The Digital Production Buzz wrapped up its 2010 NAB Show coverage over the weekend.

During the show, our team of almost 30 staff and volunteers interviewed more than 250 people, created 36 seven-minutes News Briefs, and more than nine hours of Special Reports!

You can listen to all our coverage at: www.nabshowbuzz.com.

Plus, we created a special NAB Wrap-up show for The Buzz this Thursday with a look at two new social media websites and a behind-the-scenes visit with the people that make NAB possible. Be sure to listen in.

As for me, I’m going to take a nap.

Larry

Just a very quick note – as it is now about 11:58 PM – that our podcast, the Digital Production Buzz is located on the trade show floor at the 2010 NAB Show as the official podcast. We are right next to the Post Pit – South Lower Hall, Booth 8826.

We’ve already created two shows – you can listen to them here: www.nabshowbuzz.com. (Well, OK, if you want to be technical, the second show is done as of ten minutes ago, and will be posted in the morning)

We have a team of almost 30 people – both staff and some GREAT volunteers – helping us put together a huge range of news and special reports. However, it’s too late at night for my brain to think clearly enough to blog about it. (By the way, while we are fully staffed for this year, we’d love to have your help next year!)

I’ll have all kinds of photos and gossip to post later in the week when I have time to breathe.

Starting tomorrow, Monday, at 9 AM, we are streaming and posting live five-minute News Briefs on the hour. Everything will be posted here — www.nabshowbuzz.com — as well as on iTunes and our website.

Our NAB coverage ends this Saturday – a WEEK of special shows and almost 40 News Briefs. Almost 14 hours of programming in five days, way more than 300 interviews. Then, I’m taking a nap. (Visit here to learn how you can put The Buzz on your website!)

By the way, thanks to the NAB for appointing the Digital Production Buzz the Official Podcast of the 2010 NAB Show. Thanks to our sponsors – Adobe Systems, Zeiss Lenses, Pond 5, Data Robotics, and Focal Press - for their financial support. And thanks to our incredible producer, Cirina Catania, and Associate Producer Debbie Price, for their tremendous efforts that make these shows possible.

More later, time to get back to work….

Larry

In less than 48 hours, the Digital Production Buzz will start broadcasting from the floor of the 2010 NAB Show. (Currently, I’m surrounded in boxes, cables, and packing crates as we get our gear packed up and loaded it. You wouldn’t think we’d need this much stuff!)

We will be originating eight one-hour Special Reports every night, starting Saturday and close to 40 five-minute News Briefs starting Monday.

(I’ll have more on our gear and booth setup on Saturday after we get everything assembled and hooked up.)

But there are a couple of pieces of new technology that we are working with that have me very excited.

First, our final signal path – out to the streaming server – is now fully digital using fiber-optic TOSlink cable. What I just learned is that every Mac has a built-in fiber-optic port (both in and out) on it – you plug in via the headset or microphone adapter.

This is very cool! So the audio out of our mixing console goes into an Aphex Compellor then out as an AES/EBU digital signal to a TOSlink converter from Hosa, then into the Mac. We are premiering the new sound on tonight’s show — then using it for all our NAB News Briefs.

Second, thru an arrangement with Vericorder, we are using their new iPhone app that turns an iPhone into a professional grade audio and video portable recording device. We split our reporters into two teams, half are using Marantz digital recorders, and the other half are working with iPhones. Getting the media into our network from the iPhone is a bit tricky and I’ll report more on that after we work out the system on Sunday.

Still, there’s nothing like working with new gear under live broadcast conditions to see if it lives up to its promise. I’ll have more for you later during NAB.

For all the latest NAB coverage, visit: www.nabshowbuzz.com.

To post the Digital Production Buzz to your website, visit: www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/syndicate.

To learn more about the Aphex Compeller, visit: www.aphex.com.

To learn more about Vericorder, visit: www.vericorder.com.

Thanks!

Larry

Earlier today, Data Robotics released the new Drobo FS. Drobo is a hard disk RAID family that I like a lot. Last week, I had a chance to talk with Mark Fuccio, Senior Director of Business Development for Data Robotics about the new unit.

First, some background. I’ve been reviewing Drobo systems since they first released a FireWire-attached device about a year and a half ago. In fact, the Drobo FS will be the fifth unit I’ve looked at from them.

* You can read my review of the initial
FireWire Drobo here.

* You can read my review of the Drobo Pro here.

* You can read my review of the Drobo S in the latest issue of my newsletter.

* And, I’m impressed enough with them that I asked Data Robotics to loan me a Drobo Elite to serve as the main storage system for all our NAB coverage which starts this Saturday. I’ll have a review of the unit in my next newsletter.

So, when Mark called to tell me about the Drobo FS, I was interested.

The reasons I like Drobo systems are that:

* They are expandable, without having to transfer all your data off the system first.
* They work with any number of differently sized drives, hard disk sizes don’t need to match.
* They provide full RAID 5 protection for your data, lose a disk and you don’t lose your data.

The reason I like what Mark told me about the Drobo FS is that it also:

* Attaches to your network via Ethernet
* Doesn’t require a server
* Is accessible to all the computers on that network
* Requires zero customization, plug it in and it’s done
* Has it’s own AppStore — called DroboApps — so you can customize what this does.

I’m hoping to get my hands on a review unit in May. In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about it. Click here for more information.

As always, let me know what you think.

Larry

For those of you listening to the Digital Production Buzz last week, you heard that our co-host, Michael Horton, was somewhat, ah, distressed that his laptop died.

In fact, it died about 30 minutes before the show started.

We did everything we could think of — including ideas suggested by listeners to the show — to bring it back to life. No success.

As is the way with these things, it had been a while since Michael backed up his hard disk. You can imagine the panic — all his work for the upcoming NAB SuperMeet was on that computer.

Fortunately, we learned over the next couple of days that the hard disk was fine, it was only the graphics card that died.

Still, this was a classic example of the need to regularly backup your data. A hard disk is cheap compared to the price of losing your irreplaceable data.

I’m looking to hearing a report from Mike on this week’s show about what fixed the problem.

In the meantime, please consider this a reminder to be SURE you are backing up your data regularly.

Larry