NAB 2008 Preview!

NAB starts On Monday and here is who is in charge of the buzz:

1. Apple & Avid - wait, what? huh? somehow even though nether of these companies will actually have a regular booth, both will have huge presence all over the south hall. Apple will be showing XSAN 2, the Promise VRAID and the (finally shipping) Final Cut Server. Avid has PROMISED a major product announcement for Monday morning. What will it be? new hardware? new software? my vote is inexpensive I/O for Media Composer. (or maybe just HD output)
Final Cut will be present in plenty of booths... the big hot button this year is media management, archiving and workflow.

2. Matrox: theyre promising a product announcement at the show. My guess is AXIO compatibility with Premiere on the Mac.

3. AJA: they've got the I/O for the industry down pat with FCP, Premiere and Autodesk in their camp. Whose left but Avid? Also, look for new mini-Converters and functionality with the FS1.

4.Blackmagic: im sure there will be something.. just not sure what yet.

5. Grass Valley/ Canopus: a new converter that takes in HDMI and converts it to HDV for injest. Good alternative for people looking at the Intensity, but needing a portable solution.

6. Panasonic: look at the DVX100B replacement, the AG-HMC150 which will record AVCHD. Also take a look see at the new BTLH 17" monitor with 120 hz, waveform and vectorscope!

7. JVC: The HD200 camera now has the ability to output both 720P and 1080i from the FW port. Also look for more integration with Firestores. As a side note: Focus Enhancements will have a refresh on their Firestore line as well as new products for Media Management and archiving for Final Cut Pro workflows.

8. Canon: new versions of the XL H1 and the XH A1.. the big one I see is embedded audio over HD-SDI on the XL H1 (Finally)

9. Autodesk: new features and announcements for Toxik. Maybe third party hardware integration?

10. 8GB Fiber Channel: just when you decided that dual 4GB fiber wasn't quite fast enough. Check out ATTO, Ciprico, G-Tech and Facilis's booth for implementations.

11. Sachtler: wait, how did they make it onto this list? the SOOM multi-purpose tripod has the most buzz ever seen by a tripod.

this is far from a complete list... more coming soon!