The central networking bar with its surround view and high resolution LED screen from CT Screenco, provided an ideal place to meet colleagues and friends, or plan the ensuing expedition around the hall. This year's more open-plan layout also had the effect of making the show floor simpler to navigate - an important consideration if you visited Bandit Lites' stand first!
With considerable advances in product development, business diversification and expanding markets, the show has taken on a new and very distinctive identity. Areas such as digital sound, LED technology, computerized control systems and club and DJ products have progressed both technologically and in the scope of their applications. Ditto for those products serving the architectural and installation markets - hence the Show's decision to embrace these sectors by introducing a dedicated Architectural and AV area - an initiative that not only brought a new visitor base to the show, but one which will also allow for further diversification in the future. To cement ties with this important sector, PLASA has joined the RIBA CPD Network - a move which reflects the increasing role audio and lighting now plays within an architect's brief. The first link-up came at this year's show, where the interests of the architectural audience were served by a seminar programme addressing its particular issues.
The strength of a development such as this is that it isn't a one-way street. With manufacturers and distributors increasing their trade into the fast-evolving leisure, retail and architectural sectors, product development will continue to broaden, creating the potential for innovations designed to serve these markets, in turn, to be fed straight back into the entertainment industry. This can only be good news and should further reduce any chance of stagnation in an industry that has rarely stood still.
After-hours entertainment value was provided by numerous gatherings staged in and around the Show, in bars, nightclubs and on boats, many of which L&SI attended (of course). However, the overwhelming indicator of the Show's success this year was the evident delight with which so many exhibitors praised the quality of visitors, the international attendance and the level of business being done.
