Spring has come it has also brought us the annual NAB Show held in Las Vegas. Some of you might not be familiar with this trade show, so to help you understand it a little better.

The NAB Show is an annual trade show brought to you by the National Association of Broadcasters, which is a trade association and lobby group that represents the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the US.

Since 1991, the show has had its home in Las Vegas, but it was first started way back in 1923, and moved its location around the country for most of its existence.

The show brings together thousands of attendees and presenters from all across the globe and if you are working in the industry or are dabbling in it as just a hobby, this is the place for you to be. However, if you were not able to attend this show, we will be giving you the second-best thing – a nice overview of the best the NAB 2019 had to offer.

SmallHD

NAB wouldn’t be NAB without the appearance of SmallHD and their field monitors. This year we saw the reveal of their new line of monitors – the Cine 7 line. The monitor features a 1080p display with 1800nit brightness and it offers 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The display is not the only noteworthy thing about this monitor, it also has the ability to control many cinema cameras, which in turn can save you money by eliminating the need for an expensive viewfinder. On launch it will be able to control the ARRI Alexa Mini, AMIRA and Mini LF as optional license. And support for RED and Sony cameras later down the road. Cine 7 will be available in four different variants including three wireless models with built-in Teradek Bolt 500 technology.

Another SmallHD unvail this year was its first 7” touchscreen wireless monitor/receiver – Focus 7 Bolt 500 RX. The specifications of this new monitor are similar to the regular Focus 7, which we talked about in our “On-Camera Monitoring with SmallHD” blog. It also keeps the focus of small and independent filmmakers in mind so the price is at an affordable point. But the key feature of this monitor is the built in 500 RX receiver by Teradek making it a more practical device. More on it here.

Teradek

As SmallHD and Teradek usually go hand in hand when it comes to monitors and receivers/transmitters next up we shall go over the new line of Teradek wireless transmitters and receivers. Teradek has finally brought forth the next gen of wireless video with its new 4K Wireless Transmitter/Receiver Sets one being the 750 model and the other 1500 model, with support of video transmissions of 750ft and 1500ft respectively and they offer 8x the signal reliability and 1.5x more range compared to the previous Bolt models. Bolt 4K is able to transmit uncompressed 2160p60 HDR video with zero delay. So that you can monitor every shot in stunning 10-bit 2160p with 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. For cutting-edge HDR workflows, Bolt 4K supports HLG, PQ, and HDR-10 standards. Unfortunately since this uses new generation chips from Amimon and these won’t connect to existing Sidekicks or SmallHD 703Bolt series monitors. For this you would still need to employ Teradek 500/1000/3000/10k units.

And we also cannot forget to give a mention to the new HDMI only Teradek Ace 500, which is a budget friendly, compact and ultralight wireless video system that can deliver uncompressed 1080p60 videos at up to 500ft without zero delay. It will be a perfect companion to any DSLR or Canon C100 shooter.

Atomos

Without a doubt, Shogun 7 was the main course of Atomos presentation, and with a good reason. At a first glance you might think that it is just the same old Shogun Inferno 7, and even though there would be nothing wrong with that, as the Shogun Inferno 7 is a solid field monitor/recorder in its own right, and the Shogun 7 does retain all of the best qualities that the Inferno brought you, but this new monitor is equipped with a few new tricks of its own. The LCD panel is the same as the one on Inferno, but Shogun 7 offers 360 zone backlight which gives the Dynamic AtomHDR engine the ability to show millions of shades of brightness. The main selling point of the Shogun 7 is its ability to simultaneously monitor, record, and switch between programs and up to four HD-SDI camera streams, which is asynchronous and gives you a XML file for finalizing and fine tuning in your NLE. You can start your preorders of Shogun 7 right here. However if that is not in your price range, we are having a sale on the Shogun Inferno 7 and Ninja Inferno 7 on-camera monitors that you can find right here.

If it is versatility you are looking for, then you are in luck, because the new Shinobi SDI might be just the thing for you. The Shinobi SDI is a 5 -inch camera monitor that is compatible with pretty much anything that has an HDMI-out port, and I mean it, you can even hook it up to your tablet or smartphone, and best of all, it is also really affordable. You can get in-depth specs of the Shinobi SDI right here.

And what would all this gear be without some sweet accessories? Atomos has brought an SDI support to the Ninja V line of monitors with the AtomX SDI module, which gives your Ninja V 2 SDI connectors, that can be configured to loop trough or double up to allow recording via dual 12G signal. This SDI module is the first in range of interchangeable AtomX modules for the Ninja V.

The module is not the only thing the Ninja V is getting, it also gets a HPRC2300 case for it and all the necessities that come with it.          

Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic is not only known for its hardware, but also its professional color suit and full-fledged NLE and audio mixing platform – the DaVinci Resolve. This year at the show we saw the new version of this tool DaVinci Resolve 16 which is available as public beta and it has a new addition to its tool belt – the Cut Page. Cut Page aims to make video editing more streamlined and less of a chore, and to help with this goal Blackmagic also adds DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard to its arsenal. The keyboard has an all-aluminum design and the search dial is machined with rubber coating. The DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard makes linear editing modern and hassle free, and probably the best thing about this combo is the fact that everything can be easily done without the use of a mouse, as the new software has also added new keyboard shortcuts for the added ease of use.

While 4K is becoming mainstream Blackmagic Design is already pushing for 8K acquisition, broadcast and delivery with live production switcher ATEM Constellation 8K. It is their largest switcher to date, and it offers the user 4 M/Es, 40 x 12G SDI inputs, 24 x 12G SDI aux outputs, 4 DVEs, 16 Keyers, 4 media players, 4 multi viewers, 2 SuperSource and standard conversion on every SDI input. And all of these features combined brings you a powerful 8K experience.

Another new addition to Blackmagics lineup was their HyperDeck Extreme 8K HDR and HyperDeck Extreme Control deck. It sports an advanced H.256 8K recording, nice sized touch screen for user interface and a traditional broadcast style deck control. With the switcher and this broadcast deck we can see a running theme for Blackmagic this year, and it is 8K, and even though the technology could still be considered to be in its infancy, Blackmagic are known to push boundaries.

Another push in direction of 8K is the Teranex Mini SDI to HDMI 8K HDR. It is an advanced monitoring solution for large screen televisions and video projectors. Unlike basic converters, Teranex Mini can use third party calibration probes to accurately align connected displays for precise color. And it is expected to be available starting from May.

Blackmagic also presented its new MultiDock 10G which is a super-fast rack mount 4 slot USB-C dock, which allows you to access 4 separate SSDs via a single high speed 10Gb/s USB-C connection. MultiDock can be directly controlled via HyperDeck as either single connection to all 4 drives or dual connection to pair of drives. If you are using SoftRaid on your computer you can also use it as 4-bay external SSD Raid.

For those lucky Pocket Cinema Camera 4K owners Blackmagic Design introduced their Sony L-series battery grip accessory. This a new Battery Grip specifically designed for the use with PCC4K. The new grip uses two Sony L batteries, and each battery is supposed to give you 2 hours of runtime which is almost 4x the runtime the Canon LP -E6 would give you. The grip also fits nicely on the camera and it does not hinder the use of it in any way, shape or form. You can pre-order the grip from here.

This year they might get even more recognition than they already have, because their new URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 won the NAB 2019 Best Cinema Camera award. In its design it does not differ from the previous version too much, but when it comes to its capabilities, it is a whole another beast. This camera has a newly optimised Super 35mm 4.6K sensor with 15 stops of dynamic range. It also includes the Generation 4 Color Science. But the main selling point might be the fact that it now supports 4.6K at 120fps where the previous one had only 4.6K/60fps support. The URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 also has 4K DCI / 150fps and 1080p/300fps support. You can see more of it here.

TVLogic

And last on our company list is TVLogic with two of their new monitors. The first one we shall look at is TVLogic F-5 5.5inch field monitor which is a full featured light weight field monitor. With its 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution and 500nit max luminance it is a safe choice for anyone starting out in the industry. It comes with and without Anti-Glare film.

Where the F-5 is a safe choice for a regular monitoring solution, the TVLogic F-7H mk2 requires a bit more explanation.  You might be asking what is so special about this monitor and the answer is, its display brightness. This 7-inch monitor sports a whopping 3.6k nit max luminance. In our previous blog we talked about SmallHDs UltraBright series as being the king of bright monitors, well this one has just unseated the king and is beating it by more than 1/3 of extra nits. This device will allow you to see what is happening even in the most extreme lighting conditions, and the same as the previous one, this also comes with and without Anti-Glare film.

 

Conclusion

The NAB 2019 show has come and gone, but the impact of it will linger on. Whether it was the well-known industry giants or some fresh start-ups presenting their new tech and hoping for a breakthrough, the NAB 2019 was packed with awesome new and updated tech, so much so that if we wanted to talk about everything it would take hours of reading material, so for the sake of your time, we just went through some of the more noteworthy items from our perspective.