Las Vegas, NV – NAB Show, the world’s largest annual convention encompassing the convergence of media, entertainment and technology, wrapped up its third day of sessions today. A diverse array of leading industry professionals highlighted the latest advances in streaming, engineering and content creation. The 2017 NAB Show runs through Thursday, April 27.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) debuted the first-ever live 4K video stream from space during the Super Session “Reaching for the Stars: Connecting to the Future with NASA and Hollywood.” NASA astronaut and International Space Station (ISS) commander Dr. Peggy Whitson and NASA astronaut Jack Fischer conversed with Amazon Web Services Elemental CEO and Co-founder Sam Blackman live from the ISS and in 4K video. Following a conversation about the essential role video plays in facilitating the missions of NASA, the astronauts demonstrated experiments made possible in a zero-gravity environment.
Following the live stream, Carolyn Giardina, technology editor at “The Hollywood Reporter,” moderated a session featuring NASA astronaut Dr. Tracy Caldwell Dyson; NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager Rodney Grubbs; Bernadette McDaid, head of development, VR & AR, Bua Entertainment; Khawaja Shams, vice president of engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dr. Dave McQueeney, senior principal investigator, IBM Watson Group about the latest technological advancements in space exploration and the vital role that video and camera technology plays within it.
The morning featured a lineup of top industry innovators discussing the convergence of media, entertainment and technology in rapid-fire “M.E.T. Talks.” NAB Show’s first-ever M.E.T. Digital Evangelist, What’s Trending CEO Shira Lazar, hosted the discussions. The series of keynotes included Dan Bigman, publisher at Verse; Jeff Cuban, COO of Mark Cuban Entertainment Properties; and Mona Scott-Young, the executive producer of the “Love and Hip Hop” franchise.
NAB Engineering Achievement Awards were presented to individuals in broadcast engineering who have made notable contributions within their fields at the NAB Show Technology Luncheon. During the luncheon, awards were also distributed for NAB Technology Innovation and NAB Best Paper. This year’s Television Engineering Achievement Award was given to John Lyons, assistant VP and director of Broadcast Communications at The Durst Organization. The Radio Engineering Achievement Award was granted to John Kean, senior engineer of Cavell Mertz & Associates, while the Digital Leadership Award was presented to Graham Media Group’s VP of Digital Media Catherine Badalamente.
The Super Session “The Force Returns: ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’” shed light on how Lucasfilm executes visual effects, concepts, and stories, with Carolyn Giardina speaking with Hal Hickel, animation supervisor at ILM; John Knoll, chief creative officer/senior visual effects supervisor at ILM; and Matthew Wood, supervising sound editor, sound designer at Skywalker Sound. This panel centered on ILM and Skywalker Sound’s secret to innovation, sharing industry insights on virtual production, and how they master sound.
Select clips from today’s sessions can be viewed here and will be added on a continuous basis.
About NAB Show
NAB Show, held April 22-27, 2017 in Las Vegas, is the world's largest convention encompassing The M.E.T. Effect, the convergence of media, entertainment and technology. With 103,000 attendees from 166 countries and 1,700+ exhibitors, NAB Show is the ultimate marketplace for solutions that transcend traditional broadcasting and embrace content delivery to new screens in new ways. From creation to consumption, across multiple platforms and countless nationalities, NAB Show is where global visionaries convene to bring content to life in new and exciting ways. For complete details, visit www.nabshow.com.
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is the premier advocacy association
for America's broadcasters. NAB advances radio and television interests
in legislative, regulatory and public affairs. Through advocacy, education
and innovation, NAB enables broadcasters to best serve their communities,
strengthen their businesses and seize new opportunities in the digital
age. Learn more at www.nab.org.