Off the Beaten Path: NAB Day Three

On Wednesday, I tried a step-tracking app on my phone to see how much I actually walked around NAB, and by the time I hit the shuttle bus for the ride back to the hotel, I was just under 4 miles. (Walking from the shuttle to my room put me over 4 mi).  In those 4 miles I still found some new and interesting products.

1. Palettegear Palette — The most far-out thing I saw was a user-configurable control surface for Adobe Premiere Pro by Palettegear. It is made up of several audio faders, buttons and knobs that are held together magnetically. It allows you to pull it apart, almost like Lego, and put it together in any layout that works for you. It is very easy to set up, and it can sense your configuration. Very cool! Different systems start at $199.

2. Draco Broadcast Magicue Prompter  —  One of the most difficult operations for a small crew can be coming up with someone to run a teleprompter. With a MagiCue prompter, using their app for iOS (and Android later this year), you don't need a teleprompter operator. Once you feed the script to the app, it listens to your talent, follows your script as they read it, auto-scrolling and pausing when they pause. Right now it is tuned for English, but other languages are coming soon. Pricing TBA.

3. Sennheiser MKE 440 — This compact stereo microphone is unlike anything I've seen before. It has two short shotgun mic elements to pick up stereo audio in a single unit. It looks like a pair of pants. Street price is $350.

4.  Sennheiser Action Cam Mic — No model number or pricing was given, nor were photos allowed of this prototype that attaches to GoPro and other action cameras. I did get to hear samples of the audio from a GoPro on a bike and on a kayak, and this mic actually makes the audio from the GoPro usable for productions.

5. Atomos Shogun Flame — This is a seven-inch 10-bit AtomHDR 1500nit Field Monitor with 4K/HD 10-bit ProRes/DNxHR recording, Sony and Canon raw to ProRes/DNxHR recording, professional HDMI, SDI and XLR connections along with LTC/Genlock & bidirectional SDI/HDMI conversion needed on set and in broadcast. Their drive caddies are now compatible with G-Tech enclosures. MSRP: $1695.

6. AJA U-Tap HDMI and HD-SDI — These USB 3 capture devices come in HDMI and HD-SDI models. These units allow you to use them for video-capture applications and video conferencing using a wide range of pro and consumer cameras. Easy set-up does not require drivers and works on Windows, Mac and Linux, and can easily be moved from computer to computer as needed. MSRP $345

7.  AJA HELO — This is a standalone recording and streaming H.264 USB and SD recording device.  It has HDMI, HD-SDI, and audio ins and outs. It can be configured before standalone use via the USB connector. It is very affordable at an MSRP of $1295.

8. IDX CW-1 — This compact transmitter and receiver set allows uncompressed transmission of 1920×1080 over up to 328 feet, line of sight. The transmitter plugs into an HDMI out on the camera and the receiver can go HDMI in to a switcher. It is the most affordable HD transmitter/receiver set I've seen at MSRP $700.

9. IDX CW-3 — This compact transmitter and receiver set allows uncompressed transmission of 1920×1080 up to 380 feet, line of sight, and operates in the 5 GHz band that doesn't require a license. The transmitter uses the HD-SDI out on the camera and the receiver can go HD-SDI into a switcher. It is the most affordable HD-SDI transmitter / receiver set I've seen at MSRP $1300.

10.  Go Puck 6XR – This is a portable, lightweight, rechargeable 9000 mAh battery for extending the record time of action cams. It was designed by Blake Fuller to power cameras in NASCAR race cars — the first lithium-ion battery for starting race cars. It has two USB power outputs, one for 5v and one for 5v, 9v and 12v. It can also power and quick-charge a cell phone. MSRP $99.

Tomorrow is the last day of NAB, sniff sniff. While I'm not scheduled to make a report, I'll be walking the halls looking for new products to review. Please let me know which of the items I reported on you'd like to see in a full review.