Las Vegas, NV (April 17, 2024)—Mix is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Best of Show Awards for the NAB Show.
The Best of Show awards recognize innovation and excellence in new, recently introduced and pending products and services for professional TV/video, radio/audio and AV products and solutions.
Winners were selected by panels of professional users and magazine and site editors.
The winning products were (in alphabetical order):
Adobe – Premiere Pro Enhance Speech
Clear-Com – Gen-IC Cloud Managed Virtual Intercom Service
Sennheiser – MKH 8030
Shure – SLX-D Digital Wireless family
Sound Devices – A20-SuperNexus
Voyage Audio – Spatial Mic Dante
The following is unedited promotional information on each of the winning products, as provided by the manufacturers.
Adobe Premiere Pro Enhance Speech
The latest Adobe Premiere Pro innovations are making audio editing faster, easier and more intuitive than ever — saving experienced professionals valuable time while enabling newcomers to quickly access the tools they need.
Earlier in 2024, as part of a major audio editing workflow update, Adobe Premiere Pro launched a new AI-powered feature, Enhance Speech, which instantly removes unwanted noise and improves poorly recorded dialogue – making it sound like your audio was recorded in a professional studio – all in a single click.
Enhance Speech within Premiere Pro has been optimized to perform locally on your machine, allowing you to run Enhance Speech on an unlimited number of clips.
How it works
- Select an audio clip containing dialogue on the timeline.
- Open the Essential Sound panel and select Enhance to start the analysis.
A progress bar will appear in the Essential Sound panel to give an estimate of how long it will take to enhance the selected audio clip. This task occurs in the background, so you can continue your editing workflow while the speech gets enhanced.
After the process is complete, the audio will be much clearer and the speech much more distinct, improving the overall quality of your dialogue recordings.
Mix Amount control
Depending on the situation and specific clip, you may want more or less enhancement. With Mix Amount control, you can adjust the amount of enhancement you want to use by dragging the slider to the left or right.
Clear-Com Gen-IC Cloud Managed Virtual Intercom Service
Gen-IC from Clear-Com is a Cloud Managed Virtual Intercom service enabling real-time partyline workflows without the need for intercom hardware. Simple to deploy, configure and manage, Gen-IC is scalable for both small and large teams while also providing a wide range of connectivity to existing on-site intercom systems.
Gen-IC is securely available worldwide over the public internet and cellular networks and backed by Clear-Com’s pioneering experience and customer support.
Sennheiser MKH 8030 condenser microphone
The long-awaited Sennheiser MKH 8030 figure-of-eight RF condenser microphone unlocks M-S, double M-S, and Blumlein stereo recording options for the recording professional. The MKH 8030 is also a great choice wherever the highest attenuation of neighboring sound sources is required – be it a PA system whose sound needs to be eliminated or an adjacent instrument that must not be picked up.
The extremely compact 8030 is ideal for field recording, sports and general broadcasting, theatres, orchestra recordings and studio music, and its sound signature has been carefully engineered to blend in harmoniously with the sound of the other MKH 8000 series microphones.
Naturally, the MKH 8030 shares the qualities of the MKH 8000 family. Their RF condenser principle with the unique symmetrical push-pull transducer endows the MKH 8000 series microphones with a combination of advantages that can only be found in this series.
These include remarkable sensitivity paired with durability in adverse climatic conditions, a fully floating, balanced output signal, extended low and high-frequency response (30 to 50,000 Hz), extremely low inherent self-noise, and a natural, coherent sound image with no off-axis coloration. These features will enable sound recordists and engineers to capture natural sound of the highest quality and detail.
Shure SLX-D Digital Wireless family
Shure’s expanded SLX-D Digital Wireless family includes SLX-D Portable Systems, SLXD5 Portable Digital Wireless Receiver and SLXD3 Plug-On Digital Wireless Transmitter. With SLX-D Portables, end-users will experience the scalability, high-performance wireless, superior digital audio, reliable RF performance, and convenient power management of SLX-D, in a new form factor. The new SLX-D Portable Systems are designed specifically for film, electronic newsgathering (ENG), broadcast, and video industries.
The SLXD5 Portable Single-Channel Digital Wireless Receiver can be installed on-camera through the provided cold shoe mount as well as in an audio bag, enabling full-featured use in any location. With IR Sync, users can easily pair receivers to transmitters for instant single-channel configuration. For higher channel counts, SLXD5 includes Multi-Mic Mode, which facilitates easy deployment and monitoring of multiple sound sources from a single receiver.
The SLXD3 Plug-On Digital Wireless Transmitter transforms any XLR source into a wireless transmitter—including dynamic and condenser microphones. The SLXD3 provides phantom power and is ideal for wireless transmission from boom-mounted shotgun mics. Paired with the SM63L or SM58® (available separately), SLXD3 makes for the perfect handheld interview microphone.
When operating portable systems, users need high-quality and clear audio regardless of audience, location, or production. With SLX-D Portables, users are not required to change the gain setting on their transmitter, which saves time and simplifies the path to clear audio. The portable systems achieve this with 24-bit digital audio and >118db dynamic range, expanding the sound experience of the SLX-D Wireless platform to mobile productions.
SLX-D Portables also provide ease of use and reliability in unpredictable production conditions. It features worry-free UHF-band RF performance – 32 channels per 44MHz band and 330-feet (100-meter) transmission range – along with excellent spectral efficiency for flawless audio quality everywhere, every time. When paired with Shure’s SM63L or SM58® (available separately), SLXD3 transforms into the perfect interview microphone.
Additionally, both SLXD3 and SLXD5 feature high-luminosity OLED screens where users can monitor battery life, meter audio and RF quality, as well as frequency tuning. It is compatible with the full ecosystem of rechargeable Shure accessories, including the SB903 Lithium-Ion battery and accompanying charging bays. Both SLXD5 and SLXD3 can be powered and charged by USB-C. SLXD5 Portable Digital Wireless Receivers are available starting at $379, and SLXD3 Plug-On Digital Wireless Transmitters are available starting at $349.
Sound Devices A20-SuperNexus
The A20-SuperNexus packs unprecedented features and up to 32 channels in just a 1U 19” rack, something no other comparable product on the market today can do. The newest member of the Sound Devices Astral® wireless family – which includes the A20-Nexus receiver, winner of a MIX Magazine’s NAB 2023 Best in Show Award – the A20-SuperNexus is the future of RF.
The A20-SuperNexus is a 16-channel receiver with HexVersity® (2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-antenna diversity), that can be expanded to 24 or 32 channels, all with HexVersity, via software licenses – no additional hardware required.
Perfect for global tours or traveling abroad for on-location shoots, the A20-SuperNexus receiver offers an unrivaled 169-1525 MHz tuning range for worldwide operation – no need to have multiple receivers for different regions. Its RF Mirror Mode for full redundant operation delivers peace of mind. The A20-SuperNexus receiver features native Dante, MADI, AES, and Analog outputs. Utilizing Sound Devices’ proprietary SpectraBand technology, the receiver has three tuning bands for a total of ~72 MHz of operating bandwidth for transmitters.
Companion products to the A20-SuperNexus receiver, the A20-Opto-ST and A20-Opto-HMA expansion boxes add additional Optocore audio inputs and outputs and full redundant power supplies, allowing for even more capabilities.
With A20-SuperNexus, all these features fit into a 1U 19” rack – you can travel the world with a carry-on-sized audio system.
Voyage Audio Spatial Mic Dante
The Voyage Audio Spatial Mic Dante is a unique microphone that meets the growing demand for immersive Spatial Audio and Audio Over IP (AOIP) ready devices. At home in a wide range of applications — from recording studios to live broadcast and proven at high-profile events like the Big Game — it seamlessly delivers high-quality audio feeds for head-mounted AR/VR devices, surround sound systems, and stereo playback. Featuring an array of eight low-noise microphone capsules, digital output and the ability for real-time adjustment of polar patterns from the MicNet Control app, Spatial Mic Dante represents a significant advancement in audio technology.
With built-in Dante audio networking and Power over Ethernet (PoE), the microphone’s small form factor allows for discreet camera mounting. Spatial Mic Dante significantly reduces costs and simplifies setup by eliminating the need for large multi-microphone arrays, time alignment, analog cables, multi-channel microphone preamps and conversion.
Using the included Voyage Audio software tools, you can transform and aim the unprocessed capsule array output in mono, stereo, 2nd order Ambisonics and Surround Sound up to 7.1.4 ATMOS. The transformation is accomplished either in a DAW using the included Spatial Mic Converter Plugin or inside the mic itself using the MicNet Control app. MicNet Control remotely configures the mic’s embedded processor and allows you to adjust settings like gain and output format in real time while monitoring audio signal levels from the mic.
Highlighting the demand for Spatial Mic Dante, let’s look at how it was used at the recent Big Game in Las Vegas. A1 audio engineer for CBS Sports and two-time Emmy winner Matt Coppedge was able to greatly simplify his setup by networking multiple mics together, ensuring comprehensive coverage at each of the major sets. Using the MicNet Control app remotely in a broadcast truck, he configured the mics for Surround Decoding mode, providing realism to the ambient broadcast audio mix.
One of the mics was set so the audio matched the camera shots and would track as players moved by the microphone. In the past, a setup like this could take upwards of 6 discrete analog microphones. Now this task can be mic’d up with Spatial Mic Dante and be ready to go in a few minutes with the ability to be quickly re-positioned and controlled remotely.
Spatial Mic Dante’s durable construction and versatile mounting options have been proven at other major events, like the SEC college football season, demonstrating resilience against weather elements and ensuring high-quality audio throughout the events. During live broadcasts like this, Coppedge often uses the virtual mic output to aim virtual mic polar patterns, helping to balance the mix from the marching bands and fans.
Spatial Mic Dante paves the way for the future of audio capture, adapting to evolving standards and technologies like ATMOS, Ambisonics and MPEG-H. Its success in diverse settings, from broadcast sports to the precision required in studio recordings, showcases its unparalleled versatility as the go-to immersive microphone for professionals seeking to capture audio with unmatched clarity and realism.
