At the last minute I decided to make the pilgrimage to the NAB convention, held April 12th-15th and occupying the entire Las Vegas convention center. 
My primary motivation for the trip was to make contacts with manufacturers who might be willing to make equipment donations to the Don LaFontaine Voice-over Lab project.  While Tim Schwieger of BSW is stepping up in a HUGE way and providing much of the equipment we need, it just seemed like a good idea to approach some of the companies in person we've already decided to use and perhaps take a bit of the load off BSW.  Once we have commitments, SAG Foundation will announce the manufacturers and their contributions.  

I did have an eye open for cool tools that may someday become the next big thing in voice-over.
Some new on the market, some just new to me, here are few standouts that managed to catch my attention.

Tieline's "Report-IT Live" for iPhone/iPad

For any traveling voice-over artist it seems the holy grail is a way to "ISDN a session" directly from an iPhone.  Imagine traveling with nothing but your iPhone, a shotgun mic, and a gadget to connect the two, like the Alesis ProTrack.  That reality is one step closer thanks to the efforts of the engineers at Australia based Tieline Technology.  

Their name may not have the brand recognition of Telos or Musicam in the US, but they make a very fine and affordable ISDN/IP codec device of which I've assisted in the installation twice.  The Tieline Commander G3 Field unit can speak IP, ISDN, GSM, POTS, 3G/4G, Satellite, WiMAX, whatever technology you have available to you.  It's lightweight, portable, and its built in mic preamps sounds remarkably good.  But traveling really light means not bringing a dedicated piece of gear like the G3 Field.  

"Report-IT Live" lets you connect to a Tieline codec like the Commander from anyplace with an Internet connection, either WIFI or 3G.  It streams the audio to a Tieline Commander, as well as records the audio locally to the phone.  You can send that audio via FTP to a server, or play it back later as a stream.  If your location doesn't permit streaming, you can just record audio using the record function.  It's possibly the least complicated and least expensive portable IP based audio codec in existence that is capable of sending FM quality 15kHz bandwidth audio.  

Caveats:  The other end must have a Tieline codec device and the audio quality doesn't quite match ISDN's L2 Mono 128kbps (but that will improve with updates).

YellowTec's Intellimix 

Another lessor known in the US company surprised me with some interesting products.  Most impressive is the Intellimix Versatile Desktop Mixer.  It combines the best of all worlds:  A simple user interface, a very compact control surface, fantastic audio quality, and powerful features.  
At first glance it looks too simple a design to have all the functions a complete voice-over studio needs, but that's the beauty of it.  It's all in there, just hidden away inside the brain, a single rack space base unit.  

Select Features include:
    * Ultra-compact 3 fader desktop Control Unit (190x290mm footprint/height 110mm)
    * Selected control elements for intuitive operation
    * Alphanumeric display for easy navigation
    * Level (PPM/VU) meters
    * Smart Card for individual user setups
    * Small-sized Base Unit (19''/1U)
    * 14 digital and analog inputs
    * Two high quality mic preamps
    * Multiple digital and analogue outputs
    * Two mix-minus feeds (phone patch and ISDN)
    * Full on-air light control
    * All digital signal path
    * Powerful Windows Configuration Software
    * I/O labeling (custom named input sources and output destinations on the mixer display)

While it is admittedly out of reach to some, it's approximately $3000 price can be justified by its future-proof design flexibility, lack of confusing buttons that can interrupt your work, built to last 20 years construction.  

Also from YellowTec comes the PUC2 professional USB sound card.  While most every USB audio interface made is designed for musicians to connect mics and guitars, the PUC2 is a professional broadcast-grade solution.  Balanced inputs and outputs with AD/DA conversion at 24 bits up to 192 khz, and AES I/O for direct connection to an ISDN codec or digital mic preamp, it doesn't sacrifice your signal path.  PUC2 also provides zero latency monitoring directly from the unit.