It was very kind of the people of SHOOT to allow me to write two Your Shots in a month. It gives me the ability to tell you firsthand how Disneyesque Las Vegas has become. In my previous article, I talked about all the "cities" you could visit while in Las Vegas. I understated it all. Wow! It is over the top—and who cares. Just enjoy! We did.
Bulletin…Bulletin
Television as we know it is not going to change so fast. EVERYTHING ELSE has. And boy oh boy, don’t you know it when you walk around the Sands Convention Center, conveniently connected to some of the best restaurants in the Venetian Hotel.
The weather was beautiful, but you wouldn’t know it by the "studio tans" of the 130,000 attendees. The craps tables were empty by 9 a.m., and really didn’t fill up at any of the NAB hotels.
The parties that you were mistakenly not invited to were fewer this year than last. Some of the mainstream parties were less attended, which I attribute to the "Restaurant Reservation Dilemma." The array of great restaurants in Las Vegas is staggering. If you were lucky and booked like I did—90 days ahead of time—you got 9:30 p.m. dinner reservations for eight at Prime (Jean Georges), Delmonico (Emeril Lagasse), Aureole (Charlie Palmer), Circo (Maccione), Spago (Wolfgang Puck), The Palm (The Boys).
The big word of the show was "streaming"; second was "golf." As an anonymous magazine publisher said to me while gazing across the loud floor at the Sands: "Picture a hundred twenty thousand amateurs trying to get into a business for which there are still very few models and no profit formulas." Last one standing, I guess.
NAB 2000, where there are so many start-up companies and dot-coms that you can take home your entire year’s T-shirt wardrobe, as long as you don’t mind someone else’s name on your chest.
There were all kinds of gimmicks to attract your attention, though the helicopter guy didn’t show this year and there was no race car simulator. There was "Silver Guy" and enough hand squeezers that by the end of a long day of squeezing, you could go 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
FLAT SCREEN ENVY: big ones and little ones, black ones and white ones, 16 x 9 ones and regular TV ones. Lucite, translucent, metallic, hi-def, enhanced, with speakers, without speakers, with cameras, with infrared devices, with your name on them, with my name on them, Web ready, DTV ready, on my bathroom wall ready.
And then there were the big projection screens. "O MI GOD." I want one of those in my house when I grow up. Lots of agency people and editors around the floor, some networks, but very few production companies.
Hi-def seemed to be a non-issue. The word "ready" was oft heard. Burning DVDs was a big issue, but no real progress picking up the speed. Not one 3/4-inch machine anywhere. Surprise!—they don’t make them anymore. And there’s a streaming video box for about $4,000 that works as your Web address and can have video downloaded and viewed over DSL in four times real time.
As opposed to my jackpot of last year, I only won $125 at the slots (don’t tell the IRS). The golf was amazing (thanks to all who invited me and my friends). Arrive a day early and sit at the pool at the Bellagio. You’ll be glad you did.
