ALMA, ALTI, and AISE 2019. What Happened in Orlando...

The annual ALMA International Symposium & Expo (AISE) 2019, took place June 9–10 at the DoubleTree by Hilton at Universal Orlando, just prior to InfoComm 2019. Once again, it was the strongest event ever for anyone in the loudspeaker and electroacoustic development in general. This was the first event since the association decided to move away from Las Vegas and CES, and leverage the opportunities of working closer with the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA) and its annual trade show, InfoComm.

A new Danish audio company, founded by Bruno Putzeys, Lars Risbo, and Peter Lyngdorf was recently announced. The name is Purifi Audio, and as you can guess from the founders involved, the venture promises Class D amplifiers with record-breaking performance "unmatched by amplifiers of any operating class." But the new company will be doing more than amplifiers, since it also revealed a new 6.5" woofer with "magnitudes lower intermodulation distortion across frequency and SPL."

It's an exciting time for the Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) Association, a consumer electronics consortium dedicated to creating interoperability standards utilized by leading brands and manufacturers to deliver immersive sound via wireless, intelligent devices. As anyone who has seen a demo agrees, WiSA Certified components from any member brand are finally helping to ensure robust, high definition, multi-channel, low latency wireless audio, while eliminating the complicated setup of traditional 5.1, 7.1, or immersive configurations in wired systems.

The consumer electronics team at Futuresource Consulting has made available a free perspectives report covering the role of wearables within fitness ecosystems in four sports contexts: health clubs, swimming, cycling, and running. The report has been supported with in-depth research with industry stakeholders across all disciplines, from both a hardware and software perspective. The document discusses some of the key top-line trends on wearables in sport and is now available as a free download.

I learned to attend trade shows in the era when it was crucial to bring back a large bag weighing 80 pounds filled with catalogs, price lists, and product manuals. In fact, I quickly learned to look at the global trade show calendar and sometimes attended regional trade shows just to find new products ahead of the major international events and establish an early relationship with a new company. Those local shows were mainly targeted at meeting final clients and end users for the region, but they were an effective way to meet key people with more time available, and learn how they defined their sales pitch in their own - sometimes more mature - markets.

This key event for the audio industry is the ALMA International Symposium & Expo (AISE), promoted by the Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics (ALMA) International. The two-day event traditionally happened just before CES. Now, the industry gathering is going to become less of a secret, since this year's AISE is expanding and moving to June 9–10, 2019, just prior to and in affiliation with InfoComm in Orlando, FL. It’s important for everyone to learn more about AISE 2019 and why they need to be there.

MWC 2019 highlighted key areas where the audio industry should focus and from where it could gain it's most important benefits. A trade show vibrant in the presentation of audio technologies for voice interface solutions, smart and connected home and personal devices. I would never have dreamed that one day a trade show such as the Mobile World Congress would be part of my annual agenda. But now, traveling to Barcelona in February became an essential part of my duties for audioXpress every year.

During my time at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019 show, I looked closely at how companies are dealing with the transition to IP networks, how prevalent some proprietary technologies still are in commercial installation and AV in particular (e.g., HDBaseT), and how manufacturers are introducing new products and concepts to integrate those networked systems, in particular those protocols that support AES67 audio and the latest SMPTE ST-2110 suite of standards in general.

The weather forecast for Amsterdam from February 5 to 8 couldn't have been grimmer. And the arrival to Schiphol Airport welcomed visitors with the first signs of snow... And yet, when the 2019 edition of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) opened its doors, no matter the cold, wind, and the rain, the crowds started to flow in impressive numbers to an expanded RAI Amsterdam exhibition complex.

For this edition of The Audio Voice I am wrapping up the summaries I have been writing following the Audio Collaborative 2018 conference. The event dedicated to the latest audio trends was successfully promoted in London, UK, for the fifth consecutive year by market research firm Futuresource Consulting . I'll try to summarize some key content and add some context and perspective, this time focusing on the panels on trends and opportunities in the music market and the gaming sector.