Biggest ever Cabsat opens to steady flow of visitors
Published: MEA
UAE: Cabsat MENA 2011 opened on February 8th boasting an expanded and elaborate show floor as the Middle East’s broadcast community came together to greet a steady flow of visitors.
Though the opening hour of Cabsat was notable for the lack of visitors touring the aisles, the exhibition rapidly gained momentum as the day continued. By the close of day one, exhibitors were broadly in agreement that while numbers were not high, the quality of visitors was nonetheless impressive.
‘I think we’ve had mixed feelings for the first day. We’ve had a good number of useful visitors, but it’s not very crowded,’ explained Alok Ghurde of Thomsun Trading, whose substantial booth near the centre of the show floor included exhibits from Yamaha, Genelec, Optocore, Digigram, Jutel and more. He added: ‘I guess that quality of visitors is always preferable to quantity. I hope we’ll see better results tomorrow.’
Echoing that sentiment was David Chen of TSL, who assumed responsibility for the manufacturer’s Middle Eastern operations just three weeks ago. ‘I was here back in 2007 and the show has grown,’ he observed. ‘Its importance is massive because it’s a forum, just the same as NAB and IBC. The people who have been here have been of a decent quality – we’ve seen chief engineers from NBC and from ARTE, they’re all here. The first day has been quiet but again it’s about the quality of people coming to your booth.’
Exhibiting for the first time and declaring himself impressed was MC Patel of Emotion Systems, which was debuting its new EFF software for controlling loudness in recordings intended for broadcast. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been here and I think it’s very impressive,’ he enthused. ‘It just works and everyone’s very friendly. That not always true of big shows.’
Meanwhile, away from the show floor a highlight of day one was a special presentation by Neumann’s Jorg Pohl, discussing the manufacturer’s Solution D digital microphone system and how it can improve broadcasting workflows. In attendance was Sennheiser Middle East business development manager Ryan Burr.
‘It’s good to see that education is becoming more integral to Cabsat and the Middle East,’ Mr Burr reasoned following the seminar. ‘For me in the past that’s not always been visible but this year it’s a lot more prevalent. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come and further education programmes can be run here at the show and possibly externally as well.’ Speaking of the visitor turnout for the day, Mr Burr added: ‘The visitor numbers have been okay. So far it’s been predominantly people that we know, and it’s paramount for us to be able to see the people who we do business with on a day to day basis.’