106 EXPO
KOBA
KOBA SEOUL
Hot footing it from Palm Expo, Beijing I arrived in Seoul, South Korea for the KOBA Show, and as it was my first visit to the country I knew it was looking good when the very nice immigration man smilingly said welcome to Korea as he stamped the passport, an easy gesture sadly lacking from most immigration staff. Anyhow onto KOBA, held in the centre of Seoul at the COEX Convention & Exhi- bition Centre. The four day show - organised by Korea E & Ex Inc - was in its 22nd year and for the first time was spread over three halls. The roots of the show lie in the broadcast market, but gradually it has been moving into the entertainment pro audio, lighting and video markets, sufficiently so that this year’s show had a whole hall devoted to this market sector. On walking the show, what strikes you first is the amount of Korean manufacturers that actually exist, 142 are listed in the show catalogue, but this really shouldn’t be
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surprising as Korea has probably the most sophisticated ship building industry in the world. It is outpacing Japan in the consumer electronics market with LG and Samsung, probably the only viable competition to Apple smart phones, and it has a burgeoning car manufacturing sector. Whilst talking to one of the Korean manufacturers he explained that the broad- cast and entertainment sectors are encouraged and bolstered by the supportive Government, which actively specifies Korean products for infrastructure contracts. This of course doesn’t mean Korea is a closed shop to outside manufacturers. Korea has an incredible church installation market, which has a near insatiable appetite and budget to match for equipment right across the spectrum of the show exhibitors. These western companies from around the world were well represented by distributors on the show floor with big names such as Sovico, Sound Solution,
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