His full remarks on satellite radio after the jump.

This next clip is Mel Karmazin, familiar to some of you as the CEO of Sirius satellite radio, testifying before Congress recently. As you will see, he is attempting to define moving from two companies to one company as a merger, not the duopoly to monopoly that it is.

And on this point, Mel and I agree.

This merger will not be approved.

No matter how much Mr. Karmazin and everyone else at Sirius and XM use the word, it is not a merger they seek. It is a monopoly. It is a government sanctioned monopoly.

Now some of you might not be aware I am an economist by training. I ask you, when has a monopoly ever served the interests of the consumer?

In 1997, when the FCC authorized two nationwide satellite radio operators, it specifically prohibited them from merging. The bad business decisions of XM and Sirius — should not be rewarded with a government bailout in the form of a monopoly.

This certainly would not be in the consumer's benefit.

It will be a huge consumer headache because the companies use two different technologies which are not compatible with each other. Like beta and VHS. No, this is not about the consumer. It is not about advancing technology. It is about lining the pockets of financiers and corporate executives.

A monopoly is a monopoly is a monopoly, and we at NAB will continue to adamantly oppose it.

Of course, everyone has vested interests even as they spout that they're only acting on your behalf. Whether or not the merger is truly anticompetitive or totally consumer friendly remains to be seen, though if Karmazin keeps his word, it's looking more like the latter. – Matt Buchanan

The NAB: A history of hypocrisy [Orbitcast]

Placed side-by size in the back of this party bus was one screen showing the old-style 8-VSB system now popular in Korea, next to another screen with Samsung's A-VSB video playing on it in half-stream and quarter-stream varieties. They were receiving their signal over channel 22, broadcast by a Vegas TV station using existing facilities. Of course, the A-VSB was actually watchable, looking sharp and reasonably clear while the old-timey 8-VSB was nothing but a series of frame drops and pixelization. Good demo.

The Samsungians also passed around a few porto-TVs, too, to show us the quarter-rate Mobile Stream, which also looked crispy-clean albeit with a frame drop or two. Look for this tech soon on an iPod near you. When? Samsung hopes we'll see it here in the States by the time that analog TV cutoff happens in February, 2009. – Charlie White

It's also adept at converting one format to another, and can up-rez, down-rez and even cross-convert files in all their 10-bit glory. And look a that gallery below—you'll see there are XLR audio inputs and outputs, too, and what's that? HDMI I/O ports? Yep. Watch your show in real time on an ordinary 1080p TV set. HD editing just got a whole lot easier, and cheaper, too. It's $3495, a pittance for what you get. It's a world changer for vid-wizzes. – Charlie White

Adobe showed the way Media Player will enable ad-supported programming to be downloaded, and you don't even need to be online to watch it because the ads will be cached. This lets content creators monetize advertisements for downloadable materials, too, approximating the business model of broadcast television where advertisements pay the freight for otherwise-costly programming. That's why Adobe introduced it at NAB.

Sure, there's DRM involved, where you are able to tell the application what sorts of products you're interested in, and then it will show those kinds of advertisements to you. Then the application reports back to the content creator on which ads were viewed. Some viewers may not be willing to do that, but others may think it's a small price to pay to get free content. There's another big piece of news with this announcement, too:

We're glad to see an improvement of the quality of Flash video (see that photo at the top of this article), and the ability to watch Flash video full screen. Don't get Flash video confused with those annoying websites using Flash. Flash video is a clean way to display content, and is the technology behind YouTube and lots of other great looking Flash-based Web video viewing systems.

As far as DRM is concerned, the content creators can choose to allow their programming to be freely distributed or not. Adobe reps say they are only enabling content creators to control and limit access, and that's at the discretion of those who own the copyright.

Content creators could get awfully obnoxious with this technology, though, with tricks such as embedded product placement, where in one week that soft drink can sitting in the background may be a Coke and the following week it might magically turn into a Pepsi, depending on who is paying the bills, which soda you prefer, or both. Advertisers will also have the ability to pop up annoying little clickable "bugs" that are targeted specifically to you. That could get old pretty fast.

That said, it's a pretty sweet looking player, and website purveyors can modify it to look just like the rest of the site. Plus, it simplifies distribution of video, where the only thing video makers need to do is to add their Flash video files to an RSS feed, and then users can use the Adobe Media Player as an RSS aggregator. We're looking forward to the beta release of this software later this year, and Adobe hopes it will dominate the Web landscape as its Flash video protocol has thus far. Whether this tech is used for good or ill is up to the programmers. – Charlie White

Other welcome improvements are the backlight for the level bubble, a replaceable lock-rosette, and a four-step counterbalancing mechanism. They've refined the profile of the unit as well, so that it has the sleeker lines of the 501 heads. No pricing was available yet, but the 503HDV's predecessor, the 503, is $274.

Get yourself a good fluid head like this one, vid-shooters, and your camera moves will be smooth as a baby's butt. – Charlie White and Curtis Walker

Product Page [Manfrotto]

But those prices are no big deal to the pro broadcasters who'll be using the things—they're primarily designed to be used for recording crowds at sporting events and concerts. They're described by their makers as the easiest way to capture surround sound.

The yet-to-be-released H4 Super Mini is designed to be used as a camera-mounted mic, runs for five hours on four AA batteries, and comes with an analog-to-digital converter. Pricing for that one should be around $2600. – Charlie White and Curtis Joe Walker

H3-D Product Page [Holophone]

Combine one of these with an XLR/USB setup (like the LightSnake) and you'll be podcasting in style for about $200-$250. – Charlie White and Curtis Joe Walker

Product Page [Heil Sound]

How did that second device, pumping HDMI over coax work?

Wa saw HDMI transmitting over a coaxial cable that was about 20 feet long, and that looked like it was unfettered by the transmission, too. HDMI over coax? Not a bad idea, letting you use longer runs (up to about 300 feet) of existing coaxial cable to transmit HDMI video and audio. Hey, that's long enough for even the biggest cribs. Boothsters say the coax tech "should be ready" to rock HDMI 1.3, though they haven't been able to test that yet. We've seen the wireless HDMI box available for pre-order, but the company says both the wireless and coax products will be available in July, each for around $700. – Charlie White and Curtis Joe Walker

We had a chance to see three working Red One cameras in the company booth. One was connected to a 720p monitor to show the live output. The other two had working LCD viewfinders as well as film-style video eyepiece finders that potential fan boys could get all touchy-feely with, and there were plenty of those wonks getting their mitts on the camera.

With all the talk of 4K, we were very surprised the live video was only being shown on a 720p monitor. The response? There aren't any 4K monitors to show the full output. [Ed.- What about those Sony 4k Projectors below?]

According to Schilowitz the first batch of cameras that go out may indeed be lacking certain features and functions, but he wouldn't comment on what features those might be.

When asked if 4K works, he said yes, but didn't know if 4K would be available in the first cameras. [Ed.- As above, I stand by Stephen's statement and reporting 100%. But Ted now promises 4k Support out the gate. Minor miscommunication aside, this is exciting confirmation.][UPDATE: We apologize for confusing Ted's words — His two statements, one on 4k and one on what features would ship, were separate, not serially linked. ]

Will early adopters be screwed? Schilowitz did say that when the camera starts shipping, owners can follow two option paths; take the camera as-is and get a free upgrade when all of the features have been enabled, or simply wait until the features are ready and pick up the camera then. If they can upgrade a camera from non 4k to 4k for free, more power to em.

When asked when the camera would ship, Schilowitz emphasized the company's spin on shipping. In his words, Red is an engineering company that would rather rely on "target dates" than ship dates. When asked the "target date," he responded the Red One camera has a target range between the end of April and the middle part of May of 2007.

Even if the company makes this target, those eager to purchase one may still have to wait as the company has been able to convince 1500 individuals and companies to plunk down a hefty down payment to reserve one of these beauties.

In an effort to put to rest the doubt that this camera is actually working or simply a pyramid scheme to bilk old ladies from their fortune, Jim Jannard ushered visitors into a small movie theatre to show them an 11-minute film shot entirely with two Red One alpha prototypes he named "Boris" and "Natasha".

Sure anyone can crank out 11 minutes of beauty shots and call it a film, but it is an entirely different matter when that 11-minute film is an original narrative piece, written and directed by Peter Jackson. Yes, that Peter Jackson. Jackson invited the Red crew to Masterton, New Zealand for a two day shoot to capture a WWI story involving a doughboy on the ground, an ace pilot, a picture of a loved one, a teddy bear, and those accursed Nazis.

We were able to learn the two cameras only had Run/Stop triggers, 180-degree shutters running at 24fps, recorded to a Red Drive at 27Mbps and encoded in Red Raw. Not a lot of fancy schmancy at all. The short was projected using Sony's 4K projector, but as previously announced, Red is working on its own line of 4K projectors and monitors. Jackson decided to skip using the Red lenses in favor of the Cooke S4 24-90mm lenses with which he was more familiar.

This film was full of action and drama as only Jackson can deliver, and throughout the piece, we watched closely for telltale signs of artifacting, blown highlights, or false colors. While a lot of the story takes place on bare dirt, scenes in the air presented a full range of colors that proved this camera can capture some very dynamic images.

We noticed some jumpiness during some of the high-action fast-moving shots, but didn't know if that was a fault of the camera, the digital projection, or our hypersensitivity to digital projection. Regardless, those instances were very few, and after, we had a chance to talk for a moment with two cinematographers sitting next to us who were accustomed to shooting on Viper and Genesis cameras. They were both impressed with the results and had no complaints with the technology.

So for now, the Red One camera has moved from vaporware to reality, but with the "target date" still a month off and the long line for delivery, you aren't going to be able to pick one up anytime soon, let alone at the local Best Buy. But good tech always trickles down, and we're moving in the right direction with these cameras.– Stephen Schleicher

Varying in size from Hummer H2 all the way up to semi-truck sized rigs, we were shooed away when the subject of pricing was broached. "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." Well, maybe if we blog really really hard, Santa will bring us one for Christmas. – Curtis Joe Walker and Charlie White

Getting our hands on the camera, we noticed it's not as heavy as we thought it would be due to the carbon fiber construction of its rail mounting system. It's small, about the size of a normal prosumer video camera with a fixed lens. Hang a lens up front on the Red One, and it's a bit bigger, but still surprisingly small. The grips were quite knarly, like off-road tires or hand grips on a BMX bike. It's extremely configurable.

Speaking of lenses, Red will offer a 5-lens prime kit for $19,975 available in Fall 2007, consisting of 15mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses, and all have an f/1.9 aperture except for that 15mm lens, which will be f/2.8. There will also be an $6500 18mm - 50mm f/2.8, available this summer, according to Red. Finally, there's an f/2.8 300mm for $4950. There's more. Don't miss our visual evaluation of the camera's output, and an interview with Red's Ted Schilowitz. – Charlie White

Red at NAB [Studio Daily]

Okay, I hear you asking: To recap that pricing, the full price of the whole suite will be $1299, available next month. To upgrade from Final Cut Studio 1 will be $499, and an upgrade from any version of Final Cut Pro since its beginning (1999) is $699. – Charlie White

Budding Spielbergs will marvel at the camera's small size that can capture video at 1080i, 1080p, or 720p at variable frame rates. This means you can do graceful slow motion shots, or crank the speed way down to get some fast frenetic action. So when is this coolCam shipping, and at what price?

Sony's PR guy told us the camera would ship later this year, probably in the fall, with a price somewhere in the neighborhood of $8000. Of course all of this is speculation at the moment, but the company's Z1U camera retailed at that price when it was introduced three years ago. Sony was quick to point out the EX was not a replacement for the Z1U or the V1U but instead an intermediate camera between those two and the high-end HDC-950.

With its small size and solid state technology, just imagine how great the skateboard videos and shots of guys getting hit in the nuts will look on YouTube in high definition. – Stephen Schleicher

We watched a lengthy demo of the new software, and found it to be a remarkable polyglot, able to handle all kinds of footage all in one big bucket, something that's really important to broadcasters and filmmakers these days. When there are dozens of varieties of HDTV and regular TV to deal with, this is not a new feature, but welcome by Final Cut users.

Check out a few of our pics in the gallery below, and read more about Final Cut Studio 2 on the next page.

At the same time, Apple showed up Motion 3, a special effects application that can stack up more layers of video than you can shake a stick at. A competitor to Adobe's After Effects, we noticed a lot of the same features aboard this third iteration of Motion, but the thing just looks dope-easy to use, and has tons of canned effects on board. Leave it to Apple to make the complicated task of video compositing a bit easier.

The there was a neat demo of the next version of Soundtrack Pro, now version 2, which brings some cool editing features to the Apple mid-range sound editor. More intriguing was the 3D representation of a sound wave, and the ability to precisely cut out a particular noise without losing the other sounds around it. Sure, we've seen a feature almost exactly like this in Adobe's Audition sound editing app, but now it was Apple's turn to catch up.

Then there was Compressor, an expanded compression tool with a simplified interface and more power than before. We were impressed with its batch processing capabilities and added support for one of our fave codecs, H.264. It also encodes video for iPods and Apple TV as well as pro formats, and takes advantage of that new mofo Octomac that heard only one or two mentions in the presentation. But it does cut processing time, crunching video 2.8 times faster on an eight-way processor than was ever possible before.

Next was Color, a color correcting software tool that looks a lot like $100K software/hardware systems we've seen over the years. Color correction is what made films such as O Brother Where Art Thou? look so warm and old, yet beautiful. Color correction is a big part of TV and movie production these days, and to really get in there and fix weird colors that weren't shot properly, as well as warm up scenes and add style, up until recently you needed a seriously expensive system, meaning it would cost you scores of thousands of bucks. But the hall-full of TV production wonks was gasping when Apple flacks told us all this power would be included in Final Cut Studio 2.

Pricing was reasonable for all theses apps you get, too. The full price of the whole suite will be $1299, available next month. To upgrade from Final Cut Studio 1 will be $499, and an upgrade from any version of Final Cut Pro since its beginning (1999) is $699. Not a bad deal, not bad at all. – Charlie White

Apple at NAB [Gizmodo]

Then Apple showed some uncompressed 1080p footage with other resolutions and frame rates, all edited together in real time. Nice.

They then showed us a side-by-side comparison of ProRes and uncompressed HD, and it was hard to tell the difference between the two. Then the kicker? The ProRes footage was 10th-generation. Impressive.

Apple's also announced its new compression format, ProRes422, will enable 4K video with the RED camcorder, shooting in 4K.

Introduced Final Cut Server. Gives editors ability to share video with each other. It's cross platform, and does lots of media asset management. Also has keyword searches for video, with access controls to keep the riff-raff out. There are workflow templates, too. Can be customized for your organization. Watches over the flow of work and triggers things to happen, review and approve.