This year’s 40th anniversary PLASA Show saw an increase in visitor numbers, a sold-out show floor and a 25% increase in the number of audio companies exhibiting, according to the organiser.
Exhibitors reported continually busy stands and a high quality of visitor across all three days, with a particular increase in the number of international attendees, whilst visitors were pleased with the number of brand new products on show and the content rich seminar programme.
“The quality of the people was bang on,” said Mick Hannaford from the Show’s Platinum sponsor, Robe. “The amazing thing from our point of view was the amount of lighting designers attending, especially on the Sunday, and not just from the UK, but mainland Europe, too. It was a really impressive. Undoubtedly, the move back to West London is making that happen. Every time I looked, there were lots of conversations going on around the show floor. I think every exhibitor should be happy. It was magic!”
A number of new audio products were launched at the show, which included Harman’s Vi1000 digital mixing console on the stand of its UK distributor Sound Technology, Adamson’s IS-Series installation loudspeakers and KV2 Audio’s VHD 2.18J subwoofer. On the SSE Audio Group stand there was a line-up of new products on display including the recently launched DiGiCo SD12 digital mixing console and Sennheiser Digital 6000 Series microphones, Speechline Digital Wireless conference system and XS Wireless 1 and 2 vocal microphone sets.
“We’ve been exhibiting at PLASA for around 10 years and have built our stand as an audio village. We feature a selection of the manufacturers we work closely with and they all bring their latest technology to the show,” said SSE Audio’s managing director John Penn. “By sharing a big space and resources, we can display a good cross section of products. We show both competing and complementary technologies, allowing our customers to see the differences between them and no one feels they’re getting the hard sell. It works very well.”
In the Audio Demo room, visitors could listen to 15 minute demos of a variety of leading loudspeaker systems including Bose Professional’s new compact yet versatile ShowMatch DeltaQ line-array system, as well as systems from Aura Audio, KV2 Audio, Shermann Audio and TiMAX.
“This year’s Show was a fantastic celebration of 40 years of PLASA and a real validation of our decision to return to West London,” commented PLASA’s Christopher Toulmin, director of events. “The show floor was extremely busy across all three days, there was a tangible atmosphere of urgency and engagement and we’re delighted with the feedback from both our exhibitors and visitors to the show. Work has already begun on PLASA Show 2018 and we look forward to it with great anticipation.”
