How We Recorded Our 2025 NAB Show Interviews

Last week, I wrote about the gear we planned to use to record over 60 interviews at the 2025 NAB Show. (Read it here.)

This week, I have a behind-the-scenes look at what we did and how it worked. Surprisingly, it worked really well!

NOTE: And this article describes what I learned as I edited these interviews in DaVinci Resolve 19.

When I got to the trade show floor, three days before the show opened, this was our booth. Yup, if we were any further in the back of South Lower Hall, we’d be in the parking lot. There was LOTS of space around us.

Fortunately, we were in a 20′ x 10′ island, which gave us maximum flexibility for placing cameras and getting shots that showed people moving in the background, rather than constrained by the walls of a booth.

The day before the show opened, Chris Ruedy and his van, filled with a seemingly unlimited amount of grip equipment arrived. (“Grip” refers to any equipment that isn’t powered, used to hold stuff, or shape light. Stands, flags, scrims, camera dollies… are all grip equipment.)

Tall, cushy chairs and a high table were supplied by our sponsor, Axle AI.

The problem with any trade show is that all light comes from the ceiling and creates shadows that are beyond harsh. So Chris built a “ceiling” for our booth using opaque flags to block all overhead light.

We then added two Lume Cube panel lights as key lights. (They are on the right side of this image.) The lights are fairly large, controllably bright, and fairly soft, though we added some diffusion to soften shadows even more.

Here’s what it looked like when we were done. The two lights are lit. Because we blocked all overhead light, we could keep light levels down, which increased our depth of field and made our guests look great.

While we were building the set, adding lights and cameras, Laura Peters was prepping paperwork for guests. Since I first started recording interviews decades ago, I have made it a point to get all guests to sign release forms. While everyone knows they will be on camera and the video will be posted to the web, there’s no harm in getting formal permission – and lots of benefits to having it.

Part of my prep, in the weeks before the show, was inviting and scheduling guests. As part of this, I built a spreadsheet with all their contact information. One of the uses of this was to create custom release forms with their data filled in on the front.

Then, on the back of each release, I wrote a set of “standard” questions that I wanted to ask everyone, plus specific questions relevant to that person or company. While I didn’t ask all of these questions, they were a helpful prompt for when my brain failed.

NOTE: I never share questions with guests ahead of time. It makes their answers stilted. So, we made sure they never saw the back side of the release.

Almost immediately after we began, I asked to have the guest’s first name written on the back of the release at the top of the list of questions. After about six interviews, I couldn’t remember my own name, much less the guest’s. So, this helped me remember who I was talking with.

Here’s the audio gear in use – the Mackie mixer, my computer recording separate channel audio using Adobe Audition, and an iPad running a timing clock so I would know when to end the interview.

I recorded each mic to its own channel in Adobe Audition, then just my mic on my camera and the complete mix on the guest camera. Just in case. In editing, I replaced the guest’s mix with the iso recording from Audition so I had iso audio on each camera for final editing and mixing. I couldn’t use multicam editing due to audio limitations in Resolve. All audio was manually synced, something that I want to avoid in the future.

Audio gear and my laptop were set on a tall, metal table covered with a black drape. All audio equipment was wired, which prevented any problems with Bluetooth or RF in a trade show hall awash with both.

Blocked by my computer, but heavily used, was a PreSonus HP4 headset amp. We fed seven audio destinations with this system:

• Host headset
• Guest headset
• Computer – via USB
• Camera 1
• Camera 2
• Laura, for social media monitoring
• PR, for PR reps or others from the company to listen in.

Here’s the view from behind my camera. As this shot was taken, I was recording intros for some of my videos. (The camera I’m talking to is blocked by this camera’s monitor.)

Not visible to me or the guest, was a SmallHD monitor with dual inputs, one from each camera. This gave Laura and any PR/company people a view of the interview. This was invaluable because, given the noise of the trade show, it was impossible to hear the interview without headphones.

Once everything was setup, the interviews began. Here, I’m interviewing Larry O’Connor, CEO of OWC. Interviews were scheduled every 20 minutes and each ran 10-14 minutes. We managed to stay mostly on time for all three days.

Oh! See that big sign with my photo on the far side of the table? That was there so that whenever someone took a photo of a guest being interviewed, that sign clearly identified where they were and who they were with. However, I will confess, that seeing that image out of the corner of my eye during every interview felt like someone was about to walk into our booth and interrupt.

The location of our booth provided clean sight lines down two busy aisles, so we always had an interesting background; kept purposefully soft by reducing the lighting intensity, opening the camera iris and reducing the depth of field. Plus, these soft lights made everyone look good.

UPDATE: The first night, I simply copied the camera cards from MicroSD cards to a Samsung T9 (2 TB) SSD. Then, after talking with Paul Lombert of Hedge, we switched to using OffShoot for verified copies and the ability to transfer files to multiple destinations. For additional security, I bought a second Samsung T9 (2 TB) SSD to make duplicate copies every night after we were done shooting.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Unlike past years, this time everything worked great. I was assisted by a great team in Laura and Chris. Guests arrived on time, interviews were solid and all the gear worked as I hoped.

I really like the Mackie mixer, and those sE electronics preamps are magical. They made the Audio-Technica headsets sound great with level to spare and no distortion. I was truly stunned the first time I heard them – they are simply amazing for dynamic mics. (They don’t work with condenser mics, however.)

Laura did an outstanding job greeting and prepping guests, along with the associated paperwork. While I mixed audio and conducted the interviews, Chris handled all lighting and camera work. I never needed to worry about either of them.

I learned so much in these interviews and I’m editing them as quickly as I can to share them with you. It was a good time, with good gear, and good people.

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