>> Live from Las Vegas it's The Cube covering NAB 2017. Brought to you by HGST. >> Welcome back to The Cube. We are live at NAB 2017. I'm Lisa Martin. Very, very excited, kind of geeking out right now to be joined by our next two guests. Sam Blackman, the co-founder and CEO of AWS Elemental, welcome to The Cube. >> Sam: Thank you so much. >> And we have NASA astronaut, Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Both of you, welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you. >> Today has been a very historic day for technology and space. This was the first ever live 4k video stream that happened between you on Earth, Sam, and Doctor Peggy Whitson, aboard the International Space Station. >> Sam: Yes. >> Wow. Tell us about that. >> It was truly amazing to be part of history and the amount of technology that came into play to make this possible. You know, sitting in the conference room in NAB in the middle of Las Vegas, seeing astronauts 250 miles ahead, going around the Earth, 17,000 miles an hour and a seamless, beautiful 4k picture. It was mind blowing. Hard to believe it's happened still. >> I can't even imagine. I'm getting goosebumps for you. Tell us some of the things that Dr. Whitson shared about her experiences. What was the interaction like? >> Well, Commander Whitson and Colonel Fisher was also in the interview and that guy is hilarious, by the way. >> Yeah, he is. >> He is hilarious. They talked about how advanced imaging technology really helps NASA perform experiments and bring experiments that are happening on the space station down to Earth for researchers to use that data and discover how the world works inside the universe. Some of the really interesting examples revolved around some experiments they showed. With thin film technology they had a very small, metallic structure that they could pull water out of and then corral that water, convert it into a spherical shape and in the 4k resolution, you could just see every element of that thin film in a way that looked like it was right next to us. I mean, it was transformative. >> Tracy: Yeah. >> I bet it was. Well, speaking of transformative, this was, I mentioned, a really historic event for a number of reasons. Obviously, for those of us on the ground, for AWS Elemental. But, Tracy, from your perspective, you've been in space for 188... I had it here somewhere, hours. >> Yeah, days. >> You've been on STS118, you've been on the Soyuz to the station on expeditions 23 and 24. What does this capability now mean in the life of an astronaut? >> I think what it does is it helps us bring the experience to everybody here on Earth. It is so hard to capture what we are not just seeing, but experiencing. The richness, the detail, the vividness of the colors and how they're changing are all a part of looking at our beautiful planet. And just from that alone, being able to bring that to the American people, the world, really, is, I think to me a great relief. Because it grieves me to think about how in the world I would describe this beautiful, magnificent view to everybody back home. >> I can imagine. You've done extra-vehicular space walks. >> Tracy: Yes. >> And I can imagine it's indescribable. >> It is. And from the fact you're looking at our planet from 250 miles above, you see the curvature of the Earth, you see it moving at a super high speed, you don't feel the wind in your face, but there's no doubt you're traveling very fast. Just the fact that you are out in the vacuum of space. If you could bring parts of that experience to people back home ... I'm excited to think about how that would transform just the way people think, not to mention the way that they act towards our planet. >> I also think inspiration ... We were talking before we went on that you were about 14 when the Challenger incident happened, we all kind of remember exactly where we were, and that really, a teacher being in space was so inspirational to you. Can you imagine shifting the conversation and what this technology is able to do inspiring the next generation of people that want to be the next Tracy Caldwell Dyson? >> Well, I think what the technology does today, especially in imaging capabilities, is it provides so much more detail than I could even describe. That a young person today watching that, and our generation today is so visual, that they're going to pick up on things that I wouldn't even think to describe to them. And it's going to capture their imagination in ways that are astounding. Compared to I, who, just the sheer knowledge of knowing there was a teacher that was going into space, propelled me to work really hard. I can only imagine what this generation's going to be capable of because of the images that we're bringing to them. >> It's so exciting. Sam, this is really kind of the tip of the iceberg. From AWS Elemental's perspective, first of all, you just had a rebrand. But what does this mean for the future of the video ecosystem? >> Well, I think it really shows you how the technology components came come together to create unbelievable pictures no matter where you are on the planet or in space. We had a live 4k encoder on the space station itself sending down signals to Johnson Space Center, then Johnson Space Center sending redundant links to Las Vegas, here, and the convention center. And then processing the video, the interview with Tracy, here in the space center-- or, here in NAB and then using the cloud to distribute that all over the world. So these 4k images, which take a significant amount of bandwidth, can be created in space, delivered here, produced and delivered anywhere in the world using the power of the cloud and advanced networking technology. And that's pretty amazing, when you think about it. >> Lisa: It really is. I don't think the three of us are smiling big enough. >> I know. It hurts! >> There's so much relief in this face. >> Lisa: I can imagine >> I bet. >> I absolutely can imagine, I think. One of the cool things about-- This is our first time at NAB with The Cube, but we're here: Media, entertainment, Hollywood. What this shows is this transcendence of technology to space. And there's so much interest in space. In fact, Tracy, you were an advisor to Jessica Chastain on "The Martian," which is probably pretty exciting. >> Oh, absolutely. It is. >> But just the transcendence of that and how this technology can be used to power things that everybody can understand, movies and things. But also the future of space exploration, which I can imagine, right now in the era of the space shuttle being retired now, depending on Soyuz rockets to get to the space station as the next vehicle is delivered, this must be quite inspirational for you as an astronaut, as not only is the next vehicle in development, but also, the exploration of Mars. In fact, you were just last month with President Trump. >> Tracy: Yes. >> As they signed a bill. What are your thoughts about that and how do you see imaging technology being an instrumental part of Mars exploration? >> In so many ways, but at the top is the momentum. Like you said, with Hollywood has captured space in some real endearing ways. And the images from NASA, from the human space flight program to Hubble to deep space, it is propelling ... it's momentum. And I think we need that momentum, especially with our young folks because they're going to be the ones, let's face it, who are going to be in the best condition to be on the planet of Mars. So, if we can continue to feed them the images as lifelike as we can, so that they feel they're there, I think we are heading in the right direction to actually being there. >> Wow, fantastic! Congratulations to both of you. Thank you both so much for joining us on The Cube. We can't wait to see what's next. >> Sam: Thank you so much. >> Tracy: Thank you. Thank you. >> Well, for Tracy and Sam, I'm Lisa Martin. You've been watching The Cube live from NAB 2017. Stick around, we'll be right back. (funky music)

>> Voiceover: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE! Covering NAB 2017, brought to you by HGST. >> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with Lisa Martin. We are wrapping up three days of wall-to-wall coverage here at NAB 2017, theCUBE's first trip to NAB. What a great three days it's been. Lisa, I really enjoyed working with you over the last couple days. And what a show! >> Oh, what a show. Frick and Martin together again. This is the biggest show I've ever been to and seen and experienced. The breadth of solutions here for just the... I don't want to say amateur photographer or filmmaker to the six major film studios. That is so shocking, to actually see all of it in person. >> Jeff: It's a little overwhelming. I took a little walk around at lunchtime and out in between the convention center they've got the satellite trucks, and the satellite dishes, Steadicams, and drones flying around... >> Lisa: Yes. >> There's a Crazydrone on the back of a jet ski. Really, a bunch of exciting stuff. 360 cameras all over, virtual reality cameras all over. It's overwhelming, the creative tools that can be put in most people's hands today are virtually unlimited. But it just makes me wonder, is it too much? I guess it's always great to have more tools to work with from a creative point of view, to just have alternate ways to realize your vision, and bring your vision to life. >> Yeah. I would agree on the comment of 'overwhelming'. There's so much to see and do here. When I walked out to lunch, I felt like I was on a treadmill that wasn't going anywhere. Like, where's the exit? But you know, the whole theme of the event, the M.E.T. effects, I think being here you're feeling the convergence of media, entertainment, technology. One of the great quotes that I read before we came here from Shira Lazar, who's the official M.E.T. evangelist here is, "If content is king, then technology is queen." And I think we really saw that underscored in all of the different guests that we had on the program the last couple of days. From security experts to those that are enabling large-scale rendering in the cloud for movies like Deadpool 2. Talking to Adobe who's enabling the next aspiring YouTube star, to be able to have access to what they need to do to be creative and really let their creativity flow. >> Right. And in the comfort zone you see the same things that we see all the time. You see democratization of data, access to the data, we see more data-based decision-making. Especially, what I found really interesting is the conversation around audience development and audience knowledge. You know, the great advantage that Netflix had over the original cinemas or HBO is they actually knew who was watching. They had profiles on how long did they watch? When did they change channels? What were their similar likes? It's all the same things: the amazing amount of power that can be delivered via cloud to any individual or small company to really be a game-changer in terms of capabilities where before, they would have to make these tremendous investments. Same things we hear over and over and over at all the other events that we do. >> Exactly. I would say I would agree with you on that. There was a lot of transcendence, the things that we saw here. Obviously, at a media and entertainment show, but things that are very applicable in retail, in sports and sporting events, from the filmmaker studio down to the individual guy or gal. Even to healthcare, we talk about this massive volume of data. Today, incredible opportunity. A historic event, really, that happened with NASA The first-ever live 4K stream conversation from 250 miles above the Earth down to Las Vegas, of all places, where that wasn't possible too long ago. And you think of how massive data sets are. Not just in video, but also in music production. We even look at things that are transcendent to healthcare, but might not be videos. It might be the massive file sizes for all the imaging. There's a lot of cross-pollination with a lot of the other shows that we go to. I agree with you on the audience front. Being a cord-cutter... we're all cord-cutters these days, right? Something that was interesting to me was, like you said, the streaming providers know so much about the audience. And you think, well, traditional film, they don't know as much, it's been more qualitative. And actually, when we had Joan Wrabetz on from HGST, she was actually saying there's benefits on both sides. That the streaming providers actually can't change content, whereas the filmmakers can, so there's really a lot of collaboration and learning that both can do from each other even though they are, obviously, competing for mind share. >> But Lisa, you're trying to be way too professional. Let's just call a spade a spade. You got to ball with an astronaut. >> I did! >> She said there's only 40 astronauts left in the US space program. >> You're right. >> We've had two of them on theCUBE. Both women in the last six months. >> That's right. I can't even say it was a dream come true, because it's never something I dreamt was even possible. But having started my professional career with NASA aims in the Bay Area, I recognized Tracy Caldwell Dyson from her photo I saw many years ago. What a great ambassador, and very inspiring. She was talking about what inspired her to want to be an astronaut back when she was 14. The Challenger accident, which had a teacher. And we were asking her, with real-time video capabilities, what does that mean for NASA? And she was saying, think of the next generation of astronauts and the next generation that will be going to Mars. How much more inspired that they're going to be because, with this technology that they even shared today, it makes space exploration so much more tangible because now there's these incredible videos and images that can be transmitted down to Earth in real time. So that was probably one of the highlights of my life, I would say. So thank you for handing over the keys for that one. >> It's just great. When they arrived on the set after the broadcast from space, the whole area lit up. They're such, as you say, ambassadors. Astronauts as ambassadors are super smart. They're super friendly. They totally have their stuff together. To get an opportunity to have her on was really cool. That was a really great moment, and so fun. You had the background to appreciate it even more than most of us did, so that was a kick. It just goes to show you, it is really about the future. There is a very bright future ahead. We're going to keep covering it. We'll still keep going out to these events, and hopefully be back at NAB next year. >> Lisa: I hope so. >> All right. So with Lisa Martin, I'm Jeff Frick. You're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching us from NAB 2017. Keep an eye out. The busy season is just getting started here in May. We're going to be all over the airwaves for all the rest of the summer. So keep an eye on siliconangle.tv, youtube.com/siliconangle and siliconangle.com. Thanks for watching. [Upbeat Music]