NAB决定“不前进”与维加斯秀

这是一则重大但并非不令人意外的新闻, NAB announced it will not hold its flagship event as scheduled in Las Vegas this April due to concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak, which the World Health Organization today officially declared a pandemic.

在一个声明 NAB总裁兼首席执行官Gordon H. 史密斯说, "In the interest of addressing the health and safety concerns of our stakeholders and in consultation with partners throughout the 媒体 and entertainment industry, 我们已经决定不举办四月份的NAB Show了. We are currently considering a number of potential alternatives to create the best possible experience for our community."

“It was impossible to move forward with the April Show in the current environment given concerns about public safety, 我们的首要任务是什么,” NAB通讯高级副总裁安·玛丽·卡明. She added that the organization is "trying to get feedback from the community at large as to what they would like to see.“NAB Show New York是已经设置 10月21日至22日.

就在昨天，NAB更新了它的 “冠状病毒更新和百家乐软件”页面还说节目会继续，但是随着越来越多的参展商取消参展, it appeared less and less likely that the show would be held as planned. “这不是一个容易的决定，”史密斯在声明中说. “幸运的是, 我们不必独自做这个决定, and are grateful to our NAB Show community for engaging with us as we grappled with the rapidly-evolving situation."

行业领袖的最初反应是支持的. "Akamai fully supports and appreciates NAB's decision to put off the 2020 NAB Show,Akamai执行副总裁兼通用汽车表示, 媒体 & 承运人，亚当·卡隆声明. “我们认识到这一决定及其后续行动的重要性, 必须考虑的广泛后果. While we're disappointed to miss this annual opportunity to personally connect with customers, 来自世界各地的合作伙伴和同事, we're grateful that priority was rightly placed upon the health of everyone involved and taking steps to help prevent further spread of COVID-19."

22年来，我参加了18场NAB时装秀, myself and the entire BuyDRM Team are deeply saddened to hear of the show cancellation,” BuyDRM 首席执行官克里斯托弗·利维. “我们希望节目主持人, exhibitors and sponsors are all able to work out the change in plans to everyone's benefit and we look forward to the next NAB Show with great anticipation."

"I think we’ve all shared the same concerns over the past few weeks, and we appreciate the care that NAB took in coming to this decision,博士说。. 的首席执行官阿卜杜勒·拉赫曼 SSIMWAVE. "We’re sorry not to be among our customers and colleagues next month, 但国民银行今天的决定是正确的." A company spokesperson added that SSIMWAVE has already taken steps over the past few days to virtualize its demo suite of products that measure the viewer experience, 并为远程会议奠定了基础. "SSIMWAVE will accelerate those plans over the next several days," the spokesperson says.

想象通信 is 也 planning virtual events to make up for some of what's lost by not having NAB as a place to update clients and meet new customers. “We absolutely agree with NAB’s decision and already had been taking steps to virtualize aspects of our participation,Jennifer Overbaugh说, 全球营销副总裁. "We look forward to seeing our customers this year via a series of regionally-focused telepresence events that are due to kick off later this month. 我们期待着在明年的展会上与我们的同事再次相聚.”

草谷也在推特上 that the company is planning to connect with customers in a "virtual environment" to be announced soon. 上周，Vizrt和NewTek都宣布专用在线视频频道它将提供新闻和更新, 直到今天, 这些公司还计划在拉斯维加斯进行现场直播.

Several exhibitors who requested not to be identified told 流媒体 in the last few days that they were planning on canceling, 但我们在等着看NAB会怎么做. 上周, AJA视频系统, 尼康, Adobe, 狂热的, and Ross Video were among those who had already announced they would not attend the event.

Ross Video CEO David Ross summed up his company's decision-making process in a widely praised 帖子昨天在领英上, 在NAB宣布之前, highlighting the concern that event attendees could bring the virus home with them even if they didn't get sick themselves: "[Like] every person attending the show, all of us at Ross have friends and family in high risk categories that could die if they contracted COVID-19. Realizing we could bring this back to them made the decision very clear.

“这些天，我们通常会给NAB带来200多名员工,他在原始帖子的评论中继续说道. ”的, 我们通常可以预计其中大约有10人患上流感, 食物中毒, 或者演出过程中出现的其他问题. 在NAB 2020，我们如何对待这些? Do we send them to the hospital to get tested (if hospitals are testing by then)? 我们要等结果出来再送他们回家吗? 有人留下来陪他们吗? 那会是谁呢?? 如果他们的COVID-19检测呈阳性，那么怎么办? 我们该怎么处理罗斯剧组的其他员工? 我们要自我隔离吗?? 我们都飞回家吗? Do we contact all of the nearly 10,000 customers that visited us at our booth? 对于这些问题，我们没有很好的答案."

2019年拉斯维加斯NAB展吸引了超过9.1万名与会者.

[We'll update this story with additional reactions as we receive them.]