NAB Goes to the Xstream.

After returning to their hotel rooms following the first day of conferences at the recently concluded NAB, many people must have immediately turned on their TV sets to see if traditional broadcasting was still there.

At the 55th annual National Association of Broadcasters convention held in Las Vegas last month, it seemed as though the Internet had taken over the entire broadcasting sector. Indeed, the conference looked more like an Internet industry gathering rather than a broadcasting convention. Many broadcasting heavyweights were absent due to a dispute with NAB. Instead, the convention featured producers such as George Lucas touting high-definition television (HDTV) not as a broadcasting standard, but as a production tool. Lucas' next Star Wars movie Episode Two, due to be released next summer, is being shot solely using Sony HDTV digital cameras. "I will never shoot another film on film," said Lucas during a press conference.

Of the major networks, only ABC remains a member of NAB. The others pulled out for what they deem an association bias in favor of network affiliates, who oppose the scaling back of network compensation and are in favor of limiting the networks from owning TV stations when their total coverage area exceeds 35 percent of the U.S. population.

Tension among various members is nothing new for NAB, but this time, as acknowledged by NAB president Edward O. Fritts, in his opening speech, it has reached an extreme. There to indirectly represent some of the missing networks (i.e. Fox and Viacom-CBS), was MPAA president Jack Valenti who delivered the opening keynote address.

Both at the exhibit and conference levels, NAB 2001 tuned into streaming media, interactive TV, broadband and Internet technology. Keynote speakers ranging from John Sidgmore of WorldCom, John Gage of Sun Microsystems and Eric Brewer of Inktomi, and other dotcommers, made presentations about new technology and television.

This September, NAB is going to another extreme by launching the Xstream conference in New Orleans, and billing it as "Broadcasting on the Internet."

Meanwhile at NAB, panelists debated how to properly "monetize the Web," as well as the relative merits of MPEG-4 for low-bit streaming audio and video over the Internet. The few traditional broadcasting conferences were limited to discussions on closed captions and how to meet the digital TV deadline.

NAB 2001 was titled the "Convergence Marketplace" and, just to get the message across, it added the subtitle "Embrace the Future." It also featured E-TOPIA, the first exhibit dedicated to New Media. Some 150 exhibitors, 11 percent of the total, showcased their latest technology at the Sands Convention Center. In addition to the Sands, exhibitors were housed at the Las Vegas Convention Center, five kilometers away. Some 50 companies rented hospitality suites at various hotels (including CBS, no longer a NAB member) and others, such as Eutelsat, rented space in the Venetian Hotel's conference halls, which are linked to the Sands. Compared to programming TV markets, the NAB booths were more lean, spartan even.

Judging from the huffed expressions on the faces of attendees, NAB must have proved overwhelming for most of the 113,000 participants. The heat (both inside and out), the sheer density of people, the lack of sufficient resting and food court areas and the chaotic traffic (partially due to the streets being under repair) made for a tour de force that cannot be compared to even the busiest NATPE.

Considering the large number of attendees, the current economic slump didn't seem important. At NAB one could forget, for a while, that Internet companies are in dire trouble. One panelist even went so far as to call this period the "Dark Age" before the "Renaissance." At NAB, the Internet seemed to be the driving force of the television industry. Due to the Internet, the satellite is now a fast-growing market. Indeed, Internet traffic created a crunch in the Ku-Band (12-14 GHz) bringing into consideration the extra high Ka-Band (20-30 GHz).

The six-day conference featured 90 sessions, while the exhibit halls were open for only four days. Some 30,000 people from 18 countries were in attendance, yet the event could not be considered an international affair since the flavor is still definitively domestic (U.S.). For 2002, NAB will take advantage of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) South Hall which is currently under construction. Many of the exhibits that were located in the Sands will make the move to the LVCC, including MultiMedia and E-TOPIA exhibits. The dates are set for April 6-11, 2002.