IBC 2009: post-show review

It is a knee-jerk reaction of exhibitors and journalists to state the obvious fact that trade show attendance is down this year across the board. Major shows like PALME, PLASA and even Frankfurt have seen attendance drop from last year’s numbers and while this number may affect the aisles of the show and size of the booths, the market has not suffered from a decrease in new product launches as everyone goes smaller and more affordable to suit the changing times.

The final figures from the IBC show, held at Amsterdam’s RAI Convention Centre last month, reveal that 45,547 people attended, which is seven per cent down on 2008. But it’s still an impressive number and IBC COO Mike Crimp says: “’IBC is about the quality of the exhibition and the conference. And I think you’ll be surprised at how well we’ve done. We’re not just a trade show, but also an event where people can see the results of all the hard work in our industry. We call this the IBC content experience.’’

This year 1,000-plus exhibitors from 130 different countries were on show, with the pro audio community in strong force with stands from leading brands such as Audio Technica, Sadie, Sennheiser, Harman and Teac.

German microphone manufacturer Neumann showed the latest addition to its line of miniature digital microphone series on Sennheiser’s booth with the KMR 81 shotgun mic. Designed to meet the demands of high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasts, KMR 81 was shown alongside a capsule head with a figure-eight directional characteristic (KK 120). Both products were introduced to enhance its line of digital mics for electronic newsgathering (ENG) and broadcast applications.

Prism Sound introduced a series of Sadie software applications. Sadie digital audio workstations have been used for the last 18 years in music recording applications, but until now broadcast, mastering, post-production and recording engineers needed specific proprietary hardware to run its systems. The new software allows users to access the full functionality of Sadie gear on any computer running Windows with ASIO compatible audio hardware, as well as existing Sadie 5 hardware platforms.

Prism also released two new lower-cost versions of its dScope series III audio analysers. They were developed for R&D engineers and production line managers who are currently only concerned with audio analysis in the analog domain. The analog-only variants come at a much lower price point than the dScope series III audio analyser platform, yet Prism claims they provide the same functionality.

Manufacturer and distributor HHB displayed products from a range of brands including Wohler, Dolby, Soundfield, Digidesign and Roland alongside its own line-up of gear.

The new Wohler AMP1-16-3G compact audio monitoring system was given its European debut alongside Roland’s new M-48/S-4000D personal monitoring system, which was designed to offer musicians enhanced flexibility and control during their performances.

Additional products on HHB’s stand included the new Soundfield UPM-1, a 19-inch rack processor designed to create 5.1 surround from archive programme material that only has a stereo soundtrack, its own Flash mic models, a new version of the CDR-882 DualBurn CD Recorder and the UDP-89 Universal DVD/CD player. Alongside these were the full range of Flash recorders with offerings from Sound Devices, Edirol, Fostex, Marantz, Nagra, Olympus, Sony, Tascam and Zoom.

AKG announced the release of the DMM 4/2/2 automatic microphone mixer. It’s a processor controlled digital automatic mixing algorithm with four balanced universal (microphone/line) inputs and two stereo aux inputs. The mixing algorithm automatically allocates gain among the system microphones (NOM attenuation) with a special noise detect function and the ‘Noise Sensitive Threshold’ algorithm that eliminates an accidental switching of the input channels.

RTS Intercom Systems displayed its new Zeus III Digital Intercom Matrix. The Zeus III provides increased options for intercom configurations and as the next generation of its compact intercom system units.

The company also showed BTR-80N Narrow Band Synthesized Dual-Channel Wireless Intercom System along with the SIP-ISDN telephone interface system, which incorporates an ISDN basic rate and LAN interface allowing for more flexibility when setting up an intercom system on an existing network.
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