NAB Show 2026 by the Floor Plan: 1,133 Stands, Measured - and Blackmagic Out-Floored Sony
Original analysis of 1,133 stands and 488,778 sq ft at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas Convention Center), measured from the show's own published floor plan - with hotel hospitality suites deliberately excluded, so these numbers describe the real exhibit floor.
Final plan: 1,026 of 1,106 stands reserved when NAB Show 2026 ran (Apr 18–22, 2026). This analysis describes the floor as it stood.
- 1,133 exhibit-hall stands, 1,015 companies, 488,778 sq ft across North, Central and West Halls (hotel hospitality suites excluded from every figure).
- Blackmagic Design's 18,600 sq ft stand was the floor's biggest - 24% larger than Sony's 15,000. The order of the media giants is measurable, and it is not the order most people would guess.
- Islands held 74% of the floor; 44% of stands could not hang a sign.
- NAB is the most 10x10-heavy of the big LVCC floors we have measured: 36.5% of stands are 10x10s (InfoComm: 24.5%).
- 68 stands - 6% of the floor - show as never assigned on the plan. NAB 2027 returns to the LVCC on April 4-7.
How we measured this
Every figure comes from the NAB Show 2026 published floor plan. Booth polygons are stored in inches, so each stand gives an exact width, depth, square footage and position, and from the coordinates we derive each stand's open sides - inline (no hanging sign), corner, peninsula, or island (full height and sign rights).
Two honesty notes. First, the plan includes Encore and Wynn hospitality suites and other non-floor spaces; we excluded everything outside the three exhibit halls, which removes about 63,000 sq ft of meeting space from the totals - so our 488,778 sq ft is exhibitor stands only, and will read lower than the organiser's 'net square feet' figure, which counts space we deliberately leave out. Second, the plan was retrieved in August 2026, after the April show ran, so these figures describe the floor as it stood. Booth dimensions land on clean trade-show sizes, and hall totals reconcile: Central 228,591 sq ft across 509 stands, North 140,000 across 243, West 120,187 across 381.
The pecking order at the top is measurable - and surprising
Ask anyone to name the biggest booth at NAB and they will guess Sony. The plan says otherwise: Blackmagic Design booked 18,600 sq ft - the floor's biggest stand by 24% - against Sony's 15,000. Ross Video followed at 10,800, then a step down to Amazon Web Services (5,400), Evertz (5,000) and Adobe (4,500).
That ordering is a market-share statement nobody writes in a press release: the company that sells $295 software and sub-$4,000 cameras out-floored the company that invented the broadcast camera category. Floor plans are honest that way - every square foot is paid for.
Below the giants, NAB has a long small tail: 36.5% of stands are 10x10s, the highest share among the big LVCC floors we have measured (InfoComm 24.5%, SEMA 25.0%). The middle is thin - the top 100 stands hold 47.8% of the floor - so the show reads as two shows sharing halls: a giants' showcase along the spines, and a bazaar of 10x10s around it.
| Stand type | Count | Share of floor area |
|---|---|---|
| Inline (1 open side) | 86 | 2% |
| Corner (2 open sides) | 414 | 12% |
| Peninsula (3 open sides) | 234 | 12% |
| Island (4 open sides) | 399 | 74% |
What this means for NAB 2027 (April 4-7, Las Vegas)
NAB returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 4-7, 2027. The 2026 floor is the baseline worth planning against:
If you are one of the 400+ 10x10s: your competition is not Blackmagic - it is the ten other 10x10s in your aisle. At that scale the differentiator is finish, not size: a backlit wall and a working demo beat a bigger space filled thinner. And because 44% of stands cannot hang a sign, a corner position's second open side is the cheapest visibility upgrade on this floor.
The demo screen is the booth at a media-tech show. NAB attendees judge pictures for a living - a washed-out rented monitor undercuts the product on it. This is the show where the display layer deserves the scrutiny you would give the product itself; we rent LED walls and backlit SEG lightboxes from Las Vegas stock, which means no freight lane and show-morning replacement if anything arrives imperfect.
Book against the real map. 68 stands on the 2026 plan show as never assigned - 6% of the floor. NAB sells hard to the deadline, but the floor has slack, and slack is negotiating room on position. Corner availability in Central Hall is the thing to ask the space desk about first.
We measured InfoComm 2026 - the LVCC's other AV floor, eight weeks after NAB - the same way: see the InfoComm floor-plan analysis for how differently two adjacent industries shape the same building. The series also covers RE+, SEMA, AHR 2027, IMTS and PACK EXPO International.
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Frequently asked
How many exhibitors were at NAB Show 2026?
We measured 1,133 stands belonging to 1,015 companies across the North, Central and West exhibit halls, totalling 488,778 square feet - with hotel hospitality suites deliberately excluded from the count.
Who had the biggest booth at NAB Show 2026?
Blackmagic Design, at 18,600 sq ft - 24% larger than Sony's 15,000. Ross Video was third at 10,800, followed by AWS (5,400), Evertz (5,000) and Adobe (4,500).
What was the average booth size at NAB 2026?
The median stand was 200 sq ft and the mean 464. NAB is 10x10-heavy: 36.5% of stands were 10x10s, while the top 100 stands held 47.8% of the floor.
Could exhibitors hang signs at NAB?
56% of stands could - islands and peninsulas. The other 44% (inline and corner positions) could not, under standard show rules, which is why back-wall quality decides visibility for nearly half the floor.
When is NAB Show 2027?
April 4-7, 2027 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, per the organiser's site (checked August 2026).
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