As an old television ad used to exclaim, “We have come a long way, baby!” This certainly applies to the technologies that used to be the sole bastion of broadcast media. In the day it took special cameras and audio gear, complex recording and editing hardware, plus special lighting to produce broadcast quality television. Advances in digital camera technologies reduce the size, weight, and complexity of operation not to mention the cost making them practical in all sorts of applications outside of the broadcast studio. This also applies to audio from processors to microphone and speakers. If you think about it your cell phone can capture near broadcast quality images and even video with limited but acceptable audio. For the applications in pro AV, we obviously want more than our cell phones can provide. This is where 4K displays, PTZ cameras, and your selection of computers and software dujour come into the picture (pun intended). We also have lights and lighting controls that ensure the environment if properly lit. This can all be done at a fraction of what broadcast gear and environments used to cost a few years ago. Evolution you say?…. you bet and for the better as we expand what our more and more affordable technologies allow us to do.
