Ah Beijing - city of brown skies, traffic jams and crazy driving. The Olympic city, centre of the new Chinese Empire. And home to one of the world's craziest trade shows. Its so loud in some halls you can barely think let alone speak - and this goes on from 9AM to 6PM. Turbosound with our Distributor Phoenix, is in a relatively quiet (and that is very much a relative term) Hall two where it is also quite cool and has high ceilings. Other halls are hotter and much more claustrophobic and this is only made worse by the fact they are full of local manufacturers with dodgy "tribute" products all on at full volume.
Noticeable absentees this year include ACE (the Harman Family package), Funktion One, Martin Audio, Coemar Lighting to mention a few. Some are boycotting because of the organisers lax attitude to IP infringement, some are spending the money in other ways and some, well nobody seems to know.
Whether its the Olympics or the effects of the recent earthquake the show feels a little different this year. Whilst still a very busy show there is an obvious reduction in foot traffic. Luckily it seems that the absentees are mainly timewasters and tyre-kickers, because there is a constant stream of serious enquiries about Turbosound for the Phoenix crew to deal with. There are new dealers and contractors to meet and greet. Established customers and old friends to talk to. But the oddness even extends to the nearby SAS Radisson hotel where many of the gwailo (westerners) exhibitors stay and is used by most of them as a place of refuge for quiet meetings, discrete conversations and escape from the crush and noise of the show. After the show the lobby bar is normally invisible under the weight of exhibitors having a drink, having tete-a-tetes, and planning the rest of the evening. But this year, whilst still busy, it was possible to get a seat and the upstairs cafe was practically empty. Even getting taxis, usually a thankless task was merely frustrating rather than seemingly pointless.
Impact makes one on two punters
But nevertheless a very, very postive show for the boys in blue. ots of interest in the new products such as Impact and FlexArray (which unfortunately couldn't put in an appearence due to a mix-up with some paperwork and the tightening of customs due to the Olympics), with serious rental company interest in Aspect, club owners interest in TA-500 and NuQ series (obviously this got demonstrated quite frequently along with a TSW-218 - and we were one of the quiet ones, plus lots of enquiries for TXD & TCS Compact from the KTV sector.
Examining the back of a TA-890H Sucked in by Polyhorn Technology
Aswell as the Chinese market the show attracts a large foreign contingent of visitors drawn by the ability to buy just about anything made for the Audio, LX and AV business at a knock down price and badged with their name. Particularly popular at the moment seems LED walls. Anyway the upshot of this being that existing overseas customers were seen as well as potential new distributors and customers. As well as Northern Asia (Korea & Japan) I saw customers from SE Asia, the Indian Sub-Continent and Australia. There were also plenty of Russians around.......
Left - A happy Melburnian Aspect customer impersonates
an Egyptian Tea Pot
Above - Lone Gwailo in the crowd - The usually
inseperable Mondo boys get split up...
Technology Corner Frames business talks
Looking out from the stand in vain for daylight
