Show Reports

Of all Asia’s varied markets, South Korea is particularly unusual. It is characterised not by the usual pro audio paradigm of concert touring, hotel installations and commercial broadcasting – though these markets thrive – but by the house of worship sector. In this small country, Christianity equals big business for audiovisual manufacturers, with the population having adopted the notion of the mega-church with an enthusiasm that only the United States can rival. As such, the region requires a unique trade exhibition.

That exhibition is, apparently, Koba, which is held every year at the Coex centre in central Seoul. Intended as a broadcast show, Koba has in fact become the de-facto home of pro audio in South Korea. But it is not alone.

Drive for approximately an hour from the centre of Seoul and a visitor to the city will find him or herself in a small city named Ilsan, known to locals as an up-and-coming planned conurbation made famous by the vast and sprawling La Festa shopping mall. Nearby is the still under construction Kintex exhibition centre, which is home to KoSound, an exhibition for the audio industry that intends to promote live sound and tie it closely to the endlessly booming church sector. As such, it presents three halls – one in which local audio distributors take booths, another named Stagetech which is devoted to church architecture, and the show’s crowning glory: a vast demonstration and shoot out hall where line arrays are pitted against one another in three minute bursts.

On paper, KoSound seems more than promising, but the reality is unfortunately quite different. Ilsan is so far away from downtown Seoul that Kintex struggles to attract visitors. Worsening the problem is the fact that there are no hotels nearby as the facility is still under-construction. Nor is there anywhere for foreign attendees to stay in Ilsan. As a consequence, international buyers simply stay away, while local consultants and buyers make only fleeting visits. The result is a show that boasts wide aisles, small booths and stunningly low visitor numbers.

Those visitors who do attend the show are drawn in by the promise of line array shootouts, and the show’s organiser GenKorea, is to be commended on making its demonstration hall a central pillar of the exhibition. In a market dominated by church sound, the opportunity to A-B test different loudspeaker systems is valuable indeed. Doing so in a hall with such poor acoustics that it is difficult to discern which system is playing, however, does somewhat spoil the proposition.

With all of these factors weighing heavily upon it, KoSound 2010 opened its doors on the show’s first morning and was greeted by yawning exhibitors, empty aisles and confused expressions. It was difficult to tell that the show had opened, so empty was the hall. By midday the aisles had begun to fill out, and day two of the show benefitted from far better attendance, with the demonstration hall in particular becoming relatively busy in the afternoon, but the numbers still pointed towards a show suffering from inherent difficulties.

Of course, KoSound 2010 had an unpleasant excuse for the poor initial turnout – the day before the exhibition, North Korea mounted its most vicious attack on its Southern neighbour since 1954. While South Koreans glued themselves to television and radio reports on the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, the handful of Western koSound visitors in Seoul noted that Ilsan is a mere 20 minutes drive from the North Korean border, and began speculating as to whether the exhibition would take place at all. It is a huge tribute to South Korea’s nerve and determination that by the following morning the country was already going about its normal business.

The effect that the crisis had on attendance to the show was less obvious than might have been expected, with the majority of exhibitors claiming that the steady trickle of visitors was precisely what they had expected based on previous years. However, show organiser Gwan Seok Yeon made clear that an expected delegation from the South Korean government was understandably unable to attend. Elsewhere, Jo Mi Yung, director of Koil Corporation, believed the news had also kept away overseas visitors. ‘I heard that there were clients coming from the Philippines but after they heard the news they cancelled,’ she explained. ‘It has really affected the show for foreigners. But for Koreans, not really.’ Indeed, the Koreans in the hall dealt with the situation with a grace that was little short of humbling.

On the show floor itself there was at least plenty to see. Despite the absence of expected visitors, Koil Corporation nevertheless filled its booth with a broad selection of equipment including Sennheiser 2000 and 5000 wireless systems (also displayed on the Hebsiba stand alongside Neumann), an HME DX200 wireless intercom system, and an Avid Venue SC48 console. Indeed, Venue consoles appeared on many booths, while the manufacturer hosted a seminar elsewhere on church-based workflows using Pro Tools 9.

Taking pride of place at the front of the hall was Meyer Sound dealer and VMB distributor Avix Tech, whose large booth featured a flown Meyer Sound Mina line array plus the JM1P and a Melodie line array. The company’s complement of VMB products included QB series cabinets, Lynx line array and ARC signal processors. Executive director Tom Jung explained that he was comfortable with the attendance, which he believed largely mirrored the 2009 show. ‘There’s a small amount of people but the people who are here are important for us.’

Situated in the middle of the hall with a substantial booth was Inter-M, who presented Martin Audio’s Wavefront series WT2 and WT3 cabinets plus the LE1200S stage monitor. Also on the stand was the company’s own Kensington-824 analogue desk plus the Cona CLA-8 and CLA-5 line arrays, which were being shown for the first time. Overseas sales manager Thomas Lee noted the low visitor numbers and lack of foreign attendees, but argued that KoSound was still important. ‘Even if this is getting smaller and not many people from other countries come then we have to open our purse for the domestic market,’ he explained.

Other notable arrivals into the Korean market included the Apex Intelli Series-X2, which was displayed on the DiakyungVascom booth within the demonstration hall. ‘This is the first time it’s been show in Korea – the first time in Asia was last week at InterBEE,’ explained Apex’s Craig Lovell. ‘The show is always quiet,’ he added. ‘It’s just an opportunity for people to have a listen and meet people.’

At the rear of the main hall was the BLS stand, now home to Hoellstern amplifiers, whose CEO Udo Hoellstern was attending to introduce the new Delta 14.4 amp alongside the company’s impressive Konfigurator 2 management software. ‘This is the first time here for us,’ Mr Hoellstern confirmed. ‘We’ve found a good distributor and we think that’s a good platform for starting in the Asia market.’ Also on the BLS stand was an impressive display for the DPA 4099 clip-on instrument microphones.

Elsewhere, Midigraphics introduced the Apogee Symphony I/O to the domestic market, while Sound Solution boasted a long list of brands including Beyerdynamic, TOA wireless mics, Adamson loudspeakers including the SX18, LX12, Point 15 and M15, Lab Gruppen’s FP and PLM series plus the Lake LM26, XTA Audiocore and stacked RCF cabinets including the ART series, TT18A line array elements and more.

Hosting one of the largest booths on the show floor and exhibiting an impressive array of brands was Kevic, whose Clair Brothers I218-M line array was impossible to miss. According to overseas business department general manager Tommy Kim, the Clair Brothers system arrived in Busan port the day before the show. ‘We imported 32 pieces and the same amount of subwoofers,’ he enthused. ‘We also have the I212 for smaller events. We’re very excited.’

Kevic is of course known in the Korean market for its association with Electro-Voice, and Mr Kim was keen to point out the wealth of EV equipment at the show, including Tour X cabinets and an EVA line array rig in the demonstration hall. Also on the booth was the company’s own Kevic-branded digital public address system, plus a display of Klotz cables and the new MyMix IEX-16L input expander. ‘MyMix is not just for musicians any more, it’s for the contractor, which is better for us,’ said Mr Kim. Regarding the exhibition, he continued: ‘This show is the only one which offers the shootout room separately. It shows the customer how the loudspeakers actually sound. But the room’s acoustics are bad.’

Indeed, one of the triumphs of KoSound was the fact that the show floor was generally kept quiet, while the noise was confined to the demonstration hall. And noise there was. Prearranged slots offered each exhibitor the chance to play music of their choice to a captive audience. Outside of the slots, however, chaos descended, as companies attempted to outdo each other in terms of SPL.

Participating were Kevic with its Electro-Voice EVA system, Xilica with the TW Audio Vera-Sys 10 plus S30 subs and two BSX 21-inch subwoofers, Turbosound with FlexArray, Midigraphics with HK Audio, Sama Sound with QSC, Hebsiba with Outline Audio Butterfly arrays, Avix Tech with a single hang of VMB’s Lynx line array plus LX218 subs, a very brave Fulcrum Acoustic attempting to match the big boys with a selection of groundstacked cabinets, Proel, Leem presenting the X-Treme brand, Seoul Stage Lighting with the L-Acoustics K1, Cadenbach Acoustics with its distributor Audioworx and a double 10-inch array, KV2 Audio and finally Renkus-Heinz with Diakyung Vascom.

Though visitors clearly relished the opportunity to hear each system – the L-Acoustics K1 caused ripples of excitement within the crowd, sounding remarkable – the exhibitors were left somewhat less convinced by the hall itself or the organisation behind it. ‘The acoustics in here aren’t very good but everyone has got the same conditions and we all need to make the best of it,’ reflected Hans-Hartwig Cadenbach of Cadenbach Acoustics, who added that stricter controls needed to be applied to participants. ‘When everyone can make music as they want then it’s annoying and not good for customers or sales. It must be coordinated well.’

Bernhard Wustner of TW Audio added his own thoughts: ‘I think this is a very good opportunity for professional audio people to have the chance to listen to different loudspeakers in a short period of time, so from that perspective we’re happy to be here and to be a part of the event,’ he commented. ‘From a people perspective, it seems that there are more here this year than last year. But on the other side, there are less big names here than last year. Also, for us as a manufacturer and a participant, I have to say that the organisation is rather poor and not as professional as it should be in terms of time-slots.’

Perhaps summing up the feeling of most participants was Outline Audio’s Giorgio Biffi, who declared: ‘The live hall has been very noisy and very cold!’ He added, however, that Hebsiba’s stand within the hall had been busy. ‘They’ve seen many people and they are satisfied so I think it’s good.’ A veteran of many a line array shootout, Mr Biffi also argued for a change in format which would see each participating company playing the same pieces of music. ‘We did the same some years ago in the US,’ he explained. ‘All of us had to choose one track, then the organiser burned a CD with six different tracks which each of us had to play. For the listeners, it was easy to understand and notice the difference between the systems and it was really interesting. It’s the best way in my opinion.’

By acting on this kind of good advice KoSound can certainly improve its standing in the trade show calendar, and the show deserves praise for overcoming problems outside of its control to attract a reasonable amount of visitors on its second day, at least in comparison to previous years. However, claims by the show organiser that the exhibition’s low turnout is offset by the high quality of visitors was called into question by the arrival on day two of 100 schoolchildren. As the construction of Kintex continues, perhaps KoSound will also develop. In 2010, it was well intentioned but ultimately not the show that Korea’s unique audio industry deserves.

www.kosound.co.kr