By: Nick Gambino
It’s that time of year again where the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) descends on Las Vegas, highlighting all the best in broadcast and media tech.
The NAB Show is a yearly trade show that dates back all the way to 1991 in its present form. But earlier iterations of the NAB show go back a lot further, like “a hundred years ago” further. The first show was held in New York in 1923. To put that in perspective, that was four years before the first television system was even invented.
We’ve come a long way since vacuum tubes and short-wave radios. And that’s abundantly clear when you look at the lineup of gadgets and technology hitting the exhibit floor at NAB 2025.
Not surprisingly, this year is owned by AI. The burgeoning technology has swept the tech world by storm with every company from startups to Google embracing it lest they be left in the proverbial dust.
While we’ll have to wait to see exactly what’s unveiled at the Las Vegas Convention Center, we can expect AI to be front and center at a lot of the booths.
Adobe just released additional AI features in Premiere Pro that work to enhance workflow. In fact, Adobe seems to understand we don’t need to replace humans with AI. We simply need to use it to streamline production.
For example, the new Generative Extend tool allows editors to extend a clip by up to two seconds, allowing them more wiggle room when executing transitions. With a simple click of a button you can produce something that wasn’t captured during filming but will hopefully look seamless.
The fact that the AI video extender is limited to up to two seconds is probably no coincidence. Any longer and it might stand out like a sore thumb.
With Adobe unveiling this new tech just ahead of NAB, we can expect others to bring their AI game to the show.
But what I want to see is how hardware is going to integrate with AI software. Cameras and other equipment used in broadcasting and video production will be ubiquitous at the show. All the new cutting edge hardware tech will most likely also find itself mentioned alongside AI. By creating a robust handshake between the two, we’ll find see additional use cases for AI.
NAB Show 2025 is being held in Las Vegas from April 6th through April 9th.
