Is it on the other side of the world? Yes. But is it also worth the time and effort? Also yes! NAB NY provides a unique experience for vMix to exhibit in the world’s biggest media market. It’s a small show in comparison to NAB Las Vegas, IBC, Infocomm and ISE but there’s probably a higher percentage of lead engineers, head producers and what they’d describe as “decision makers” at NAB NY. It’s also a good opportunity for us to connect with people on the East Coast that may not head out to the desert in Las Vegas. Due to the location it’s also quite the trip over from the Gold Coast and usually entails over 24 hours of travel door to door. Small price to pay for easy access to $2 cheese pizza slices.

NAB NY 2026 was a bit of a last minute trip as it’s more beneficial if we can line up multiple events or site visits at the same time. After IBC we had a few things to do in NY so we committed to the show and then worked on the logistics! That obviously (most importantly) involves designing and printing mousepads, organising a backdrop and then working out what equipment to take/procure. In the past we have purchased gear from B+H or Best Buy and then walked it down to the Javits Center. I really don’t enjoy lugging boxes multiple blocks through NY or on the subway. We talked about it and decided we could totally just take everything from Australia. Only being there for a week, I could afford to spare some extra room and weight to back all of the gear! Well minus the mousepads of course! That was a fun adventure in itself. I had bought them from a NY based print shop but when I went to pick them up on the arranged date…they hadn’t arrived yet! So I took the backdrop and stickers to the Javits only to receive an email when I arrived that the mousepads were there now! So back across town I went with my suitcase ready to hit the subway and bring them all back. It was then I also realised that in order to get suitcases through the turnstiles in the subway, you need to set aside the suitcase, pay and enter then use the side emergency exit! Lesson learned!

Equipment

Now to the equipment. We had most of the gear in the office so I was set for most of it-

  • Lenovo 15.3″ Legion 5i Gaming Laptop Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, RTX5070, 32Gb Ram
  • Stream Deck Mini
  • OBSBot Tiny 3
  • OBSBot Tiny 2- which I didn’t end up using as I decided to use a wired mouse and ran out of USB ports. I considered taking a hub but ended up not taking one.

What we ended up buying to take over-

  • 2x 22inch UPERFECT touchscreen monitors that we connected via USB-C. We decided that it would be a good way to demonstrate all the touchscreen capabilities of the vMix interface and MultiView. They weren’t cheap but we knew we’d be able to use the again.
  • 320W USB power brick to power the monitors

Again, we probably should have used a Thunderbolt hub so we had space for an additional USB webcam alongside the monitors but 1 camera worked fine for the show. The monitors also support HDMI but we wanted the touchscreen capabilities.

Thoughts, feelings etc.

Overall it worked well for us as a portable tradeshow production setup. Being able to pack it all in a regular suitcase and send it to the other side of the world was super handy! All of screen real estate allowed me to show the interface at a larger scale and demo the MultiView/Output. There was a slight issue with cable management though! As everything was USB C there were cables all over the desk. The video USB-C cables that came with the monitors were SUPER short so I’d probably replace those with something much longer. I’d maybe have a stand or something where I could hide all of cables. Aside from that, it worked well, people don’t always consider vMix can be 100% touchscreen! A lot of people have also never seen the mini ptz OBSBOTs and how good they can look, so it’s cool to be able to introduce people to them.

It’s great to be able to chat in person to people. I sit in an office on the other side of the world for most of the year, so being able to hear real-world stories, use cases and pain points is invaluable for us. See you at the next show!