And now we have Peter Chaikin, monitor man with the Harman group and JBL evangelist. Peter, you showed the LSR line this morning. How are broadcasters responding?

Hey Tom

This is a very strong NAB show for us - the booth has been jammed. Our LSR4300 Series studio monitors have become the go-to system for broadcast and post production. With HD Broadcast’s need for 5.1 surround sound, we’re now offering two 5.1 systems featuring the new LSR4312SP Subwoofer - The whole system is networked and each speaker includes an on-board analyzer that measures the room with a supplied mic and then not only balances each speaker within a 1/4 dB, but tackles acoustic problems in the room. Since the system is networked, you don’t need an outboard controller to control the entire system. And complete 5.1 systems are very affordable. So broadcasters and post facilites are all over it. So we’re having a good time! Thanks Tom and everyone at Mix for the coverage! Come see us at booth 7715!

photo caption: Fox Sports Mixer Fred Aldous (right) with H2Audio’s Tim Denmark

Fox Sports mixer Fred Aldous was wandering the floor checking out the latest gear. He told me that Fox Sports is up for three Sports Emmy’s this year, an unheard of feat to say the least. Fred mixes NASCAR and will be at the helm for the upcoming Super Bowl in Phoenix Arizona’s new University of Phoenix stadium. His friend Tim Denmark from H2Audio does the audio for the X Games and all the “wave” sports.

photo caption: Denon’s Karl Gustafson showing their new wunderbox

Ok. Ever run into a piece of gear that does SO MUCH that it’s hard to get a handle on? Me Either! That is until I ran into Denon’s DN-C640. It not only plays every format known to man, but it can play across a network and much much more. It has onboard sample rate conversion, is great for checking mixes in multiple formats and also makes a mean margarita. Ok well maybe not that, but darn near!

Steve Savanyu from AT showed me their latest release, the 1800 series dual-channel UHF wireless system. For the full scoop, be sure to check in to our Day 3 Podcast.

We’re here with Dave Neal from Harman’s Mixer Group, which includes the Studer and Soundcraft lines. We went to their press conference this morning and saw the rundown on Vista 5 and Soundcraft Vi4. Dave, what’s new with the boards?

Well, Tom, NAB started with a big crowd on the booth the whole time, and it hasn’t stopped yet. Apart from the new boards with different channel sizes we’re offering some great Surround solutions aimed at HDTV, because time is ticking and there’s a lot for people to be working on for the transition to digital. We’re seeing some great people and having a terrific show.

Although Universal Audio doesn’t have a booth at the show, they are on the floor checking out the latest gear and spreading the word about their products. I talked to Matt Ward about what he liked about the show, and he said although it wasn’t exactly their market, all audio producers can use high quality mic preamps, compressors and plug-ins. And UA knows ALL about that!

photo caption: Michael Reeves, Dolby’s Director of Sales, Live Sound

The Dolby Lake processor was in the Dolby booth for the first time ever, and it was generating some buzz. Not only is the versatile unit being used for live sound, but they’re going like hotcakes to studios like Skywalker, Talking House and more. Even more surprising is that Home Theater installers and owners are loving the high quality converters so much that they’re selling 10 units a month for just that purpose. Watch for a review in Mix soon.

So Kevin, we found Sinbad, and he’s ready to talk. He’s a self-professed tech geek, who’s been telling us why we need music back in the schools…Sinbad?

Music is the language of a culture. If you eliminate the arts, you eliminate the people. Our generation should be ashamed that we let music be taken out of our schools. I am enjoying being here in Vegas.

Dawn Birr from Sennheiser is on our Podcast today as is Joe Ciaudelli. They have some cool new wireless products and have a lot to say about “white space”, the disappearing bandwidth that audio pros are very concerned about. Read the April issue of Mix for more info on this important topic and be sure to check out the Day 2 Podcast for Sennheiser’s take on the matter.

Jason Frenchman from Aviom just made the trek from the Central Hall to let the world know about the i/o module out and ready for an event near you. Jason, whaddya got?

Thanks, Tom. It’s certainly worth the trip to chat with MIX and its readers. Many folks know Aviom for our signature personal monitor mixing system, but at NAB this year, we’re showing something a little different. For more than a year, we’ve been talking about our new, high-speed audio distribution platform, Pro64. We started shipping the line-level boxes of the series last month and, now, we’re introducing the key to unlock the whole package - the 6416dio digital i/o module.

What’s cool about Pro64 is that the network lives everywhere and this box provides 16 digital input and outputs anywhere on the network. What’s more, it takes advantage of our high-speed A-Net audio transport protocol, so you can send up to 64 channels of audio over a single Cat5 wire. Of course, we’re talking about high-fidelity digital audio, with virtually undetectable latency. Amazing for live sports events or any other application where you need to get your audio from point to point, super-fast.

Aviom’s grown a lot lately and, with Pro64, we’re ready to bring this great technology to broadcasters and audio professionals everywhere.