NAB Top 10: Big Ideas in Production and Post

studiodaily by Bryant Frazer

What Was Innovative, Intriguing and Just Plain Awesome at the Show

As always, picking the top products at an NAB show is a tricky task. Yes, some technology is an obvious game-changer right out of the gate, while other innovations either founder on their way out of the factory or stumble and fall when they're put to use in real-world environments. So you should take this list, and any other, for what it's worth at this stage of the game. Most of the new products we first saw at NAB won't be on the market until later this year, so we'll learn how they perform under pressure at that point. But the following are the products that really caught our eye this year, whether they're just simple and usable options on any production (like the PAGlink batteries), extensions to existing post workflow (like The Foundry's Nuke Studio), or part of bigger strategies that look to the future of production and delivery (like Harmonic's VOS platform).

Another reason to treat "best of NAB" announcements with a grain of salt? Nobody sees everything. The show is too big to cover in fine detail, and there were doubtless some excellent offerings this year that evaded our gaze, especially around the periphery of the show floor. If you found something terrifically exciting or just plain useful at the show this year, don't hesitate to let us know about it in the comments section.

Most Intriguing New Camera: AJA Cion
AJA earned the lion's share of NAB buzz with a carefully thought-out camera system that offers exactly the right kind of connectivity. "There’s not one proprietary connector or mount point anywhere on this camera,” said AJA President Nick Rashby, announcing the Cion. The specs are incredibly impressive: 4K APS-C sensor with global shutter. 12 stops. ProRes support up to 4444. Raw 4K at up to 120fps over 3G SDI or up to 30fps over Thunderbolt. It's a PL-mount camera, so glass won't be cheap. Neither will AJA's recording media, the Pak, which starts at $695 for a 256 GB cartridge. Then again, CFAST media would cost a lot more. ("Never go with off-the-shelf media," AJA's Bryce Button said. "You're going to have footage get lost.") There are still big questions — AJA hasn't said much about the raw implementation beyond a suggested workflow using the Corvid Ultra, and the camera was developed in secrecy so it'll be interesting to hear what a broad universe of users think of the ergonomics when it starts getting used out in the field. AJA. read more...