NEW YORK—The most obvious difference between NAB Show New York and its spring predecessor is the location, trading in the Las Vegas Strip for the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan. The scenery may not seem overly important as a differentiator, but as the theme of the 2019 NAB Show New York suggests—“Now Casting New Perspectives”—the change in location brings about something new to the fall conference.
“[The theme] represents the unique experience attendees and exhibitors can expect at NAB Show New York,” said Chris Brown, executive vice president of Conventions and Business Operations for NAB. “The one-of-a-kind event, by virtue of its location and timing, offers distinctive content, experiences and perspectives—even compared to NAB Show in Las Vegas.”
While covering popular industry topics like Next Gen TV, streaming and more, the show uses New York’s media community—a mix of media, production, advertising and digital brands, as well as a range of diverse and talented speakers—to provide “a more intimate and tailored experience,” as Brown describes it, than the globally focused conference in Las Vegas.
NEXT GEN TV ARRIVES IN NEW YORK
One of the major announcements coming out of Las Vegas was the news that 61 markets across the country, including all of the top 40, would begin to broadcast using the ATSC 3.0 standard by the end of 2020. We will be six months closer to that becoming a reality when NAB Show NY opens, so how will the next-gen standard be addressed?
Sam Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president of technology and chief technology officer, expects that attendees will be able to get new and in-depth insight on some of the plans for the implementation, including from station groups and consumer electronic companies that are launching Next Gen TV sets and receivers.
But what if you’re from one of those stations still working on your plan and attempting to figure out if you’re ready for the 2020 transition? That’s where ATSC itself plans to come in. The organization behind Next Gen TV is hosting its own booth and panel to address the question: “Am I ready?”
Though the standard has been stable since it was finalized in 2018, as its deployment gets closer, stations are now beginning to contemplate more of how ATSC 3.0 will impact them.
“With little kids, the best time to give them information is when they ask because that’s when they’re ready to receive the information. I think it’s also true in our adult lives,” said Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC. “The folks who attend the trade shows, and our ecosystem in general, are getting more receptive to more facets of the ATSC 3.0 standard as the deployment gets closer. I think people are ready to learn more about what’s happening.”
And the ATSC-run panel will attempt to do just that, providing a deeper look into the weeds of what the standard offers users as compared to the 10,000- foot level that has been done in the past, Noland added. For this particular session, that will include specifics on content production and how to protect that content with ATSC 3.0.
Check the NAB Show New York web site at www.nabshowny.com to find out when the ATSC session, “Producing and Protecting Content in ATSC 3.0,” will take place.
A pair of other panels will also cover ATSC 3.0: “Investing In and Capitalizing on ATSC 3.0” on Wednesday, Oct. 16, and “ATSC Ad Targeting Update: Deployment Timetable and Monetization Potential” on Thursday, Oct. 17.
ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE ON STREAMING
Returning to NAB NY after its debut last year, the two-day Streaming Summit, Oct. 16-17, is another example of the show capitalizing on its New York setting, taking a look at some of the actual practices being put in place by broadcasters and ad agencies for streaming services.
“My goal … is to provide content where people can apply that information into their businesses immediately the next day—actionable intelligence,” Dan Rayburn, chairman of the Streaming Summit, described. “So we don’t have sessions on the future of OTT advertising; we don’t need to talk about the future, we need to talk about the problems that people are having today and how we solve them, how they monetize better, how they do better targeting and how they do better reach.”
One way that Rayburn plans to achieve this is by conducting focused “fireside chats” with vendors who faced and solved these problems themselves. This year will include talks with executives from WarnerMedia/HBO and Amazon, but will also look outside of the United States as, Rayburn emphasizes, many streaming services are now operating at a global scale.
The Streaming Summit will also offer networking sessions and co-host a day of workshops with Amazon featuring Amazon developers on “tricks of the trade” for deploying video. The Amazon workshops will be free for all show attendees.
One future-focused topic that the summit will address will center on millennials, in which five 20-somethings will take a look at how millennials consume videos—what they like, what they don’t like and what their friends are saying about their streaming options.
With more than 200 exhibitors setting up shop during NAB Show NY and an educational lineup that covers most of the pertinent issues facing the industry, attendees have the chance to not only catch up on the latest news and technologies, but also get a glimpse at what is coming down the road as the calendar year comes to an end. Also, with new features like the Pop-Up Marketplace and Theater, attendees can catch a glimpse at the offerings of brand-new exhibitors in different areas, including the “Startup Podcast,” Oct. 16 and “Podcasting Startup,” Oct. 17.
The 2019 NAB Show New York takes place at the Javits Convention Center. For more information, visit www.nabshowny.com.
