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Subject: A Taste
of NAB 2003 Road Show
- By: Larry Bloomfield
- There are very few opportunities for
engineers to see, first-hand, what’s new and to have the chance keep
up with the latest “whatevers.” Not sending at least one engineer
to NAB is tantamount to stifling their technical education and preventing
the facility from keep abreast of what’s going on out there in the
wonderful world of not only television, but the transition to DTV.
How utterly stupid!
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We’ve decided to do the Road Show again, after NAB 2003. As you know
from last year and the website, we do this so that there is at lease
some of the new technology from NAB getting out to the grassroots engineers
that didn’t make it to the big one in the desert.
We ask companies with technology they'd
like to get out to the grassroots engineer to help us by underwriting
efforts such as these. Tech-Notes has no income and does not make any
money. It is a work of love – it always has been, so when we do things
like the Taste of NAB Road Show, we need all the help we can get –
both nationally and locally.
So far the response has been very good and
that's great! Anyone out there that
would like their technology delivered to thirty or more venues, let us
know so we can plan to include
you in our trip.
The
deciding factors were many. First, we got a lot of good support at the
more successful venues. I’d give us a seven-five percent or more. We
made mistakes and even canceled Orland, FL and Chicago. That would have
made it thirty-three venues, but it was not meant to be in those locations
last year. Who knows what will happen this year?
We
learned that the more successful venues were where we did the Road Show
in conjunction with the local SBE and/or SMPTE Chapter/Section and never
do a show on a Friday. If you’d like us to visit your area, work with
your Chapter and/or Section; let us know as we’re putting our schedule
together now.
We’ll leave our home/offices here in Florence, OR on April 22nd
and will travel south through California, then head east along the southern
part of the country. We’ll head up the east coast, after Florida, and
plan to be in New England sometime in early to mid June. We’ll then
begin heading for the west coast across the northern part of the country.
We’ll jog up-into or down-into the heartland venues from which ever
route is closest. We hope to finish off sometime in August.
It
is not always possible for us to hold the Road Show on the same days
you hold your local meetings, so we need your flexibility to be able
to keep the Road Show schedule. We have no problem holding the Road
Show in conjunction with any other local activities, so long as we can
expose the most engineers to the technology we’ll be bring with us.
Please keep in mind: this is an educational effort, not a sales shot.
We’ll be adding a new wrinkle to the Road Show: We’ll be meeting with
the SURVIVORS of the broadcast industry, our dear follow members of
the
Order
of the Iron Test Pattern, as we across the country. That, within
itself, should be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to it.
We’re starting to create the new pages for the website, but they won’t
be up for another week or two, so please contact us so we can include
you in this effort.
- Tech-Notes – Taste of NAB 2003 Road Show
- 1980 25th St.
- Florence, OR 97439-9717
- (541) 902-2424 Office
- (541) 503-217-0712 Fax
- As a member of both the Society of
Broadcast Engineers (SBE) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers (SMPTE) I have notified the SBE and SMPTE chapter and section
chairs of this educational opportunity and many have responded very
favorably. In some venues, A Taste of NAB will be their monthly program.
If you are not a member of one of these organizations, you are still
invited to attend. Membership applications will be available, should
you be interested.
-
- A Taste of NAB road show’s national
sponsorship is fairly well fixed. We will be bringing with us some
of the products and services of the folks listed on the Road Show's
main page.
-
- If you are an individual, you can
participate by attending. If you are a company, you can participate
on a local partnership basis. The national sponsors know that some
of the local partners may wish to show competing goods and services
or even show up to help support our sponsor's efforts. That’s they
way it was at NAB2002. In that spirit, you are invited to join with
me in making this educational opportunity a very big success and possibly
reaping some benefits as well.
-
- It makes little difference weather
your station, network or facility is a member of NAB or not, the experience
and potential for the interchange of ideas and technologies doesn’t
happen anywhere else on this scale and it’s a crying shame to miss
the opportunity. Not getting some exposure would be like taking the
bean-counter’s calculators away from them – now there’s an idea.
- Tech-Notes has put together this Taste
of NAB “road show” in an effort to afford those who couldn’t
make it to Las Vegas an opportunity to see and hear some of those
services and products that were there in their own backyard. The response
to this idea, to date, has been very positive. If the engineers
can’t make it to NAB, then the products and services at NAB should
go to them! Obviously we’ll not take the place of NAB, but we can
bring a part of it with us. Our van isn't that big, but something
is better than nothing. Our sponsors have promised that their local
reps will be present in many of the venues to assist in answering
questions. For those engineers who are able to make it to NAB this
year, the trip will serve to be reinforcement of what they saw.
- Why me and Tech-Notes? Many engineers
know me through Broadcast Engineering magazine over the past several
years, and through other writing efforts such as the Tech-Notes. This
will be a two way street: I'll also get the opportunity to meet and
speak with many of my peers, to hear their stories and share some
of NAB with them.
-
- Jim Mendrala will be keeping the home
fires burning and be with us in spirit, while Fred Lawrence and I
relish this opportunity to meet you all.
-
- Let's do it!
If you need more information, please
contact me: Larry@Tech-Notes.TV.
The trip starts on April 22nd. Not all venues are carved in stone,
as yet.
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- Larry Bloomfield, KA6UTC
1980 25th Street
Florence, OR 97439-9717
-
- (541) 902-2424 – Home/Office
(541) 999-1863 – Cell
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- Publisher: Tech-Notes
http://www.Tech-Notes.TV
A Taste of NAB Road Show host
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