NAB

Radio stations: We're still relevant in the Internet age

LAS VEGAS--Over-the-air radio broadcasters have a plan to stay relevant even as their listeners continue to migrate to the Web.

Radio Heard Here, a new initiative from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the HD Digital Radio Alliance is focused largely on trying to convince the public that radio remains relevant.

The plan calls for a public-relations campaign, including video ads on YouTube, and a method to connect players online. But there's little real meat. In reality, it's a response to those skeptical about the industry's chances to survive in the Internet era who have lately … Read more

Director Doug Liman waits for Web equivalent of 'Swingers'

LAS VEGAS--Director Doug Liman pulled no punches when sizing up the quality of storytelling on the Web.

The Internet simply hasn't produced any truly compelling stories, Liman, director of such hits as The Bourne Identity and Swingers, told an audience of several hundred Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters 2008 conference here.

But that doesn't mean it won't. He told the audience he believes it's just a matter of time before a star filmmaker bubbles up from YouTube, iFilm, or one of the other online video sites.

"The reality is that the quality content … Read more

NAB 2008: Pro camcorder highlights

Each year the National Association of Broadcasters holds its trade show in Las Vegas and manufacturers trot out their latest professional camcorders. Here are the highlights from this year's show, so far...

Canon XL H1S/XL H1A: Canon checks in with an update to its HDV XL H1. The two new models each include three 1.67-megapixel 16:9 1/3-inch CCD sensors, 20x optical zoom lenses with Canon's SuperRange optical image stabilization, and more granular controls. For instance, the iris is now adjustable in 1/16-stop increments instead of 1/4-stop, and gain, white balance, selective-color noise … Read more

HP and DreamWorks unveil color display technology

Though CRT monitors have been made practically obsolete for consumers by the LCD industry, a few industries--photography/visual design/filmmaking--still cling to them for their nonpareil color quality.

Hewlett-Packard is trying to loosen their grip on those clunky desktop space-hoggers by offering a liquid crystal display for visual artist types that boasts the ability to show 1 billion colors for "one quarter" of the cost of other LCD monitors in this category.

At the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas on Monday, Todd Bradley, vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, announced that HP has … Read more

Microsoft touts media business gains with Silverlight

Microsoft chose the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2008 in Las Vegas to announce new customers for its Silverlight rich-media player and introduce software aimed at broadcasters.

It also detailed SilverlightDRM, a content protection system based on Microsoft's PlayReady technology, which is set to be available later this year with Silverlight 2.

The digital rights management, or DRM, software will work with streamed, progressive download, and downloadable media, and it can be extended by third-party software companies, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is trying to make Silverlight the preferred medium to broadcast video on the Web--a challenge, given the resounding … Read more

NAB: Will DVRs thwart rise of online TV shows?

LAS VEGAS--Big TV networks are rushing to attract Internet audiences, but there are signs that the payoff won't be that sexy.

One of the burning questions television broadcasters face is whether the Web can be mined for big advertising dollars. NBC Universal, CBS, and Viacom are just a few of the media conglomerates moving quickly to offer full-length TV shows over the Web.

What will surely be debated here this week at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual conference--which gets rolling on Monday--is whether the masses will welcome TV on a PC.

What about commercials? Will audiences resent being … Read more

Adobe leads high-quality raw video format initiative

Adobe Systems thinks we can do better with the quality of digital video images. It is also developing a way to search on the audio within video clips.

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2008 in Las Vegas this week, Adobe will announce a joint initiative to develop a specification that it hopes will eventually lead to a file format for higher image quality.

The effort is called CinemaDNG, named after the DNG (Digital Negative) raw digital still image format designed by Adobe. The company is working with others in the industry including camera makers and software developers, … Read more

Sony's tapeless XDCAM EX adopts a standard media format

This week, the National Association of Broadcasters converges in Las Vegas for its annual convention, a show we here at CNET usually ignore; after all, while the typical CNET reader may have a room dedicated to the worship of the moving image, we don't expect to see a TV studio in an adjacent shrine. And no, producing YouTube videos doesn't count. However, interesting prosumer news floats down every now and then, and Sony's announcement of its flash-memory-based XDCAM EX camcorder landed gently on my keyboard this morning, via Engadget.

In fact, I usually ignore Sony's XDCAM … Read more