The 2016 National Association of Broadcasters Show (2016 NAB Show) started today, bringing the world's top photography and broadcasting equipment manufacturers together in a single exhibit. Although the exhibition is mainly for professional filmmakers and broadcasting companies, in recent years more consumer and prosumer equipment has been featured at the fair. DJI, Sony, Canon and many other manufacturers have participated in the NAB Show to release some of their most innovative products. Let me show you what was on display at this year’s NAB!

NAB takes place at the Las Vegas Convention and Exhibition Centre. We arrived early in the morning, with people already waiting outside.

Las Vegas Convention Center

People gathering around at beginning of the exhibition. We saw several people carrying DJI bags by the entrance. In recent years, the drones that DJI popularized have become one of the highlights of the exhibition. We are expecting to see a new professional aerial platform from DJI today.



Immediately inside the main hall is the media room, with live interviews for visitors to see.

GoPro, Livestream and DJI had the best locations in the main hall. Tech companies are getting more attention today, as the broadcasting industry is adopting new technologies including mobile devices, aerial platforms and smaller gimbals.

The DJI booth is crowded! The booth has been designed to look like a huge quadcopter, and an Inspire 1 hangs from the roof. Inside the flight demonstration area, pilots are demonstrating the latest flagship product, the DJI Phantom 4.

Indeed, here is the new DJI drone: the integrated aerial platform Matrice 600. Until now, most professional drones have only provided frames and propulsion systems, and required the users you to buy the other components themselves to build the system. And, many gimbals have only supported a narrow range of cameras. The M600 comes with the latest A3 flight controlled integrated and the Lightbridge 2 video downlink, which gives the system DJI GO app support. This makes assembly and setup much, much easier. A maximum payload of 6 kg allows it to fly the Ronin-MX gimbal and a range of cameras from Micro Four Thirds cameras to the RED Epic.

The DJI M600 won NAB 2016 best drone award by Video Maker。

The DJI booth got crowded with people are asking about the M600, A3 flight controller and Ronin-MX.

We finally got to the flight demonstration area. See, there’s 3 drones flying at the same time!

  One Inspire 1 Pro and two Phantom 4 can be flown in the same, tight space because their maneuvering precision and hovering performance is very stable. Most drones aren’t able to fly inside as they rely on GPS for positioning, but as the Inspire 1 and Phantoms are equipped with Vision Positioning modules, they can be flown without GPS.

Finally, we get to see the Phantom 4 in the flesh! The polished, streamlines design of the new Phantom coupled with the integrated gimbal placement gives it a futuristic look. The pair of forward facing optical sensors means that the Phantom 4 is the first and the only consumer drone to have reliable obstacle avoidance. Though the camera of the new Phantom gained incremental upgrade only, the 20m/s maximum speed plus the Obstacle Avoidance feature and the ActiveTrack technology make the new Phantom much easier to use.

Just as drones are replacing manned aircraft in the field of aerial photography/videography, handheld gimbals have gained popularity among filmmakers for capturing motion shots. The videographer in the picture is trying out the DJI Ronin with a RED camera and a number of accessories mounted, including the support bar, to capture stabilized footage. With similar equipment on set, film makers will be able to shoot one-take footage without worrying too much about shakes and blurry footage.

This is the new Z-axis accessory for the Osmo. With this new accessory, the Osmo is capable of compensating for vertical movements while on the move. For the prosumer market, the Osmo can significantly enhance the quality of footage captured while minimizing production cost thanks to its compact and mobile design.

Lunch time! Lobster roll from Las Vegas! Yummy!

Show booth of Hitachi, JVC, and other well-known brands.

This is a modified Nissan vehicle built for professional broadcasting. It can broadcast via satellite, radio, 3G, 4G and LTE and provide an HD live video feed to studios.

Jody Eldred introducing a newly released camera from Sony.

At Sony’s booth there’s a new device designed especially for taking selfies and sharing them on social media, for which it generates a GIF animation. It has a light ring which brightens your skin and saves your time on Photoshop.

This is a broadcasting control panel. With this device you can control dozens of video channels at the same time. In the future, the limitation may not lie in the devices used, but the in director’s ability to multitask.

Atomos has a new 4K monitor called SHOTGUN INFERNO, and a lucky draw that attracts numerous people. The monitor supports 4K RAW in 10 bit, with a display resolution of 240fps.

This Canon underwater camera is a must for your scuba diving. GoPro no longer cuts it when compared to this camera. However, this is a heavy camera for professional filmmaking. It requires strong diving skills from the videographer.

The Canon booth at NAB 2016 has a strong tropical feeling and looks great. There’s a DJI Matrice 600 in this booth and also one in Sony’s. Seems everybody is into aerial imaging these days.

This is the Canon stage showing cameras targeted at broadcasting companies. This booth is comparatively less popular though. Because of online video, traditional broadcasting companies make up a smaller market today than previously. Increasingly, YouTubers and shows from Netflix are capturing the audiences’ attention. In the broadcasting industry, things are becoming a lot like the computer industry, where smaller devices are slowly taking the lead and dominating the market.

Canon is presenting a new color-grading system.

And that’s it for the first day!

Nice presentation,  thanks.

Thank you!

Thanks for your sharing. The atmosphere was very good!