The hottest rumor at the 2001 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas (April 21-26) became reality one week after everybody packed up and left the desert oasis – no writers’ strike. The buzz was the strike wouldn’t happen because the industry couldn’t afford to let it happen, and that proved true May 4 when the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America negotiated a tentative contract with the film studios and TV networks.

Strike apprehension coupled with the aftermath of the dot-com stock crash was evident at the show, with turnout slightly down this year. Nevertheless, with 112,776 registered attendees (including an international contingent of 29,632) on hand to check out the wares of 1,600-plus exhibitors on the one million square feet of show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Expo, NAB remains one of the world’s pre-eminent ‘convergence marketplaces.’

Those broadcasters, producers and post house reps who did attend did a lot of booth browsing, but many held on tightly to their checkbooks. Broadcasters in particular can be tight-lipped about NAB strategies, but sharing a cab with one can often elicit some candid commentary. One chief engineer from a network affiliate, on his third NAB visit, said the only type of gear his station was considering doling out for would be in the vein of digital conversion systems.

The tag line for this year’s show could very well have been ‘digital asset management.’ With that breed of product ubiquitous on the show floors, it’s no wonder many booths were enlivened with the presence of perfect-10 models, who seem to hail from a different galaxy from the techies scurrying about.

High definition may be the sexier topic, but the same chief engineer said he’s going to watch what the big boys do before investing in HD infrastructure. This wait-and-see approach remains the status quo among many U.S. stations, so imagine how long it will be before Canadians – who live in a land of timid regulatory policy – can see Tie Domi elbow his opponents in realer-than-real 16:9.

There are pioneers in North America, however. Panasonic was promoting its association with WRAL-TV, a station in the #90 U.S. market of Raleigh, NC, that, with development assistance from the manufacturer, made a multimillion-dollar purchase of DVCPRO HD equipment to convert its field news operations to HD.

Panasonic, eager to quash rumors it’s getting out of the broadcast business, was displaying its new AJ-HDC27V HD Cinema camera (whose name change from the AJ-HDC24A is probably to differentiate it from Sony’s 24P HDCAM). Panasonic was clearly emphasizing the product’s potential to replace 35mm cameras, with the AJ-HDC27V sitting on a Chapman dolly with a huge lens attachment. (The camcorder works with Panavision and Fuji lenses.)

But as much as Panasonic might dress its new camcorder like a film camera, the proof is on the TV monitor, and the company was showing a demo of footage shot at the camcorder’s various frame rates, giving HD directors of photography what they say they want. The off-speed footage was impressive, and one can foresee more programs now wanting to make the switchover to save on lab costs.

Despite TV stations’ general resistance to broadcasting HD, Rob Brunelle, Toronto-based HD engineer/consultant, reports the number of programs shooting in the new format continues to rise. One prominent example is 100 Centre Street, the courtroom drama starring Alan Arkin and directed by Sidney Lumet, airing on A&E. The program originates on the Sony CineAlta 24P HD process, and it would take a pretty sharp viewer to realize they aren’t watching 35mm.

Brunelle also noted that David Moxness, the DOP who just last summer was breaking ground alternating Sony 24P shooting with Thomas Durnan on the fourth season of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict (see Cinematographers’ Tools, Playback, July 24, 2000), is now an in-demand HD specialist. This affirms the manufacturers’ claims that the learning curve on the new cameras is not steep.

Some equipment houses that stock the Sony 24P HDCAMs feel Panasonic is riding the momentum Sony created at last year’s NAB when it debuted its HDW-F900, but producers can rejoice in that this competition is bringing costs down. Terry Horbatiuk, Panasonic Canada senior manager, systems engineering, quoted the AJ-HDC27V at Cdn$90,000.

Sony’s theme for NAB2001 was ‘Anycast,’ conjuring up the de rigueur notion of one production pipeline for multiple distribution platforms. The company made its own noise at NAB2001. In their corporate address, Sony execs sang the praises of HD-CAM, referring to the 40,000 units sold and how the format has been embraced for low-budget films, TV, spots, docs, and major motion pictures.

The crowd was then stunned when George Lucas was introduced on stage. Although the substance of Lucas’ speech has been omitted in a transcript on Sony’s website, sources say Lucas, readying the HDCAM 24P-originated Star Wars Episode II for release, proclaimed ‘Film is dead.’

E-topia

After checking out the traditional manufacturers in the LVCC early in the show, many focused their attention on E-Topia: Destination Innovation, a floor at the Sands featuring exhibits from streaming media companies.

The Las Vegas Hilton-Pavilion 2 was the site of the panel discussion ‘The Programming Edge: Over-the-Air, Cable or Internet,’ moderated by ABC News anchor Sam Donaldson. Participants included David Mandelbrot, Yahoo! Entertainment general manager; Chris Rohrs, Television Bureau of Advertising president; Garth Ancier, Turner Networks executive VP programming; Caryn Mandabach, principal at Carsey-Werner-Mandabach; and David Tenzer from Creative Artists Agency.

Rohrs reiterated the popular mantra ‘Content Is King,’ and that delivery platforms are only as compelling as the programming they support. The group concurred that the rise of new media is just a further extension of the fracturing of the information/entertainment markets, recalling a time when TV consisted of three networks. Mandabach said she liked her company being positioned as pure content producers, leaving others to piece together the new media puzzle. Mandelbrot acknowledged that Yahoo! will, for the foreseeable future, rely on traditional broadcasters to generate content for the Web. *

-www.nab.org

-www.panasonic.ca

-www.sony.ca