EP.3 - First Time at NAB - Two first-timers at the National Association of Broadcaster’s Convention Share Their Experience

Dana: Welcome to the third episode of the Government Video Podcast. We're on location here in Las Vegas for the NAB National Association Broadcasters event that happens every year. And I'm joined today with Jake Buckley of the Cablecast team and Chris Morgan of the Cablecast team, and they're going to bring their unique perspectives of coming to the NAB event for the first time. So I'm really excited to talk to you guys about this. What's the energy that NAB has felt like for you, especially as first time attendees? Chris, what about you? Chris: I love it. It's been great. I've actually, I've wanted to attend NAB for a long time. I've never, I've been to the one in New York a few times, but that's kind of like this one's little brother. So it's, it's really cool to see it and see, uh, all the technology, all the people. I've been excited the whole time I've been here. It's pretty cool. Jake: I heard a lot about the energy last year when I started at Cablecast and it was really exciting to kind of like read up what we were going to be doing and everything. And now to be like involved, it's been a lot of fun seeing all of our customers and seeing the different vendors and everything. Dana: It's um, definitely like a information overload and there's so much and there's typically like a theme that we kind of see with all the different vendors and manufacturers every year. The theme that I kind of saw in mind was AI. Were you guys seeing that? Jake: Yeah. Yeah. Every, every time we kind of talked to somebody that seemed like the common theme was some of these AI generative tools and the different ways to kind of speed up workflows. And seeing it in action too, it's crazy how far it comes and it's every week it's just getting better and better. Chris: Like every vendor has a different application for their AI. Whether it's auto tracking on a camera, whether it's AI captioning, translations, audio recognition for, you know, recognizing copyrighted content or songs or understanding speech to text. It's pretty cool to see how it's affected like every part of the industry. Dana: Even the pre production piece of it, too. There was a lot of that as well. So, since most of our listeners and viewers are from the government side of communications, what do you think some of those AI trends would really help them in their workflow? Without question, I think speech to text and, and captioning and translations of captions are a big deal for municipal users to be able to record. It kind of helps with note taking as far as being able to spit out a text file and have a written copy, whether it's formatted in the way of a minute, minutes of a meeting, you can adjust that. But having that done for you and have a transcript of the meeting is really helpful. Jake: Yeah, and the AI dubbing, if something doesn't get picked up properly and the fact that they can kind of isolate it and basically create whatever that kind of missing garbled audio was through AI is, it's crazy. Dana: We went by the data video booth and I was really impressed with the video tracking and the barrier entry so is low for these government cities to be able to get into that. Chris: The demo they had at their booth, I think it was following Michael Scott from the office going back and forth through the office and the camera was watching him go back and track back and forth. So for a municipal customer that you're doing a budget presentation or something and you get somebody kind of walking around the PowerPoint slide that the camera can follow them for you and track who's actually talking. Dana: Yeah, and that was the reason we went up to the booth was from the office or like what's going on over here. So what were some other um, really eye catching booths that you saw and what kind of drew you in? Jake: First time for me, I mean I had a couple on my, on my short list and there was actually one of the booths that we went to, I turned around and I saw, when I was in the market for shopping for like a new camera and some kind of like shooting tricks. I turned around and I saw one of the content creators that like, talked to me, basically talked me into it based on the content they were, they were creating and everything. And I kind of, I got, I mean, I was like, Dana: Did you fanboy a bit? Jake: Oh, I did. Yeah, I got like a distant photo with my camera and everything. I was like, I'm not going to go talk to them. I just want to, yeah, it was, no, that was cool for me. Some of the bigger booths were really cool to see too. And yeah, Chris: I really got a kick out of Ross video showing their original switchers. Yeah, like just the heritage I think they were celebrating their 50th anniversary or something. But that was cool to see like where they came from and it's neat to see how it's evolved over 50 years into what it Is today with being automated whether it's pre coded or AI. But starting from a switcher that they actually like hand soldered together and you could see all the wiring and the circuit boards and everything. It was cool Dana: Yeah, they had a huge presence and they had those nifty little 50 year anniversary pins that everybody was wearing. So that's Chris: Got one for my wife. She uses Ross switchers. Dana: There you go. That's great. I always get a kick out of the full sets that they build. So you can test out the cameras and the different levels of lighting. The models all seem to have a theme of like action, activity. There was TaeKwonDo, there was boxing, there was a lot of like movement. Chris: There was a billiard room at Sony Dana: billiard room, Chris: like our environment or something. Dana: Yeah. And you're able to see like the depth of field and the colors Chris: Yeah. Dana: And how each camera presents. Jake: Yeah. Seeing some of the stuff. I've shot a lot of low light stuff in the past, so seeing how some of those sensors are being able to kind of pick up on more of the low light items. And they had some of that on display. Uh, You get a chance to go up and kind of play with the camera a little bit and everybody's watching what you're doing. And it's Chris: for a test drive. Dana: Yeah. Jake: Yeah. Yeah. Chris: It's amazing. Jake: A little nerve wracking. Dana: It's nerve wrecking, right? You're like, well, am I allowed to do this? Jake: Everybody's watching what I'm doing. Chris: Don't mess up. But it's cool to see like how far it's come to. Cause I mean, cameras 10, 15, 20 years ago, especially the low end market, the high end has always been really good, but some of the more affordable options that you know, municipal customer might be able to afford in their budget. In low light, it would wash the color out. And now they're so much better than they ever were. It's amazing. Jake: Yeah. And all the cool rigging that kind of comes with it now. It's so you can, you can shoot fast. If you need to, you can set up fast, take down. It's a lot quicker. It's a lot of time savings there and it's cool. Dana: So Chris, we were talking yesterday, you were sharing how a colleague of yours, how they shopped on NAB and looking for different. Chris: Yes. Dana: Can you tell our listeners about that, that strategy that they use? Chris: It's a cool strategy that I learned back in college when I was interning. And the production manager of the station I interned at, they were one of the first channels to go high definition in New England. They were a small market station, and so they went out to NAB shopping for HD cameras, new tripods, pedestals, tripod heads, fluid heads and stuff. And the way that they shopped was they'd look at, go to all the different vendors for cameras. And so if you're Sony, Ikegami, Hitachi, Panasonic or Canon or whatever, what tripod head are they using to display their product and then go to all the support companies like, uh, Vinton, Miller, a lot of them are the same, Sackler, Manfrotto, what are they putting on their tripod head to show off their product the best. And it's neat to see that because it's like you want your product to represent in the best way it can. So when you see. Different vendors, what third party that they don't have a solution for. Are they choosing to display their product? And since then, it was kind of an eyeopening concept that I never really thought of. So that's how I've always, as a former manager of a PEG station or production person, that's how I would shop for content and look and see now, obviously budget's always a concern. So you can't always go for the Cadillac of tripod heads, but. Looking at what's in your budget and what other vendors are using is kind of a neat way to compare. Dana: Yeah, I just thought that was a fabulous practical application of how to execute during NAB. Because it's overwhelming. I mean, just walking, like walking around, trying to figure it out. So I know one thing that a lot of people do when they come here is plan out their day. How much do you cause we didn't have too much opportunity to get to the floor on different times. And perhaps we could have done better planning around that. Chris: I definitely should have done that. Dana: Would you recommend to people to plan out what booths they want to attend? Or is it more like ad hoc? What do you think that people should do? Jake: I think it's a bit of both. When people stopped in and we were kind of saying hi to everybody, you kind of get an idea of what they did and kind of what they went through. I think I did a little bit of planning ahead of time. Like the NAB app was really helpful because you could see where you were at the location settings and everything. So I could kind of figure out where to go next, but I think I had like my big three that I wanted to see. And then the rest was like, okay, I'll have a little bit of time on the side to make sure that I'm stopping at some of the other ones that I've heard about. Or you never know what you're going to see, and it's going to catch your eye and go. But I think it's helpful to have a little bit of a direction on what you're, what you want to see or what you're looking for. Chris: Yeah, I agree. If you're looking for something specific, you'd always, you don't want to miss that. But I don't think you should plan too much to like, so you're walking through the hall with your blinders on and not be open to new products. Dana: That's a good point. Chris: One of the favorite things, I just got to go through the West Hall this morning. It's the last day. Last chance to do it, but going through like the up the startup section and it all these little tiny booths, usually like one person in every booth. But if you think about it, all the major companies that we think of, even Cablecast started with one person, and they all start from somewhere. And to find some of these companies may turn into the next Sony here, but some of them may not make it. But it's cool to see what technology and what they're trying to solve in the marketplace with a small company and a startup. It's really exciting. Dana: Well, just that too, what they're trying to solve in the marketplace, these people they're really open to talking about the landscape of what they're seeing, and they want to hear from you on your pain points and things that you're experiencing as well. Chris: All trying to solve a specific problem. Jake: Kind of started getting into this like rhythm in the conversation where it's like. Oh, wow. Yeah, we all kind of are identifying it now. We're just talking about putting it out the open and everybody it's we're all trying to solve it together, Chris: and sometimes having a, you know, a one size fits all solution because you can't make a product that's a perfect fit for every single use case, but having a relationship with other vendors, like in areas where Cablecast, for example, may not be the best example, but having something that plays nice with our product that can fill that void and really help solve the needs of a customer is kind of cool. Dana: Absolutely. Michelle: Hi, Michelle here. We hope you're enjoying this episode of the Government Video Podcast. I'm taking a short break from today's discussion to remind you that this podcast is brought to you by Cablecast Community Media. We're a cross platform video solution from Tightrope Media Systems. And despite our name, we help cities, towns, and other local media organizations get their video to viewers on all digital platforms, including cable. If your organization operates a cable channel, um, but we help you reach residents whenever and wherever they watch, be it on your city's website, on mobile streaming apps, on over the top platforms like fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, or even on their mobile phone. And we even help you push your content live to social media. We've been helping small non commercial stations launch professional, affordable, and efficient video initiatives for over 25 years. And our customers love us because we have great customer support and we have fierce industry loyalty. So, if your organization is in need of cross platform video automation and delivery for local coverage of city council meetings or other local events, reach out to our team and schedule a demo today. And if you do, be sure to mention that you heard about it here on the Government Video Podcast to receive a special discount. That's all for me for right now. Back to the episode. Dana: All right. Best piece of swag that you saw. Chris: Oh, Jake: the cable cast pens, Dana: pens are excellent. They have good weight to them. Chris: Pens are good. I like our cable ties. I, uh, one of the ones I thought was pretty cool was the microphone screens that we saw at Riverside, Dana: Riverside. Yeah. We stopped by the Riverside booth. Chris: You had to talk to them. Dana: Yeah. Jake: So that's how it works. Chris: Maria and Dana and I spoke to them for a while and they gave us all these little windscreens, which we're not using today because we have small microphones, but yeah, Dana: but we're going to put them on for our table desk. Chris: Uh, absolutely, this is the portable, the podcast on the road rig today. So, Dana: um, I saw some great t shirts. What is it? The goat for studio network solutions. Did you see that one? Chris: I didn't. Dana: It said naaaahz, Chris: that's great. Dana: And so they used AI to generate that goats image. And I guess it took a little while to get a goat that was friendly enough to go on, go on a t shirt. So yeah, there's some really great swag options, but you do need to talk to people . We really enjoy you coming and communicating with us and maybe not swiping it off the desk into your bag. Yes. So, you know, Chris: You're not here just to get free stuff. Dana: Exactly. Chris: That's part of it. Dana: Right. It's part of it. We want to gift you things. I also saw there was some actual full cameras, like Polaroid cameras that people were gifting out. Chris: I saw somebody, I think he came up to our suite. I can't remember which customer it was that, showed us these little portable 200 cameras Meevo cameras that he was given for free. Dana: So part of NAB we work really hard. There's a lot of taking care of the booths walking around doing research, but there's also a lot of networking. So being first time attendees, Some do's and don'ts, things you would do better for networking next time, or things that you're like, crushed it, that was so much fun, I made all these connections. What do you guys think? Jake: Well, the thing for me that was a lot of fun is just being in remote culture right now, you get to talk to a lot of people, you see the names come up on the emails, or you're talking to them on the phone, but to just have that one on one time when they were coming up to the suite and we were talking to people and then being able to see them later on the floor and kind of be like all right how's the show been going what did you go see again just it's kind of like everybody's sharing their experience and you go check it out and then the next time you see that person you're talking to them about it and I definitely want to keep exploring that the next time i'm here is to keep talking to people keep finding kind of new ways to interact with all the different things that are on the showroom floor and keep those conversations going. Chris: Absolutely. Sort of a personal note being a remote company It's nice to get together with co workers and see you guys in person because we don't always get to do that because you guys are out of Minnesota, I'm in Connecticut. So we have staff all over the country. But advice to a first time NAB attender or attendee You know, attend the different, whether it's happy hour, whether it's a social event or something, and especially if, like, cause you'll, you never know who you're going to meet. Jake: Yeah. So don't, don't get awkward if you have to. Chris: That's right. Dana: We met up with a couple of people that were there by themselves at different happy hour events. And we're like, come on, Chris: don't just, don't just go back to the hotel room and flip the news on or the hotel, you know, the TV or get out there and meet people. Jake: I had a kind of a fun experience. I'd see two people maybe sitting in the same spot and sit down in the middle and maybe you're talking to the person on the left and they'd kind of bring up a topic of what they're doing and suddenly the person on the right is relating to that. Yeah. For a part of the country or maybe they're a school talking to somebody that's doing public access and suddenly they're having this conversation again. You're in the middle of it and like everybody's suddenly networking your head. You're having a good time. You get up. Yes. Kind of go your separate ways, but now it's a lasting impression on that station or that person. Chris: Absolutely. Dana: Yeah. We all have conference buddies, right? You know, I want to hang out with at every conference and the NAB is a perfect place for the birth of those friendships. So you guys you did all your research, you hit the floor. How do you think you're going to synthesize all of this information? Have you thought about your next steps of how to organize the things that you've learned in your mind physically? Jake: Just got to get to work and start applying all that stuff. I mean, we took some good notes. I think as a team, I know that I've got a lot of stuff to follow up on. It's like get started on Monday and don't let it kind of stagnate, like actually put it to work and put it to use, just keep plugging away at it really. Chris: I mean, for us, as a vendor following up with clients and resolving some of the questions they had or suggestions that they had for innovations of our products. Uh, but for someone who's looking, I mean, I was running a public access channel in Connecticut for a long time. So being on the purchasing side of things or researching equipment side of things go back, I would always like the one in New York. Anyway, I would debrief kind of look through some of the flyers that I've gotten product catalogs and way pros and cons on different products that you've, that you're interested in. And, and you're looking at, how it's going to solve your problem, how it doesn't integrate budgets, always a factor. How is it going to best be ease of use for you? And, it was always pretty neat to put it all down and sort through it all at the end of the show. Dana: At the end of the show we met a couple of vendors that didn't get to go into in depth conversations as much as you would want on the show floor. So I know one thing that we did was set up some meetings out into the future with some different people. Once you do kind of get through all of those different solutions, wait a couple months and then set up another meeting. So it refreshes and then you have time to think about it. Any last thoughts on NAB, hopes, dreams? Jake: I want to go home and buy a new camera. Dana: Well, you can get it here. Chris: So we're offering more discounts. I saw that. Jake: I got to go find one of those 200 phones. Chris: Yeah, for free. Today would be the day for that because they're cleaning out the booth. They might not want to travel home with it. Dana: Yeah, that's right. Chris: For a discount. Jake: I'll take that. Chris: Yeah, I can't wait to attend the one in New York in the fall and then come back next year. I had a great time. You learn so much and it packed into three, four days. And it's pretty cool. I was talking to my wife earlier, like the day I first walked into the show floor and it was just like, I think I was like speechless when I first walked in. It was like, okay, wow, this is huge. And just in awe of how big it is and how, how cool it is. Dana: It does have a big wow factor, especially when you have those Lamborghinis with the cameras mounted on them. Did you see the one with there's motorcycle. It's very cool. Chris: For sure. Dana: Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming on and giving people a view on being first time attendees to NAB the hundred and first NAB that's happened. So that's pretty substantial for sure. And to our listeners and viewers at home, thank you for joining us. We're really happy that you're able to tune in and get some value on things to do post NAB. Thanks for watching the Government Video Podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe, follow, comment. This is great value. Share it with your colleagues.