Visitors to the Central Hall sometimes find navigation a little difficult. Between dodging Steadicam demos and watching the skies for swooping crane-mounted cameras or long boom arms sweeping the area, one could be forgiven for thinking he was on a movie set instead of at a trade show inside an enormous convention center.
Central Hall also has the vast majority of the camera makers. The “camera ghetto” might be the place to be if you’re in need of a camera — standard definition or the latest in HD or 3D. Panasonic has occupied the floor’s high ground for years, while Canon, Hitachi, Ikegami and JVC have their spreads nearby with highly-lit camera demo sets including all manner of brightly colored items, pretty people and, in one case, a “crashed” Mini Cooper that appears to have driven through a wall. Needless to say, these scenes gather quite a crowd.
Taking advantage of the camera crowd visiting the hall is SmallHD, a manufacturer of HD-quality camera-mounted monitors. Dale Backus, co-founder and CTO, said, “This is SmallHD’s first showing at the NAB Show and we have been amazed by the turnout. There’s amazing exposure and quality of people at this show. We will be back in years to come.”
For many NAB Show attendees, the Central Hall is their first exposure to the show because registration has been moved there this year. No longer located near the front of the convention center, registration sits midway down the hall to drive traffic to the exhibit space.
Hall occupants spoken to agreed that this year’s attendance seemed to be up overall. Josh Harper of remote audio equipment dealer Remote Audio added, “We at Remote Audio are seeing a good flow of international contacts.”
Rick Sawyer of 25-Seven Systems, a long-time veteran of NAB Shows, and a North Hall immigrant, was happy with his new location. “We are pleased to see a more upbeat NAB Show this year. It appears that the optimism corner has been turned. 25-Seven is enjoying continuing interest in time management products, and we view the NAB Show as an important launch vehicle for our newest products.”
The Central Hall also has a reputation for offering the most-exciting “sky views” of all the halls. Dirigibles, lit balloons, and giant rolls of cable populate the upper reaches, and that doesn’t even consider the vast number of company banners hanging from the rafters.
On the ground can be found race cars, several Mini Coopers, broadcast remote vehicles of many sizes, antennas, jibs, booms and dollies and a stunning array of lighting products.