SHOW REVIEW: INFOCOMM MEA Monitoring the Middle East
The second InfoComm MEA show took place last month in Dubai. Paddy Baker went there to take some soundings from exhibitors about the Middle Eastern market and the show itself
IT JUST GOES to show how significant the physical layout of exhibitions can be. Just like at the inaugural event last year, InfoComm Middle East and Africa 2012 was co- located with IT trade show GITEX in Dubai’s World Trade Centre. GITEX is huge: it drew 130,000 visitors in 2011, and the crossover between the two events helped to bring InfoComm MEA’s total attendance to over 12,000. The entrance to InfoComm was close to the entrance to GITEX. Fast-forward 12 months,
and InfoComm MEA 2012 was located right at the far end of GITEX. The show had its own dedicated entrance, and could also be entered via what was apparently one of the less exciting GITEX halls – full of small stands and national pavilions rather than big brand names. The result was that the
show was noticeably less well attended than in 2011. Just about every exhibitor we talked to remarked on this – although not all of them said they were disappointed by it. On a more positive note,
there were no adverse comments about the quality of the attendees: many companies said they were pleasantly surprised by the level of company and even product knowledge shown by visitors to their stands. In addition, many were end customers or integrators looking for solutions to use in particular projects, rather than simply gathering information. The show’s geographical
reach was also praised, confirming Dubai’s status as a hub location. As well as the Middle East visitors, the show drew visitors from African nations: Intelligent Lectern Systems reported doing a deal with a Nigerian visitor for one of the actual exhibits on display on its stand. Eric Brouwers, regional
director Middle East & Africa at Barco, told us: “We used to be in GITEX, but InfoComm is a much better place to meet our peers, so we moved across last year. I think it was
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a smart move – but this show has to grow.” Over at GITEX, Simon Smith, who runs Christie’s Dubai office, was bullish about his decision to move back to the IT show after exhibiting at InfoComm MEA 2011. “We’ve had more leads today than at the whole of the show last year,” he said. Another manufacturer with a dedicated Middle East office is TC Group. Marketing manager Mark Millar sees the Middle East market as very important to the group, especially the Tannoy and
Lab.gruppen brands. “We have been very fortunate to have been involved in some very prestigious installs out here, which has definitely raised the profile of the brand in this market,” he said. Graham Lawton, general
manager for Tannoy ME, believes there are definite benefits of having a local office in Dubai: “For instance we have installed in projects such as the Hard Rock Cafe in Festival City and more recently the newly opened 360º club at Jumeirah Beach.” He added: “The new VX series, based on the evolution of the V series, is really making an impact out here, and on the amplifier side the E-Series from
Lab.gruppen is doing the same.” Millar added: ”Club systems that may have had other historical preferences are now being converted after hearing the sound from our new products.”
FORWARD OUTPOSTS If, as Randy Lemke of InfoComm International says on pages 22-23 of this issue, tradeshows are forward outposts for his organisation, the same is true for those exhibitors without any kind of local presence. One exhibitor that told us it would rebook next year was Lightware, although David Jones from its UK office said that it might book a stand in GITEX as well. The company used the show to launch its MODEX range of modular extenders in the Middle East. MODEX offers a full range of modular
Lightware used the show to launch its MODEX range of modular extenders in the Middle East
transmitters and receivers extending digital and analogue video and audio, USB KVM, Ethernet and control signals over a single fibre or Cat6/7 cable. More than 5,000 extender variations are available, and 3D and 4K video resolution are supported. Most of those we spoke to
felt that the Middle Eastern AV market had returned to more or less the level that it had been before the crash of a few years ago – albeit with a little more restraint in the scale of construction than was the case back then. The Middle Eastern market continues to generate major projects. The larger ones can create a spike in manufacturers’ revenue patterns and also may be delayed at short notice – making forecasting something of a headache. The way in which projects
are organised and structured means that specifications
can be fluid: if a manufacturer’s equipment appears on the original specification, that is not a guarantee that it will appear in the final build. “Getting swapped out of a spec happens more often here and in Asia than in Europe,” commented Steve Scorse of Prysm. “Often it’s because an influential person makes a last-minute change, rather than for budgetary reasons.” Prysm has benefited from this tendency to change: its flagship installation in the region, at Dubai TV, came about following a technology demo that took place after rear-projection cubes had been originally specified. Many exhibitors highlighted the education sector as an area of focus. For Biamp, Dane Miller said that Saudi Arabia is the standout country in the region for the company, thanks to a major university project in Riyadh. However, the company was
gaining traction in Qatar, while the UAE is harder but with “some light at the end of the tunnel”. Biamp showcased all its main product lines including the Tesira scalable media system for digital networking using Audio-Video Bridging, and the Vocia paging system. In addition, it announced the latest version (1.4.1) of Vocia’s software. One of the new features is that the maximum delay times on the VA-8600/VA-8600c amplifiers have been extended from 0.5 seconds (500ms) per channel to 2.7 seconds. We featured two recent Middle Eastern deals for DIS in last month’s Installation, and according to area sales manager Christoph Hellmuth, the company has had sales success recently in Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. On its stand, the company focused on its 5900 system and its new ready-to-go camera and
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