by Tegan Jones, editor

The NAB Show is known for showcasing the best new broadcasting technology, in both its conference sessions and on the exhibit floor.

But this year, as broadcasters address the recession, the switch to digital TV and increased competition from Internet video services, technology looms especially large over the convention hall. Yet, while many are concerned for broadcasting’s future, Gary Arlen, the keynote speaker for NAB’s Broadcast Engineering Conference, is excited about the opportunities on the horizon.

Arlen, president of Bethesda, Md.-based Arlen Communications, titled his opening remarks "Why I can't wait for 2020." According to TVNewsday, he offered the following predictions and insights for the industry’s future:

•    Mobile TV will indeed prove to be a vital new revenue source once broadcasters can accurately measure and monetize out-of-home viewing.
•    Flexible OLED video displays will plummet in price and offer a wider range of excellent portable viewing options.
•    Stations will completely blend their present IP and broadcast engineering functions.
•    It will become standard practice to integrate user-generated content and social networking into the marketing, even the content, of broadcast programs.
•    Broadcast engineers will be leading developers of "green" technology—more for economy and efficiency than for political reasons. (Arlen believes the Obama administration will make green engineering as big a goal as the Apollo missions were in the Kennedy years.)
•    By 2020 both 3-D and even holographic video displays will have matured sufficiently to appeal to consumers.
•    Broadcasters and consumers will benefit from huge advances in "memsistors"—non-volatile solid-state memory with greater data density than today's hardware. (One Japanese lab, Arlen says, has already demonstrated 100 GB of storage on a chip measuring only one square centimeter.)

With ten years to come true, these predictions seem pretty safe. The technology is already on its way—we just have to see how stations can make these tools work to their advantage.