Annex Pro was on-site at the NAB Show 2024 in New York, October 9-10. There were 12,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors—a smaller but still vibrant version of the Las Vegas show which occurs annually in April.
The theme “Broadcast is Dead. Long Live Broadcast” reflects the shifting industry landscape. As traditional broadcast declines, adjacent sectors such as corporate, advertising, design, education, house of worship, government, and others are adopting media production solutions. Annex Pro is well-positioned to support this shift. (In fact, we already have many case studies in Canada.)
Key takeaways:
- Traditional broadcast is fading, but adjacent sectors are expanding, each with unique challenges that Annex Pro can help with.
- Emerging technologies like cloud-based workflows and AI-powered features were hot topics at NAB NYC.
- Media management will be critical for most of the adjacent sectors, as they typically have their own IP they wish to be able to archive, search, and monetize for years to come.
Specialties such as corporate communications, advertising, and design were prominent at NAB NYC, as mentioned in an article by Adrian Pennington at ibc.org.
“Technologies like virtual production and inexpensive cine-style cameras make content creation much more easily available to people who aren’t television broadcasters, but what’s driven a real acceleration in the convergence of broadcast with AV is the ability to extend delivery of content directly,” says Ciaran Doran, CEO of cloud broadcast vendor M2A Media. “Brands have woken up to the fact that they have been building a one-to-one direct relationship with their customers and that the next step is to communicate by live video and build an even tighter engagement with them.”
With the broadcast market static to shrinking, technology vendors are expanding their sales activities into adjacent sectors, notably from the corporate, government, higher education, and finance worlds. NAB is also making its exhibition more attractive to those buyers and said it had hosted executives from Bank of America, Best Buy, Dell, Ford, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S Military Academy, among core audiences from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, and Univision.
Over the past several years, Annex Pro has invested in educational and technical resources to serve these adjacent sectors and our traditional film and television customers. Here’s a recap of news from our key partners from NAB 2024 in NYC:
Avid
Under the banner “Find Your Story Faster,” Avid showcased innovations to make your media production workflows more efficient, collaborative, and integrated. Avid showed new features for Media Composer, from speech-to-text tools to remote collaboration capabilities to new compatibility with Pro Tools (finally!). New features in MediaCentral turn your newsroom into a digital-first, story-centric news hub, with AI transcription services powered by Ada. Commanding the most demanding audio is the venerable Pro Tools, with new ARA 2 integration of post plug-ins and support for immersive audio with internal Dolby Atmos rendering. Edit On Demand now supports up to 300 seats and adds intelligent caching for project-sharing from anywhere, combining on-prem, cloud, or via EOD. The new Panel SDK expands Avid’s partner ecosystem to Autodesk, Spectra Logic RioBroker, Marquis, Sony, LiveU, and more. Learn more here.
We should also mention that Finale notation is sunsetting, so Avid is offering a sweet cross-grade discount to move to its popular Sibelius notation software. Contact your account rep for details.
Dolby
Dolby continues to lead with its immersive audio experiences, with Dolby Atmos for music, cars, gaming, film, and TV, and Dolby Vision for gaming, film, and TV. Annex Pro is Canada’s only Certified Services Partner for Dolby, meaning that top customers in the industry turn to us for answers and help with designing, commissioning, calibrating, and tuning Dolby Atmos rooms for music and post-production—from home studios to commercial enterprises—in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and anywhere in Canada. Learn more at https://professional.dolby.com/.
Wasabi
Corporate media loves Wasabi AiR. They often own vast media archives that go unused and untapped because it’s impossible to find what they are looking for. Wasabi AiR is cloud object storage integrated with a searchable auto-generated index. It combines high-performance hot cloud storage with AI-powered metadata auto-tagging, multilingual transcription, and a search interface to easily find and access content. To celebrate NAB NY, Wasabi is offering 10% additional storage for free on any new RCS contract of 250 TB or more. Contact us for details.
Learn more at https://wasabi.com/cloud-object-storage/wasabi-air.
EIZO
As usual, EIZO was front and center at NAB NY. EIZO displays have been a top choice for media professionals for years due to their exceptional color accuracy, wide gamut, and built-in calibration and networking tools. Designed for precision, they ensure consistent visual quality for video editing, color grading, and post-production, meeting the high standards required in professional media environments. Contact your rep for more information or a quote.
LucidLink
Legendary editor Larry Jordan sat down with Matt Schneider from LucidLink for a fairly technical discussion on how LucidLink simplifies the production process by allowing remote teams to work collaboratively, reducing costs and complexity by enabling content to be recorded directly to the cloud. It’s 13 minutes long, but really worthwhile if you’re looking for a deep dive on “how the heck does LucidLink do what it does, anyway?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ7FGyD2ZYw
iconik
iconik’s role as a powerful tool for managing media in hybrid cloud environments—catering to the needs of media production teams who need scalable, secure, and highly collaborative solutions—is well known. At NAB New York 2024, iconik previewed several exciting updates focused on making media asset management more efficient through automation and AI integration, including enhanced AI capabilities that allow users to automatically tag and transcribe media, speeding up the search and discovery process. New automation tools were unveiled, designed to streamline repetitive tasks such as file transfers and collaboration processes. iconik enhanced its review and approval system, making it easier for teams to provide feedback and track revisions. A new security feature, dynamic watermarking, was introduced to protect sensitive media during collaboration, adding an extra layer of protection for content creators and production teams. Learn more at https://www.iconik.io/blog/2024-iconik-feature-preview.
Qumulo
Qumulo impressed with its hybrid cloud storage solutions, offering unrivaled scalability for high-resolution media and content. A 100% software-defined storage solution, Qumulo is the only platform built for managing geographically distributed file and object data on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge. Shortly after NAB, Qumulo was named leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for File and Object Storage Platforms for the seventh consecutive year. Setting a new standard for cloud data management, Qumulo also recently announced the general availability of Cloud Native Qumulo (CNQ) on AWS, the world’s first cloud-native unstructured data system. On Gartner Peer Insights™, Qumulo also has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars in the File and Object Storage Platforms market. Check with your Annex Pro account rep if you’re considering expanding or replacing your media production storage.
Sohonet
Sohonet solutions bring remote teams together, helping media and entertainment professionals collaborate smoothly and securely at every phase of the production lifecycle. Sohonet continues to push boundaries with ClearView Flex, allowing secure real-time collaboration for remote editing with low-latency streaming, visual effects, and review sessions. New security features are a key focus. Contact your rep to learn more.
Flanders Scientific
Flanders Scientific—long a favorite of on-set DITs—showcased its advanced reference displays, featuring HDR capabilities and the latest color accuracy technology. Designed for post-production and on-set professionals, these monitors offer precision calibration tools, enabling flawless color-grading workflows. The cutting-edge displays ensure reliability for high-end media projects, making them essential tools for media production teams and DITs aiming for unmatched visual fidelity. These features solidify Flanders Scientific’s position as a top choice for those requiring meticulous control over image quality. Contact your rep to learn more.
Projective Technology
Although not technically new for NAB NY, Projective Technology showcased its recently released cloud-first post-production framework, Strawberry Skies. This platform enables real-time, secure, and flexible collaboration from anywhere. It builds on its existing Strawberry platform, adding full cloud hosting for seamless integration with major editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer. Strawberry Skies also offers robust cloud archiving capabilities with storage options including Wasabi and AWS. This solution is designed to break down collaboration barriers, reduce infrastructure costs, and speed up time-to-market for media production teams. Learn more at https://projective.io/strawberry-skies-at-nab-2024/.
Facilis Technology
Facilis Technology showcased several key updates that are highly relevant for media production customers. It introduced Version 8.3 of its HUB software, featuring the FASTCache Remote Workflow Accelerator, which allows local caching on workstations for real-time performance with high-bitrate formats, eliminating cloud-sync delays. Additionally, FastTracker 3.8.1 now supports Avid-native MXF proxy generation, RED and BRAW formats, and new file attachment functionality for enhanced project tracking. Learn more at https://www.facilis.com/facilis-technology-announces-the-release-of-version-8-3-featuring-fastcache-remote-workflow-accelerator-at-nab-show-new-york-2024/.
LiveU
LiveU introduced several compelling innovations designed to enhance live production workflows. Notably, the new LiveU IQ (LIQ) delivers unprecedented reliability with dynamic mobile operator switching, ensuring top performance for IP video streaming, making it a game changer for resilient live broadcasts. Additionally, LiveU’s Lightweight Sports Production solution offers a fully featured live production setup for smaller events, enabling a single operator to manage replays, graphics, and remote guests—all from a single browser. These advancements—combined with flexible pricing plans—make LiveU’s solutions accessible and efficient for all production sizes. Learn more at https://www.liveu.tv/company/press-releases/liveus-remote-and-cloud-based-production-solutions-take-over-nab-ny.
Let us know if you have questions or want more information here.
