A Great Team to Introduce Our Award Winners

Ron Lindeboom CreativeCOW.net Paso Robles California USA ©2010 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

The Blue Ribbon awards give a great community a chance to express its opinion.

Our leaders, writers, and members -- the ones who decided our Blue Ribbon winners -- had clear and decisive opinions regarding the stand-out winners and it is from them that we have drawn our contest's "voice." The COW's administrative and production team didn't get a say in this. We deferred to you and your opinions.

As NAB unfolded, few seemed ready as Blackmagic rolled-out the $995 software-only Da- Vinci Resolve for Mac. Talk about shock and awe! But the real news was that the new $20,000 fully equipped hardware DaVinci Resolve was replacing a system that less than a year ago sold for many many times more. Welcome to 2010!

DaVinci was an easy pick for a Blue Ribbon -- like picking Led Zeppelin as the new band most likely to succeed in 1969 music polls -- but others were not so obvious. Our members ferreted out the gems among the seemingly endless offerings clamoring for attention in the noise and tumult of the show's sensorially-overloaded showfloor.

This issue is full of their findings and we couldn't have a better bunch of writers in this issue to help guide our readers. Each is a consummate pro in their field, and their opinions and feedback bring our readers a level of expertise that would be unimaginable without the interaction of millions of people online. (As I have said for the last couple of decades, the Internet is a communication boon that surpasses even that of the printing press. )

I'd like to close out this issue with a word of thanks to all of the writers, contributors, and members who took the time to express themselves and what they liked best about this year's NAB Show.

It was great to work with Richard Harrington, who helped coordinate live show reports for our Twitter feed, and whose enthusiasm is always aweinspiring.

He helped teach our leaders to log-in ususing their mobile devices and feed their reports to users live from the floor. Richard, you are The Man!

We'd also like to thank Gary Adcock for his Camera Round-Up report. Gary is one of the most energetic, classy and truly professional guys in this industry and having him as one of our key Creative COW leaders is an honor.

Gary is also a friend of the man whom we met when launching our Creative COW Foundation grant program with the American Film Institute, Bob Primes ASC. Bob takes our readers inside a torture test of DSLR cameras and gives the verdict. How does the test end? You'll have to read it. Thank you, Bob. Great report, and we couldn't be more honored to include it for our readers.

Steven Bradford is a man whom I met many years ago through his "The Bluescreen Page," one of the most respected online resources back in the mid-90s. His report on 3D at NAB 2010 is the most comprehensive we've ever seen published anywhere -- oh, and don't tell Steven that 3D is a fad, he's been doing it professionally for nearly 20 years now. Thank you, Steven, for your report.

I'll never forget when Bob Zelin first started coming around the COW many years ago, Kathlyn said, "There's a guy who's telling people he's going to slap them around or eat them if they don't listen. We need to get rid of him." When I saw that it was Bob Zelin, I told her, "Man, Zelin is coming to the COW? This means it's working!" She looked at me as if I were crazy. But Bob is a pro's pro and I nearly always agree with him. I'm no fool, I don't want to be "Zelinized" -- even if he has had his shots.

Thank you all. I know I've used the word a lot, but it truly is an honor to have worked with you all on this issue -- and Tim, as ever, you were amazing.