Wider Market Perspectives and Deeper Connections at ISE 2020

ISE 2020 is set to be the most compelling Integrated Systems Europe show ever. Taking place at the RAI Amsterdam on 11-14 February 2020, ISE is the world’s leading event for the professional systems integration channel. Launched in 2004, ISE is now the world’s largest tradeshow for the professional AV and electronic systems industry. ISE 2020 is expected to draw nearly 1,400 exhibitors and more than 85,000 registered attendees to its Amsterdam RAI location.

Promoted every year by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), CES is certainly the largest and most influential consumer technology show in the world, increasingly the place where trends are revealed for the rest of the year, and where both the largest brands and the most promising start-ups get a vital boost to their marketing. Increasingly, the CES Show is also a vibrant market for technology vendors and suppliers and this year, from January 7-10, the #CES2020 promises to be a defining moment for the audio industry.

The 2020 NAMM Show returns to Anaheim, California Thursday, January 16 to Sunday, January 19 - a little earlier than usual. The annual global gathering of the musical instruments, pro audio, and entertainment technology industries will be on display across the NAMM Campus at the Anaheim Convention Center and the excitement for this 2020 edition couldn't be greater. The NAMM Show consolidates its position on the global stage as the most important trade show for music, sound and live technologies.

By the show’s end, InfoComm 2019 counted 44,129 registered attendees, of which 37 percent were attending for the first time and 18 percent traveled to the show from 117 countries outside the U.S. This is still a positive trend, considering that InfoComm 2018 set a new record for attendance in Las Vegas, when the trade show attracted nearly 43,000 registered attendees, and the fact that the previous edition of InfoComm in Orlando had logged 44,077 registered attendees (a 13% growth compared to 2015, also in Orlando).

CEDIA Expo is the annual show created for the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA), founded to advocate home technology, promoting training/certification, business, and the residential integration industry in general. Now operated by Emerald Expositions, the 2019 edition takes place September 10-14, at the Colorado Convention Center, in Denver. The show is promoting a new expansion era, towards the connected home and connected built environments.

For the second year, IFA (The International Funkausstellung) will take place in two fully occupied exhibition areas: the entire Berlin Exhibition Grounds as well as IFA Global Markets (for trade visitors only) at Station Berlin on Gleisdreieck. Europe's giant trade show for Consumer and Home Electronics will again underline the event’s unique global standing as a driving force for growth and innovation, and there's plenty of new exhibits and events.

The June 2019 edition of Voice Coil is now available. This issue focuses on Headphone Measurement Equipment, including a complete directory and profiles of some of the better known vendors in the industry, while James Croft reviews a new Sealed Acoustic Suspension Chamber Enclosure design, invented in Sweden. On Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes the new 6” 6PR160 pro sound midwoofer from Faital Pro, and the new SW280WA-01 shallow mount 10" home audio subwoofer, from Wavecor.

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.

A decisive 2019 edition of Prolight+Sound and Musikmesse is fast approaching, signaling the return to a consolidated model and the adoption of a new layout, which includes new facilities in the Messe Frankfurt complex. For the first time since 2015, the two trade fairs are being held concurrently on all four days and, for visitors from the professional audio sector in particular, will offer a variety of new highlights and product innovations from the industry’s key players.

In its 17th year, embedded world, Nuremberg, Germany, once again impressed the global embedded electronics community. The results for visitor and exhibitor numbers and display area confirmed around 31,000 trade visitors, the second best visitor total since the trade fair began, and 1,117 companies from all over the world flocked to the 8% larger display area at Exhibition Centre Nuremberg.