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

After announcing its plans last spring to move the TV and Radio HQ to the newly renovated Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB Show has been busy planning a new show experience for broadcasters.

The broadcast HQ was situated in the West Hall for the last several years, but feedback from exhibitors has encouraged the move to a more centralized location.

Justine McVaney, NAB’s senior vice president of content and event production, said the move to Central Hall reflects how broadcasters want to experience NAB Show today — more integrated, more accessible and closer to the action.

“By bringing the TV and Radio HQ onto the show floor, we’re placing broadcast conversations directly alongside the technology, solutions and partners that support the industry,” McVaney said. “It creates a natural hub where broadcasters can move easily between exhibits, Main Stage moments and peer discussions without leaving the flow of the Show.”

A Connected Experience
NAB said the goal is to make the show experience feel more connected. Whether you’re attending a quick conversation in the HQ Theater, meeting with colleagues in the Member Lounge or exploring new technologies on the floor, everything is now within a few steps of each other, McVaney said.

The TV and Radio HQ will be just inside the west front of the LVCC, facing the Silver Lot, Vegas Loop station and monorail tracks.

As for how exhibitors feel about the TV and Radio HQ’s move, McVaney said the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Many of them see this move as an opportunity to deepen engagement with the broadcast community,” she said.

“Having the TV and Radio HQ on the Central Hall floor naturally increases foot traffic and creates more opportunities for exhibitors to interact with broadcasters who are actively looking for ideas, solutions and partnerships.”

The move reinforces NAB Show’s role as a place where the business and technology sides of broadcasting meet, she said. “Exhibitors benefit from being closer to the conversations that matter to broadcasters right now.”

Not only will the revamped Central Hall feature updated infrastructure and more open areas designed for collaboration and engagement, organizers said, it will also come equipped with a wider range of food and beverage options across the hall — a welcome addition.

Central Hall now has a new grand lobby with a glass curtain wall and lots of natural light. A large digital screen anchors that space.

Short Takes
One of the biggest changes for the 2026 NAB Show is the introduction of shorter-form sessions in the TV and Radio HQ Theater. Organizers said these sessions are designed to be quick, engaging conversations that broadcasters can easily fit into their day while exploring the show floor.

Topics will cover many of the issues broadcasters are actively discussing right now, McVaney said, including AI-driven discovery, as well as digital revenue strategies, podcasting and streaming, cybersecurity, political advertising opportunities and emerging technologies like NextGen TV. “The goal is to create a mix of insightful and entertaining conversations that spark new ideas and encourage attendees to stay curious as they move through the show,” she said.

Together with the Premium Conference programming in North Hall and the broadcast-focused events on the Main Stage, these sessions are designed to create a more flexible and immersive experience for broadcasters attending the convention.

© 2026 NAB

This story comes from the NAB Show Daily Special Edition

The realization of an 8K ecosystem, from acquisition to display, is still off in the distance, pushed a bit further that way with the delay of the 2020 Olympic Games, which was to mark the launch of NHK’s entry into broadcasting imagery at that resolution.

Regardless, some specialty content is already being shot, posted and displayed at 8K and many facets of the industry—acquisition, post, delivery—have been gearing up for the eventuality of an ecosystem involving digital imagery containing four times the image data per frame as is found in the 4K equivalent.

FILE SIZE GROWTH

Blackmagic Design has been introducing 8K capabilities into products lines since 2017 and will likely introduce more products this year. The company has also brought out tools for use in live production in anticipation of the next Olympic Games and NHK’s commitment to 8K broadcast.

“We’ve accepted the growth of the file sizes and developed products in anticipation of that need,” said Bob Caniglia, Blackmagic Design’s director of sales operations for North America, who points out that they offer existing products that can record and playback 8K and switch live with a 10-input 8K switcher, as well as monitoring devices to convert quad 12-gig SDI to quad HDMI to feed 8K HDMI displays.

Pointing to the company’s 8K Decklink video cards for 8K-out, he said “We’ve introduced 4K capability over previous generations to accommodate both 4K and HD [workflows] so there was a growth path from HD to 4K. Now we’re doing the same for 4K and 8K,” he explained.

Blackmagic, he said, has worked to accommodate “the significant growth of file sizes in our development process because we anticipate an increasing need for 8K products.”

8K IMAGE CAPTURE

Red Digital Cinema has enabled true 8K image capture since the release of their Red Weapon 8K sensor in 2015. “We did something similar with 4K in 2007,” said Dan Duran, Red’s post production/workflow specialist. “Some people asked why. ‘Everyone is mastering in 1080 or 2K. There are no 4K TVs.’ Well, I don’t think you can even buy a 1080 TV today and you can go to a store and buy an 8K TV right now so it’s a similar concept.”

4K obviously has taken off as a home display format but, Duran added, many productions made use of the advantages of shooting in 4K even for content that was posted and delivered in 1080.

“It is always part of the equation of what people want from resolution, dynamic range and noise floor,” which translates even to down-sampled imagery. So when it comes down to it, he said, “people aren’t viewing 8K right now at home or in a theatre, but we still see productions using our 8K cameras and then mastering in 4K or 2K. By super sampling, you have smaller pixels, cleaner image, more detail.”

This is perhaps even truer in VFX plate photography, where imagery can undergo the most post processing.

“Visual effects artists want to start with the highest quality possible,” he explained. “It’s a lot easier to add [noise] than remove it. They aren’t finishing in 8K at this point, but you have the improved noise floor and greater detail and you can blow the [images] up or shrink them down with better results than if you shot at 4K or 2K.”

READY TO SCALE UP

Chief Color Scientist John Quartel of Company 3, a post-production company with multiple facilities that offer DI (Digital Intermediate) finishing, VFX and other services for feature film, episodic TV, commercials and music videos, explained that while there is little demand currently for 8K delivery, the company is ready to quickly scale up when that does happen.

“The tools to ingest, process, edit, color, composite and the rest are in place right now,” he said. “The only issues involve the upgrade in storage and bandwidth, and those become less constraining as the technology improves.

“There is nothing fundamentally difficult about working with 8K for DI work,” Quartel said. “Visual effects can be more resolution-restrictive due to factors of render times and storage costs, which is why many studios are still requesting 2K VFX even for features finishing at 4K.”

Fundamentally, he added, the infrastructure for 8K finishing is essentially ready and the only issues would be those that always accompany scaling up to accommodate an increase in the amount of data that would need to be moved and stored among their locations.

As the broadcast industry transitions to IP networks, certain challenges remain in their implementation and operation. Cognizant of potential pitfalls, manufacturers are stepping up with new products that help customers move into a networked future.

The promise of full interoperability is tantalizingly just out of reach, reports Martin Dyster, project director, Telos Infinity. He said high-profile content providers from across the globe are asking product designers and suppliers in the wider media-over-IP marketplace to engage more directly and to work with each other as a team to move the industry forward. “I feel that we are within touching distance of turning the promise of IP into reality, but without further cooperation and teamwork, it remains more challenging than it should be.”

“Where a few of the video standards fall a little short with AES67, and even ST 2110,” said Shawn Anderson, product manager, RTS wired systems, “they’re really focused on the audio transport rather than the control. So one of the things that we helped spearhead was AES70, which is the Open Control Standard, to try and give some people at least a pathway to have unified control across the different systems. But that’s never going to completely replace the individual manufacturers, because they have far more capabilities with their native protocols,” he said.

Phil Owens, senior sales engineer, Wheatstone, said, “With the ubiquitous move to IP, it would be nice to say that all IP streams are the same, but they’re not. Wheatstone is designing our next generation Blade I/O devices with this in mind, allowing for compensation for various streams, flows and essences in the most flexible way possible.”

IMPLEMENTATION

Discovery, registration and connection management, essentially missing from current AoIP standards, means that implementation demands extra time and effort from the system integrator. As Tom Knowles, product manager, broadcast systems, SSL UK, observed, “Today’s standards-based approaches can be complex and time-consuming.”

But technology-based solutions like Audinate’s Dante, supported by SSL’s broadcast equipment, provide a full-stack solution, Knowles said. “Defined technology such as Dante makes AoIP routing a simple reality today while including the current transport-based standards and evolving to include the emerging discovery and connection management standards, future-proofing investment.”

For the foreseeable future, customers beginning to transition to AoIP workflows will likely take a hybrid approach, combining silos of equipment using proprietary protocols interoperating via standards-based networks and gateways.

“The biggest challenge I see is for stations that need to support some of their legacy SDI architecture while transitioning to IP,” said Owens. “Fortunately, the model makes it easy to do a stepped implementation, installing IP ‘islands’ that will ultimately be joined in the final system.”

AoIP has been and will undoubtedly remain a great enabler and is certain to drive the evolution of future workflows.

“The rise of IP and remote production that we’re seeing will naturally lead to fully virtualized workflows becoming more prevalent,” said Dave Letson, vice president of sales, Calrec Audio. “DSP resources will be centralized and allocated to productions as and when they are required, so a production hub can cover any event anywhere by tapping into centralized resources via IP networks.”

Looking further into the future, “Undoubtedly a major driver will be the lower cost and availability of ultra-high-speed data networks, the precursor being the rollout of 5G. Media data transport bandwidth will be ubiquitous,” said Dyster. “The real fun here is figuring out what our user interfaces will look like and how people might use our products differently.”

Are you attending and/or exhibiting at the 2020 NAB Show? Yes, April and the annual NAB Show are just around the corner, and we’re doing our best to help you prepare. Along with registering to attend the show and making your hotel and airline reservations, here are some other items to put on your To Do List.

For Exhibitors

1. Get Covered by the Official NAB Show Daily

The Daily is published by Future US under contract with NAB. Exhibitors should submit news now for editorial consideration in the official NAB Show Daily. For more details, deadlines and to submit your news, product information and photos, click here. Content Director Terry Scutt can answer any questions you might have. Interested in advertising in the Daily? Click here for more information.

2. Gain Recognition for Your New Products or Booth With a ‘Best of Show’ Award

Make sure the new products your company unveils at the show stand out from the crowd. Future US judges are looking for the year’s game-changing technologies and outstanding booth designs that deserve Best of Show Awards. Your entry will tell us why you think we should be paying attention. Nominate your new product(s) or exhibit booth here.

3. Be a Part of Our Pre-Show Coverage

Help attendees learn more about your products ahead of the show. TV Technology, Radio World, Radio World International and Creative Planet Network offer a number of avenues for pre-show coverage. From newsletters to websites to print issues, as an exhibitor you can be a part of our NAB Show coverage by completing our online form here.

For Attendees

4. Let Us Do the Heavy Lifting

With so many events, learning opportunities and companies exhibiting at the show, let us help you fine-tune your plans. Be sure you are scheduled to receive the Sneak Peek weekly newsletters from TV Technology and/or Radio World. They are filled with product and show news and begin in February/early March. Subscribe to Sneak Peek here.

5. Engage With Us on Social Media

Don’t miss a thing ahead of, during and after the show. Like and follow TV Technology, Radio World and Creative Planet Network on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for NAB Show news, articles and Q&As to maximize your experience. Be sure to use #NABShow in your own tweets and posts so your colleagues can stay up to date on show and product news, too.

Bonus for Both Attendees and Exhibitors

I know I said “5 Things,” but here’s one last “thing” for both attendees and exhibitors. Visit the NAB Show website often. It is frequently updated, especially as the show dates get closer. Bookmark the Schedule-at-a-Glance, which offers live links to exhibit floor hours, exhibitor information, conference sessions, social community mixers and even the shuttle bus schedule.