Well the Holiday Season is here even if I have forgotten many friends and associates have been enjoying this special time. The picture is of a dear business college, Jim Hurwitz of Telecast Fiber and his lovely daughter Rebecca enjoying holiday time in the California style.

I want to thank Jim, Telecast and all of are supporters of HD EXPO, HD EXPO, KMP and Influence Studios. It has been an amazing year!

Technology maybe scientific driven but it is the people and communities that adopt it and share the information that positively impacts our lives. I feel it always comes back to the community and the generosity of that community.

A Happy Holidays to all.

Many would say why in the world would you moderate a panel at an indirect competitors expo and trade show? Well that question crossed my mind much in preparation for the panel that I moderated on December 7th in Washington D.C. “ High Definition – New Camera Technologies.” The decision was made because of my interest and commitment to bring the quality education that HD EXPO is known for to the government sector. And heck who can’t resist a trip to Washington D.C.?

The panelists were incredibly informative and the panel expanded into many other broad areas that covered HD broadcast, making the transition with equipment, and the challenges of the new technology deliverables such as cell phones, IPods etc…

The audience was filled with government departments and many educators from universities primarily on the East Coast. I was able to create a sense of interactivity between the audience and the panelists as I felt that was key to giving the audience what they wanted. When dealing with technology, it is key to understands what phase use of the technology understanding one is at.

I opened with some questions – how many have HDTV or Digital TV at home – and out of 25, only 3 raised their hands. How are working in HD currently – one hand raises. This gave me an eye-opener that there are many sectors that are behind the curve in these transitions. It also reminds me that the West Coast tends to lead in many technology assimilations. I asked a couple more questions to only be more amazed that this crowd – Government (and of course all the supporting departments and educators) was way behind the HD transition curve. It seemed as if HD was still a bit frightening but there was a sense of knowing that one must make this commitment.

A big thanks to the panelists:

Mark Chiolis – Thomson Grass Valley
Jeff Merritt – Panasonic Broadcast
J. Lee Thompson – JVC
Bob Ott – Sony