Tim Martin is executive producer at FrameBlender, a Toronto digital media shop that provides post, preproduction and production services as well as HD solutions to the broadcast, non-broadcast and new media sectors. The shop also facilitates Toronto’s Final Cut Pro User Group.

Some of us will be lucky enough to attend the annual National Association of Broadcasters conference (April 16-21). It’s a week of meeting new contacts, catching up with old friends, seeing the newest toys and getting questions answered directly from the source. I have seen people take two very different approaches to NAB – it’s either a paid vacation or a week of unlimited access to the latest information. I look upon it as the latter.

As a prudent business executive, I do not have a lot of money to throw around on equipment purchases or even maintenance. Therefore, it is crucial that all of the company’s spending decisions are thoroughly researched. Prior to heading to NAB, I try to read some of the press kits released in advance, which usually contain hints as to who is poised to make big announcements at the conference.

Browsing through the Sony press kit suggests to me that 2006 may be the year FrameBlender invests in HDCAM, a favorite HD format in Toronto. I was excited to see that Sony has announced an upgrade to its half-rack VTR unit (HDW-S280) that will add 24p playback and recording capability. I’m willing to wager that this will finally make it affordable for smaller boutiques to invest in this technology.

Smaller software providers

Even if you were at NAB2005 for its full duration, it would still be a challenge to visit every booth – not to mention hard on the feet. It is a good idea to try to plan which companies you must visit, and more importantly, why you have to visit them. You won’t waste your time or anyone else’s if you do.

For post-production companies that specifically use desktop tools, one area that must be visited is the Plugin Pavilion Booth. In that one stop you will be able to see some of the most progressive software providers, including Digital Anarchy, Trapcode, Automatic Duck and Synthetic Aperture. Even though some of these companies are one-man operations, the tools they create can replace hardware and software solutions that cost 10 times as much.

This year I will be looking at some very specific technologies. Over the past five years, the price of storage has continued to drop, due in part to the adoption of SATA drives in RAID units. I will be interested to see cards by companies such as Sonnett in action.

Staying with the theme of storage, I highly expect one of NAB’s buzzwords this year to be ‘SAN’ [storage area network]. After announcing XSan at last year’s NAB, Apple will now be showing a shipping version of this software/hardware solution. However, there are many smaller companies, such as EditShare, offering competitive solutions that are worth a serious look.

As important as the actual conference is, the week in Las Vegas also includes some other high-profile events, such as the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group meeting (April 20 at the Stardust Resort & Casino – see www.lafcpug.org for details). If you have any questions about Final Cut Pro, you can get them answered at this event, the largest gathering of the top users from around the world. (Last year, more than 1,000 attended.)

The other event on every Final Cut Pro user’s calendar is Apple’s Keynote. At last year’s Keynote, Apple announced HD over FireWire and the Motion software for motion graphics design.

Another must-attend is the ProMax Digital Café, which will have on display the cutting edge of video and storage technology. It’s the only event where you are likely to see Apple and Avid sharing the same stage.

To cap things off at the end of each day, I am looking forward to seeing many of my fellow Canadians at the annual Canadian Suite at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel (April 18-20, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.).

In order to take full advantage of all NAB has to offer, my formula includes lots of water, good shoes and patience. These are the most important things to remember for your Vegas trip to be a success.

-www.frameblender.com