The range of use cases and workflows within image capture in broadcast production remains huge and vendors are busy rising to the challenge. There are a number of key themes and which of them fit with your requirements may well drive your selection of brands to visit.

There has been very little in terms of pre-show new product announcements from the leading camera vendors so we will report more after the show. We expect to see some of the recent trends towards more use of software licensing for key features in system cameras continue. Ground to cloud and technologies that facilitate distributed team workflows are likely to feature heavily in drama production.

With sports we expect to see more introductions to support the integration of more cinematic production values. Although the relentless expansion of resolution may have slowed somewhat, with the emphasis perhaps slightly more on trickle down into lower cost solutions, ways to use UHD capture and high speed capture in sports production are likely to see more innovations.

Vendor Focus

Blackmagic Design (Booth SL 216) have a long tradition of making their new product announcements on the first day of the show, so time will tell if there are any new camera or image capture announcements. 

The Blackmagic product release schedule never stops. Recent announcements include updates to the free Blackmagic Camera control app for iOS and Android, and the URSA Cine 12K LF Body which is a version of the camera that excludes many of the accessories such as shoulder mounts, handles, some lens mounts, battery plates, power supply, lenses and the 8TB media module. This body only model reduces the cost of expanding inventory and is aimed at cinematographers and rental houses who already have the accessories they need.

The Blackmagic Cine Immersive – an end-to-end workflow for producing cinematic Apple Immersive Video for Apple Vision Pro, was announced in June 24 and is now available for pre-order. Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is positioned as the world’s first commercial camera system designed to capture Apple Immersive Video. Apple Immersive Video is a new format that leverages 8K, 3D video with a 180-degree field of view, and Spatial Audio. Blackmagic Design also announced updates to DaVinci Resolve that will give filmmakers the ability to edit Apple Immersive Video for the first time.

Blackmagic Cloud is their collaborative workflow platform that enables efficient sharing of DaVinci Resolve projects and assets across teams. New features released in December include updates to the icon view with thumbnails which can be scrubbed to preview footage, as well as a new inspector panel for easily viewing clip metadata. Customers can also now share a presentation with a client who is not a member of Blackmagic Cloud via a URL, so they can collaborate and group chat with them. 

Videstra (via Heartland Video Systems Meeting Room W 2077MR). The Videstra brand has just been acquired by Systems Integrator, Heartland Video Systems and at NAB they will be demonstrating the VestraView system. This is one of those products which solves a simple but challenging issue – how to elegantly incorporate streams from fixed Micro-Local cameras into live broadcasts and multi-platform delivery feeds. Stations often place live cameras on towers and rooftops throughout the viewing area. The DOT has scores of cameras, everywhere viewers travel. Getting them on the air and posted to digital properties is a challenge, especially when the news is breaking quickly. VestraView brings together multiple IP-based cameras from many different manufacturers with H.264/H.265 streams, to their V-Streamer technology to output a live-to-HD-SDI source from each camera for your broadcast plant, as well as generating still and time-lapse imagery.  The system provides everything you need to go from camera to screen. The four-channel V-Streamer decoder offers genlock, overlays, cropping, and most importantly reliability.

Proton (Booth N 314) tucked away in corner of the north hall will be Proton. They make very small broadcast quality cameras and at the show they launch the Proton HFR. As the name suggests this adds a high frame rate variant to their range of lovely little cameras. 240 fps from a tiny little thing with a C mount – what’s not to like.

Grass Valley (Booth N 510) will show a new LDX 180 camera with a cinematic feel alongside the LDX 110 and LDXC110 entry level variants of their LDX camera portfolio that were launched at IBC. 

Virtual Production

The arenas of news and live sports are the key drivers of development in virtual production technology in broadcast. Both disciplines use data driven graphic elements to enhance story telling and both benefit greatly from the ability to place presenters against dynamic backdrops, and from interaction between presenters and graphic elements. The capacity to create new virtual studio environments dramatically increases the creative potential for designers and enables more frequent changes in set design.

It is a steadily evolving discipline that is benefiting greatly from advances in available compute power and creative and technical advances from the much faster moving gaming and film industries. Expect step changes in realism, dynamic effects and ease of operation to be evident on the show floor.

Expect to see technology innovations in key areas: To investigate new technologies in motion tracking visit Vinten, MRMC (who are introducing a new free roaming robotic mount), MoSys, OptiTrack (on the Planar booth) and Stype. Other vendors presenting technology in this space include: Arri, Grass Valley, Maxon, Sony (who are releasing a new camera tracking system called Ocellus) and Vizrt. They will all be on the NAB show floor with their latest technology. We will be visiting Aputure, Kino Flow and Quasar Science to catch up on all things image based lighting. 

Ross Video (Booth SL 206) have a habit of keeping their key announcements under wraps until the last minute so time will tell whether we see any last-minute surprises. The world of virtual production and graphics, especially for sports and news has been a strong area of expansion for Ross in recent years. There has been a steady stream of key product releases in graphics visualization with Xpression, sports analysis with PIERO, virtual environment creation with Voyager, multi-screen rendering with Xpression Tessera and live production control with Lucid. They have also been busy on the camera motion side with advances in robotics and motion tracking. All of which integrates elegantly with the rest of the vast Ross ecosystem.

In the area of LED displays, Roe Visual (Booth N 2839), will once again bring innovation and excellence to the show floor. Expect a booth that is a genuine visual feast. Their emphasis at NAB is on their new fixed install products – Coral, Sierra and Denali. 

Denali is ROE Visuals latest groundbreaking LED solution, with an ultra-thin frame, a pixel pitch of 0.78mm, and native 16:9 resolution. It uses innovative Micro LED In Package (MIP) technology. The microscopic chip size results in an impressive 99.67% black area ratio for the Denali LED panels, contributing to an almost black LED surface delivering great contrast. The MIP Technology utilizes mass transfer technology for high production efficiency and exceptional precision. Using an innovative no-substrate micro-LED design eliminates substrate refraction, resulting in a wide light output angle. It is energy-efficient and offers enhanced black levels, higher contrast, and ultra-wide viewing angles.

Brainstorm Multimedia (Booth SL 2716) are one of the innovators of virtual production for live news, sports and entertainment. Their first broadcasts in 1994 were ground breaking and they have continued to develop and innovate ever since. They have tier 1 clients worldwide and strong integration accreditations with the industry’s providers of partner products. At NAB they will demonstrate the latest incarnations of their highly evolved product portfolio including Infinity Set, Aston, Edison & Neuron.

Other articles in this NAB 2025 'Show Focus' series:

The Broadcast Bridge will be at the NAB Show – in the West Hall on booth W 3932. Please come and see us and share your thoughts on what we do and what you would like to see from us in the coming year.