An Award-Winning NAB for NewTek

It has been an unexpectedly award-winning show for NewTek, which took home three awards for a product that has not yet begun to ship. NewTek’s eight-input TCXD850 HD production system won awards from TV Technology, DV magazine, and Videography, but just as important as the honors is the word of mouth.

“Our booth traffic is way up even though we’re further back in the hall this year,” reports Content Development Supervisor Jarrod Davis. “The 850 is generating huge amounts of interest from people all over the world. It seems like the eight hi-def inputs has been hitting a different level of the market than the 300 did last year. For a bigger event or a studio setup, you need six or more inputs, so the eight is more than what people expected, and I think it’s really blowing them away.”

The award-winning 850, which ships July 15, features dual redundant power supplies, XLR inputs, HDMI out for the second monitor, and two DDRs, and the HD-SDI mixes and matches standard and high definition.

“It can upscale standard and downscale high,” Davis says.

His favorite feature of this new system is the Live Sets virtual-set technology. “That’s the game changer. Everything else is super, and it’s unprecedented at its price point [$24,995], but, with a very low-rent setup, a few hundred dollars, lights, and green paint, you can have an amazing looking show using Live Sets.”

NewTek is also showing a technology preview of Live Set Artisan, which allows use to change the color of the wood in the virtual desk, turn the virtual monitors on and off, have a standing-only set, and even replace the background images with photos of their home city. NewTek did just that for USA Today, when the newspaper was producing a Webcast about the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Artisan also allows users to put a logo on the front of the virtual desk and set their own zoom levels.

“People will buy this unit for everything else, but they play with the Live Sets once, and they’re hooked,” Davis says. “It’s going to take a lot of work on our end to make it easy for people to customize, but we’re working on it. I’m hopeful that Live Sets will start to sell units rather than being along for the ride.”

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