[BC] A review of the Roadshow

Tue Jul 5 20:53:15 CDT 2005

The responses relating to my initial inquiry into Larry Bloomfield's Taste of NAB Roadshow did not convince me to travel to the closest location. Some said that it was my loss.

I just watched the streamed presentation of Bloomfield's "presentation" to the Miami SBE chapter. First, I want to thank FIU for streaming that program. You provided a great service. Unfortunately, I have lost more than two hours of my life to sit through the webcast.

Because these lists are forums for the open exchange of information, I would like to share my observations about this "educational" event.

The presentation included 15 minutes about Larry's life story, 20 minutes for an overview of the various professional organizations (SBE, SMPTE, AES), 5 minutes on the Order of the Iron Test Pattern, 3 minutes on the proliferation of translators, and about 100 minutes for the tables of equipment.

During the presentation I learned the following:

- I learned about Larry's life history.

- Larry once wrote for Broadcast Engineering.

- Larry likes to read in the toilet, and according to him broadcast engineers only have time to read in the toilet.

- He knows Connie Chung and Brent Musberger.

- Larry knows basic electronics.

- Larry taught in Guam.

- Staying abreast of technology is important. (Mr. Obvious)

- Larry was displeased with the Portland, OR, chapter so he formed the Eugene, OR, chapter.

- Your wife says that you should keep your mouth shut.

- The Eugene chapter is seeing some success.

- If you're not an SBE member, Larry will guilt you or shame you into joining.

- Larry met Admiral Nimitz.

- Commercial broadcasting's sole purpose is to deliver households to advertisers. (How obvious!)

- An EMP surge will take out electrical equipment. (more of the obvious)

- Sundance doesn't send CDs with its catalog to the roadshow. Sundance has a modern phone system that will route service calls to the next available person.

- Larry does not have the software to change the time on his ESE clock. This tells me that ESE equipment is hard to use because Larry, by his own admission, is not stupid.

- Larry has bought a lot of ESE distribution amps. (That's not a sales pitch?)

- Connie Chung is a sweet lady.

I did not learn anything about technology during this presentation. I saw descriptions of equipment. If you consider walking the show floor at a convention an educational experience, I question your definition of educational.

Larry says that this program is not a sales pitch. He doesn't mention prices, but he sure pushes the products he shows. The entire presentation was about how great the products being shown are.

I never heard, "Let's talk about proper distribution of analog and digital signals." Instead, I heard, "Let's talk about ESE. Take your picture with your ESE equipment and you will get a polo shirt. ESE makes excellent clocks."

About Sundance Digital: "I don't know of a better automation system." That sounds like a sales pitch to me.

"Omneon is an amazing company. I would buy one of their servers if I were looking to buy one." How is this not a sales pitch?

About In Phase Technologies: "The greatest thing since the cat's pajamas." Superlative statements such as this reek of sales pitch to me. You could not explain how it actually works, saying that you could not get past chapter one of the book. It would have been nice for you to learn the technology so that you could educate me during your "educational" program.

Teach me about measuring and verifying DTV signals, don't tell me that the Leader unit is really great, that Leader sells products and how the people that work for Leader are really nice. Teach me about holographic storage technology, don't tell me that you can't comprehend it.

I received a full-on pitch for the Tektronix equipment. Granted, the presentation was turned over to the Tektronix sales rep. How is this not a sales pitch?

Larry states that managers should send at least one person to the conventions, and that managers who do not are stupid. Why is he telling this to the engineers? Tell it to the managers.

Mr Bloomfield, you provided a great deal of information. Some was general info, some was marketing. (All of it was already know to me -- because I read the trade publications (but not when I'm sitting on the toilet) and attend conventions.) Overall, it's too much. There is no prime focus that I could see. In general, much of what you say seemed to wander. May I suggest that you find a way to tie everything to the goal of the presentation. You state that the goal is education. I disagree. I saw a sales pitch without prices. 

You have sponsors to pay your costs to present this program. With any presentation there is a need to pay the piper, but do that separately from the education content. In this case, there was not educational content. It was all sales.

Ron

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