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COW Articles: NAB Apple Bows Out of NAB 2008
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[Michael Belanger] “I guess the folks at Adobe will have to fill in the gap… assuming of course they show up this year.”
So far, Adobe has no plans (that I know of, anyway) to forgo NAB 2008. But they will have a smaller booth than they had last year, which as many of you know, was markedly smaller than the year before.
Walter Biscardi pointed out an article to me over at MSNBC.com stating that the Consumer Electronics Show is looking for a new home. Seems that they have had enough of Vegas and the endless price hikes.
The article states that “Some hotels charge more than five times what they normally charge during the four-day event, organizers said. They also require [during CES that] rooms be booked in three- or four-night blocks and add food and beverage guarantees on top.
Glenda Brungardt, trade show and event manager for HP Imaging & Printing Marketing, told the Las Vegas Sun that the company had cut 12 percent to 15 percent of its show personnel because of rising costs. Hotel costs, she said, are the top complaint.”
It’s not just NAB that is in trouble, although they exacerbate their own precarious situation by adding to the burden with their own NAB-side price hikes. The whole trade show industry is in trouble and when companies like Sony bow out of Comdex, while Avid and Apple bow out of NAB — the message is clear and the handwriting’s on the wall. Unfortunately, NAB can’t seem to read and so they add their increases, secure in the feeling that they are the top dog in the field and can do what they want.
But I remember when DV Expo grew over the years to take almost every inch of the Los Angeles Convention Center and were in the two main hall complexes — both upstairs and downstairs — as well as the classrooms in the upper and lower walkways between the two huge halls. They have been shrinking over the years, and this year they occupied just a partitioned off subset of one floor of one hall. A small subset, at that. Last year I went and it was so small that I couldn’t find it and had to ask security where it was as it was in a corner of the building and there wasn’t even any signage to find the place anymore — until you found the actual event. What a change.
There was a time when DV Expo was an important show and one that most companies went to. That day appears long past.
The same has been happening to SIGGRAPH. It continues to shrink and wane in prestige, scope and reach.
NAB may be the biggest but they are far from being unassailable in their ivory tower where they plan the year’s price increases.
Companies are not willing to continue to write bigger and bigger checks to reach fewer and fewer people, especially if the percentage of those who are hobbyists continues to grow with each year — which has indeed been the case with NAB.
So, even shows like CES have to consider change to save themselves. This, as their market — both on the vendor and consumer side — complain about price increases and express their unwillingness to keep shoveling money into the exhibit producer’s trough.
Thanks, Walter, for the head’s up on the CES story. I hadn’t seen that one yet.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlindeboom
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
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[Ron Lindeboom] “Thanks, Walter, for the head’s up on the CES story. I hadn’t seen that one yet.”
My pleasure. That article really opens up the eyes to the corporate side of things. I guess Apple and Avid can’t directly insult NAB by saying “they’re gouging us” so they have to say things like “we’re redirecting our money to other efforts.”
I’m going to NAB this year, but really only because I want to see some of the folks I chat with all year long and we’re going to treat it like a mid-season break. But this just might be my final year going out there as our production schedule gets crazier and crazier with each passing year. We’re giving up a lot of money to head out there, but for this year, it’ll be good as we need to research some new mini-HD cameras and that’s still a good place to see those.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
[walter biscardi] “I guess Apple and Avid can’t directly insult NAB by saying “they’re gouging us” so they have to say things like “we’re redirecting our money to other efforts.””
Yes, I guess it takes a fool like me to say things like that.
One of these days when I grow up, I’ll learn to keep my big mouth shut.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlindeboom
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
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Now in the COW Magazine: Commercials. A look at the history, strategy, techniques and production workflows of successful commercials. All brought to you by some of the COW’s brightest members. Accept no substitutes!Would you like to be in Creative COW Magazine with your story or contribution? Contact me.
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[Ron Lindeboom] “One of these days when I grow up, I’ll learn to keep my big mouth shut.”
No offense, but that ain’t never gonna happen! 🙂
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
Many years ago, I couldn’t leave for school until Clutch Cargo was over. It make me about 5 minutes late for school and it started a tradition that extends into today, five minutes late.
thanks for the memory, Ron.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1. -
So any, Wargo says: it started a tradition that extends into today…
MY Clutch Cargo tradition is that I’m barely animated except for my mouth.
Tim Wilson, Creative Cow
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[Tim Wilson] “MY Clutch Cargo tradition is that I’m barely animated except for my mouth. “
At the time, we all thought that effect was the most incredible thing. And now, we do it daily without even thinking about it.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1. -
[walter biscardi] “I just really took offense to Tim lumping all folks on the Show Floor as not knowing what they are talking about and not being able to get any useful information on the show floor. Especially when I work alongside other Cow leaders like Shane Ross, Jerry Hofmann to name a few.”
My point precisely. The only people who provide reliable, real-world information at trade shows are people like the folks you mention, Tim Kolb, and a multitude of others…
…none of whom work full time for vendors, and all of whom are available in the Cow.
To refine my target…without otherwise backing down one whit… corporate reps, including the smart and well-intentioned (which is almost all of them, btw), are not qualified to talk about the real world.
To get that, people need to talk to YOU.
Vendors know this. That’s why they invite you to speak on their behalf. YOU know how products work in the real world because you live there, and they don’t.
Which is why contact here in the Cow is more valuable than a trade show for finding how things really work.
You mentioned in another post, Walter, that people can get bad information from the Cow every bit as easily from a trade show, but I don’t exactly agree.
The benefit of the Cow is that it’s self-correcting. Bad advice is never the last word. Not when you guys are on the thread anyway.
The people here aren’t getting PAID BY anyone to say nice things about their own stuff. Cows have PAID FOR their stuff, often risking their businesses on their choices.
Or in my case, my business AND my house. I bought my first pro editing set-up by taking out TWO mortgages, because the editing gear cost MORE than my house.(This was the early 90s, so the numbers for either wouldn’t be nearly the same today.)
And I gambled the roof over my family’s head without going to a single video trade show. I asked the people I trusted in the Cow’s ancestral forum. After years online, it was easy to see who knew what they were talking about. I ignored everyone else. No way I was going to get that kind of reliability at a show, where I had no idea who to trust and who to ignore.
Which is why vendors have people like you, Shane, Jerry, Tim and others in their booths. No company, not even The Big Three, have as much credibility as you guys. Small companies may have NO credibility besides you guys.
My advice to anyone is to save time and money by going direct. Eliminate the middle man. Skip shows and get the information you need to protect your business at Cow.
The first thing you should do with the money you save is buy something nice for your Most Significant Other. Then take the rest of it, plus the time you’ve saved, and have a VACATION.
Note that this, like all but one of my posts on this thread, is my own opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of anyone anywhere.
I’m RIGHT, I’m just not speaking officially. 🙂
Yr pal,
Timmy -
[Tim Wilson] “My point precisely. The only people who provide reliable, real-world information at trade shows are people like the folks you mention, Tim Kolb, and a multitude of others…
…none of whom work full time for vendors, and all of whom are available in the Cow.”
This makes no sense. Here’s your statement:
I’ll go further (again) and say that tradeshows are the least reliable ways to find out if a product will work for YOU in the real world, because the people in the booth are the least qualified to tell you anything about how it works in the real world.
You do not make any differentiations between anybody. “Because the people in the booth are the least qualified to tell you anything about how it works in the real world.”
You can’t change your statement now and try to re-qualify it. You were clearly saying that anyone who works in the booth is not qualified which includes Shane Ross, Jerry Hofmann, myself and quite a few others.
Please don’t try to say “oh this is what I really meant” because you found out you offended me and some others who put a lot of effort and time in meeting folks at NAB and sharing what knowledge we have.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
[Michael Belanger] “Apple has made a huge impact on the “NAB feel”
Yeah Michael, the crowd at NAB has changed the feel of NAB. It used to be that the attendees were people who were technical in nature and were investigating the latest in gear for television production and broadcast.
With Apple coming in, the new crowd wants everything for nothing. The bulk of the Apple crowd are the ones who are asking where they can get a discount on $7 DV tapes or they’re looking for a great tripod for under $200. This “cheapness” is very irritating. They crawl all over the B&H booth like ants. Having been majorly screwed by B&H, I will never spend a dime with them. They are some of the rudest, nastiest people in the business and anyone who does business with them just to save a buck has no …! I’ll stop there. We buy everything from local vendors. We get face to face service and if I buy something that doesn’t live up to it’s promises, my vendors take it back with no problems. Try getting a refund from B&H without being called an idiot. Been there and ain’t going back. (Sorry about the B&H rant but all they care about is the money. They do not give a rat’s a– about you, the customer)
Those of us who have been around and have paid $40,000 for an edit system that had actual real time effects ten years ago (as in Discreet *Edit) have paid our dues and we expect a certain level of professionalism. When I had questions at the Apple booth, I got my answers from young people who were qualified to operate the software but knew nothing about our business. “A long time ago” to them means 8 or possibly 10 months ago. Ever see anybody over 30 at the Apple booth? Yuk! When I could, I attended the Apple event on Sunday and that was good but the room was filled with people who would cheer if someone on stage said that the sun would rise the following morning. If Apple really wanted to announce something, I would like to hear that they’ve fixed their media management failures and that files related to my current project would go where they’re supposed to instead of landing where ever they want. Or, that the properties of a project stay with the project. Till then, the product is garbage. The fact that you can’t operate the system without a mouse is absurd. And we own five of them.
As for the RED booth this year, I think they’ve lost a lot of their overly vocal fans. RED is a very technical piece of gear that is over the heads of a lot of the people who were standing in line last year. The buzz is gone. Very few people are standing on the corner screaming “Red Rules”. I’m not saying one negative word about the product, just the fanboys. I personally know three people who admit to have have turned in their numbers and gotten their refund. Reality has set in. A lot of owners who thought that the world was going to beat a path to their door when they bought a Red have discovered that the world beats a path to the “person” not the “gear”. They know all of the specs that they’ve read in a magazine but they don’t know the difference between a “trucking” shot and a “dolly” shot. And, they think a “gearhead” is someone who is into cars.
The views and opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone and are the result of 25 years in this business and almost 40 years of being in business in general.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1.
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