The show “Reaching for the Stars: Connecting to the Future with NASA and Hollywood” will go live April 26 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Directly from the International Space Station (ISS)!

It’s a first for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and it will help us understand and experience how advanced imaging and cloud technologies are taking scientific research and filmmaking to the next level. The first-ever live 4K video stream from 250 miles above Earth will be encoded AWS Elemental encoding software on board the International Space Station (ISS) and on the ground at Johnson Space Center.

The panel is co-produced by NAB Show, NASA, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The US space agency is a pioneer in the application of advanced media – including 4K. By streaming real-time video that captures images four times the resolution of current HD technology, NASA is enhancing its ability to observe, uncover and adapt new knowledge of orbital and deep space.

During the NAB Show Super Session, a live 4K stream will enable NASA astronaut Dr. Peggy Whitson on the ISS to converse with AWS Elemental CEO and Co-founder Sam Blackman, who will be at the LVCC. In conjunction with the live 4K streaming event, NASA astronaut Dr. Tracy Caldwell Dyson and NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager Rodney Grubbs will take part in an LVCC-based panel discussion featuring Hollywood and technology leaders including Bernadette McDaid, head of development, VR & AR, Bau Entertainment; Khawaja Shams, vice president of Engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dr. Dave McQueeney, senior principal investigator, IBM Watson Group. The panel will be moderated by Carolyn Giardina, Technology Editor for the Hollywood Reporter.

The entire event will be available to the public for multiscreen viewing in live 4K and down-converted high-definition (HD) video at live.awsevents.com. A video-on-demand (VOD) asset will be available after the event in lower resolutions on the NASA TV Channel and in both HD and 4K at live.awsevents.com. 4K-capable devices will be required to view 4K content. AWS Elemental will deliver the live stream of the event via an AWS workflow that includes AWS CloudWatch, Amazon Route 53, and the Amazon CloudFront Content Delivery Network (CDN) for public access in both 4K and HD. Roberts Communications Network LLC of Las Vegas, NV is providing the satellite downlink truck for the transmission from Johnson Space Center to the LVCC. Christie is providing full-resolution 4K projectors for in-room display during the Super Session.

Attendees will learn how:

• 4K and Ultra HD (UHD) give NASA scientists a clearer, crisper view of their experiments, Earth, and the solar system.
• Live 4K video will help take research to the next level and allow NASA scientists to share discoveries as they are happening – instead of after the fact.
• The powerful, first-ever live 4K streaming, cloud-enabled workflow from space works and how it can help commercial space endeavors and content creation.
• Hollywood and NASA inspire one another and the fascinating, surprising outcomes of this decades-long collaboration.