As the global technology landscape continues to evolve, the 2024 NAB Show is set to be a hub of innovation and inspiration for industry professionals worldwide.

Held annually in Las Vegas, this year’s event will showcase an impressive array of cutting-edge trends and products poised to reshape the future of broadcasting, media, and entertainment.

From the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and content creation to the advent of immersive storytelling experiences, the 2024 NAB Show will serve as a dynamic platform where industry leaders, visionaries, and enthusiasts gather together to explore, engage, and embrace the transformative power of technology.

“We’re thrilled to bring together trailblazers at NAB Show for a dynamic exchange of ideas,” said Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director, NAB Global Connections and Events. “Attendees will gain exclusive access to groundbreaking insights from the industry’s brightest minds, leaving them inspired to push the boundaries of what’s possible. This is where the future of media is imagined.”

NAB Show 2024 Trends

Being a broadcast show, of course virtual production is at the top of the list of trends for the 2024 NAB Show.

“We expect to see an influx of virtual production products and solutions on display at NAB Show this year—including at the Canon booth! The growing use of virtual production tech in a variety of use cases, from cinema, broadcast, commercial, and more, will make it a focal point for many exhibitors and attendees at the show this year,” said Peter Marr, education, field, and sales support manager, Canon.

“As these new technologies become more commonplace and the true benefits are realized, there becomes a stronger need for products and solutions that implement the innovations and I expect to see those on display throughout the show. Virtual production will be shown for broadcast and production applications including cinematic 24p as well as multi-camera switching in 60p to demonstrate its versatility and marry the realism of capturing on location with the flexibility of virtual sets,” added Theresa Alesso, president, Imaging Products and Solutions Americas, Sony Electronics. “As virtual production matures, the workflows have become more integrated and seamless.”

In addition, Alesso believes there will be a great focus on AI at the show. “AI will be highlighted in cameras to support auto framing, tracking and advanced recognition that provides intuitive, high-quality output, with less initial input. It will also be shown as a smart way to automate processes, enrich content and save time.”

Visitors to the 2024 NAB Show should expect to see AI used in a variety of ways on the tradeshow floor and in the industry. “AI continues to revolutionize content creation, enabling broadcasters to automate tasks such as video editing, metadata tagging, and even generating personalized content tailored to individual viewers’ preferences,” said Grigory Mindlin, GM of Broadcast at Disguise. “Advanced AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to predict trends and audience behavior, assisting broadcasters in creating more engaging and targeted content.”

There are a wide variety of sessions on how AI is impacting the industry—from generative content to deep fakes to cybersecurity—going on during the 2024 show. “NAB Show is the perfect forum for discussion and debate about AI—with the best and brightest in the business,” said Brown. “The 2024 NAB Show offers attendees a front-row seat to explore the transformative power of AI on our industry. With more than 120 sessions featuring AI, each attendee will find topics relevant to their work.”

In fact, an autonomously AI-powered humanoid robot is set to join Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig to deliver an unprecedented study on audience perspectives on AI’s use in broadcast media during the show’s opening sessions. “There’s a reason why I chose a humanoid to join me in presenting this coveted NAB Keynote,” said Anstandig. “We’re not just presenting data, we’re showcasing the future of AI and human interaction.”

One last trends attendees should expect to see at the show is flexibility. “At NAB Show 2024, we expect to see a greater emphasis on flexibility across broadcast technologies,” said Steve Milley, director of the Professional Audio Visual Business at Panasonic Connect North America. “Each year, companies place a big focus on elevating their tools with the latest software and capabilities to meet customer needs and expectations. Whether it’s streamed to a phone, watched on a 4K HDR TV, splashed across a giant LED wall or all three, creators are tasked with creating content packages that reach audiences wherever they are—and they have to do it without expanding their production teams. Flexible, interoperable tools that work in coordination to simplify video capture and production without the constraint of geographic boundaries are key to allowing AV teams to produce attention-grabbing content.”

NAB Show 2024 Product Preview

With the large volume of exhibitors, it can be overwhelming to decide which booths to visit. The LAVNCH [CODE] team spoke with a variety of exhibitors and here are some products we think you’ll want to see on the show floor.

Brainstorm Suite 6 (Booth SL4097)

Brainstorm Suite 6 adds a number of features that improve the possibilities of content creation by facilitating the creation of high-quality virtual content while enhancing the user’s storytelling capabilities.

Featuring a deep integration with Unreal Engine 5.3, InfinitySet seamlessly control UE5 from its own interface, improving the user’s ability to manage, edit, and control UE blueprints, objects, and properties, and making the combination of the Unreal Engine render with Brainstorm’s own eStudio render engine fully transparent so that the user can effectively decide which objects or parts of the scene should be rendered in which engine. This is further improved with the enhanced Unreal Compositor that simplifies the integration of real video feeds (such as keyed characters) within an Unreal Engine scene. Compositor blends the Unreal Engine features with Brainstorm’s TrackFree capabilities, multiplying the possibilities of each engine.

Canon CJ27e×7.3B (Booth C3825)

The CJ27e×7.3B is a new broadcast lens that will help camera operators capture beautiful content. It is Canon’s first 2/3” portable lens with a class leading 27x optical zoom (among portable lenses for 2/3-inch 4K cameras with ENG-style design), which further expands and strengthens its broadcast lens lineup. The new lens is classified as a UHDxs lens, Canon’s highest image quality rating for broadcast optics. The lens spans a focal range of 7.3mm to 197mm. With a built-in 2x extender, the lens’ maximum telephoto reach increases to 394mm.

The CJ27e×7.3B lens is designed to be portable, with the mobility of a conventional ENG (electronic news gathering) lens. The 27x zoom ratio, typically only available in 2/3” box lenses, is now offered in a portable lens with the introduction of the CJ27e×7.3B.

Disguise Porta (ROE Visual Booth C4535)

Porta simplifies the integration of extended reality (XR) elements into broadcasting workflows, making it easier for professionals to incorporate immersive experiences into their productions without requiring extensive technical expertise. The latest Porta broadcast graphics controller release has been upgraded for Unreal Engine 5.4.

Sony VERONA Crystal LED (Booth C8201)

As virtual production comes to the forefront, Sony is showcasing VERONA Crystal LED displays at NAB Show. The VERONA series brings quality and efficiency to in-camera VFX applications, making them ideally suited to demanding virtual production applications. The modular video walls deliver breathtaking images with truly impressive brightness and clarity, according to the company. Key to the displays are a new Deep Black and Anti-Reflection Surface Technology and an easy-installation 1:1 cabinet design. VERONA achieves a high brightness of 1,500 cd/m2 and a wide color gamut to increase realism. Both new models, the ZRD-VP15EB/23EB and ZRD-VP15EM/23EM, are available in a P1.56mm and P2.31mm pixel pitch and enable a high refresh rate of up to 7,680Hz.

TVU MediaHub (Booth W2101)

TVU Media Lab is a hub for research and development that company claims “has been vital in advancing media technology.” Over the past 19 years, TVU says it has driven numerous breakthroughs, such as the introduction of MediaMind in February 2018. This solution combines speech recognition and facial recognition, leveraging AI to automatically create metadata and to enable content with self-awareness, simplifying production workflows.

Veritone Ask Veri (Booth W1642)

Ask Veri is a new conversational intelligence solution that empowers Veritone Digital Media Hub (DMH) users to quickly extract actionable insights and execute dynamic workflows from their media archive data through a generative AI-enabled, chat-based tool. Ask Veri is an integrated solution on Veritone’s aiWARE platform, and soon will be available across the majority of Veritone’s commercial and public sector applications.

NAB Show 2024 Starts This Weekend!

The 2024 NAB Show begins this Sunday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Click here to learn more or to register for the show.

Click here to stay up-to-date with the latest show news and visit our NAB Show 2024 hub.