We are definitely most excited to see our customers – to have the opportunity to meet with them face-to-face, hear their stories, learn about their workflows and better understand their needs and how those needs are evolving, is really invaluable.

It’s great to see more and more facets of the industry – broadcast, streaming and AV, for example – discovering and taking advantage of the fact that 4K is an affordable and viable option. With online channels, such as YouTube, Vimeo and Netflix, already delivering 4K content and only growing from there, we are seeing an increase in demand for 4K and UltraHD products and technologies. By investing in scalable, affordable products, as well as the right infrastructure with technologies such as 6G-SDI, 12G-SDI, Thunderbolt 2 and optical fiber, customers can prepare themselves for the future of broadcasting. These interfaces are high bandwidth and essential elements for creating the proper infrastructure to stream content at higher resolutions, regardless of the viewer’s display. We also know that quality matters regardless of screen resolution, and noise or impurities create unnecessary processing by the codecs creating the streaming signals. To help prevent this, it’s important to take advantage of 6G-SDI, 12G-SDI and optical fiber connectivity for cleaner and the best quality images.

Two of the trending topics I think people will be talking about are video over IP and virtual reality. With video over IP, broadcasters and content owners are moving beyond the point of just considering it and are actually getting started. Virtual reality has been on the radar for some time now, but it will be an especially big focus this year. We’ve already seen some very interesting use cases both on the production side of things, with our Micro Studio Camera 4K and Micro Cinema Camera being used at New York Fashion Week and the Oscars respectively, as well as on the post production side of things, with DaVinci Resolve Studio being used on MythBusters and Latin Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Ivete Sangalo’s music video. Shooting for VR, especially cinematic VR, has very specific requirements, including compact cameras with larger sensors, dynamic range, professional formats, high frame rates, genlock and LANC, for example. On the post side, the workflow needs to be resolution-independent to support unconventional VR formats and native frame rates and aspect ratios. This helps to create a smoother, more seamless final output. It will be very interesting to see where else the VR industry is headed and what possibilities lie in store.

The SuperMeet is always a fun event and one we look forward to each year. It has a great mix of educational presentations, fun giveaways and the opportunity to visit with vendors, as well as network with other attendees.

For us it’s all about empowering the end user by making affordable and professional products. With that in mind, we evaluate and re-evaluate our customer’s needs and our products in order to deliver the most flexible and future-proof technologies as possible.