The enigma called Las Vegas - Editor's Note - Brief Article

Post, May 1, 2002 by Randi Altman

Another NAB in the city of sin. Las Vegas, arguably the most garish place on Earth, is a bit of a riddle to me. I don't know of any other city that can offer so much good and so much bad all at the same time.

Where else in the world can you dine in such fine restaurants as Lutece or Picasso (they have Pablo's originals on the walls) and top off your evening -- so I'm told -- by watching naked ice skating? And then there are the cabbies. To me, getting in a taxi is the biggest gamble you can take in this city of extremes. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and get a knowledgeable driver who genuinely likes what he does. Other times you get the bitter person who came to Vegas to win his fortune but was left with only a driver's license. These are the cabbies who figure in their own very large tip while giving you back your change and get belligerent if you question them -- after all, you can write this off, right? It's like being mugged. There was the one driver who was deliberately trying to make his passengers vomit, and another who kicked us out of his cab because someone smelled like cigarettes. For good measure he tossed "come see naked people" flyers out the window after us.

So to sum up, each year I travel to Las Vegas for the NAB convention, and each year I return a little more happy and a little more sad.

But the show. Yes there was a show. It was less crowded than usual and spread across three convention centers, but exhibitors seemed happy. The old "the quality of attendee was higher this year" was heard often.

Randall P. Dark who recently moved his studio from Dallas to LA (see our HD Watch story on page 34), says, "It's obvious that this year at NAB, HDTV was no longer the expensive, ugly stepchild that needs to stay hidden in the corner. [Just look at the quality of pictures it makes.] If you do not buy digital widescreen with high resolution, you will lose market share, you will lose customers, you will have no shelf life. In our business, I believe the only growth market in the next few years will be high definition. Not that there will be more overall business but it falls under the "Rob Peter to Pay Paul" syndrome. Peter being low def and film."

Kit Lammers, production coordinator for KLTV in Lakewood, CO, says the station picked up Apple's Final Cut Pro, as well as the new PRV-9000 DVD writer from Panasonic." Every year at NAB we look for companies and products that help make KLTV a progressive, innovative station. This year, after taking a hard look at DVD, we decided to test it out," he reports.