Audio-Technica, fresh from mic’ing the 50th Grammy Awards, will have their new AT2020 USB that plugs right into your computer’s USB port, and functions seamlessly with your favorite recording software. Equipped with a USB digital output, the AT2020 USB is perfect for home studio recording, field recording, podcasting, and voiceover use.

Marantz Professional will be displaying their renowned PMD and CDR series of digital recorders in portable configurations as well as flexible rackmount solid-state recorders for the broadcast, education, government and professional audio markets such as the PMD580, a single RU digital recorder that adds advanced network control and automatic archiving to the capabilities of this line.
The V-Mixing System from RSS by Roland consists of a digital snake up to 48 inputs, a 48 channel digital mixing console, and splits for recording to software or internal stereo .wav recording to USB flash drives. The V-Mixing system delivers superior sound quality, is easy to use and learn, and offers all the digital benefits like instant recall, digital effects, and remote controllability.

Perhaps the ultimate expression of the quest for a CRT replacement, at least according to pre-show buzz, will be the DPX class of LCD monitors from eCinema Systems because they are using not just white LEDs for backlight, but the full spectrum of RGB diodes for truly impressive color accuracy. Combined with their Dark Pixel Technology (that’s what DPX stands for) eCinema claims an awesome 15,000 to 1 contrast ratio and nearly twice the effective resolution of a CRT.

Keep Sony in mind as well, as the company is expanding its BVM-L Series of LCD master monitors with the new BVM-L420, a 42” display that builds upon the innovative design of its predecessor, the BVM-L230 based on Sony’s TRIMASTER technology. Sony is also highlighting its line of less expensive LUMA Professional LCD monitors and the 17-inch version (model LMD-1750W), ideal for rack-mount, desktop, and portable applications.

Panasonic is also in the race with their new 17” BT-LH1760 widescreen LCD monitor that refreshes at a speedy 120Hz (twice the usual standard) for smear and ghost-free viewing. Indies will love the fact it comes with built-in Vectorscope and Waveform monitors and even pixel-to-pixel matching, which allows the user to see an input signal pixel by pixel without any resizing.

In rack-mounted designs, Marshall Electronics will have their new In-Monitor Display (IMD) series, specifically the fully featured triple 6.5” V-R653-IMD-TE, dual 10.4” V-R1042-IMD-TE4U, and 20” V-R201-IMD-TE Truck Edition LCD monitors. In addition, Marshall’s SunBright category expands with the new single 8.4” V-LCD84SB-AFHD monitor. Other new models include the 9” V-R901DP-AFHD and dual 9” V-R902DP-AFHD, along with the larger-sized 26” V-R261P-AFHD and 32” V-R321P-AFHD models.

It all comes together in postproduction, of course, and with the absence of Avid and Apple, NAB2008 is going to be an arena where many other NLEs are going to shine.

By the way, if you are curious, the reasons given by these giants for skipping the affair are as obtuse as a politician bowing out of a campaign saying he “wants to spend more time with my family.” Each has said they are going to concentrate more on one-to-one customer service. But stock analysts can point to Avid’s declining value on NASDAQ, and anyone can point to Apple’s incredible success with iPods and iPhones. It is somewhat curious that they didn’t want to use NAB2008 to show off the awesome potential of Apple TV, but ask me if “iCare”. They’ll probably still have hospitality suites at Vegas hotels near the convention center, and the hors d’ouvres are better there anyway.  

Give credit to Thomson Grass Valley for giving their EDIUS Broadcast 4.6 system the ability to cut AVCHD in its native format. EDIUS now boasts the JPEG 2000 codec used in the Thomson Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorder (DMC), allowing multi-layer editing of EFP-quality high definition content even on a laptop computer.