Another year ... another NAB ... another outstanding event for IBM. last year was already quite different from the years before, but this year the changes are drastic. Seems that the economic environment has put the media companies in a rollercoaster. Tradition media companies are seriously challenged.

In between the lectures and customer meetings I rushed around to get updated on the new stuff. I though that HD-TV would be the hype this year, but no .... interesting trends around where:

- HD-Radio is rapidly growing in the US and a profitable business. The business model is based on ad-based niche radio channels with a very narrow target audience. The better the audience can be identified the more interesting for advertisers. Digital radio production can be very cost efficient, a break-even can be achieved rapidly. Unfortunately we don't see these radio trends in Europe. To investigate if this is interesting for the European market.

- 3D TV appears in several places, from camera solutions till 3D capable TV-set. Still in the early stages, the viewing needs to be improved to enable multiple people to watch the screen from different angles without using the glasses. A new attractive experience, once content becomes available in larger volume. Nice, definitely a hype to watch closely.

- Social media as a medium to distribute content on alternative channels, an on-going trend. But how to make money on this in smaller countries?

Again we had a large interest from customers and prospects coming from all over Europe. Still amazing how every year again dozens of people travel to the other side of the globe to join this show. For me every year again an incredible occasion to meet the whole of the media community in a few days time. It makes it worth the trip!

Amazing that in the middle of the high-tech (same place where the yearly Consumer Electronics Show takes place) I found in the corridor the telephone in bakelite (Belgian invention)

Impression of the booth at NAB