NAB Show 2009 Online Video and IPTV Cold Topics

1) Attendance:  Almost every company I talked to said they thought the show looked more lightly attended than last year.  NAB put the registrations at around 84,000, but many doubted if even that many came, as there was noise about people registered in multiple capacities driving that number up.  Cab drivers said the Las Vegas Convention board had put the number of attendees below 70,000. That's down from 105,000 attendees last year and about 110,000 in 2007.

Although attendance may have been down, most exhibitors said the show was going well, take that as you will. One CEO said "the decision-makers are still present," so if the sheer number of people did dip, it wasn't a concern for most companies, as long as the right people were still at NAB. If about 80,000 people came to the show, NAB was down around 20 percent from last year, though we can think of a trade show or two that would have been glad to have half the turnout NAB got last week. 

2) Monetization: It's almost become a dirty word in and around online video. Everyone wants it, few can claim it, at least to the point of being profitable from it, and there are many ideas floating around about the best way to achieve it. But there were very few convincing or innovative displays around monetization at the Show. Sure, lots of companies claimed to increase ROI with their solution, or to decrease costs through automation, but there were not any compelling monetization models offered up. The closest anyone came was probably Move Networks, with the new ad capabilities it's adding to its Internet TV offering. I liked its "mosaic" ad format's possibilities, as its interactive display and customizable format lend themselves to higher engagement.

If anyone else saw a solution at NAB that really impressed them on the monetization front, we'd love to hear about it. 

3) 3-D TV: The 3-D TV buzz that started at CES 2009 only seemed to grow at NAB, and though it's a technology development that will excite many, are consumers who only recently bought high-end HDTVs in a position to make yet another TV upgrade? Also, some are saying that the concept still needs work and may not be ready for prime time quite yet. Although on the show floor, throngs of people clad in bulky 3-D glasses blocked several aisles as they raptly watched 3-D displays, so excitement is there, but perhaps the market and technology are not quite yet.