The annual National Association of Broadcasters or NAB is just a few days away. Rumors have been spreading across the internet like wildfire. The first was the Supermeet.com and CPUG announcement that showed Marc-Andre Ferguson was going to show a “super secret” presentation at the Supermeet. This was later titled “Smoke is changing. Everything.” The rest of the description said we could be the first to see “new technology that connects effects and editing like never before.”

Another blog claimed to have inside knowledge of the changes in Smoke. Ryan Salazar says the news is “AWESOME” and “INCREDIBLE” and that it makes Smoke a “Must See/Must Have”.

Autodesk recently updated their NAB2012 webpage on The Area, with a visual tease of the Smoke announcement. So if you can’t make it to Las Vegas to see it in person, you can check out the big reveal online at The-Area. Not only will you see the big changes to Smoke, but you can also see all of the other presentations that Autodesk will be doing for Flame Premium, Maya, and the Entertainment Creation Suites. I have always enjoyed these live streaming events when I couldn’t attend in person. Check it out the schedule of events when the convention kicks off on April 16th.

If you do a bit more digging on the web, you might run across SmokeisChanging.com. So if you are lucky enough to be attending NAB, and can’t wait until the doors open on Monday. You can register for a preview event at Dream Vision Studios on Sunday, the day before the show.

There is a lot of hype and buzz being generated about this announcement. I won’t go into what people are speculating about, mainly because… I can’t. I guess I can say that I will be helping out at the Autodesk Booth (#SL3315) showing and demoing this new version of Smoke. So I have seen it. And I have actually worked with it. Now I don’t have all the details, as Autodesk is still keeping things close, but from what I have seen and what I know, this will be a big deal to anyone who is still on the fence about which direction they want to take their editing and post-production.

Make sure you see the how Autodesk Smoke is changing. Everything. It’s an announcement that will raise some eyebrows and turn some heads. If you thought that your editing choices were limited to Avid or Adobe or a few others. Then you will be stunned to see what Autodesk has waiting to unveil. Personally, I think it’s awesome. As someone who has been editing on Smoke for years, and actually cutting creatively, I know that Smoke has always been a very good system for creative editorial. But the Autodesk systems like Smoke and Flame have always been more known for their fabulous visual effects tools and abilities. So what will this new changed version of Smoke bring to the editing and post community? We will soon see.