I was one of over 58,000 attendees at NAB 2026 this past week. As my 40th year attending, I have seen many technological and workflow changes.
The transition from standard definition videotape, to high definition tape formats. And the transition of video from file-based to IP based transports.
This week, I witnessed yet another change. AI technology and services were present in nearly 50% of all the vendors. Video over IP (SMPTE 2110) was also present in many products. In fact, Blackmagic Design is betting their company on ST-2110 with a slew of new products and adapters featuring that IP based technology.
Here are some of the products/services that stood out.
Cameras:
Sony’s HDC-5500R, 3500R and 3200R (the new R series) cameras that offer better color matching, IP and fiber transmission workflows. These are specifically for high-end live production situations.
Also, Sony’s new PXW-Z300 XDCam with built in AI and authenticity standards for newsgathering. One can go live directly with this camera. Just plug in internet in the included ethernet port and you are live!
Insta360 “Luna” dual-lens pocket camera features a dual-lens system, much like iPhones/Android phones, featuring optical zoom or multiple focal lengths. Leica color science for raw format.
DJI showed a new 360-degree camera – the Osmo 360 that will help creators. Also, a new Pocket 4 camera.
GoPro is back! After losing market share to other action cam makers, GoPro featured three new cameras. These are really cinema quality compact cameras featuring larger sensors, better low-light sensitivity, higher frame rates and AI based scene recognition.
Blackmagic Design showed a 12K full frame and 17k models. Blackmagic Design also showed a two lens immersive camera. I guess 3D cameras are back. These are specifically for Apple Vision Pro use.
There were many more new and established cameras on the floor but I focused on just the ones above.
SmallRig is not really a camera company, but provides rigs that support phones. Their rig offers professional mounting, audio integration and lens and accessory expansion.
Editing:
Editing software is no longer just editing software. It’s becoming an AI assistant, cloud collaboration hub and a full post-production pipeline.
Last year, the Avid and Adobe booths were tiny. This year, both came back full strength with large booths.
Avid lead the way with guest editors (in my opinion) showing how Avid helped them with collaborative editing and performance updates.
Adobe featured the addition of “Color Mode”, a direct shot at DaVinci Resolve. Adobe’s design is to keep color work inside the edit timeline. This is the first time Adobe is keeping the editing workflow from round-tripping to other apps in their ecosystem.
Adobe also showed that AI is now core, not optional. Firefly video editor gains new AI video models like Klin 3.0. AI assisted editing workflows in Adobe apps. Editing in After Effects! AI enhanced speech and automated cleanup tools. Frame.io drive mounts cloud storage like a local disk for a fully cloud-native post pipeline. Blackmagic tried this but it is not really working well – yet.
The biggest changes were found in DaVinci Resolve. Lots of AI tools were added or refined. AI face manipulation (aging, reshaping), AI object person search in footage, motion cleanup, sharpening and deblur tools. Resolve also added a new function tab – A photo page! RAW stills editing using the regular video color tools. A direct attack on Photoshop/Lightroom! Resolve comes in a free version and a paid version ($300 one time fee) and is hitting Adobe’s subscription base system.
Other cool stuff:
Belden – created angled patch panels that flare out in the back making it easy to address each patch. It also has a low depth so it would not make contact with a back wall.
Video link: Belden angled patch panels
Practical Magic and Innovation – back again from last year as an innovator of handheld smoke machines. Their new smoke fluid does not leave any residue on any surfaces it contacts. It also disburses within eight feet so it will not set off smoke alarms. Also new – the handheld smoke machines are now DMX addressable using a separate module that connects to the original smoke machine.
Video link: Handheld smoke machine
Summit Technology Laboratory – a really neat way to create immersive environments using their custom software. They can map video to any shape using any projector/camera. Really cool tech.
Video link: Projection mapping software
mtifilm.com was showing software (Cortex) that can detect and repair cosmic ray particles that strike large format sensors, leaving a dot within a pixel. It was amazing!
Video link: Radiation and detection
Thoughts about over the air broadcasting’s future:
I took an informal poll on how many years will OTA broadcasting be around?
– Broadcasters I talked to about 5-7 years depending upon NextGen TV mandated.
– Broadcast equipment companies, 5 years
– Random people 2-5 years
I spoke to people about the Nielsen issue and people just shook their heads