With major NAB Show announcements driving foot traffic to such key companies as Autodesk and Adobe, as well as the want-to-see vibe running through the stereo imaging collective that makes up the 3D Pavilion, the South Lower Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center was humming Monday morning soon after the doors opened.
And exhibitors of all sizes were reaping the benefit, as “we’re all interconnected,” said Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing at Matrox. “We’re getting a lot of attention because of announcements from Avid, among other major companies, as their products integrate well with ours.”
One example of this synergy is the Matrox MXO2 Mini, an HD monitoring solution for Avid Media Composer.
Down the hall, this notion of “interconnectivity” was echoed by Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty: “Opening up the business is good for everyone; being proprietary and exclusive is not a recipe for success.”
Servicing a broad spectrum of users is also paying off, says Jared Picune, vice president of sales and marketing at CalDigit, who has seen sales of the company's two-drive RAID solutions take off in the last few months — increasing by 300 percent — while sales of major systems has maintained a steady flow.
“We’re also seeing far more sales in tapeless production,” said Picune, whose drives are being used increasingly in the field, including on such feature projects as “Jackass 3D” and programming for National Geographic.
The booth was busy at Bright Systems, which provides network file server media solutions to a diverse array of content-rich companies — from Cintel to Technicolor, and NASA to NASCAR — but Sales Manager Shawn Clark didn’t attribute this success to the number of general NAB Show attendees.
“We don’t get a lot of tire-kickers because we’re so specialized,” he explained. “The people who come to us already know what we can offer. It’s early in the game, but there’s a good feeling to the show so far.”
At Sonnet Technologies, internal synergy is helping to drive interest, as the company’s new Qio professional solid-state card dock and transfer station is boosting sales of its portable F2 RAID.
“The Qio and F2 have a complementary form factor and pair naturally for field production,” said CEO Robert L. Farnsworth. “So the new product is revitalizing the other.” The Qio, which reads both P2 and SxS cards, has also gained attention from both Panasonic and Sony, said Farnsworth, which suggests the flow of an “interconnected” industry moves both ways.
Located in the 3D Pavilion, Craig Jones, a product specialist at American Paper Optics, which makes a wide variety of inexpensive glasses for stereoscopic viewing, was impressed by the attention his booth was getting.
“You would not believe how much things have changed for our business in the last few years,” Jones said with a grin, pondering how his products provide the final link in the 3D content delivery chain. “And success for one is good for us all.”