TV TECHNOLOGY: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2016 NAB Show?
Dr. Andrew Cross
CROSS: It won’t come to anyone’s surprise that the industry’s transition to IP-based workflows will dominate the conversation at NAB Show this year, as it should. We are big believers in IP as the future of video production. It represents the biggest transformational change in the industry since file-based workflows replaced tape and we may not see a bigger transition in our lifetime.
TVT: What will be your most important product news?
CROSS: We will be demonstrating NewTek’s TriCaster Advanced Edition featuring our Network Device Interface (NDI) protocol, an open standard for live production for anyone wanting to enable IP workflows over Ethernet networks in their facilities or in production systems they manufacture.
TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
CROSS: NDI allows multiple video systems to identify and communicate with one another over IP, and to encode, transmit and receive many streams of high-quality, low-latency, frame-accurate video and audio in real time. This new protocol can benefit any network-connected video device, including video mixers, graphics systems, capture cards, and many other production devices. This makes it possible to exponentially increase the number of sources available for live production switching, without directly attaching to devices, changing locations, or investing in expensive, high-bandwidth networks that simply replace SDI-based workflows. NDI is also backwards-compatible with a large number of devices from top manufacturers and developers already using NewTek’s previous technology allowing IP connectivity between devices. This will extend support for NDI to well over 100,000 compatible systems already deployed worldwide, making it by far the most prolific IP video transfer method in the production market. NDI is a royalty-free software development kit (SDK).
TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
CROSS: The NAB Show is, without question, the biggest event in our industry year after year. It is not only a great venue to launch and demonstrate our latest technology, but it’s where we can best interact directly with the broadest number of partners, developers, past and future customers, press and more. There’s no substitute for it and that’s what brings us back every year.
