What's new at NAB 2018?

Blackmagic Design

In the taxi from the airport to the hotel we all passed the convention centre and got a brief glance at a teaser poster from Blackmagic Design for what would probably be the star of the show, the Pocket Camera 4K. 

RedShark News named this as Supreme Best in Show and even other manufacturers could not help talking about it. I can’t remember one product causing so much of a stir since the first Blackmagic Cinema camera arrived.

I saw the camera first at the launch event just before the crowds descended on it and the low light performance looked incredible. It’s too big really to be considered a pocket camera, with a 5-inch touch screen on the back and big handgrip, but it’s worth the hype. It has a single XLR input with the high-quality pre-amp from the Video Assist 4K and as well as SD card and CFAST it can also record straight to a USB-C SSD. There were rumours of thousands of pre- orders being placed at the show, with third party accessory manufacturers keen to develop battery, cage and viewfinder options.

In their press conference Blackmagic announced out the news that the Hyperdeck Mini will start recording and playing back H264 files with a firmware update. This makes this little box all the more interesting in the AV world.

There was fanfare about the new ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K, which is an evolution of multiple technologies. Although the camera stole the limelight, it’s a remarkable piece of kit. Each of its 8 inputs has a built in Teranex Converter, it has Fairlight Audio EQ and delay, very clean chromakey and Ultra HD multiscreen output.

Blackmagic also released high end audio Fairlight desks, and a bunch of new Mini and Micro converters. A new version of DaVinci Resolve becomes even more powerful with the inclusion of Fusion. Fusion is a high end special effects package like Adobe’s After Effects. A sort of animated Photoshop. DaVinci is unstoppable.

SmallHD

SmallHD attracted hundreds to their booth with a daily giveaway of Focus monitors. A 15-monitor giveaway gathered crowds of about 300, and all had to be registered to the booth to get entry to the draw. It was a great spectacle as the SmallHD booth was outside in the hot Nevada sunshine. Unfortunately, we didn’t win one.

SmallHD releases included SDI and OLED versions of the Focus Monitor as well as new wireless Focus Bolts. Now with built-in wireless, SDI and OLED options in the Focus range, expect SmallHD’s 5” range to become the de facto monitor in the industry.

Panasonic

Panasonic’s stand was busy with lots of mentions of NDI and the nearly released. The AV-HLC100 All-In-One Live-Stream Production Centre was centre stage. At the heart of the production, it's SDI, NDI, HDMI and IP inputs re-define workflow versatility. 

There were no new camera announcements, but Panasonic was always very busy, showcasing their cinema and studio camera ranges as well as their PTZ cameras.

They had lots of talks about EVA1 and Varicam which were well attended and the new EVA1 firmware seems to have gone down a storm.

LEDGO

LEDGO showed larger and smaller versions of their RGB lights and a refined WiFi Box which takes NPF Batteries.

SLR Magic

SLR Magic was showing a new cinema lenses at NAB. The MicroPrime CINE series are designed for the Sony E-Mount, and there are five of them. The first four— 25mm T1.5, 35mm T1.3, 50mm T1.2, and 75mm T1.5—will all be released in May, and a fifth 18mm T2.9 will be ready for Q3.

Designer Andrew says the MicroPrime lenses are designed with an image circle large enough to cover full-frame sensors and have a similar weight distribution across the range for easy swapping when using a gimbal, and there is an internal focusing mechanism. The company also says the focus gears were designed with "a throw slightly longer than photographic lenses but still manageable when a motorized follow focus is not used."