Frankfurt Pro Light & Sound 2014

Judging the relative success of an exhibition juggernaut like Pro Light & Sound can be a tricky business. While smaller regional shows often live or die by their visitor numbers, the Frankfurt super-show just keeps on rolling, no matter whether it pulls in record crowds or suffers a drop in attendance the likes of which would seriously hurt a smaller event. For most exhibitors, the quality of visitors counts more than the number of bodies in the aisles.

But with that having been said, at times PL&S 2014 felt quiet, particularly on its opening morning, and it wasn’t long before whispers began of a drop in numbers. It turned out that they were correct – the overall combination of PL&S and its MI sister show Musikmesse attracted a reported 107,629 people in 2014 (42,267 specifically for PL&S) – enough of a drop on 2013’s 113,000 to be noticeable, if not overly dramatic.

Nevertheless most stand-holders seemed delighted with the exhibition, numbers be damned. In its post-show press release, Messe Frankfurt made much of the quality of its visitors, and for once the PR machine seemed to be spinning in the same direction as popular opinion. Throughout Hall 8.0, manufacturers eagerly declared it the best Messe in years, while in the busier Hall 5.1, it was hard to find an unhappy face. If it is possible to find such a thing as a consensus at such a large event, then it was tentative excitement at the apparent return of confidence to the European industry.

Yet it is still worth examining the reasons behind the fall, and whether they might point to more than just a blip. Certainly, the continuing rise of ISE has for some years now been felt in the aisles of Hall 8.0, as a number of notable manufacturers have shifted their focus towards Amsterdam. This year Shure elected not to exhibit.

Doug MacCallum of One Systems made the situation clear from his point of view. ‘We exhibit at Pro Light & Sound in addition to ISE and Infocomm, but PL&S is less relevant to us and we met less customers. We’ll be taking a smaller booth next year.’

Not everyone felt the same way. Gintautas Raudys, managing director of AMC Baltic, exhibiting the Viva 5 wall-mount speaker and Evac 5EN ceiling speaker, reported that he had ‘generated many leads and many contacts. The quality of customers is different to those at ISE but we have made contacts in new countries.’ Similarly, Mark Asselberghs and Tom Van de Sande of Audac, boasting a redesigned booth, were more than satisfied. ‘We were a little bit afraid of what the show would be like as the interval between ISE and PL&S was very short this year, but our expectations were totally exceeded,’ confirmed Mr Asselberghs.

However, Mick Anderson of Coda Audio pointed to a different explanation. Speaking on day one, as the manufacturer launched its new Linus10 two-channel amplifier and TiRAY line array, Mr Anderson reasoned: ‘Attendees need to find a way to adjust their expenditure in line with what’s going on in the world financially. If you fly in on the morning of day one then you save yourself a night’s hotel and the cost of food and drink that goes with it. We have guests coming from as far afield as Indonesia and China and they all arrived this morning.’

There is certainly no denying that the cost of room and board in Frankfurt – never the cheapest proposition – has become a serious issue amongst those travelling from far afield. It’s not Messe Frankfurt’s fault, but it is the show’s problem.

But back to the good news. Once again PL&S proved a triumph in terms of major product launches, with both the first and second days witnessing a series of high-profile arrivals. First off the block was the second Midas launch of the year in the shape of the Pro X. Across the aisles at the same time, DiGiCo announced a new version of Optocore for all of its optically-enabled consoles, plus its D2-Rack. Martin Audio introduced the multipurpose DD12 loudspeaker and PSX active sub on the booth of its new distributor United Brands, which it shared with XTA and MC2, whose Waring Hayes presided over a competition to win a specially manufactured E100 to mark the company’s 21st anniversary. Meyer Sound brought Lyon to the Messe alongside the new MJF-210 stage monitor. Meanwhile, Yamaha literally stopped the show for half an hour as the arrival of its new QL Series consoles (comprising the QL5 and QL1) drew such a huge crowd to its booth that the aisles surrounding it became impassable.

Later in the day, Powersoft drew a similar scrum to its stand for the arrival of the X Series. RCF announced the formation of a new mixer division, with chairman Arturo Vicari promising digital consoles in 2015, and L-Acoustics officially unveiled K2. By the time Soundcraft introduced the Vi3000 with SpiderCore DSP, it was all the exhausted attendees could manage to grab a beer and start the evening’s festivities.

Indeed, Frankfurt by night is arguably just as important as the daytime exhibition, though this year the partying paused for the best of reasons as ARX hosted a gathering to raise a glass and bid a fond farewell to a true industry icon – Gaston Goossens, who sadly passed away in 2013.

As day two arrived and hangovers were ignored, the launches kept on coming. Bosch announced its new Line Isolator System while Electro-Voice brought the ETX series to Europe. Stagetec literally pulled back the curtain on Polaris Evolution, and Cadac hosted a press conference that, quite frankly, felt like the good old days. Together again, the team of James Godbehear, Richard ‘Fez’ Ferriday and the newly appointed Rob Hughes debuted the MegaCOMMS System Network, based around the MC CDC Router, and the CDC Four:m.

Elsewhere, Nexo unveiled its Geo M6 compact modular line array. The French manufacturer also attracted visitors to the Messe’s Festhalle where, in conjunction with a light and stage effect show by PRG Europe, it demonstrated Dante connectivity between a 24-set STM Series modular line array, a 45°N-12 monitor system and Yamaha CL Series consoles.

Over in Hall 5.1, meanwhile, Sonodyne drew crowds for the arrival of the three-way SM3200, while Audient launched the 8-channel ASP880 mic pre-amp and ADC. ‘People are very interested and excited to see it,’ enthused marketing executive Andy Allen. ‘The attendance has been great. It gets busier throughout the day’.

Antelope Audio’s Georgi Lazarov agreed. ‘The show has been pretty good, pretty busy, with lots of interest in Zen Studio, first portable audio interface with 20 analogue inputs, 12 mic preamps and DSP.’

They were far from alone in their opinions. The more MI-friendly slant of 5.1 seemed to galvanise attendance, aided by the hall’s narrower aisles. Among the companies best placed to judge the difference was Genelec, who took spaces in both. ‘For the first time we have two booths – one in Hall 8.0 and a smaller booth in Hall 5.1,’ explained Lars Olof-Janflod. ‘The booth in Hall 5.1 has been very busy whilst in 8.0 it’s been more quiet. But we’ve had some very good contacts so overall we’re happy.’

Back in Hall 8.0, praise continued for the standard of qualified attendees. ‘It’s been great,’ declared Peavey’s TJ Lim. ‘We have our Asian distributors coming in and we have also seen a lot of customers who we’ve never met before.’

‘We’re fully booked with meetings and we’re feeling that we have collected business cards and leads with a higher intensity than last year,’ said Roberto Mataloni of FBT, grabbing attention and entering new market channels with the Muse double 10-inch line array and X-Series powered cabinets. ‘We’re presenting new products which are attracting a lot of attention and meet the expectations of many of our customers.’

Rik Kirby of Renkus Heinz – based on its own booth for the first time in a decade – was feeling equally enthusiastic. ‘It’s been excellent,’ he said. ‘Since our distribution changed we decided to exhibit ourselves and now we’re now able to present out normal preference rather than trying to display our personality as one of many brands. It’s really worked for us, driving a huge amount of booth traffic. We’ve been busier at PL&S than we’ve been for years.’

Presenting a striking presence on the show floor was the combined strength of RCF and dB Technologies, who transformed a huge amount square-footage into a combination of demonstration area, meeting space and Italian café. ‘It’s been one of the busiest shows I’ve ever attended,’ said dB Technologies’ product specialist Marco Cantalù. ‘People have been going crazy for the DVA Mini, our new flagship for our professional series, and for the booth. We are looking forward to a huge reaction after this show.’

If a great booth can make a big difference, then so can maintaining a consistent position, as KV2 Audio has for several years. ‘Frankfurt has been exceptionally good for KV2,’ commented Dave Croxton. ‘We’ve had some enquiries from some very high-end operators. I think the booth position is working. We’ve also got VHD on the concert stage and that’s generated some really good enquiries.’

Also on the concert stage was TW Audio with the T24N. ‘The reaction has been very good, visitors have said it’s what they have been looking for,’ reported Bernhard Wuestner. The first day brought less people than before but the second and third days were as good as last year. We're also seeing new distributors and new customers.’

Similarly, Proel used the outdoor demonstration area to bring its new double 6.5-inch Axiom AX2065A line array to market. ‘It’s a hybrid configuration with one active model which can also drive a passive,’ explained export area sales manager Hasna Nahdi. Daniele Massaccesi added: ‘We have had many visitors and meetings. It feels like the market is back again and optimistic for the future’.

Elsewhere, HK Audio introduced Lucas Nano. ‘We had high expectations about how the product would be received and they were exceeded,’ declared Andreas Mayerl. ‘Even though there has been less traffic we have had a very good show.’

‘It’s been busy but we've had quiet patches at the start of each day,’ judged JoeCo’s Stephanie Sobey-Jones. ‘We’ve seen the majority of our international distributors and resellers so I’m very pleased about that. It's a great environment to show them the new products. I think we’ll have some good follow on business.’

Italian manufacturer Tasker enjoyed a strong reaction to its new Totally White and outdoor installation cable ranges. ‘The quality is good,’ said Fabrizio Milan. ‘It's still a very international show and that is very important for us because we are here looking for new distributors.’ Faital Pro’s Flavio Naggi reported a ‘very satisfying’ exhibition, adding: ‘The first couple of days were amazing; we had a lot of traffic’.

For the first time, TASCAM shared a booth with its fellow Gibson Pro Audio brands including KRK, Cerwin Vega, Stanton and Cakewalk. ‘It's our first time exhibiting with the Gibson brands and it’s really exciting to share resources,’ commented Takashi Tsunoyama. ‘The response from the visitors has been very positive.’ Gibson’s director of market development Nils Karsten agreed. ‘The traffic has been amazing – we have a wonderful booth and there are lots of people engaged with the products.’ An example of the new relationship was delivered via KRK Rokit G3 monitors playing back audio from a TASCAM DA-3000 source.

EAW presented Anya for the first time at the show, and Rusty Waite reported ‘a great reaction – we've closed a few deals, we’re pleased with the amount of visitors and we've seen all of our distributors’. Another notable launch came in the form of Quest Engineering’s 5-inch HPI-5 and dual 5-inch HPI 25. ‘Bearing in mind the recent economic environment, distributor reaction at the show was very optimistic, particularly in light of new products that reflected the increasing venue preference for very discrete yet high performance audio systems at an accessible price,’ reflected Frank Andrewartha. Similarly, Amadeus’ launch of the PMX 4, a miniature 4-inch coaxial, and the ML 8 ultra-compact 8-inch sub proved a big success. ‘They received a warm welcome!’ enthused Gaetan BYK. ‘We also had promising discussions with potential new partners from Asia, Russia and Switzerland.’

But if exhibitors in Hall 8.0 and 5.1 were feeling positive, then unfortunately the sentiment did not extend as far as PL&S’ new home for Asian manufacturers – Hall 9.1. Last year, Pro Audio Asia reported on the huge swell of discontent that greeted Messe Frankfurt’s decision to force manufacturers of Asian origin into one hall, far from their competitors. At best the companies affected were confused, at worst they were deeply offended. It seemed an odd tactic for a show organiser currently making strides into the Chinese market, while the hall itself felt empty and abandoned.

Hopes that the same mistake might be avoided this year were in vain.

Among those hit by the arrangement was Mipro, a truly international manufacturer who deserved to be on the main show floor with its peers. To his credit, Eugene Chen dealt with the situation with tremendous grace. ‘Despite the fact that we had no choice but to exhibit in Hall 9.1 yet again, our position at the front of the hall has mitigated this,’ he commented. ‘However, there is little traffic coming here as this hall is a long way from the main activities of Pro Light & Sound. We are highlighting an industry-first digital IEM system, the MI909 transmitter and receiver. The reaction to this has been very positive.’

Another highly respected Asian manufacturer – Thailand’s P Audio – found itself unable to book space in Hall 8.0 and therefore chose not to exhibit. ‘P Audio used to exhibit in Hall 8.0 then suddenly they started putting all of the Asian manufacturers in Hall 9.1,’ said Howard Chen. ‘We thought about it but there’s really no traffic at all so we didn’t exhibit last year. We tried to get a booth in Hall 8.0 again this year but still it wasn’t possible, and Hall 9.1 is just the same. Most of our competitors are Italian manufacturers who are all in Hall 8.0. If we are in Hall 9.1 then who is going to see us? It’s better not to spend the money.’

Mr Chen continued: ‘They call it the International Sourcing Hall but really it’s not because we are an international brand. We have distributors worldwide.’ Asked how he felt about his treatment, he concluded: ‘It’s discrimination’.

Throughout speaking to PAA, Mr Chen reiterated his hope to return to Hall 8.0 in the future. Many other Asian manufacturers of excellent reputation would likely agree. Last year this magazine argued that the creation of the area betrayed ‘a deep and unpleasant ignorance of the broader Asian market’. This year we say that its continuation is simply shameful.

Back in the heartland of the exhibition, the celebrations continued. One company noting a particularly poignant show was Celestion, who this year celebrates an incredible 90th anniversary. The manufacturer designed its booth to reflect the fact that it has been a leader in the professional audio industry longer than the industry itself has existed.

‘We’ve been going since 1924 and we are very pleased and proud to celebrate that anniversary,’ said John Paice. ‘We were the first company to provide loudspeakers for televisions when the BBC switched over from radio. We put loudhailers on factories during war-time and in submarines and warships. Then when pop music came about there we were making loud bands even louder.’ Since then, he continued, professional applications have come to represent ‘about 65 per cent of our business, eclipsing the guitar business and then some’.

Alongside celebrating the anniversary, Celestion’s booth focused on coaxial drivers. ‘We now have a range of coaxial drivers that use the same magnet assembly to drive both the low frequency and the high frequency,’ Mr Paice explained. ‘It takes away weight and size so people who want to build more compact enclosures are able to do so.’ Regarding the exhibition, he added: ‘There’s been a brisk attendance and the atmosphere is definitely upbeat. Also there are a lot of brands we’ve never heard of before.’

That there were. PL&S 2014 was notable for the arrival of new faces to the Frankfurt party. One very notable addition to the ranks appeared following an online teaser campaign designed to boost interest in its launch. The campaign worked and Idea Pro Audio, a brand new loudspeaker manufacturer based in Cedeira, Spain, enjoyed a phenomenally successful debut in Hall 8.0.

‘The reason we are here is to let the world know that we have been paying attention to what some unsung key customers, key figures in the global pro audio business are asking for,’ declared technical director Santiago Alcala. Having previously worked for both US and Chinese manufacturers, Mr Alcala and his colleagues created Idea Pro Audio to cater for markets demanding quality equipment but at the right price and, crucially, with the right features. ‘For so long it has all been about big companies in Europe and in the United States, as if other countries in the world didn’t have shows or concerts and so on,’ Mr Alcala continued. ‘Why try to convince an American or European that your product is decent enough for them to try when you can actually make products that people really like because you make them the way they want? So we’re doing that. It may not be good idea but it’s our idea.’

Visitors to the stand – already armed with a full complement of products – seemed to decide en-masse that it was indeed a good idea. ‘It’s been beyond our expectations,’ Mr Alcala enthused. ‘We’ve been talking to one customer after another.’

Another newcomer to the show, but not the industry, was Audio Precision, whose APx electro-acoustic test attracted a great deal of attention. ‘We’re here because we have a new thrust into electro-acoustics and people need to know about that,’ said Dave Schmoldt, describing APx as ‘a calibrated, one-test solution’ for ‘integrated products that have the acoustic path, the electronics path, digital processing and connections’. He added that PL&S was ‘a great show – everybody in this hall is a customer or a potential customer. We’ve had a lot of booth traffic and the international flavour has been really nice.’

Outline Audio also enjoyed a strong international response. ‘We have met a number of new customers, especially from the Asian market and also from Europe and Canada. We are very happy – in our opinion Frankfurt is our most important exhibition worldwide,’ declared Michele Noselli. Andrea Torelli of K-Array wholeheartedly agreed: ‘This is the most important show for us in Europe and perhaps even the world. Here we meet customers we did not see in Amsterdam and in Amsterdam we met people we haven’t seen here. The bad side of that is that we have to do both shows’.

The reality of the modern trade show calendar means that it is becoming harder for smaller exhibitions to justify their existence, while the super-shows like Pro Light & Sound are having to fight harder than ever to retain their market. For the vast majority of exhibitors who spoke to Pro Audio Asia over the four days of this year’s show, PL&S 2014 was a tremendous success, and the event will of course continue rolling onwards regardless of fluctuations in visitor numbers. But in an increasingly competitive environment, Messe Frankfurt would do well to heed the challenges its visitors face in terms of cost. It should also take serious note of the fact that a significant number of its long-term customers from Asia are not happy at all.