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This article focuses on products launched at the 2004 National Association of Broadcasters' (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, which are relevant to computing industry. Some of the products launched include: a new standard for consumer Hi-Definition cameras; a complete high end product refresh from Adobe; similarly important software and hardware announcements from Apple; the complete acceptance of workstation grade personal computers (PC) as production tools, and related interest in the evolution of the PC standard; 100 percent tapeless videoproduction products from Panasonic; high end electronic cinema products on offer from Philips and DALSA. As well, these announcements will drive major changes in production techniques. Compared to the information technology community, television production staffers have long been conservative about technology. The same headlong rush to try the new, long the mark of the computer industry, is now ingrained in the production world. Moreover, the production world is much more dependent on computer based innovations, rather than the purpose-built equipment of the past. Mini-DV was a critical product for the convergence of the computer and video industries. From Sony's early VX1000 camera, and on into today's dozens of models, Mini-DV moved the entire video-on-a-computer revolution out of the margins and into the mainstream. At NAB 2004, Sony's consumer-level camera was on display behind glass. While no additional hardware is required to edit high definition video (HDV), most editing packages cannot edit interframe-compressed material. Several software partners showed off plugins, including the well-regarded CineForm AspectHD for Premiere. All of the major editing software companies promised upgrades to directly handle HDV. This year saw the basic product types split even further, since the market is finally maturing.

Discusses the COMDEX/Fall '99 conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada in November, 1999. Products featured; Keynote speakers, including Bill Gates, Scott McNealy, chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, and Bob Young, chairman of Red Hat; Portable devices and related appliances featured.