In this roundup of our time at NAB, we discuss:
- How the Bridge Booth became a hub for professionals from across the industry, sharing ideas and talking about this year’s big news: the NEP platform
- How Bridge’s approach to remote tool access helps avoid logistical headaches – whether that’s at NAB or out in the field
- Bridge’s opportunity to show the remarkable range of product improvements that have been made through the year, from multichannel AV sync to a completely redesigned UI.
But ultimately, the key idea is this: that collaboration and conversation continue to be the reason that shows like NAB matter. And Bridge will always be at the centre of that conversation.
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Real conversations, award-winning tech and NEP platform integration
There is a particular kind of place that matters not because of its size but because of who gathers there. Think of the Café de Flore in 1940s Paris. A modest corner establishment, nothing remarkable from the outside. Yet Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus would all meet to discuss philosophical ideas that would shape the century. In New York, Costello’s bar saw authors such as Steinbeck, Hemingway and O’Hara break bread (and walking sticks) together. Or take London in 1800s, where the Athenaeum Club on Pall Mall – modest, unflashy, almost severe – drew the likes of Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley.
These locations weren’t flashy (though they were often very stylish). They weren’t the biggest venues in town. But they brought together the minds of the time to drink, to think, and to shape the future.
And this year, at NAB, that’s exactly what the Bridge booth felt like. There was some kind of gravitational pull – whenever you looked across the throngs of visitors towards the Bridge booth, you would see a relaxed gathering of people from across all walks of the broadcast community, some of the biggest names and sharpest engineering minds of a generation.
A place for the platform
In all honesty, that wouldn’t be unusual for Bridge anyway: we’ve always valued collaboration and enjoyed the company of those that might technically be classed as competitors. (And it’s always been an open secret that we’ve got the best stocked bar in town… Not to mention birthday cupcakes for anyone who happens to be celebrating that week, be they fleshy human or corporate entity).
But this year there was particular reason why everybody had convened on the Bridge booth: the NEP Platform. The latter was launched with its first partnering companies at this year’s NABShow: Calrec, Grass Valley, Hawk-Eye, Lawo, manifold, Panasonic, Sony, … and us, all working together through NEP to create a one-stop production hub. That’s the kind of casual hang-out that changes the shape of the future.
Serendipity and structure
NAB requires months of planning. Shipping lists. Carnets. Customs brokers. Freight forwarders. Hotel bookings coordinated 12 months in advance. It is a logistical exercise of considerable tedium.
And then, despite all that planning, things just happen.
Last year, a hold-up at customs meant kit arrived late. To say it caused a bit of stress is an understatement. But then we remembered, isn’t there a reason we developed products which could run in real-time on a fully remote basis? So this year, we packed light. No kit on the truck. No customs forms. No anxious waiting at the freight depot. The VB440, the VBC, the entire compressed probe portfolio – all running from either Oslo or South Dakota, displayed on screens in Nevada, controlled by engineers who never left their desks.
As with so many of our endeavours – the Bridge Show, for instance – it was a useful practical demonstration of the why behind what we do. Working remotely does more than save energy and reduce the movement of people. It eliminates physical risk. No lost shipments, damaged boxes, or missing cables. Just the monitoring you need, when you need it, where you need it. The flexibility to adjust to circumstances as they arise, not tied to a singular structure, but instead able to roll with the punches.
That idea of flexibility worked well for our friends at Blackmagic too. Just like us, they had a meticulously planned NAB. Their own demoes. Their own booth layout. But a few days before the show, they needed to borrow an additional VB440 for a pre-show setup check of their new 100G broadcast stack: cameras, switcher, recorder, converters, and a new switch – all bundled together and all ST 2110 native.
And things worked so well for them that they just… kept it running on the stand. Bridge became an integral part of what they were showing.
The Grass Valley MXL demonstration was yet another example of a decision that came together quickly thanks to the ease of integration.
To us, that’s what NAB is about. Two companies, talking. A borrowed piece of kit. A spontaneous decision. Flexibility. Serendipity. Shared success.
The Real Show
The official show runs from 9am to 6pm. And there, our VB440 shone with its new multichannel AV sync Multi service feature, that won the TV Tech award and the new PTP timing and Loudness Radar feature amongst others. The VBC, VB330, V220 and RF probes were the centre of attention with an extensive range of capacity and functionality updates, all wrapped in a new UI that completely rethinks how engineers can access what they need, fast. VBC Live mosaic video monitoring scrolled across the screens with ease.
But the real show happens in the margins. Celebrating intoPIX turning 20 with cupcakes and Riedel’s 17:00 booth beers offered the perfect way to close each busy day gathering around what was arguably the show’s longest reception bar.
Champagne and cigars at Ferraro’s, our new Italian home away from home. Press interviews squeezed between meetings. Bridge left Las Vegas with the same number of demo units we arrived with. Zero. Because we brought none. But we left with a reminder that NAB is not about the size of your booth. It is about the quality of the conversations that happen around it. And those, at least, do not require a shipping label.
