After two canceled years and a degree of uncertainty about what it would look like, NAB 2022 finally went ahead and the overwhelming response has been that it was a great success. We wanted to recap our experience of being at the show and also highlight some of our partners who were exhibiting.

NAB 2022 exceeded expectations

Nobody quite knew what to expect from NAB 2022. There was uncertainty about the number of visitors and exhibitors and so expectations were probably on the low side ahead of the show. Starting on a Sunday meant that the first day was relatively quiet. Generally most people seemed to agree that it was a bad day to start a trade show. However the mood was positive and numbers certainly picked up on the following days.

The new West Hall is enormous and very smart. It really makes the rest of the place look old and tired. If you thought you did a lot of steps at NAB before - the West Hall takes it to a new level. We clocked 10.5km on the first day and walking from the North Hall to the West Hall is a good 10 minutes.

The Tesla Loop is actually a really welcome addition to quickly transport you between the halls in comfort (and style!). Our best guess was that overall attendance was about 50%-60% of a previous show which was more than many people expected. The reduced numbers actually made it a better show; there was more space on the floor which made it a more enjoyable and productive experience. 

Singular’s growing presence through partnerships

We made the decision at the end of 2021 that we were not going to be exhibiting at any trade shows in 2022. We had really successful shows in 2019 and 2020 but there were a number of reasons behind our decision. First among those was the fact that shipping our display stand around the world isn’t exactly part of our sustainability DNA. We made a conscious effort to minimize this impact by storing and reusing our booth, but there’s no getting away from the fact that trade shows are currently not exactly environmentally friendly events.

We were in the fortunate position that we had several partners who were exhibiting at the show and showing Singular as part of their presentation. We opted to support their efforts rather than having our own booth.

New partner launches

We had two fantastic new partner launches at this year’s show.

Amagi has seen incredible growth over the last couple of years and at this NAB was showcasing its integration with Singular in their CloudPort product, built for live news and sport production. You can read more about that here.

Panasonic debuted their integration of Singular, showcasing the power of our cloud graphics within their Kairos platform. You can see a video from Panasonic giving an introduction to Kairos Cloud here.

Other exciting partner demos

In addition to the two new launches, long standing partner Grabyo was showcasing their browser-based live video production suite incorporating some Singular graphics purpose built for UFC coverage on TikTok. You can read more about their show here.

Wildmoka had a suite that was busy giving various demos and in particular their new Responsive Video offering. We also had some time to talk with our partners to plan out a deeper integration that will make Singular even more widely available in the Wildmoka platform. Keep and eye out for more news on that.

Another Singular partner, TVU was showing their latest tools including their new TVU Replay app and the TVU RPS Link Recorder. Their VP of Business Development Greg Doggett explained more in this video.

One particularly exciting demo at NAB was from Skreens. They have really pushed the boundaries with what we think is a pretty revolutionary way of ingesting and distributing video in a highly personalizable way. There’s no way we can do this justice here so we’ve invited them to come on to one of our Live with Singular shows to give us all a demo. That is definitely one to look out for!

AWS showcased live cloud production workflows with MediaLive and MediaConnect (which are both compatible with Singular).

Meanwhile partners Grass Valley were also there in force with their GV AMPP promoting cloud workflows (with Singular integrated). 

The Switch had a big presence at the show that also featured their recently expanded Mimic platform which already includes Singular integration. You can read about that here.

Lastly, Evertz showcased their new Bravo Studio release on the Microsoft Azure marketplace, enabling content creators to create high quality productions in the cloud. Singular was proudly part of the demo providing the live graphics. You can read more about the Bravo Studio release here.

We sponsored the Devoncroft Executive Summit

We had the opportunity to sponsor the Devoncroft Executive Summit which, in our view, is a must-attend event. Their broadcast survey provides all of us with valuable insights into the industry and we strongly urge everyone to participate in their survey here. 

A huge amount of work goes into this survey and it provides important information on the direction and momentum of our industry. You can see a sample of this from 2021 via their Commercial Trends in Global Media Technology Sector report here.  

Our takeaway

NAB was the best show we can remember for many years, partly because of the general excitement and enthusiasm but also due to the reduction in numbers. This might not be part of NABs aspirations but actually, having less people made it a more pleasant event. It was easier to meet and talk to people and much easier getting around. Overall we loved being back at NAB and hope the show retains some of these new characteristics in the future.