teams, and companies representing broadcast, streaming and technology, will cover the rapid evolution of sports media’s production, distribution, investment and policy. Topics such as media rights and revenue, athlete-driven brands, wagering and the new fan economy and international markets will be explored on the West Hall floor.

In one Main Stage highlight, Jon Miller, president of acquisitions and partnerships at NBC Sports, throws open the “NBC Sports Playbook: Rights, Partnerships and What’s Next” in a fireside talk with John Ourand from Puck’s sports-business newsletter “The Varsity.” Miller’s chat comes in the wake of the company’s blazing trifecta success in immersive storytelling and marketing with the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Weekend.

Another major show theme is artificial intelligence, which hits a new stride at the 2026 Show. AI was housed in one pavilion last year; now it expands to two in the West Hall, reflecting the technology’s growing role as a fundamental part of industry workflows and a key to content models.

“We’re seeing AI move from experimentation to real, scaled adoption across the media industry,” said Silvia Candiani, vice president of telco, media and entertainment and gaming at Microsoft. “What’s most exciting is how AI is removing friction from creative and production workflows and helping creators focus on storytelling, craft and originality, while media organizations operate with greater speed, security and confidence.”

Candiani hits the Main Stage to discuss “Powering Intelligent Media: From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact.” Later John Footen, media solutions managing director at Deloitte Consulting, tackles practical decisions that leaders face when moving from experimentation to durable impact in “Make AI Make Sense.”

Chupka also encourages a visit to the West Hall lobby to see AI in imaginative action, beginning with the cutting-edge innovators exhibiting in the Startup Pavilion.

There’s also the latest exciting novelty from Amazon Web Services (AWS): an AI-enabled digital basketball shooting experience. Created with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owner of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, it will allow attendees to take three free throws and then receive a digital player card with stats and shooting technique analysis.

Industry in Growth Mode
The convention also will be rich with content about streaming, virtualization, the cloud and the creator economy.

The NAB Show in 2026 looks to find more ways for industry players to stay relevant and competitive. To cite a few examples:

Enterprise Video Strategies, a new conference track situated in the West Hall’s new VideoNext Theater, will explore how enterprise-level organizations are using media and entertainment technologies to tell more engaging stories, and how corporations and organizations are adopting video production.

The two-day Streaming Summit, headed by Chairman Dan Rayburn, features two tracks, in which some 85 speakers will cover trends in measurement, technology challenges, consumer engagement, opportunities for monetization and delivering great user experiences at scale.

Google is building a full exhibit on the floor for the first time this year, showcasing its cloud virtualization efforts.

As part of the Cinematographer Workshop, Oscar winner Roger Deakins speaks about next-era revolutionary tools for filmmakers.

This year, all attendees are invited to experience the three-day Business of Media and Entertainment program, which brings together top industry dealmakers, executives and creatives in discussion about trends leading to the ever-reshaping business.

And the Creator Lab offers access to hands-on learning with techniques and business insights, thanks to a dedicated classroom, theater, recording space and exhibitor activations, all meant to spark collaboration and scalable content in the Creator Economy.

“We have some tools and technologies that make it easier for creators to do some of what they’re doing, and we also cover a lot of content and how businesses could scale up the art of storytelling,” Chupka said. “People can walk away saying, ‘We can try that and see how that helps us build our community.’”

Protecting the growth of the broadcast community is top-of-mind for many attendees.

That includes new innovations like the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), a technology being developed by NAB that uses ATSC 3.0 signals as an alternative to GPS.

From regulation to innovation, the 2026 confab in Las Vegas offers attendees a four-day forecast for a business in constant growth.

“NAB Show connects broadcasters with the technologies, partnerships and insights they need to navigate a rapidly changing media environment,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said. “From AI tools to next-generation production and distribution technologies, the show equips broadcasters to innovate while continuing to serve their communities. This is where our industry comes together to prepare for the future.”

© 2026 NAB