Tech Notes from the Field

That was quick! NAB 2015 for me is over. The last few days flew by! The other thing that made it a little a foggy was this bug I picked up. That said I was mixed about the what I saw. Did I see some cool equipment? I did. Did I see the same old things? I did. You might say I had a neutral experience this year.

The tease is the cool items I saw I cannot talk about! What? Am I joking? Not at all. One of these was on display but I am still figuring out how it really works and if it justifies a $15k price tag. And that it is not a secret, is the 25-Seven Voltaire. I am quite curious on how that box works. Bet Nielsen is too. The second item I cannot disclose. Sorry. I’m sure we will be hearing about it soon.

Deva Broadcast now has an HD monitor. I talked with them last year and they had issues with iniquity being slow to approve. Glad to see they have it now. My first reaction was it is not as robust as their analog, but as it sank in, it is still a very good unit.

Gates-Air was showing a liquid cooled FM. I know purple with space consideration will like that. R&S had one to, BTW. Elenos continue to pack power in a small space with a 4 RU 10kW rig. If I was analog only, I would consider this. Nautel continues with improvements to their lines. I did enjoy their future forward thinking with 15 audio streams.

In the tiny arena of microphones, I looked the Shure that plus directly into an iPhone or iPad. The line is called the MOTIV. It uses a lightning connector and plugs right in. For monitoring you can use the mini jack, but use headphones only add a built-in mic there is active too. They also added the MVL lavalier mics with the 3.5mm connector for Android devices. No use of headphones with those, though. Still a cool idea and quite useful for news gathering.

And I can’t finish without mentioning the drones. Quadcopters everywhere! Well, 4, 6, and 8 blades. Fingers hackers galore! I dig these things. For use in radio they seem limiting, but for promotions, web content, and other content gathering there is potential. I still like the idea of quick tower inspections. The done fest has decent talks on the myriad of uses. Two man teams, one flying, one controlling the camera, really does the flexibility of these things. Let’s see how these proliferate as the FAA slowly approves and regulates these. I know lawyers are waiting in the wings, too.

That’s my quick rundown of the NAB Show. Deeper thoughts to come as I settle down an my mind clears from this cold bug.

Cheers!