After being hit by cancellations from a growing number of its major exhibitors due to the Coronavirus outbreak, leading US flagship broadcast technology NAB, due to run in its traditional April slot in Las Vegas, has been pulled.
In a statement, the show organisers said that they had been carefully monitoring Coronavirus developments both in the US and globally over the past few weeks and that in the interest of addressing the health and safety concerns of stakeholders and in consultation with partners throughout the media and entertainment industry, they had decided not to “move forward” with NAB Show in April. The statement added that keeping the show community safe and healthy was NAB’s highest priority and that therefore the show was deferring to the developing consensus from public health authorities on the challenges posed by Coronavirus.
The sequence of events leading to the decision to stop the show were reminiscent of that which happened to flagship telecoms show MWC in Barcelona with a trickle of major cancellations becoming a flood. Only days ago leading post production technology firm Avid, which always has a significant presence at NAB, decided not to attend as did Red Bee Media and Imagine Products which also took a sizeable presence.
Going forward, the NAB Show organisers said that they were still weighing the best potential path forward and expresses a commitment to exploring alternatives.
