The NAB exhibition in Las Vegas starts on Monday 8th of April, and the RedShark team is packing its bags ready for a long flight to Nevada on Friday. Stand by for NAB's big and surprising announcements
We're going to report on the things that we think are significant and which will make a difference over the coming year. What this means is that you won't see a deluge of press releases (some, if not most of which are as dull as ditchwater), but you will see detailed coverage of any significant developments. We want to bring you the most important information and help you interpret it.
So, what's in store for NAB 2013? Well, there will be surprises. And because they're surprises, we don't know where they're coming from, but that doesn't stop us guessing!
Sony's press conference is on Sunday, the day before the show opens. With Sony's major camera announcements in October last year (the F5 and F55 cameras mainly) we might not see any new top-end cameras (unless they're going to supersede the F65 - but it does seem rather early in the lifespan of that product to be replacing it) but perhaps we'll see something at the lower end. Perhaps a Prosumer 4K camera?
Blackmagic has their press conference on Monday Morning. Last year, absolutely nobody guessed that they were going to release a camera, and by the same logic, anything could happen this year. Perhaps there's going to be a major acquisition? Or another camera - which surely would be 4K, although given that their Cinema Camera is only just shipping in quantities, it would be surprising if they were to announce something that might draw potential buyers away from it. But who knows? They're the masters of surprise.
Panasonic has seriously lagged behind the now well-established 4K trend, and we would expect to see something from them, even if it's just a working prototype of their 4K concept camera that was shown last year. And a few people are suggesting that there might be a professional camcorder based around the innards of the GH3 camera. In which case, what would happen to the FS100/FS101/FS102 (depending where you live) range?
RED have been aggressively talking up their new Dragon sensor, and perhaps we're going to see it in action: maybe even in a completely new camera?
And Digital Bolex will be there - hopefully showing the first ever working prototype of the D16 camera.
The recently announced Convergent Design Odyssey 7 recorder will be good to see as it does seem to be somewhat disruptive in this market space and we wonder how and if the likes of Atomos, AJA and Sound Devices will respond.
And of course, Lightworks for Mac will be showing on Editshare's booth, SL9010.
If you spot us purposefully wandering around NAB wearing our RedShark T-shirts, come and say "hello"!