…and so on and so forth. Yes, those are the lyrics to “Gold” – that truly awful Spandau Ballet hit single. That’s hit with a capital “S” by the way… 😉 They did so much better – “To cut a long story short” comes to mind but I digress before I’ve even started…
This is the official post-Plasa debrief from what was a very surprising show.
Things that weren’t surprising were:
- Fewer exhibitors – although this did not stop me from getting lost as usual and only happening upon the Polar stand again by chance on more than one occasion;
- Less in the way of product launches – most companies seem to keep these for Frankfurt these days;
- Apparently increased visitor numbers – I am speculating on this point but, given the number of scans my badge had every time I re-entered the main hall, (nipping out to let someone in or going to a demo room) , I alone could have been responsible for a percentage point or so;
However, things that were a surprise and all of them good included:
- As a result of some last-minute cancellations Polar Audio – our UK distributor – ended up with considerably greater stand area than we were originally expecting. This was very welcome, as the majority of the time I was fighting for somewhere to have meetings, even considering this! Which brings me on to…
- More visitors than I was anticipating. Whilst the various meetings I had scheduled were going to involve welcome conversations with our own distributors and an afternoon with press chats, the number of impromptu discussions I had with end users was very pleasing.
- Very tasty egg and cress sandwiches from an on-site food outlet – not exactly important but better than eating greasy junk with no change from a fiver!
As I mentioned in the bullet points so very efficiently (bullet points do that), we had a great stand again this year and Polar, along with the stand builders, did a lovely job, with the space being both open and clean as well as cosy and private – quite a juggling act to achieve.
The XTA and MC2 angle of the Polar stand.
Some of the people on there aren’t staff – always a good result!
The DS8000 proved very popular which, given its prominent position on the corner of the stand, was great news. Little things, such as showing how two units are able to look after each other (so you can pull the power on one and they both carry on working) make a big difference when in a show environment. You could tell people this stuff – but a 5 second demo of it is so much better! There was much discussion around the possibilities of using the AES digital option – connection straight into a couple of DP548s for a standalone digital matrix mixer with 16 outputs was one I hadn’t thought of…there is of course a caveat with that arrangement that each unit doesn’t get access to all 8 mic channels but, as it wasn’t our suggestion, who were we to argue? 😉
We weren’t making a big thing of the imminent 448 firmware upgrade which opens up the world of FIR filters, but I did demonstrate how this would work to several people. It will be made available across the 4 Series in time (not the 548 though as it uses too much processing, and NOT on older 4 Series due to a different DSP platform). Rather than discuss it all in this post, I will write a separate entry about it all and release some application notes as well.
Aside from talking to customers (and trying to convince Niall [Lewis] of the Production House Group in Belfast that his ten or so DS800s had served him well and at their age, deserved a well-earned retirement in someone’s church/theatre/pub and the time was right for DS8000s to replace them…) there was the ongoing Olympics still in full effect all across London.
Having been somewhat underwhelmed by the whole Olympic juggernaut in the earlier part of this year, something happened in my brain when the torch made its way to my locale, and I suddenly couldn’t get enough of it all. As I trust you are aware, we had an “non-Olympic” event here at XTA involving gold medals to celebrate the shipping of our 50,000th unit. Read all about it here.
Such was my excitement, I had signed up to the Olympic ticketing website some months back, and been fervently checking for the possibility of getting tickets just to get into the Olympic park. We’re not talking events here – I know I had royally missed the boat on that front, but with the entry to the park dropping to a fiver for the duration of the Paralympics, the possibility of soaking up a little bit of the atmosphere felt like it could still happen. So, after finalising all the load-in and making sure everything was working, flashing, and happy on the stand, Mr. Fleming and myself headed off towards Stratford last Saturday afternoon.
The sun was shining, the forecast was good and the journey on the tube was straightforward. Taking TFL’s advice to get off at West Ham and walk the 20 minutes or so to the gate, things got even better the minute we stepped off the train – Olympic signage in full effect.
It’s like queueing for a ride in a theme park, although I don’t think you are allowed to come down the Orbit Tower helter skelter style…
As we approached via the long walkway the signs count down the minutes until you get to the park – and suddenly the Orbit Tower and the Olympic Stadium were visible. By this point I was, somewhat sadly, getting rather over-excited and began taking photographs such as the one above – a complete tourist rush! At the end of the walkway, which finishes at a high vantage point looking down into the park, there is a great view taking in the athletes’ village, the aquatics centre, and everything in between.
Unfortunately that’s were it ended. Despite the best assurances from a “games maker”, there were no tickets available on-line (and about thirty other people standing about at the gates on their smartphones could further qualify this) and there was no system in place to purchase tickets just for entry to the park at the gate itself. So that’s where we stopped. None the less, it was such a perfect day weather-wise and the view into the park was so good that we both felt it had been worth the trip! It would have been great to get in whilst the Olympics was still on, but the park isn’t going anywhere for a while so it can wait for another time.
We were there – photographic proof. Not in there, to be fair, but near there…
So enough of our failed attempt to get into the park…there is however one last thing to mention regarding the entire Olympic machine – that is the subject of advertising and marketing. I am sure many of you will be aware of the news (mainly in the lead-up to the big event) that LOCOG were clamping down heavily on anyone not directly associated with/sponsors of the “Games” who were using any references to the event to market their products/services. They went to, I believe, fantastical lengths to prevent anyone benefitting indirectly from association with them, and it was the only sour note during the whole proceedings for me. I did the decent thing and wrote to LOCOG before attempting any advertising or marketing and received a polite but firm “not a chance” reply.
This was circumvented (I hope) by using the gold medals and making no mention of “London 2012” (not allowed), use of the logo (either the London 2012 based ones, or the IOC actual rings). What I was told by a certain magazine editor at the show (who will remain nameless until later when I will expose him and his dastardly associate on our facebook page for their cruel ribbing – have a look) was that there is still an embargo on any associated “rub-off” even for those companies who were directly associated with the events in terms of supply of kit (not sponsors) until some time in October, as opposed to maybe just when the games had ended. That feels a little mean to me, as the momentum will have been lost somewhat by this stage.
And finally (after what is probably the longest blog post so far – worth a gold medal etc. etc.) one last thing. OK two. Funktion One had their now legendary demo room upstairs at the show and I don’t know what was different this year, but it genuinely sounded amazing each time I was in. There have been moments in past years where I (inwardly) questioned the logic behind listening to large-scale speaker cabinets at that close range – would you get a reasonable appreciation of their tonal balance, or would you just get your head torn off? I know that Tony and John don’t believe in (or need) corrective EQ – if you look at the settings in the XO4 (or XO2) for any of their boxes, all you’ll find are crossover filters and driver alignments. Maybe it was the layout in the room this year, or there were more drapes but whatever had changed, everything sounded the best it had ever sounded, and I wish some year I remember to bring along some of my own music to play out – that was the sort of thrill it gave me 🙂
Lastly, it was my honour to meet Mr. Tim Goodyer and have a long chat with him at the show – I hadn’t put two and two together with regards name and face, and when he mentioned about being the editor of “Studio Sound” for ten years, I did genuinely feel like I was meeting a celebrity, such was my avid reading of said magazine during its lifetime. Brilliant!
