Today at NAB Show: Tom Wheeler, Ted Schilowitz on VR and the Tech Awards

Tom Wheeler

FCC chairman sat down with Marci Burdick for a Q&A session this morning at NAB Show.

Tom Wheeler sits down to speak with Marci Burdick

After his tour, Chairman Wheeler met with NAB CTO Sam Matheny for a tour of the NAB Show Floor. Matheny took Wheeler to see the NextRadio booth, the 360 Heroes demonstration, the ATSC 3 Consumer Experience and the PILOT ATSC Home Gateway, and the ATSC 3 Live Broadcast at Futures Park. Check out the pictures in the gallery below.

: Tom Wheeler and Sam Matheny

: Tom Wheeler at the NextRadio Booth

: Tom Wheeler at the NextRadio Booth

: Tom Wheeler at the 360 Hero booth on the show floor

: Tom Wheeler at the 360 Hero booth on the show floor

: Tom Wheeler and Tim Laud at the ATSC Consumer Experience

: So Vang and Tom Wheeler at the PILOT Gateway Demo

: Tom Wheeler, So Vang and Sam Matheny at the PILOT ATSC Home Gateway

: Tom Wheeler and Sam Matheny at the PILOT Live ATSC Broadcast

Technology Luncheon

The NAB Technology Luncheon was held today with keynote speaker Ted Schilowitz and the presentation of the NAB Technology Awards.

Ted Schilowitz Keynote

Ted Schilowitz was the keynote speaker at today’s luncheon. He gave a fascinating talk on what he called the “Augmented Human,” saying that we as a people are now ready for virtual and augmented reality because our relationship with technology has become personal and fundamental to our existence.

“The key success point in this gig I’m in, is I have no idea what’s going on, but I know we’re going to give it a shot.” – Ted Schilowitz

To demonstrate this, Ted asked the audience to remove their smartphones from their pockets and hand it to the person next to them. He pointed out the audience’s discomfort with not having their devices on their person and said this demonstrated our relationships with technology and our readiness to “…go further into more immersive technology.”

After the show, we sat down with Ted to get more of his thoughts on the future of Augmented and Virtual Reality.

Award Winners

The NAB Technology Luncheon is also, as President and NAB CEO Gordon Smith said “The chance to sing the praises of all the people involved in broadcast technology.

“I love this lunch. I love the chance to sing your praises.” NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith

Adam Symson

Adam Symson, senior vice president and chief digital officer at The E.W. Scripps Company was presented with the Digital Leadership Award.

Andy Laird

Andy Laird, the recently retired vice president and chief technology officer for Journal Broadcast Group, was given the Radio Engineering Achievement Award. You can hear an interview between Andy and David Layer on the NAB Podcast.