by James Delhauer
The NAB Convention in Las Vegas is an annual event that film and television professionals look forward to every year. It is the hotspot for new technology in our industry. Vendors and developers from across the world come to unveil their newest innovations, while everyone from struggling artists to industry professionals eagerly anticipate the newest tools with which they can apply their crafts. This year’s NAB Show put an emphasis on virtual production, cloud integration, and artificial intelligence—with several notable developments in the worlds of production sound and video.
This year, I visited the convention with Local 695 Business Representative Scott Bernard and Director of Education & Training Casey Weiss. Our first stop was at Halter Technical, owned by Local 695 member Doc Justice. Halter Technical specializes in affordable audio monitoring solutions, with a variety of products developed to improve the quality and integration of audio devices on set. Their Elite Monitor headset was designed with both audio quality and user comfort in mind, making it an ideal choice when distributing audio monitoring devices to directors, producers, or anyone else who might be consistently listening to performances throughout the day. They are also the company behind Microsone, a Bluetooth-based discrete talent monitoring system that allows directors to communicate with performers at any time without interrupting or being noticeable during a take. These products continue to be seen on more and more productions, with Starz productions Black Mafia Family, Raising Kanan, and High Town being just a few.
Then we were onto the Shure audio booth, where we met with Local 695 member Ryan Pedersen—who acted as a Shure representative for this year’s event. Shure has a long-standing reputation for quality in our industry, both as manufacturers of audio devices and as a company that treats their employees and customers with respect. This year, Ryan and his peers were demonstrating products such as the ADX3 Axient Digital Plug-On Transmitter with ShowLink and the SLX-D Wireless Microphone System. The ADX3 provides comprehensive, real-time control of all transmitter parameters from the mix position, allowing mixers to make transmitter adjustments for boom, plant, or interview mics without ever leaving the cart. The SLX-D, on the other hand, is a complete wireless microphone system that delivers 24-bit digital audio over RF and is compatible with a wide variety of Shure microphone systems. When speaking with Ryan, he advised me that this system is perfect for those who are just starting out in sound or for people who need a setup for camera hops, Voice of God, or IFB.
“Shure has been a fantastic company to work and collaborate with,” Ryan told me. “Their market development team is unique in that they have people in the field that are just a phone call or text away to give one-on-one support or just to answer a quick question. I use Shure equipment because it just works. They spend the time and resources to make sure their product releases are rock solid and an item that you don’t have to worry about failing or having issues in the most critical of applications. Being at their booth as a guest and talking with other professionals really shows me that they have trusted products and that they have products that people love. They are always innovating and developing new products and I’m excited to see what the future brings.”
I also spent some time speaking with the exhibitors from EasyRig. This Swedish company is well known for its ergonomic support rigs for handheld camera operators. Fully rigged camera systems can weigh upward of forty pounds and operating this load for long periods of time or repeatedly over the course of successive takes risks inflicting musculoskeletal disorder injuries upon the operator. Though less widely discussed, this same danger applies to Microphone Boom Operators. A boom pole might weigh significantly less than a fully rigged camera, but when operated above the head and at full extension, the strain placed upon the operator’s shoulders can cause permanent injuries. The EasyRig boom rig is designed to help minimize the burden to an operator’s body, allowing them to safely operate a boom pole for longer periods of time. In addition to its lightweight, easy-to-operate form factor, the boom rig includes hooks for a mixing bag in the event that it is being used by a mixer/operator and had the ability to reverse direction so that an operator can utilize it regardless of their dominant hand.
Local 695’s recent Collective Bargaining Agreement with the AMPTP heavily focused on the dangers of long and successive takes for Boom Operators, with the Producers agreeing to utilize ergonomic support rigs on production when necessary. In addition to similar products like Cinema Devices XO-Boom Support System, Tilta’s Zombie Rig Boom Pole Support System, and Oisphoot’s Boom Operator Lightweight Boom Pole Support System, Microphone Boom Operators are encouraged to familiarize themselves with EasyRig’s boom rig. Devices such as these can go a long way to protecting the body and ensuring a long and healthy career rather than one that is cut tragically short due to a debilitating injury.
We also made a stop by the Pronology booth. Pronology, owned by 695 member Jon Aroesty, specializes in live broadcast recording. Their server-based mRes recorders are capable of recording multiple SDI input channels, encoding up to three tiers of media simultaneously. This means that when recording in a studio, truck, or fly pack environment, a recordist can generate a high-res delivery file, a low-res proxy file, and an even lower res screener file in real time. So, when the Director calls “cut,” media is immediately organized and ready to be ingested by the post-production team and can be forwarded to directors, producers, and agents for review. Similarly, StreamFile Core is a web-based software application that receives IP video signals and encodes them into editing codecs such as Apple ProRes and Avid DNx. This system currently supports NDI, SRT, SMPTE 2110, SMPTE 2022-7, and NMOS. This platform allows productions to remotely record signals that cannot be conveniently hard lined or take feeds from satellite shooting locations without the need for time-consuming media management, transcoding, and uploads. Both of these products take advantage of a loop recorder “always recording system,” meaning that even if a recordist misses a que, they can go back into the loop and retrieve moments that took place prior to the start of recording, making mRes and StreamFile Core two of the safest platforms for media recording in the business.
On the second day of the convention, I had the pleasure of meeting with representatives from Tsecond, a company specializing in data storage. Their Bryck System can provide productions with between 128TB and 1PB of compact NVME solid-state storage. Weighing in at just fourteen pounds, this is one of the largest storage arrays in such a small form factor, making it possible to transport the entire contents of a season-long show in a carry-on-sized case. The unit supports bidirectional transfer speeds of 40GB’s and features AES-256-bit encryption to keep data secure. Early tests show great success in capturing up to eight simultaneous streams of 8K .r3d files at 29.97fps. Local 695 will be featuring the Tsecond Bryck in an upcoming edition of this magazine, so keep an eye out for that in our fall edition.
And last but certainly not least, we had the pleasure of visiting with our partners at Mo-Sys. Local 695 member Eric Rigney and in-process member Marcus Masdammer were there, demonstrating the powerful tracking and playback capabilities that virtual production is allowing productions to achieve. Using a combination of augmented reality and machine learning, Mo-Sys Systems can extend virtual sets and playback overlay effects while tracking on-camera subjects in real time. Mo-Sys has partnered with our Local to bring advanced virtual production training to our members. By partnering with the State of California Department of Education, EDU Director Casey Weiss and Mo-Sys have put together a comprehensive two-week training course that will be available to all members through the Local 695 website later this summer.
We also had a chance to stop by ARwall’s booth and meet with CEO Rene Amador, who I had the privilege of interviewing for a separate piece in this edition. Rene gave us a demo of the company’s new XR/AI Filmmaking Suite, ARFX, which went on to win the 2024 NAB Show Product of the Year. We’d like to offer a heartfelt congratulations to Rene and ARwall for this well-deserved recognition of their hard work.
These products and brands only begin to scratch the surface of what was there to see at this year’s NAB Convention. Blackmagic Design unveiled DaVinci Resolve 19, the next evolution in their cutting-edge nonlinear editing, color grading, and VFX platform. Adobe revealed new AI-powered tools for Premiere Pro. SMPTE’s ST 2110 suite of standards look like they are set to revolutionize the way that broadcast technicians manage and distribute data in the coming years.
Our industry is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace. Creators will soon have the ability to do things never before believed to be possible in their crafts. As I reflected upon the changes we’ve seen in the past year, I turned to the piece I wrote for last year’s NAB and found words that are no less relevant today than they were a year ago. “…as we embrace these innovations, it is important to be cautious and ensure that they are being used in a responsible and ethical manner. We must also be mindful of the potential consequences, such as job displacement and the erosion of privacy, that come with these new technologies. Ultimately, while the future of the entertainment industry is exciting and full of potential, we must approach it with care and responsibility to ensure that we are building a sustainable and equitable industry that benefits everyone involved.”