Ahead of NAB Show New York (Oct. 21–22), TV Tech surveyed a group of key exhibitors to find out which tech trends are on their radar and what key products they plan to highlight at the Javits Convention Center, including Susana Brady, senior vice president, worldwide sales and marketing, at Cobalt Digital.
TV Tech: What do you expect will be the most significant technology trends this year at NAB Show New York?
Susana Brady: A key focus at NAB Show New York will be the continued adoption of IPMX as the transition from SDI to IP moves forward. It’s no longer a matter of if it will happen, but how broadcasters can manage it at their own pace while supporting hybrid environments and protecting their existing investments.
Another trend, closely related to IPMX, is the continued convergence of broadcast and Pro AV. Changing content consumption habits, combined with a proliferation of applications and delivery platforms, is increasing demand for high-performance, low-latency infrastructures that support interoperability and flexibility. IPMX helps bridge the broadcast and Pro AV worlds, bringing broadcast-grade performance and operator-friendly workflows to mixed-vendor environments.
And the third isn’t really a trend; it’s an immediate need. With the Federal Communications Commission-mandated auction of the remainder of C-band spectrum, broadcasters are searching for practical alternatives that allow them to continue receiving and distributing satellite-delivered content reliably, including solutions that can decode satellite signals and make them available through ASI and IP.
TV Tech: What’s your key product announcement for the show, and what problem does it solve?
SB: I don’t think I can pick just one, so I’ll highlight three.
At the show, we will highlight our award-winning blueCORE family of processors that supports both SDI and ST 2110/IPMX, allowing users to process signals within existing SDI environments while providing a direct, practical path toward IP.
We’ve packed a broad range of capabilities into a compact 1RU form factor, including up/down/cross conversion, color correction, several flavors of HDR processing, audio routing and mixing, per-channel frame sync, frame rate conversion, audio embedding and de‑embedding, SCTE‑104 insertion as well as logo insertion—and many more base features. With blueCORE, broadcasters have the processing tools they need today while making it easier to move toward tomorrow’s infrastructure.
Customers shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their existing investment and preparing for the future.”
Susana Brady, Cobalt Digital
We will also showcase our expanded IPMX capabilities with support for JPEG XS Temporal Differential Coding (JXS TDC) across Cobalt’s ST 2110/IPMX-capable families, including SAPPHIRE miniconverters, INDIGO gateways, PACIFIC encoders and decoders, TOPAZ processing platforms, ARIA audio monitors and UltraBlue multiviewers. This enables IPMX-certified products to discover, establish and transport visually lossless, ultra-low latency JPEG XS media streams, giving users a plug-and-play approach to JPEG XS workflows while maintaining interoperability across mixed-vendor IPMX environments.
And a very significant development is Cobalt’s practical solution for broadcasters navigating the C-band spectrum transition. We’ve added support for hybrid satellite-internet operations to the Cobalt PACIFIC compression line, compliant with VSR TR-06-4 Part 7, using Internet connectivity to recover data affected by satellite transmission losses.
The PACIFIC ULL-DEC with SAT-DEMOD uses a factory-installed DVB-S/S2 demodulator enabling broadcasters to receive satellite signals and make them available through both ASI and IP. In hybrid operation, Ku- and Ka-band satellite links are used for bulk distribution, while the Internet is used for lost packet recovery, offering a practical approach to maintaining reliable content delivery as broadcasters adapt to changes in satellite distribution.
TV Tech: How does this new solution stand out from what’s available on the market?
SB: What differentiates Cobalt is our focus on solving the problems broadcasters actually face during a transition.
The industry is dealing with multiple evolutions simultaneously. Broadcasters need to move toward IP, but they also need to continue supporting SDI. They may have legacy equipment from multiple vendors, and they need solutions that work across those environments without forcing a complete infrastructure replacement.
That’s where Cobalt shines. Our products are designed to allow customers to move at their own pace. They can remain with the infrastructure they have, introduce IP where it makes sense, and expand their IP workflows as their needs evolve. With support for ST 2110, IPMX and technologies such as JPEG XS, we’re helping customers build an IP infrastructure that is both practical today and ready for what comes next.
This also applies to the C-band challenge. Rather than forcing broadcasters into a wholesale infrastructure change, we’re providing a way to combine satellite and internet connectivity to maintain reliable content delivery.
Ultimately, our goal is to make these transitions less disruptive. Customers shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their existing investment and preparing for the future.
TVT: What makes NAB Show New York so essential for your business, and what brings you back each year?
SB: Regional shows are becoming increasingly important as companies reduce travel budgets and send fewer delegates to the major events such as NAB Show Las Vegas and IBC.
NAB Show New York is essential because it resides in a city positioned in the crossroads between broadcasting and Pro AV, with networks, stations and corporate and enterprise organizations concentrated throughout the region. So many of those organizations are long-time Cobalt customers, and you can find Cobalt equipment in facilities throughout the New York market.
What brings us back each year? We value the face time with our customers that NAB Show New York provides. We get to hear directly from them about what they want—and what they need—to keep their operations running smoothly in a constantly evolving industry. And they get to see firsthand what Cobalt is doing to address those challenges.
For us, that two-way conversation is extremely valuable. Trade shows aren’t just about demonstrating new products; they’re an opportunity to listen, understand where the industry is going and ensure we’re developing solutions that help our customers stay ahead of the curve.
Visit Cobalt Digital in NAB Show New York Booth 226.
