Grab your poker chips and put on your comfiest trade show trainers – it’s time to head to the Las Vegas Convention Center for the premier event for the broadcast, media and entertainment industries
Words Verity Butler
Any active member of the media-tech industry tends to find their year divided up by key trade show events rather than the usual Gregorian calendar. For those in broadcast, that usually makes April a significant date for the diary, with the return of NAB Show.
Easily America’s most significant event for the broadcast community, it convenes decision-makers from around the globe – offering valuable insights, cutting-edge tools and lots of innovative technology that enables storytelling at scale.
As proud and long-term media partners of the show, LIVE is here with our annual guide to tell you everything you need to know about this year’s event, taking place from 5 to 9 April.
What’s new?
No two NAB Shows are the same, and each year the event’s organisers introduce new elements to enhance both visitor and exhibitor experience. Here’s what’s new for 2025:
Sports Summit
A two-day event that will explore trends, tech and opportunities transforming the fan experience, remodelling the business with new licensing opportunities and redefining the media rights landscape.
Expanded Creator Lab
The Creator Lab is back and bigger than ever. It serves as a dedicated marketplace for all brands, creators and influencers to learn and conduct business on the show floor in this evolving media universe.
Artificial intelligence
From enhancing storytelling to personalising viewer experiences and increasing revenue opportunities, AI technologies will be a key presence on the show floor and in dedicated tracks for all leaders.
Techconnect conference
A technology education conference targeting public media professionals, Techconnect takes place on 4 April at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Sports Summit
Out of the three new additions, the one we’re most excited for is the Sports Summit. While the broadcast landscape is a forever-evolving entity, the sports sector remains a constant, with demand and monetisation opportunities ever on the up.
Officially titled Sports Summit: The future of sports rights and fan experience, the three-day programme explores the technology and trends transforming the fan experience and driving new revenue streams. The summit will bring together industry leaders to discuss how technologies like real-time analytics and immersive fan experiences are transforming content delivery. Additionally, the rise of athlete-owned media ventures and changes like the NCAA NIL rule are creating new licensing opportunities and reshaping media rights.
Here’s what you can expect from the summit:
Engaging audiences through on-air talent: Discover how the National Football League and industry leaders use on-air talent to elevate content, build fan loyalty and enhance audio connections. Speakers include Tracy Perlman, SVP of player operations at the NFL.
Women’s sports – growing radio and podcasting: Women’s sports were predicted to generate $1.28 billion globally in 2024 according to Deloitte – a 300% rise in three years.
The future of personalised sports broadcast: Powered by Microsoft, this activation will highlight how AI can deliver a fully customised sports broadcast tailored to individual viewer preferences.
AWS F1 Simulators: Experience interactive activations where fans can feel like they’re in the action.
Sports Business Hub: The latest tools for engagement and how to monetise the fan experience.
Speakers and keynotes
This year’s show will commence with a one-on-one conversation featuring sports media personality Stephen A Smith during the welcome session on 7 April. He will be interviewed by Mike McVay, president of McVay Media Consulting, offering valuable insights.
Also on the sports side, WWE president Nick Khan and CCO Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque will discuss the brand’s evolution. Don’t miss this issue’s WWE BTS feature in Xtreme on page 100.
NAB Show will also be spotlighting entrepreneurs like Gotham Chopra – the award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Religion of Sports – who will deliver a compelling keynote titled Peak Human: Unleashing the Champion Within. Set for 6 April, he will kick off the much-anticipated new Sports Summit.
Other speakers to watch out for:
Bobby Carter, host & series producer, Tiny Desk Concerts, NPR
Jasmine Enberg, VP, principal analyst, Emarketer
Stephen A Smith, host, ESPN
Joaquin Duro, EVP of sports, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises
Brian Lawlor, president, Scripps Sports
Marian Pittman, president of content, Cox Media Group
Bruno Seros Ulloa, co-founder, president & COO, Latination Media
Mayur Srinivasan, SVP, digital video platform, Fox
Rob Weisbord, COO & president of local media, Sinclair
Monica Williams, SVP, digital products & operations, content distribution, NBCUniversal
Sean Atkins, CEO, Dhar Mann Studios
Cassandra Bankson, CEO, CBLLC
Tinashe Chaponda, CEO, Sosani
Tyler Chou, founder & CEO, Creators’ Attorney
Brit Starr, chief marketing officer, CreatorIQ
Thai Randolph, board member & interim CEO, Rock the Bells
Rene Ritchie, creator liaison, YouTube
Introducing Techconnect
Debuting this year, NAB Show has teamed up with Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) to host Techconnect ’25, a top-tier technology education conference for public media pros.
“Bringing Techconnect to NAB Show creates a great opportunity for public media technologists to engage with the broader broadcast and media technology ecosystem,” says John Clark, senior vice president of emerging technology, NAB. “This collaboration not only strengthens NAB Show’s commitment to the future of content delivery and infrastructure, it also offers public media professionals direct access to the latest innovations.”
This marks the first time a fully integrated public media technology training conference is going to be hosted in partnership with NAB Show, building on decades of independently produced events targeting the public television sector.
“This partnership is a game changer for the public media technologists and NAB Show alike, combining world-class programming with convenience and efficiency for both the hosts and attendees of Techconnect,” comments Marc Hand, CEO of PMVG. “NAB Show is a world-class event, and we look forward to Techconnect ’25 being the first of many opportunities to partner on providing technology education for the unique and critical US public media industry.”
Best of booths
Talks and conferences aside, the show floor is what makes up the majority of the convention. Check out this year’s top picks.
Clear-Com
North Hall – N2147
Clear-Com, an HME company, is a trusted international provider of real-time communications solutions and services since 1968. Over the years, it has consistently innovated market-proven technologies that link people together through wired and wireless systems. Clear-Com was the first to market portable wired intercom systems for live performances.
Octopus Newsroom
South Hall Lower – SL8513
Octopus Newsroom is a leading provider of cutting-edge newsroom solutions, empowering broadcasters worldwide with innovative tools for streamlined news production and collaboration. The organisation is transforming the way newsrooms operate, equipping broadcasters with state-of-the-art tools to make news production faster, smarter and more efficient than ever before.
Yospace
West Hall – W2325
Yospace has been at the forefront of the digital video revolution for 25 years. Its pioneering dynamic ad-insertion technology has helped monetise six Olympic Games, five Fifa World Cups and 35 grand slam tennis tournaments. The company has over 2000 live channels under management and stitches between four and six billion ads per month.
Lawo
North Hall – N623
Lawo is a global technology partner with a long history of delivering innovative solutions for live media production workflows. With a unified approach that combines workflow management and control, physical I/O, processing and human interfaces, Lawo creates optimised solutions for productions including television broadcast and on-air radio, performing arts, houses of worship and professional AV.
Brainstorm
South Hall Lower – SL2716
Brainstorm’s advanced, yet user-friendly products meet today’s rapidly evolving broadcast and AV market requirements by providing state-of-the-art real-time 3D graphics, VP/XR, AR and virtual studio solutions. With more than 3000 installations worldwide, its client base includes many of the world’s largest broadcasters – plus smaller and regional stations, production houses, film facilities and many other content providers, including esports, corporations and internet creators.
Christie
South Hall Lower – SL5708
Christie is a global audio and visual technologies company with a vision: helping customers create brilliant and unforgettable shared experiences. Customers from around the world rely on Christie’s solutions – from a wide range of projections including advanced RGB pure laser projection, LCD panels, video walls and video wall processors, to SDVoE technology, content management, image processing and more.
AJA Video Systems
South Hall Lower – SL3310
Since 1993, AJA Video Systems has been a leading manufacturer of the latest technology for the broadcast, cinema, professional AV and post-production markets. The company develops a range of powerful, flexible video interface and conversion technologies, digital video recording solutions, as well as colour management, streaming and remote production tools.
Sony
North Hall – N439
This year, Sony will showcase Creativity Connected, highlighting an exciting range of new products and technologies. These include solutions for live production, news and virtual production. In addition, Sony’s booth experience will be themed around the popular anime series Demon Slayer, which will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Cobalt Digital
South Hall Lower – SL5123
Founded by Gene Zimmerman in 1997 and based in Champaign, Illinois, Cobalt Digital designs and manufactures award-winning 12G/3G/HD/SD conversion, throwdown and multiviewer tech for the production and broadcast television environments. To Cobalt, signal processing is about more than simply powerful processing and system capabilities; just as important are scalable, cost-effective and real-world solutions that not only meet today’s demands, but also adapt to tomorrow’s challenges.
Happy Scribe
West Hall – W4201
Happy Scribe understands that reaching a global audience is essential for unlocking new revenue streams in media production and distribution. However, the current process of localising film and video is complex and costly. Happy Scribe changes this with its AI-powered subtitling, transcription and dubbing engine, expert-in-the-loop review processes and an intuitive platform that simplifies collaboration.
Qvest
West Hall – W2055
With deep expertise in media, information and communications technology, Qvest supports its customers in transforming their business towards digitalisation, cloud and AI. Qvest’s customers include numerous global brands from industries such as media and entertainment, telecommunications, health and pharmaceuticals, automotive, consumer goods, retail, transportation and logistics – as well as companies from the public sector.
Blackmagic Design
South Hall Lower – SL216, SL8016
Blackmagic creates the highest-quality video editing products, digital film cameras, colour correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real-time film scanners for the feature film, post-production and television broadcast industries.
NAB takes place 5 – 9 April 2025. Find out more at nabshow.com
Check out other important diary dates in the March/April 2025 issue of LIVE.
