NEW YORK--What started more than a decade ago as HD World/SATCON, NAB Show New York, Oct. 17-18 at the Javits Convention Center, has now shifted to a platform for the business of entertainment and media, focusing on the most robust parts of the industry that more closely reflect the city’s marketplace.
Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president of conventions and business operations, reflected on how the show has evolved over the years.
“The show had a bit of an eclectic positioning before, with a bent toward traditional broadcast and a legacy satellite component in SATCON,” he said. “SATCON represented the roots of the event, but as the show had grown toward the media space, it was becoming more and more difficult to fully serve the original objectives of that brand.”
This year, NAB Show New York will host 294 exhibitors, with 67 exhibiting for the first time, including ARRI, Bose, Google, Microsoft and Primestream.
“The addition of these new exhibitors reflects NAB Show New York’s continued growth and uniqueness to the overall media, entertainment and technology industries,” Brown said. "We have a great mix of companies and technology. It is balanced and dynamic, reflecting the industry’s most important innovations displayed by its most progressive players.”
One of the most popular features is “Post|Production Conference NYC,” produced in partnership with Future Media Concepts, offering hands-on training that professionals can apply immediately to current projects. The multiday workshops will cover cinematic lighting, corporate in-house productions and UAV, and are designed for film, TV and video editors, graphics designers, colorists and producers.
For the first time, NAB Show New York is introducing the “PILOT Pitch Prize” competition, that will give five early-stage startups the opportunity to pitch business plans to executives from Hearst Television, iHeartMedia, NBC, Accenture and Cox for a $50,000 contract. The winning startup will get the chance to showcase their product at the 2019 NAB Show. Following the competition, notable Silicon Valley venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz will deliver a keynote.
FOCUS ON NEXT GEN TV
As the first NAB Show New York since the FCC approved the ATSC 3.0 standard last November, the event will feature numerous sessions and presentations on opportunities for Next Gen TV.
The "TV2020: Monetizing the Future" session will focus on opportunities in ATSC 3.0, OTT and automated ad selling, as well as using social media to promote content. Featured speakers for this event include Brad Wall, senior vice president of broadcast operations at Disney|ABC Television group and Howard Homonoff, senior vice president of MediaLink.
Another new feature at this year’s show is “Advanced TV Solutions,” a presentation theater that will allow attendees to learn more about consumer technologies across telco, Gigabit cable Wi-Fi and ATSC 3.0 environments. In the “ATSC 3.0 Update - What, Where and Especially WHEN” session, at noon on Oct. 18, attendees can get updates on the design and deployment of the standard, and who, among broadcasters and content owners, will sign up their first customers.
In a “Fireside Chat with Christopher Ripley,” at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 18 the president and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group will discuss how his company plans to use ATSC 3.0 for live mobile streaming at scale, ad-supported services, and improve delivery on home, mobile and auto devices.
[Read: NAB Show NY: Blackmagic to Showcase the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K]
The “Accelerating on the Road to ATSC 3.0” session at 3:00 p.m. on Oct. 18 will examine how the standard is being tested in several U.S. markets, focusing on Sinclair’s single frequency network in Dallas, the Pearl TV model market in Phoenix and public broadcaster WKAR’s deployment at Michigan State University.
BUSINESS TRACK
Focusing on business, the NAB Show New York’s Core Business Track will feature 13 speakers addressing the topics of advertising, content strategies, Esports and finance. Sessions range from “Influencing the Consumer’s Choices” to “Attracting Revenues for Venues and Facilities.” On Thursday at 3:30 p.m., the session “Can Sports Betting Save Television?” will discuss how the the results of the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing sports betting will change the economics of sports on television. The panel will cover the business models, technology and customer relations aspects of sports betting.
During the keynote session, NAB Show New York will present daytime talk show host Wendy Williams the NAB Show New York Impact Award. It will honor Williams for her 10 years of success as host of "The Wendy Williams Show," which attracts millions of viewers every day and her work with “Be Here Initiative,” a national awareness and call-to-action drug addiction and substance abuse campaign.
Since it began three years ago, NAB Show New York has met the association’s expectations of the importance of having a second annual event. Last year, 14,550 registered for the event, the most in its three-year history.
“Things are moving so fast in this business right now that the industry needed a second domestic gathering to provide another opportunity to touch base with partners and check in on key trends. It is really a vital forum,” Brown said. And “being situated in New York allows us to engage a rich pool of local area talent both to attend and speak in the conference sessions.”
That’s important since Brown said about 76 percent of NAB New York attendees won't attend the NAB Show 2019.
