Let’s face it – to many, NAB is all about the latest, coolest gear. Playback approached three regular attendees to see what they are most looking forward to from this year’s exhibitors.

Rob Sim
President of Toronto-based equipment rental and post shop Sim Video

‘We’ll be looking at all the new cameras – the Red, the Sony F23, and the new Viper. We’re also interested in the Phantom, a high-speed, high-definition camera, a thousand frames a second. We actually have one ordered.

‘But when you’re on what we call the ‘bleeding edge,’ often you’re dealing with cameras that aren’t really ready for production. You have to take what manufacturers say about their equipment with a big grain of salt. We go down there to look, but don’t really know for sure what the camera is – especially at NAB. If you look carefully, there are some prototypes with secret boxes and cables going to a hidden room where they’ve got extra electronics making the camera work.

‘The great thing about NAB is you can see everything that comes from around the world, so you can get a good overview of what’s coming. But at the same time, you’ve got to understand that there are always glitches, software issues, and manufacturing problems that come up with the very new cameras. The changes every year are so drastic, especially in high definition, that it’s a real challenge to keep up with everything coming down the pipe.’

Bert Silva
Sales director at Concord, ON-based digital workflow solutions provider OTG Digital Media

‘At NAB this year it’s more looking at HD and where we’re moving with respect to all the different formats that have come out – both on Sony’s side and Panasonic’s, and HDV. Often, customers are scratching their heads saying ‘Which route do I go with.’

‘It’s not that there’s a specific product that I’m going down there to look at. It’s looking at how we can help our clients with the whole HD conundrum – how to do it affordably and put together a workflow that’s going to do it properly. That’s the question we’ll put to the various manufacturers that we represent, and to some of the ones we don’t and would like to represent.

‘We’ll also look at the VFX products, to either rep them or get further knowledge of some of the products we’re already repping. Even though that tends to be more the domain of SIGGRAPH, we do find that NAB is delving more and more into that side.’

James Tocher
Cinematographer and president of Vancouver post houses Digital Film Group and Central

‘Since we just acquired the ARRISCAN and ARRilaser, we will be hanging around the ARRI booth a lot this year. I have a special interest as a DP in how new film formats relate to the phenomenal capabilities of the ARRISCAN. I’m excited to see what they have planned for the new ARRI 416 Super16 camera and the new 35mm 2-perf camera (Techniscope reborn!) they are planning to come out with.

‘I am also, as always, interested in the latest digital camera technologies and will be looking at the ARRI D20 and the Genesis for upcoming productions.’