Tech With Mike First – News and analysis of emerging media and graphics technologies and products.

IBC 2026 Announcements

Mike McCarthy September 14, 2026 No Comments

The International Broadcasters Conference is happening in Amsterdam this week. Unlike my annual trips to Vegas for NAB nearly every year, I have never actually been to the event in Amsterdam. But occupying the opposite end of the calendar from NAB, this is the other time when most video technology related companies announce or release their new products, so there are always lots of things to check out and learn about during this time period. I always try to track these updates and announcements from afar, and these are the ones that stood out to me this year.
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My Experience at NAB 2026

Mike McCarthy April 23, 2026 1 Comment

I spent Sunday and Monday at the NAB conference in Las Vegas. (That is how I recommend seeing it, the conference is too big to see it all in one day, but four days in Vegas can drain your soul;) I saw all sorts of interesting things in the exhibition halls, many of which I detailed in my earlier article. I attended alone, instead as part of a larger team, but after 20 years of trade shows, I am constantly running into familiar faces, some of whom I only see at the show. There were apparently 58K other people there, but nearly half were first time attenders. I spent most of my time in North Hall, which is focused on software applications, and the computers that run them. West Hall is mostly enterprise and cloud based workflows, and Central Hall is where all of the production gear and other hardware is on display.

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NAB 2026 Announcements

Mike McCarthy April 20, 2026 No Comments

This year’s NAB Conference is being held in the North, Central, and West Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, from Sunday to Wednesday of this week. After spending a day perusing the show floor, these are the things that stood out to me, which people may want to go further explore on their own if they have the opportunity. Most of these booths can be found in North Hall, but the camera companies (Sony, Red, GoPro, Panasonic, etc.) are all in Central Hall. If you are not attending the show in person, much of the same info can be found online, but there is some value is seeing and feeling things in person, and talking face to face with the people who create and support the products you use.
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Adobe releases Premiere and After Effects 2026

Mike McCarthy January 20, 2026 No Comments

Adobe has finally released the 2026 versions of Premiere and After Effects. I say ‘finally’ tongue in cheek because we are only 3 weeks into 2026, but historically they have released the new versions the preceding October, as part of MAX. This year the release coincides with Adobe’s presence at the Sundance film festival in Park City Utah, where a vast majority of the entries were created using their Creative Cloud products. I have no problem with the shift in release date, but it is good to know when to expect it. The other welcome change is the dropping of the ‘PRO’ from the ‘Premiere Pro’ name. Now it will, once again, be known just as ‘Adobe Premiere,’ like it was until 2003. I for one can appreciate the simplicity, and the lack of pretension. There are a number of new features in both Premiere and After Effects that are worth mentioning.
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Adobe Firefly Video Updates

Mike McCarthy December 30, 2025 No Comments

I have been playing with Adobe Firefly more the last few months, ever since Adobe MAX, inspired by some of the things I learned there. I have learned a number of interesting things from that experience, and Adobe has introduced a number of new features recently that are worth noting. The main things that have been recently added are Topaz’s generative up-res for video, and Runway’s Gen 4.5 video model.
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My Experience at Adobe MAX 2025

Mike McCarthy November 4, 2025 No Comments

I attended Adobe MAX at the LA Convention Center last week. This is my 6th time at MAX, and it has been interesting to see the event evolve over the years. This year’s primary focus was clearly on AI tools, both Generative AI, and AI agents. I had used Adobe’s existing Firefly tools to a limited degree over the past year or two, but never really dove into them, which I do intend to do now that they have matured so much in the most recent release.
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Adobe Shows Off New AI Tools at MAX

Mike McCarthy October 31, 2025 No Comments

Adobe’s creativity conference MAX took place at the LA Convention Center this week. This is the event that launches the next generation of Creative Cloud applications every year, and ten thousand users from all over converge at MAX to learn about the new tools that are being released. The main event ran Tuesday to Thursday, with the Tuesday morning Keynote presentation broadcast across the internet with all of the main announcements.
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IBC 2025

Mike McCarthy September 15, 2025 No Comments

The International Broadcasting Conference is being held in Amsterdam this week, which brings with it a variety of exciting announcements and new products. I do not travel to Europe for the show, but I do keep an eye on the various news and updates that happen there. These are just a few of the ones that stood out to me the most, or are relevant to my projects and workflows.
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Adobe Generative AI-Firefly Video

Mike McCarthy February 12, 2025 No Comments

Adobe has been working on their generative AI initiatives under the Firefly brand for a couple years now, with ongoing improvements and integrations. It started with cloud based image generation in 2023, and grew to include vector and design generation, and now video generation. It also added direct integration in Photoshop for image generation, which works pretty impressively at this point, and they are beginning integration to Premiere Pro with Generative Extend in the current beta application. But their broader AI generated video tools have only been in limited beta form until now.
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NVidia’s new Blackwell based GeForce 5080

Mike McCarthy January 29, 2025 No Comments

NVidia announced their new generation of GPUs at the beginning of this year, at CES in Las Vegas. The first of those “Blackwell” architecture based cards are now hitting the market, starting with the top end 5090, and the second tier 5080, which I have had the opportunity to test. The next steps down, the 5070 and 5070 Ti, will be available in February. The new Blackwell cards are the first to support PCIe 5.0, for faster interface with the host system, and DDR7 for greater memory bandwidth and lower power consumption. NVidia also announced laptop versions of the Blackwell lineup, which should be coming soon as well.
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