INDUSTRY & PRODUCT NEWS

Messe Frankfurt Announces Prolight+Sound Middle East 2016
Messe Frankfurt, one of the world's leading trade fair and convention organizers, has announced the launch of Prolight+Sound Middle East. According to Installation International magazine, Messe Frankfurt has acquired the PALME Middle East show (which used to be held in May), from Informa Exhibitions and rebranded it as Prolight+Sound Middle East. This is now the fifth event in the Prolight+Sound international brand.  Read More


MAG Audio Extends Professional Transducer Range with New 21" Woofer
From the innovative minds of MAG Audio comes a new high-power low-distortion 21" low-frequency transducer, which the Ukrainian company says is a competitive high-quality alternative to more compact and effective subwoofers designs. The new MAG M2108 woofer uses an aluminum die-cast frame with an improved ventilated 4.5" voice coil and features the company's removable self-centering ferrite magnet system.  Read More

ISE 2016 Confirms Record Attendance and Is Now the World's Largest AV and Systems Integration Show
The organizers promised 'More 4 You' and produced the most for everyone. The first four-day Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition came to a close on February 12, 2016 with a final count of 65,686 registered attendees. This represents a 6,338 (10.7%) increase from the 2015 edition and officially positions ISE as the world's largest AV and systems integration trade show.  Read More



Media Networking Alliance Creates AES67 Momentum at ISE 2016 
You can call it the "rtf" format or the neutral "Switzerland" of audio networking. The AES67 open format is here and the demonstrations at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2016 reflected the growing importance of network interoperability in AV. Several initiatives promoted by the Media Networking Alliance (MNA) at this show served to demonstrate how important this will be for audio in general. Read More
 

OCA Alliance Promoted Open Control Architecture/AES70 Standard at ISE 2016
The OCA Alliance has successfully promoted the new Open Control Architecture (OCA) AES70 standard at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2016 show in Amsterdam. The association showcased the latest developments and introduced the OCA MicroDemo development platform to other manufacturers and system integrators. PC-based Control Specialist Beckhoff also announced OCA (AES70) integration at ISE 2016.  Read More


Pascal Celebrates 10 Years of Success with Amplifier Modules for Pro-Audio Applications
Established since February 2006, Pascal A/S is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It has been a decade in which the company has achieved a remarkable growth rate and established itself as a solid "power-partner" with its high-power amplifier modules for professional audio loudspeaker manufacturers working in the self-powered PA sector.  Read More
 
Fluance's Fi70 Makes a Design Statement in Bluetooth Speakers
Arriving from Fluance, a manufacturer of "serious performance" home-theater systems, the new Fi70 Bluetooth Speaker makes a statement in design and audio quality. The Fi70 is the world's first wireless speaker to house dual 8" woofers in a three-way six-driver design with an integrated amplifier, pushing the limits on audio reproduction, while combining a passion for music with a truly original design.  Read More

Jo�o
Martins
Editor-in-Chief


Editor's Desk


When Convergence Means Growth Dynamics

Consultants, designers, system integrators,
and installers, are ISE's core audience.
As expected, the first four-day Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2016 show broke records and received 65,686 registered attendees, representing a 10.7% increase over the 2015 edition. This officially positions ISE as the world's largest AV and systems integration trade show, larger than the InfoComm and CEDIA trade shows combined. And this is relevant, as I stated before, because InfoComm and CEDIA are the organizations which promote ISE. So, what's the difference?
 
ISE started as an idea to expand the two organizations' international scope - from the US to Asia and Europe - much as other trade show promoters were already doing. There was a small difference in that the concept involved bringing together the two concepts - the residential and the commercial AV installation segments. Hence, the "integrated systems" motto. While in Asia the idea didn't succeed because the promoters couldn't find a local strong partner; in Europe, the dedicated team quickly learned that the project was larger than the sum of InfoComm and CEDIA parts. Integrated Systems Events (the European dedicated arm responsible for the ISE show) created a unique concept, leveraging the entire "integrated systems" idea with the understanding of a unique opportunity - the convergence toward real integration, IP and IT, smart buildings, and new market trends (e.g., digital signage and collaboration). The concept also promoted a powerful concept. That systems integrators from AV, security, networks, lighting, communications, etc., could actually expand their approaches to an expanded range of integrated systems in all disciplines, in great part thanks to the transition to IP-based solutions.
 
This, of course, was the magnet that attracted some of the most powerful contracting companies from all over Europe and gradually from all over the world, envisaging a unique business opportunity, while manufacturers themselves were bewildered by finding so many new business partners in a single place and quickly expanding their distribution model from the traditional "box-moving" distribution approaches to a completely new one, based on projects and services.
 
CEDIA CEO, Vincent Bruno (left) with Integrated Systems Events Managing Director, Mike Blackman, and David Labuskes, Executive Director and CEO, InfoComm International.
How ISE will manage this tremendous formula to cement its own success is an open question. The more interesting question should be the one faced by InfoComm, CEDIA, and so many other trade organizations in US. How much longer until they embrace the opportunities of integrated systems? I am not suggesting that the shows need to merge. Quite the opposite - I think that sooner or later many exhibitors in the CEDIA sector at ISE will be forced out due the continued expansion of the more powerful commercial sector. What associations such as CEDIA need to understand is the global changing market dynamics of business and the changes caused by convergent technologies in the new organization model of the industry. The "certified integrator," "residential contractor" segmentation simply doesn't hold it any longer.
 
There are hundreds of companies exhibiting at CES which would be better served by moving to a show such as CEDIA and the same can be said with many consumer audio companies that only attend small regional shows open to the public. The same is true with professional audio companies, which attend shows such as the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show, InfoComm, or even the Live Design International (LDI) show. Many of those shows should start embracing the broader picture and focus on what actually separates the actual industries. It doesn't matter if an audio company makes both touring systems for Rock 'n' Roll and ceiling speakers for hotels, they belong in separate industries and require different skill sets, which are handled by separate professionals and organizations all over the world. Showing touring line-arrays at InfoComm or ISE doesn't make any sense. In Europe, you have Prolight+Sound for that and the same company exhibits ceiling speakers successfully at ISE.
 
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show understood this long ago and evolved into the media production space, leveraging the new converging digital media platforms, and is now as much about audio recording and movie production, as it is about TV or radio, covering everything from live streaming to the web to corporate and government production, and even game content. They now call it media creation and distribution. Yes, some video camera manufacturers also exhibit at InfoComm targeting corporate video applications but they are realizing that, although they can successfully sell signal converters, they see very few visitors interested in video production.
At the close of the 2016 show, Integrated
 Systems Europe already had sold 95% of the
 total space available for the 2017 edition.
 
Live shows, event technology, and entertainment applications - audio, video, lighting, and rigging - have a place within the NAMM Show and it urgently needs to expand its scope - or another one will take that opportunity. Frankfurt Messe understood this and is already restructuring the Prolight+Sound and Musikmesse shows in that direction, after successfully becoming one of the best shows for staging and lighting for entertainment and events technology. Integrated Systems is about buildings, public spaces, and corporate environments - independently of the technology. CEDIA shows should be about the home and increasingly the personal environment - not about protecting the market strategy and aging business model of its founding members.
From the Vault
On Angel's Wings (Part 1):
A Speaker Design for the Bohlender Graebener RD-75 Planar Magnetic Driver
By Thomas Perazella
 
In January 2001, the first audioXPress magazine issue (Vol. 32 No.1) included a project from Thomas Perazella, highlighted in its cover, which has been considered by many one of the best DIY high-end speaker projects ever published in the publication's history. Titled "On Angel's Wings" and published in two parts (the second part appeared in the following issue) the articles detailed the design and construction of a speaker using the Bohlender Graebener RD-75 planar magnetic driver, including references to previous experiments with dipole baffles. Tom's project aimed to achieve the best of both worlds, maximizing the spacious sound of the BG RD-75 planar magnetic drivers with the dynamic range of conventional drivers, which would require a carefully designed speaker in a dipole configuration. This is the first part of the project that audioXpress is now making available online. Read the Full Article Available Here
Voice Coil Test Bench
Celestion G12H "GreenBack" 12" Guitar Speaker Reissue 
By Vance Dickason
 
This month's driver is from Celestion, a historical reissue of the famous G12H "GreenBack" 12" guitar speaker: the G12H(55) "Greenback" from the brand's Heritage Series classic guitar speakers. Voice Coil wanted to characterize this classic guitar amplifier speaker not so much from the standpoint of "let's see how good it is," but because it is an insanely popular classic driver that has defined high-powered rock guitar music since the 1960s. Vance Dickason wanted to know exactly what all the objective data looked like and maybe even see if he needed to rethink some of the Test Bench criteria.
This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2015.  Read The Full Article Online
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