NABster Pt. 2
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Day one of my trip to NAB is in the bag. Those of you that follow my Twitter stream saw the highlights. Pretty much the same shit as last year, for the most part, and the show is somewhat smaller, as well.
Last year, the catch-phrase was “streamlining your digital workflow.” I could’t walk 10 feet without hearing some permutation of that phrase. This year, the word is “cloud.” Everybody and their second cousin’s babysitter has some sort of “cloud” solution. Even companies that were already fairly cloudy to begin with (e.g. AT&T) had all kinds of cloud motifs around their booths. I got a demo of AT&T’s media caching/clouding/whatever service, and actually left the booth with less understanding of the service they offer than when I went in to it, taking in to account that I’d never heard of it when I went in to it, so my understanding baseline of their “cloud” media service was zero.
The Microsoft Cloud stuff felt kind of pained. That sort of shit just isn’t their style, and there was mute embarrassment all around. I’d like to get all the guys from the New Cloudy Companies together and give them a crib sheet. They could say “it’s like Amazon S3 only we charge more,” or they could say “it’s like Amazon S3 only we charge less.” It would really save everyone a lot of time and energy all around. YOUR SHIT, OUR SERVER FARM. LET’S GET IT DONE!
It’s really surprising that I’m not a professional pitchman.
I was going to put a little thing up on that Edirol video sampler (the which is sort of like an SP-202, but for video instead of audio.) Except that after I played it, I decided it was basically tragically unplayable, and is a rare miss for their Edirol division. There’s like a 1 second pause when the clips start. Maybe it’s a software bug and will get fix. I tried to ask one of their booth Bettys, but he was too busy trying to give some lard ass a demo. So I guess we’ll never know.
I didn’t really see anything else that would be of general interest here that we don’t all already know about, I’m sorry to say. The audio side of things was the usual suspects; nothing new. This is the show where the broadcast divisions of all the names you know come out, so you see a slightly different side of Yamaha, SSL, whatever. Kind of fun, but ultimately, it’s rather tedious talking to those guys, because you have to put a translation layer over all their terminology.
Anyhow, back at it tomorrow, then back to Tempe in the afternoon to rest my tired feet.
20 comments
"but he was too busy trying to give some lard ass a demo"
I love this down to Earth language. Can't you run for office?
I recently managed part of a call centre here in the UK and this cock-brained David Brent of a manager above me was constantly blabbering on about "cloud" level and how all the phone networks would eventually end up at the "cloud"
He had absolutely no idea what this meant but it was a key on-vogue phrase he loved banding around to impress archaic director types.
No wonder the world's going to shit with these retards running the show. Every emerging technology has to be diluted and dumbed down just so these fucktards can get a basic grasp.
And I'm in the UK-it must be worse over there, being slightly ahead...
most businesses (bureaucracies too) are top heavy or middle heavy with management it really gums up the works and wouldn't know a good idea if.. well, they just hope they have one or steal one good idea a year to justify their existence and get noticed by the higher ups...
i was watching an old episode of Top Gear today and they talked to the lady who was one of a 5 person team who designed all (every one) the road/street signs in the UK and they were remarking how if for some reason the government had to redesign all the signs just how many people they'd hire to get the job done.. of course there would be a committee first.. to figure out how many people to hire.. etc.
most managers really are just babysitters and task masters. how many does a company really need? i suspect they are the "lard asses".
I'm with boobs.
"It IS Amazon S3, only with a different front end."
Harrison74: it's "en vogue", not "on-vogue". In this context I feel compelled to correct you.
I'm with Harrison74 and boobs though.
I'm with "on-vogue".
I'm with boobs.
I'm with stretta, cause it's true. Half of the "cloud" services are EC2 and S3 with a more friendly control panel.
It's funny that Cloud is the new buzzword in that industry. I'm a software developer, both web and client-side and Cloud was big in our industry by about 2007-2008. It's interesting to see how long it takes it to trickle down. Though it does make sense, as it's people like me who have to figure out how to leverage tech and make it friendly.
I've been tired of that word for a while now, but I can't complain. Having the ability to launch an 8 core server with 10+ GB of memory in 5 minutes is amazing.
I was just thinking about this yesterday when I was getting mad about how Apple is screwing up the iCal syncing.
I'm apparently the only guy in the world who doesn't want all of my shit "in the cloud". I want it on my computer. That way when it's screwed up I know it's my fault. The idea of having to connect to a server across the world and transfer data just to look at my calendar seems more than a little retarded.
There's seems to be a lot of things I don't get these days. The discussions I read about this were FULL of people talking about how they rip all of their DVD's onto drives and then access them through the network, and how they are starting to upload them all to "cloud" servers so they can stream them. Call me a caveman, but when I want to watch a movie I put the freakin' DVD in the DVD player. I have this really cool system where every movie gets its own storage media with artwork. They're small discs that are read with lasers!
You think that's cool, my reading material storage system would blow your mind.
bb
"Cloud" = "NSA has a permanent copy", correct or not?
I like the .mac version of cloud, where everything can be shared but there's still a local copy. I need access to my calendar, contacts, etc. even when there's no wifi.
Still haven't gotten to leave my booth except for Diego's presentation about the DTS soundlogo. The only cloud I'm experiencing is the cloud of cigarette smoke, Situation-brand cologne and failure in the casino where I have to sleep.
@Bongo_X
Don't get me wrong, all this stuff is tools, not religion. Take what works for you, leave what doesn't. I have just recently been surprised to find some well implemented tools that work for me better than I thought they would.
Indeed. I'm retracting my previous statement. I am no longer with bongo_x. While I agree with the general sentiment, there are certain Cloudy things I'm all about. Chief among them is Dropbox, which is the most awesome thing since awesome things were invented. We use it heavily in AD, since we have a dozen computers using 5 different operating systems between everyone. It's much, much easier than dealing with sending things back and forth or an internal FTP site.
-CR
DGillespie>
From your comment I obviously came across more strongly than I feel about it. The story of my life. Please don't think I was in any way criticizing you.
I'm sure I'll end up eating my words about Dropbox someday, but for now FTP is actually easier and suits my needs better.
bb
I'm with CR.
Dropbox has made my life SO much easier. Where I work (a mid-size bike company the sorta rhymes with boner) we rely on it heavily. Compared with trying to show someone how to use the FTP server for the first time Dropbox is dreamy. None of the creative group lives anywhere near the office so Dropbox really serves as our hub.
We also use Box.net for sharing spreadsheets and such and S3 for second level backups.
You gots to be like Judy Collins and look at clouds from both sides.
Dropbox is amazing. It is an example of S3 with a different front-end.
Dropbox rules as well. Works great for swapping sessions with bandmates, handling schoolwork, archiving PDFs of manuals, and all that jazz.
Not to mention the whole DropQuest stuff they do every now and again is really cool.
Totally off topic but I was offered either a Ensoniq SQ-1 or a Matrix 6R as potential trades for the RM1X sequencer I have on CL. Anyone here have experience with either of those synths that has good things to say? I'm gonna check them out in a few days in person but thought I'd ask here since someone probably has a few words to say.
I really enjoyed my RM1x for a while. Keep it if it is handy to have a GM / standard sound set around. Otherwise, it's not very extreme. The SQ-1 is great if you are planning on doing roots industrial. No experience with the M6R.
The Matrix 6R is a bit of a bear to program, unless you use a dedicated programmer of some sort. (Several software solutions exist.) It is an analog synth, but has a fairly hollow sound. Some interesting mod possibilities, though. If you want the bog standard Roland ripping filter lead shit, it can't do a very good job of that.
The SQ1 I only know because, as Jason said, every industrial band of the early mid 90s started out with one. ROMpler in the vein of the D-50 and M1, although somewhat more advanced than either. All Ensoniq stuff of that era has really nice keybeds, at least in my opinion. As to whether they're usable or not, hard to say. It would be a lateral move from the RM1X, sound-wise.
-CR
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