All signs point to success for InfoComm India 2013
Published: ASIA
INDIA: The Bombay Exhibition Centre was the venue of choice for InfoComm’s first foray into a fixed trade show format in India. Having successfully run road show formats in the country over the previous four years, InfoComm’s decision to transfer to an annual fixed event appears to have been justified. In fact, Pro Audio Asia can report that the vast majority of exhibitors and visitors alike were satisfied in the knowledge that India finally has a dedicated trade show for the pro A/V marketplace, in addition to a comprehensive workshop, seminar and conference programme.
Over 130 exhibitors could be found in the ageing Hall 5 of the BEC, but neither the rain that had managed to seep through the roof on the eve of the show or the shift of show dates due to the clash with the Ganesh Chaturthi festival seemed to dampen spirits.
Speaking on the first afternoon, E&E Systems’ (India) Poncho said: ‘it’s perfect and it is why we’re here – because it’s a show, not a road show. The other shows in India cater to production houses and rental companies whilst this is dedicated to install, so this is a completely different show. We would tend to meet the system integrators here, but I would say that the timing isn’t great – the first day was a half day – so with day three clashing with the end of the Ganesh festival, realistically you’ve got just one full day of the show.’
Founded just 18 months ago, Hyderabad-based distributor Reverb Systems used InfoComm India as a launch pad to display acoustic panelling from Vicoustic as well as product from Screen Goo and Furman. Director Anil Vemulapalli was upbeat about the traffic on the stand: ‘It’s been quite interesting meeting lots of guys from the A/V segment. The response has been positive and there’s been a lot of interest in Screen Goo with visitors impressed with the paint quality.’
Meanwhile, Sun Infonet MD Neeraj Chandra – the distributor for multiple audio lines including Nexo, Shure and Allen & Heath – was clear about his target market: ‘Take Shure as an example: it’s a company that covers multiple market sectors such as MI, broadcast, installation – we can now come here and exhibit one complete range.’
Equally positive was Anindya Mukherjee of Sonodyne, who declared the show a complete success in terms of investment: ‘Of the number of people that are coming who know what they want, it’s the best per capita return on investment show. They’ve done a good job. We’re showing two kinds of products on the stand: integration products and installed sound systems from Australian Monitor and Sonodyne, and also studio monitors. But we’re about to launch active monitors for install also, and the response has been phenomenal.
‘Our focus for this show has been empanelling new systems integrators, and over the past day and a half we’ve signed up 16 new integrators from all over India,’ he enthused. ‘We were expecting this from InfoComm as it’s very clear that audio video, safety security and IT are all converging. In terms of the Mumbai location, it’s right to be here as this is the commercial centre and all the systems integrators will come here.’
Aditya Modi of Modi Digital was full of praise for the organisers: ‘It’s the most focussed show that India has today which is a good thing for the country, and the other great thing is that they’re heavily supporting the associations here such as AES India, the computer science association of India, and they want to develop into a platform with members and education. The floor looks good, it’s well managed, and interestingly I’ve seen quite a few south east Asian attendees here, but apart from that it’s been mostly local visitors from Mumbai.’
The Analog Way stand was busy throughout the show with the Ascender 48 multi-screen seamless switcher taking pride of place. Speaking before the show’s close, VP Asia Pacific, William Roddes was pragmatic: ‘So far so good. We have met quite a few key people but it will be interesting to see how the last day goes. Visitors here seem to understand our technology pretty well.’
There were mixed feelings on the show floor regarding whether the organisers should consider alternating cities in the future, but for 2014 at least the dates have been confirmed as the 17-19th September at the Bombay Exhibition Centre once more.