By: Britt Nicole La Hue

The sun has just set on the time of year when filmmakers, cinematographers, VFX artists, virtual reality content creators and other creative pros converge in Sin City to get introduced to the latest and greatest technology in the biz. NAB Show, hosted by the National Association of Broadcasters, is the world’s largest conference for media and entertainment professionals. Each year, the exhibition serves as an introduction to the new products, cameras and software that will be changing the industry in the years to come. Below are some of the top trends from this year’s show.

Lytro Light Field Technology Will Change Filmmaking Forever

Studio Daily

The undisputed “gamechanger” announcement of NAB 2016 was the introduction of Lytro’s new light field technology system. Light field technology uses information about the direction of light, not just its intensity, to capture a volumetric image. Its millions of lenses capture image information at up to 300fps, and allow plane of focus, depth of objects and field, shutter angle and frame rate to be added in after the shoot, not just in camera. In English, that means that the well-known and oft-utilized “green screen” may be on its way out. The Lytro camera uses a “depth screen” instead to isolate forefront figures from the background figures computationally. This technology has huge implications for VFX (making effects easier to create) and VR (shooting in a volumetric 3D forefront to capture every aspect of your shot at once).

Nokia Unleashes Professional VR Camera OZO

Nokia

Most VR camera rigs are Jerry-rigged to fit the needs of a particular project, shoot location or budget. Many an amazing virtual reality experience has been filmed with duct-taped GoPros. Nokia’s new OZO Virtual Reality Solution aims to change that, with a $60,000 professional VR camera that contains eight lenses, eight microphones, a 195-degree view per lens and 360-degree sound. Weighing just nine pounds, the camera travels with ease – not a concept traditionally associated with the complicated gear usually used in VR shoots!

Drone Technology Continues to Improve

Slashgear

Aerial photography continues to be an invaluable asset for filmmakers, and each year drone technology gets better and better. This year at NAB, DJI released the Matrice 600, the company’s most powerful professional platform yet. The Matrice 600 boasts a six-rotor system, has 360-degree filming capabilities, has a new A3 flight controller and transmits video with high frame rates and HD live streaming.

The Big Names Aren’t Going Anywhere

Sony

As technology improves and new companies burst on the scene, the tried-and-true companies continue to innovate and adapt. Sony announced a new 55-inch OLED monitor with 12-bit signal processing, the PVM-X550, as well as the new HDC-4800 camera system, which can film up to 8X at 4K and 16X in full HD. Twenty years after the release of Dolby AC-3, the audio company unveiled Dolby AC-4. Avid introduced new tools in Avid 4Designer and added a live sports enhancement telestration tool to Avid Spark, among other high-tech video, graphics and broadcast additions.