Audio at NAB Show NY, AES Show Reflects Industry Evolution

The two shows once again co-located at New York’s Javits Center

Last week’s co-located NAB Show New York and AES Show at Javits Center were robust and well-attended, on both sides of the hall. The National Association of Broadcasters provided “total preliminary registered” attendance numbers of 12,231, which were nearly 28% higher than last year’s 9,576 reported attendance, reflecting the broader trend of trade events post COVID.

UPDATE 11/7/23: The final numbers from AES NY 2023 are: Over 8,100 attendees and 127 exhibitors. That’s up from the “close to 7,000” stated in 2022.

The NAB side of the partitioned event had “nearly” 270 exhibitors (versus last year’s 245), of which 60 were first-timers. There were also more than 225 presentations and panel sessions hosting nearly 300 speakers. AES numbers were not available at press time; we’ll update shortly.

Spending on Pro Audio

To get a sense of the state of pro audio for broadcast, Dale Pro Audio is always a good place to start. Technology Development Manager Joel Guilbert notes two important points: broadcaster budgets seemed to open up last January, and spending on gear and goods has been healthy and, just as important, doesn’t seem to have been impeded by the dual strike actions of the WGA and SAG/AFTRA. In fact, if there was a problem, it’s that there’s so much audio gear to choose from and, he says, “95% of it is great.

Preregistrations for NAB Show New York at Javits Center were 28% higher than last years’ reported attendance.

“The quality of almost all pro-audio products and technology today is as good as or better than just the high-end products of 20 years ago,” he continues. That’s a byproduct of digital’s ability to do everything and more that analog technology could and at far lower average costs, thanks to the replacement of hardware boxes by software such as plugins. “There’s more engineering involved, but everything sounds very, very good.”

In fact, managing all those plugins has become its own product category. That was manifest in the transform.engine (previously known as codename “Project Core”) from Fourier Audio, which was recently acquired by console maker DiGiCo (which is owned by Audiotonix, which also owns broadcast-console maker Calrec). transform.engine is a Dante-connected server designed to run all VST3-native software plugins in broadcast and live-event applications. Connected simply via standard Ethernet cable, it’s designed as a turnkey solution for plugin hosting, reducing the need for complex setups.

Aside from its somewhat complex family tree, Fourier’s transform.engine reflects another ongoing trend in broadcast audio: the kind of processing usually used in music production is increasingly integrated into television sound. It’s a trend already seen in some types of high-end microphones going into the field.

All Business

Price sensitivity without loss of performance was a theme throughout the show. Riedel emphasized just that — with some nominal panache — via its PunQtum subsidiary, which Riedel Communications Senior Marketing Manager, Americas, Sara Kudrle describes as “digital PL at an analog price.” It’s part of an overall strategy to make technologies scalable, as broadcast sports move deeper into price-sensitive markets, such as collegiate and academic, and into new sports trying to gain traction with fans. PunQtum, she says, fits with the larger strategy behind last year’s acquisition of multi-camera live-production specialist Simplylive.

Over on the NAB NY side of the show, Steve Cole, audio product manager, TSL, highlighted his company’s award-winning MPA1-MIX-NET-V-R monitoring system, which incorporates native ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP, with ST 2022-7 supporting fully redundant networking connectivity. “Our best-selling MPA1 product range is a hit with customers, empowering broadcasters to deliver top-tier production experiences, whether it’s a live mobile [production from a] sports venue, a studio production, or a playout facility.”

Sonic quality, once the hallmark of the upper echelons of pro-audio equipment, has been steadily migrating into less costly products and systems in recent decades. Lawo’s crystal radio mixer, on prominent display at its booth, is an example: a “cost-effective entry” into Lawo’s more complex and costly mixing environments. Lawo Project Manager Andreas Hilmer notes that crystal, which can be used as a standalone unit or an extension device, offers the same audio quality and many of the same features as the company’s diamond modular broadcast console, including RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity.

Speaking of consoles, Studer’s Vista broadcast consoles continue to gain traction as new parent Evertz puts its support behind them. Studer Project Manager Paul Shorter notes that new software is in the pipeline for next year, in time for NAB 2024.

Also on the business side, Audio-Technica’s Gary Dixon is heading the new broadcast division, which will combine both technology and sales initiatives. It’s intended, says Dixon, a sales engineer who earlier this year was made director, broadcast business development, to promote such products as the recently developed BP3600 eight-channel microphone, designed to be a single-source capture device for immersive audio, to such sports as MotoGP, where it has been used to considerable effect this year.

Storage Issues

There has been some etymological kerfuffle lately around the use of the term content to describe the art and craft of media, including sports media. But Iron Mountain Entertainment Services (IMES) is focusing on keeping whatever one wants to call it readily accessible for future generations. Kelly Pribble, director, media recovery technology, IMES, cites two of recently discovered techno-pathologies decimating storage media: how the emulsions used to bind magnetic recording-tape formulations to their Mylar backing have been squeezed in storage over decades, extruding a viscous film that can cover the edges of the coiled tape and render it unusable; and so-called “CD rot,” an even newer but just as inevitable deterioration over time of optical discs, regardless of how well they’re stored.

“We can go to a museum and read a 500-year-old Bible but not be able to retrieve the data from a 50-year-old tape or a 20-year-old DVD,” he warns, adding that hard drives used for storage are also deteriorating and losing their digital content. “We’re developing new processes to counteract this, which is an especially challenging problem for sports broadcasters at a time when that content is becoming more valuable than ever.”

Shure — which showcased a new take on its long-running SM7B, the updated SM7dB featuring a new integrated preamp technology — also hinted that there might be some new sports applications for its MXA710 linear-array microphone. The unit was developed for corporate conferencing and higher-education markets, but Dave Grundtvig, senior audio supervisor, remote operations, Warner Brothers Discovery, turned it into a new capture device for several sports, most notably NBA games.

There’s always a meta aspect to trade shows, and this one was no exception. Clear-Com highlighted the U.S. debut of the latest update to its Arcadia Central Station, which features IP interface connectivity and a capacity increase of up to 285 connections, including up to 64 FreeSpeak beltpacks. Commenting on the event space itself, Craig Fredrickson, senior product manager, Clear-Com, notes that this year’s co-located expos were in separate (though connected) spaces, which served to demarcate and, to some extent, isolate them from each other, a change from the previous year when the organizations shared the same hall.

“There wasn’t any partition between NAB and AES last year,” Fredrickson recalled, from Clear-Com’s booth on the NAB side. “We have a soft spot for AES; we have audio in our genes, I guess.”

The 2024 NAB Show New York will be held Oct. 8-10, 2024 (exhibits Oct. 9-10) at the Javits Center. The AES Show is tentatively planned for the same venue, same dates.