Before the NAB Show hit the Las Vegas Convention Center floor, it popped up at the Hard Rock, Aria, Palms, Planet Hollywood, MGM Grand, and everywhere in between. Saturday and Sunday featured a wide range of pre-NAB press conferences showcasing new product developments, prototype demonstrations, and deal announcements.

NAB 2012 kicked off Monday morning with pre-NAB press conferences hosted by AJA Video Systems, Blackmagic Design, and Miranda Technologies. NewTek's new TriCaster 8000 attracted a bevy of attention on the show floor, while Ikegami showed off its new Unicam HD-camera line and Hi-Motion II ultra-slow-motion camera system.

While much of the attention at the show focused on next-generation technologies like 3D, 4K, and improved second-screen publishing and content creation, EVS focused on a complete tapeless solution. Adobe made big headlines with the release of Adobe Creative Suite 6, the latest version of the company's production software.

Showing no signs of slowing down, the NAB Show continued into Wednesday with CAMERON PACE Group Co-Chairman Vince Pace touting the possibility of zero delta in 3D production. Vision Research showed off its latest Phantom Camera, and Canon took advantage of its expanded booth, emphasizing 4K products and workflows.

Addressing the need to provide broadcast solutions that can be taken to the cloud, Aspera introduced its Direct-to-S3 software, which provides seamless, high-speed, and secure transfer of file-based content at any global distance through the combination of Aspera’s fasp transport technology and cloud-based “object” storage systems, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3.

Corplex has made no secret of its reluctance to join the great 3D hype of the past three years, and President Scott West believes that the bet is paying off, because demand for 3D sports programming has yet to take off on a mass scale. In addition to setting up a booth at the NAB Show, Corplex rolled out its brand-new Chromium mobile-production unit at the annual NAB Alliance party on April 16.

Wanting to grab a stronger hold on the sports market, Front Porch Digital knew it needed a more cost-effective media-asset–management (MAM) system to offer prospective clients. So it went to the cloud. At the NAB Show last week, Front Porch rolled out its LYNX cloud-based system and introduced the latest version of DIVAdirector, a Web-based MAM platform.

Just a few years ago, the talk in mobile sports production was the move to smaller trailers, smaller equipment complements, smaller crews. But today, the demand for bigger, more spacious double-expando trailers has never been higher, according to Gerling & Associates President/founder Fred Gerling. Last week at the NAB Show, the company rolled out two of its latest oversized trailers.

The mobile-uplink business continued to blossom at this year’s NAB Show, with LiveU at the forefront of developments. The company unveiled an upgraded version of its LU backpack series, introduced a new handheld transmission device, and expressed optimism in the direction of the business.

PSSI has begun to establish a serious reputation in custom-built satellite-uplink trucks, and the company highlighted the latest chapter in these efforts at the NAB Show last week. The 43-ft. CK-30 multidish mobile-teleport truck was built specifically for the transmission needs of WWE telecasts.

At the 2012 NAB Show, the cloud was on everyone’s lips, tossed around as the answer to issues stemming from data storage to file transfer and more. To address the space and security issues posed by the cloud itself, Signiant introduced Media Shuttle, the latest addition to its suite of file-movement products.

The NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are well under way, and VidOvation’s In-Net GoalCam has the best seat in all 16 first-round houses. The company’s In-Net GoalCam 60 GHz wireless technology is mounted in each goal, delivering fully uncompressed video with no bit or resolution manipulation.

Alliance Productions, the consortium of remote production service providers founded in 1997, provided the highlight of the NAB Convention in Las Vegas when its members voted to donate $100,000 to the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund, an industry fund created last year to help members of the sports production community who find themselves in financial need due to illness, accident, or death.

The Sports Video Group is pleased to announce that Orad and Calrec Audio have renewed as premier sponsors. Orad Hi-Tec Systems is a provider of real-time 3D broadcast graphic, video server, and media asset management solutions. Calrec Audio has been a broadcast specialist for more than 30 years and is dedicated to excellence in audio mixing for on-air and live production.

Every year, on the final day of England’s Barclays Premier League season, all 20 teams from the world’s top domestic soccer competition play each other in a frantic 10-match race for financial survival, hardware and European honors. This year, on May 13, for the first time in American television history, nine of those matches are being carried live simultaneously by one family of outlets.

Niles Media Group of Missouri has installing a comprehensive audio system from Riedel Communications in its latest HD mobile production unit. Riedel delivers a versatile system combining communications and audio distribution via Artist Digital Matrix Intercom and RockNet Digital Audio Network. Professional Video Supply, Inc. of Overland Park, Kansas is handling the integration.

AmberFin unveiled the newest version of UQC, the industry’s first Unified Quality Control solution for content ingest and transcoding operations, and iCR Player, a new cost-effective, professional standard, media player with HD-SDI output for broadcast grade monitoring, at NAB. AmberFin is also announcing new multi-transcode capabilities for iCR, its file-based content ingest and transcoding system.

MultiDyne SilverCAT is a new camera-mounted transceiver that leverages inexpensive Cat 5 and Cat 6 cabling with state-of-the-art compression technologies to transport high-quality HD video signals, as well as audio, intercom, tally, and control data, for broadcast, pro A/V, government and military applications.

XOS Digital and Nokia have partnered for the launch of the official Southeastern Conference mobile application for Windows Phone, providing fans with free, all-access coverage of SEC sports. XOS Digital has customized the SEC Mobile app for the 2011-2012 season.

The four-year standoff between MLB and SiriusXM satellite radio appears to have found a resolution — at least online. The satellite radio service started live audio streaming of MLB games at the beginning of this season via its smartphone app and at siriusxm.com. The streamed games are available to both XM and Sirius subscribers, which marks a switch from traditional satellite radio, where Sirius subscribers still don’t have access to live baseball games.

Olympic organizers are intent on making London the first social games. With over 845 million Facebook users, and 140 million people on Twitter, it's not hard to understand why. The International Olympic Committee has launched The Olympic Athletes' Hub (hub.olympic.org), a site designed as a platform to unite athletes with fans.

Streaming video company Justin.tv has quietly settled a copyright lawsuit brought by Zuffa's Ultimate Fighting Championships, according to court records. The settlement resolves a legal dispute that began last January, when UFC sued Justin.tv in federal court in Nevada. UFC argued that Justin.tv was liable for infringement by users on the theory that it didn't take proactive steps to prevent people from uploading pirated streams.

The Denver Broncos are tossing out the tradition of printing 500-page playbooks every week for each of the 120 players, coaches, scouts and other personnel. This season, the team will hand out iPads that feature the week's game plan, scouting reports, video clips and other relevant data.

Screens: can't live without 'em; can't avoid 'em. And surely where there are screens, there will be companies hocking goods. How will this change the ad game--and us?
Smartwatches are suddenly big news: Pebble, an upcoming and rather radical device from young firm Allerta, has raced past the previous project funding record on Kickstarter and looks to be already a big hit--it may even end up on 100,000 wrists before the end of this year.

In a move that could hasten the slow pace of so-called TV Everywhere, a technology start-up is introducing a way to move a whole subscription’s worth of TV onto the Web, with or without the subscription company’s permission. The start-up, called NimbleTV, takes the package of television channels that a customer buys through a distributor like Dish Network, then streams the package onto the Web, allowing the customer more options for viewing than most distributors now allow.

The country's fastest growing ethnic group is also one of the heaviest users of online and mobile video, with Hispanic video viewers 68 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white viewers to watch video on the Internet, and 20 percent more likely to watch video on a mobile phone, according to a new report from Nielsen.

The status quo in the monthly comScore ratings for the most-trafficked U.S. online sports sites is changing significantly this year, just as the ratings themselves and the display advertising sales they influence are getting more scrutiny. For the past several years, the online ratings have had an established hierarchy: Yahoo! Sports atop the list, usually followed in some order by ESPN, FoxSports.com, Turner/Sports Illustrated Digital, Big Lead Sports, CBSSports.com and NFL.com.

ESPN and CBS Interactive have joined Microsoft's advertising program for the Xbox 360, which lets content owners place 15- and 30-second spots in video content distributed through the game console via the Internet. Microsoft launched an upgrade to the Xbox 360 in December, which among other things added the ability to place ad spots on Xbox Live. The subscription service counts nearly 40 million active members worldwide.

Across the television landscape, network and cable, public television and pay cable, English-language and Spanish, viewing for all sorts of prime-time programming is down this spring. According to Michael Nathanson, the United States media analyst for Nomura Securities, live television in the fall benefits from the interest in football. Spring sports do not have the same impact, he said.

Video Equipment Rentals (VER) has signed a major deal with EVS which includes 20 EVS XT3 six-channel servers. It has also invested in four XTAccess servers, three XH3 media networking hubs, and five IPDirector suites with media view and IPEdit. The investment underscores VER’s commitment to offer the most up-to-date high-performance broadcast solutions to meet the needs of broadcasters across the USA, Canada and Europe.

Brevity and TRANZXL, a bi-coastal service company, have inked a deal whereby TRANZXL will launch the first “Brevity powered service bureaus,” drop-off rentals and on-location packages designed to speed and simplify HD file conversion and delivery. The goal is to allow producers, broadcasters and creators to use and rent units at TRANZXL’s New York and Los Angeles facilities for short periods of time on a per project basis.

BTX Technologies has entered into a distribution agreement with Telecast Fiber Systems. Under the agreement, BTX now promotes, sells, and provides technical support for a select offering of Telecast products across the United States. BTX bolstered its offering for broadcast applications with popular Telecast products including the Rattler and Rattler 3G miniature HD/SDI video transmission modules, the CopperHead Pro fiber optic camera transceiver, and much more.

Miranda Technologies shareholders have expressed support for the current Board of Directors by electing Miranda’s slate of seven Director nominees at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the “AGM”) held on April 17. A new director, Tim Thorsteinson, who had been nominated by the company, was elected to replace Thomas Cantwell who retired from the Board.

Veteran sports executives Chris Bevilacqua and Adam Helfant have started a sports and media advisory company that will also invest in small sports businesses. Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures is based in New York and already has a client list that includes the Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Pac-12 Conference, Rose Bowl, Atlantic 10 Conference and Learfield Sports.