Show Reports

After a 2009 outing that posed many questions about the future direction of the show, Plasa 2010 returned to London’s Earls Court between the 12^th and 15^th September with something to prove. For its penultimate outing at the venue, the show area was noticeably smaller and many manufacturers had opted for smaller booths than in previous years. However, this was countered by busy aisles and exhibitors reporting good traffic over all four days.

There has been a growing feeling for several years that the show had been losing its way and struggling to find its position in an already full market. While this was not totally dispelled at Plasa 2010, the reduced footprint was a benefit for the show as it gave it a busy atmosphere. Smaller booths also meant exhibitors were more targeted with the equipment they had on show giving the event a more focused atmosphere.

The quality of the audience was not in question, with many exhibitors reporting a high standard of visitors to their booths. Following a busier than usual Sunday (particularly impressive for a sunny late summer weekend in London) the crowds peaked over Monday and Tuesday, but there were still plenty of visitors to keep exhibitors interested on the final day and few chose to start packing up early. However, several manufacturers raised questions about the number of international visitors (the official figures from the show organisers stated that 30 per cent of visitors were from outside the UK), prompting discussions about whether Plasa is moving towards more of a UK-centric show rather than the international event it has been in the past.

Last year’s imbalance between lighting and audio manufacturers seemed to have been addressed for the 2010 event with more audio companies on the show floor. This included a number that were exhibiting for the first time, such as Taiden. The Chinese conference systems manufacturer was drawn to the show to be closer to its customers in the UK and reported that it had made a number of interesting contacts.Taiden seemed a little out of place amongst such a heavy sound reinforcement contingent, but were keen to promote its HCS-8300 series touch-screen system, which uses CongressMatrix technology.

US loudspeaker specialist One Systems made its Plasa debut and highlighted its latest POPS15 and POPS Subwoofer active system, which is a portable all weather system made for the great outdoors courtesy of the rubber tyres included on the chassis.

Also new to the show was Line 6 which was showing its XD-V digital wireless microphone range. Line 6 has its history in the MI market, and the mic range followed the success of its guitar wireless range launched at Frankfurt. The manufacturer was satisfied with its first Plasa outing and reported a wide variety of people coming to its booth.

Not new to the show, but taking a booth to cover all its brands for the first time was the TC Group. Having previously had its hardware on display on various booths around the show, this year saw Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, Lake and TC Electronic share stand space. It was the new closer ties between the brands that was the reason for taking a stand in its own right and despite a quiet first day, it reported a busier show than the previous year. The company brought its main products to show from the various brands. From Tannoy there was a range of speakers including its QFlex system, Lake had the standalone LM-26 processor on show while Lab.gruppen highlighted its PLM 20000Q powered loudspeaker management system, and TC Electronic was showing the System 6000 mk2 with its upgraded DSP.

It was not only the new manufacturers that played an important role for the show, there were several that decided to return after several years away, such as Bose and Martin Audio. Bose had been away for 13 years, but decided the time was right to return to the show to remind people it was not only a consumer audio company but also took the pro market seriously. It was showing the weather resistant version of its LT range of speakers that have been designed for stadium install, as well as introducing the latest additions to its FreeSpace DS loudspeaker range, the DS 40F flush mount and DS 40SE surface mount enclosures.

Martin Audio returned to display its new MLA Multicellular Loudspeaker Array system and launch the DD6 multi-angled enclosure. The company received a warm welcome – the MLA became the first audio product to scoop a Gold Award at the Plasa Awards for Innovation, the first time this prize has been awarded for three years. Other winners from the Innovation Awards were Outline Audio for its Mini Compass i-Mode, d&b audiotechnik for its B4 sub cardioid subwoofer, LumenRadio for its CRMX Nova Flex, Robert Juliat for Aledin, Clay Paky’s Sharpy, Coemar Spa’s Reflection FullSpectrum, and Cast’s BlackTrax.

Sharing the Loud Technologies booth with Martin Audio were Mackie and EAW. Mackie had its Blackjack and Blackbird recording interfaces on display, as well as the HD series of speakers including its new HDA high definition arrayable powered cabinets. EAW meanwhile introduced new additions to its KF Series three-way speakers and JF Series two-way speakers.

Returning to the show for the first time in eight years was TOA. The manufacturer shared its stand with wireless mic brand Trantec following the transfer of sales to TOA Corporation earlier this year. The company declared it to be a good show with three out of four days being very busy. On display were its Type H line array, along with its D-2000 modular audio mixing system and the new DA series of digital power amplifiers.

While new and returning exhibitors are always important to maintain the vibrancy of a show, it is the loyal companies that come back year after year that should not be overlooked by event organisers. It is this chunk of regular exhibitors that made up by far the largest section of the exhibition floor at Plasa 2010. The show organisers claimed over 350 companies had their products exhibited at the show, of these there were 60 new or returning after a break.

Unsurprisingly, with this volume of manufacturers there were a high number of new products launched at Plasa – 500 in total. Midas added its own to the mix, showing the Pro3 and Pro9 desks for the first time in the UK alongside a new digital snake system and the new Venice F console. The new desk was designed by Alex Cooper and features FireWire multi-channel digital audio interface, XL3 EQ and Propellerhead recording and processing trial software bundle. On the same stand, Klark Teknik launched the DN9650 and DN9652 digital audio format converters with integral sample rate conversion and clock isolation.

With its regularly packed demo room – now something of a Plasa institution – Funktion One used the opportunity to launch its new MB1 12 compact bass enclosure. The sub consists of a single 12-inch speaker driving a ported resonant chamber handling 250W and averaging 105dB between 65Hz and 160Hz. The manufacturer also had a new configuration for its dance stack now utilising 21-inch subs. This new configuration is more powerful than other versions of the dance stack, and company founder Tony Andrews believes ‘out of all of the dance stack combinations we’ve ever made, this is the best one’.

Also operating an active demo room was KV2 Audio, who demoed its Double 21-inch VHD2.21 sub as well as its EX18 active 18-inch sub and ESP4000 four-channel amplifier.

Another busy demo room could be found with Duran Audio. The company held two public demonstrations each day, but also ran private appointments which quickly booked up. The manufacturer highlighted its Flex Range of speakers with the U12 and U14 cabinets on show as well as its new UFM265 low-profile wedge.

One of the most innovative products to make a debut at this year’s Plasa was unveiled by French loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo. The concept of the ‘line array monitor’ with its 45-degree N-12 wedge draws on Nexo’s patented third-generation Hyperbolic Reflective Wavesource (HRW), which is used throughout the GEO range of loudspeakers. The monitors can be coupled together via magnetic slots, providing musicians and singers on stage with even dispersion where needed.

Italian manufacturer FBT showcased its new Mitus active series together with the latest generation of its MaxX polypropylene cabinet powered speaker series in the form of PROMaxX. Also on display were the Mitus 21-inch 121SA active subwoofer and a range of Qube speakers including the active QSA 112A. ‘This Plasa has been quite positive, and better than last year in our opinion,’ said FBT’s export manager, Roberto Mataloni. ‘There have been less exhibitors, but we have seen more people thanks to the new location of the FBT stand near the entrance.’ Mr Mataloni was also positive about the education programme and technical areas it covered, however he would like to see more for the business side too. ‘My idea is to enlarge the sessions with more commercial topics with special regard to the export markets and tools to learn and help for the operators working in the international commerce.’

Ohm used the show to highlight its Pukk series of subs, the three-way Saturn speakers and its Oyster DSP controller featuring Spyder Control software. The manufacturer described Plasa as a busy show and stated that there had been a stream of new visitors to the stand.

On the Harman Pro booth, amongst the established BSS, Crown, DBX, JBL and Soundcraft brands was new member Selenium following the acquisition of the Brazilian brand in June 2010. Harman has invested approximately US$100 million to expand its production capacity and establish a new R&D centre in the south of Brazil, where loudspeakers are produced for the car audio, musical and professional markets. At Plasa, the 18SWS1000 subwoofer, D2500Ti Nd compression driver and passive ribbon line array system were on display. Also new was the HiQ Net System Architect 2.2. The design software has been re-vamped with more of an onus on the user and the aim of reducing the time it takes to design an installed system. Soundcraft used the opportunity to show its new Si Compact Series of digital consoles, aimed at tours, corporate events, houses of worship and theatre applications.

DiGiCo first appeared at Plasa in 2002 with the D5 console. This year, the new breed of SD7, SD8 and SD9 Red Snapper consoles took centre stage together with the new SD Rack system. Also new were the Little Red Box and Little Blue Box from DiGiCo Solutions. The add-on units have been designed to increase the connectivity of the manufacturer’s consoles.

 

Aimed at busy project studios, Allen & Heath introduced its GS-R24 studio recording mixer amongst a host of other products, whilst revealing itself as the latest convert to Riedel’s RockNet technology and Audinate’s Dante networking protocol.

Yamaha used the event to highlight its new iPad app which acts as a remote control for the M7CL desk as well as its DSR powered speaker series, Asio Stream for the M7CL DS and Union Ethersound network which it offers for control of lighting and sound.

Shure brought its PSM900 personal monitor system – its new top-end in-ear system, released after a prolonged wait for a new Shure IEM. The unit was reportedly designed around three goals – it needed to sound good with a low noise floor, the RF had to be solid, and it needed to have an easy to use feature set.

The show marked the 10^th birthday of Green Hippo and the manufacturer, which regards Plasa as its main show for the year, celebrated by showing its Hippotiser media server and introducing its new 3D Visualiser software.

Also on the A/V side, Christie used the event to unveil its Nitro Solutions digital luminaires, as well as show its MicroTiles display wall.

Occupying a smaller stand but located in a more prominent position than usual, Giorgio Biffi of Outline Audio cheerfully declared that Plasa 2010 had proven itself a success, adding that his expectations for the show had been beaten. Taking pride of place on the manufacturer’s stand was the Innovation award-winning Mini Compass array.

Digital fibre networksinnovator Optocore launched its new DD32R network interface and Multiple Emulation Mode software. The company claims the DD32R offers a wider feature set than its predecessor and has reduced power consumption. The German manufacturer had taken a bigger booth in a more prominent position for this year’s show and described the exhibition as being better than the previous year.

Prism Sound and Sadie used the opportunity to showcase its Sadie Live Solid State Recorder H64/128. While Plasa has traditionally been a marginal show for the manufacturer and was only one of three it was attending over the same weekend, it felt it was important for it to be exhibiting as it enters the live sound market.

JoeCo used the show to preview its new Blackbox Player. Based on the technology contained in its Blackbox Recorder, the new Player is a 1U multi-channel device specifically designed for replaying backing tracks for live shows. Able to replay 24 channels of 24bit/96kHz audio, the player can be triggered with a footswitch or keyboard, or controlled via Midi commands.

Apex Audio launched its Intelli-X2 series of audio devices. The two units Intelli-X248 (4-in, 8-out) and Intelli-X226 (2-in, 6-out) – are built on a 192kHz, 30-bit floating point digital processing platform and feature analogue circuit designs, sample rate converters with bypass facility (operating to 216kHz), and AES3 and analogue I/O.

For Neutrik, the focus of the show was fibre. It had its Plug2Plug adapter, DIWA Digital Wireless Audio system, as well as various OpticalCon products. The general feeling from the manufacturer was that it had been a good show, but average in terms of numbers.

Other manufacturers of note on the show floor included US analogue console manufacturer APB-DynaSonics which introduced the ProDesk-8 in addition to a host of rack-mounted mixers. Electro-Voice had its Innovation line array speakers, including the EV-A (expandable vertical array), EV-F (front load) and EV-H (horn loaded) systems prominent on its stand. While power amplifier specialists Chevin Research returned to the Plasa Show with updates to its Q Series of multi-channel amplifiers.

While some manufacturers took stands in their own right, others chose to be on their distributor’s booth. Perhaps the widest range was on the large Polar Audio stand. On display was the Tabletop Speaker Station line from ASL, Australian Monitor’s AMD series of mixer and power amps, Aviom’s new AllFrame multi-modular I/O system, and beyerdynamic showed its Stegos digital boundary mic, professional series headsets and Opus 600 wireless mic. Also on show was Biamp’s Vocia networked paging and voice alarm system, MC² Audio’s Ti Series amps and TiBoB networked breakout boxes, Renkus-Heinz gave a European debut to its IC Squared crossover array as well as the new Modular Point Source Array with the CFX101-LA and CF101-LA systems, and XTA launched its DP548 dynamic audio processor. Perhaps the standout launch for this stand was Dynacord’s third generation of its powered mixer, PowerMate³. The new desk is available in three models which differ primarily in the number of input channels they offer. The manufacturer reports that the new family of deskshave 40 per cent more power and 30 per cent less weight than previous versions. Also on show from the German manufacturer was the Corus Evolution series of speakers.

Sennheiser equally shared its stand space with a number of other brands as the UK subsidiary celebrated its 20^th anniversary. On display alongside the new ADN conferencing system and the Wicos system were K-Array‘s Tornado KTL22, the Rycote Universal Camera Kit and USM and USM-L mic suspensions, APart Mask 2 speakers, and DAS Audio Aero Series 2 compact line arrays. Rane MLM 65, AM1 and AM2 mixing solutions completed the booth.

HK Audio was once again housed on the booth of its UK distributor JHS, though the stand carried HK Audio branding. The manufacturer chose to show its new FirNet controller, FirFoft as well as its Elements and Vortis speaker systems.

One of the major positives emerging from Plasa 2010 was the increased education programme. There were successes for both the Plasa International Rigging Conference and AVNetworks 2010 Conference, but of particular importance were the seminar sessions on the EN54 standard.

A number of manufacturers with products that meet this standard were positioned together in the ISCE Pavilion to enable an area focused on EN54. Here the likes of Bosch, Ateïs, Penton, RCF, Baldwin Boxall and Clock Audio not only had their products on show but were keen to discuss how they could meet the new standard and what it meant for evacuation system installations. The focus certainly worked, as other manufacturers on the floor reported it as one of the key factors in increasing visitors numbers.

Also putting a large focus on education was Avid. The manufacturer ran a series of free seminars, panel discussions and master classes over all four days of the show covering subjects from the art of live mixing to product overviews and the use of plug-ins. On the product side, as well as its full range of Venue consoles, Avid gave a global launch to the M Audio GSR12 speakers, showed the Madi card for its Profile desk, and previewed a new way to connect Venue to Pro Tools for live recording and the prototype card for streaming audio through an AVB Ethernet switch.

Despite a lot of positive comments on the Plasa show floor, some exhibitors felt let down by the event. Alcons MD Tom Back was particularly unhappy about the cost of the floor space and the level of customer service he received, and announced that Alcons would not be returning. He felt that the show was now too focused on profit-making and that it had lost track of where it started.

Nor was the cost of square-footage the only cause of negative noises. Many manufacturers were also concerned about charges associated with other aspects of the show, such as participating in the seminar series and Innovation Awards (which raised £12,000 for charitable causes). While any initiative to improve the show is a welcome addition and the tradition of charitable donation should be commended, enhancing the show should not be at the expense of exhibitors.

Despite what was by all accounts a much improved show from last year, there are still a number of questions that need to be answered by Plasa. The cost of floor space at the event is one factor that many exhibitors were unhappy with. It is always a tough equation for companies to balance the cost of a show against the number of quality sales leads it generates. When this number starts to slide too much towards the cost of exhibiting, show organisers need to work hard to encourage exhibitors to come back.

The future direction of the show is also something that is still very much open to discussion. The smaller more focused approach seemed to work this year, and on top of this the expanded and relevant education programme brought more visitors through the door. But the real test will come after next year’s final show at this venue. The decision of where it moves to next and how that will develop the event remains unanswered. If Plasa is to return to the level of esteem it once held, it must rediscover its purpose in the trade show calendar.

The overall impression of Plasa 2010 was a distinct improvement on last year. If this upward trend is to be continued the organisers need to maintain some of the positive factors from this outing and show the direction it is moving in. Plasa 2011 will certainly be an interesting event.

 

2010 Dates:  12 – 15 September

2011 Dates:  11 – 14 September

Venue: Earls Court, London

Total Exhibitors: 350

Attendance: 12,000 +

Contact: www.plasashow.com