Walking through the halls of the Las Vegas convention center, I catch a distinct group buzz words permeating from exhibitors and dominating conversations in the press office. If you want to be ‘in the know’ at NAB 2009, you have to be able to identify them.
    This year, the words and phrases are – 3D HD, mobile digital TV, IPTV, bandwidth, interactive entertainment services and most importantly, quality of content. NAB President David Rehr has gone so far to declare the focus of the show to be on quality of content with roll-out and development plans suited for an ailing consumer economy.
    How will the satellite industry get noticed at NAB 2009? By inserting itself into the buzzwords – satellite-provided 3D HD, mobile satellite digital entertainment services, hybrid satellite-IP networks and the success of satellite-provided on-demand video services.
    NAB brings the satellite industry shoulder-to-shoulder with its competitors who have always looked for ways to inaccurately portray satellite as a technology of the past. Video and cable broadcasters who have been in the business already know it’s not accurate, but the younger Web-focused generation can get a little caught up in the buzz words to realize the cost of a global delivery infrastructure. After all, it’s much more fun to talk about new toys.
    Satellite holds the only keys to globalized voice, video and data delivery networks. As our world becomes more and more connected and companies leverage partnerships to capture foreign markets, the buzzwords can get as fancy as they want, they are still going to have to drop a satellite in there somewhere in order to get content across an ocean.