2018 AES Show Report

[MikeRivers]

My show report is now posted. You'll find it on the Trade Show Reports page on my web site. Or click here to download it directly.

[Mats Nermark]

Hi Mike,

 

It's been years and years since I visited an AES Show and I miss going so I always look forward to your reports. Thanks for continuing to educate those of us who aren't able to attend.

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

[MikeRivers]

Hi Mike,

 

It's been years and years since I visited an AES Show and I miss going

 

The NAMM show is getting to be a little closer to an AES show, at least as far as exhibits go. Now that nearly all of the audio manufacturers are setting up in the new building there's plenty of audio stuff to see. As I recall, last year you were on crutches, so you had an excuse for not walking all the way over, but I hope you're fixed up this year. If not, get a horse!

 

The formal AES@NAMM is more a collection of tutorials from manufacturers on how to use their equipment and practically nothing that gets very technical, but if you want to learn how to drive a Yamaha digital console, that's probably as good a place as any to do it, but they're doing the Project Studio Expo and I thin Live Sound Expo programs that AES has been doing for the past several years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mats Nermark]

but they're doing the Project Studio Expo and I thin Live Sound Expo programs that AES has been doing for the past several years.

 

Hi Mike,

 

Being in the education sector, the Project Studio Expo has been on my radar since they started doing it. I wonder if they charge extra for that or if it's included in the NAMM badge?

Do you know where at NAMM this will be located?

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

 

[MikeRivers]

 

Hi Mike,

 

Being in the education sector, the Project Studio Expo has been on my radar since they started doing it. I wonder if they charge extra for that or if it's included in the NAMM badge?

Do you know where at NAMM this will be located?

 

For an event about two months away, information is still pretty vague. It was the same last year. I thought that the Expo sessions, which are described as "Main Stage" were on the NAMM show floor somewhere, but there's a program calendar up now and it looks like it's just another room at the Hilton where the technical sessions are being held. That's a disappointment for me. I was hoping that they would be on a stage in the Convention Center and open to all NAMM attendees.

 

The way it worked last year was that if you register for AES@NAMM, you can get a NAMM badge for $25, and it looks like that's how it's going to be this coming show. Last year they changed the registration fee two or three times and weren't happy with what they ended up with, so last I heard, this year rather than having full day and half day each day admissions, they were going to have a one day and two day admission with a discount for AES members. But registration isn't open yet so the price hasn't been published yet. They were pretty vague last year when I asked if my NAMM Media badge would admit me to the sessions (that always works at the real AES shows) and I never bothered with it because just about everything was either very general or very equipment-specific. But since you already have a NAMM badge, you can always try to crash the party if there's anything that interests you.

 

The web page that will probably have the closest thing to up-to-date info is:

 

http://www.aes.org/events/AESatNAMM/2019/program.cfm

 

 

[Mats Nermark]

Thanks Mike! See you there.

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

[Anderton]

Thanks for the usual excellent report, Mike. I was not pleased SOS wasn't involved any more in the PSE...after all, they're the ones who got it off the ground. My understanding (correct me if this is wrong) is that the PSE is being converted into something to sell to companies instead of the "get a new demographic interested in audio" charter that Sound on Sound was implementing. Oh well.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Thanks for the usual excellent report' date=' Mike. I was not pleased SOS wasn't involved any more in the PSE...after all, they're the ones who got it off the ground. My understanding (correct me if this is wrong) is that the PSE is being converted into something to sell to companies instead of the "get a new demographic interested in audio" charter that Sound on Sound was implementing. Oh well.[/quote']

 

Well thats a bummer. And quite short-sighted IMO.

 

 

[MikeRivers]

Thanks for the usual excellent report' date=' Mike. I was not pleased SOS wasn't involved any more in the PSE...after all, they're the ones who got it off the ground. My understanding (correct me if this is wrong) is that the PSE is being converted into something to sell to companies instead of the "get a new demographic interested in audio" charter that Sound on Sound was implementing. Oh well.[/quote']

 

I caught Mark Frink, the program chairman of the AES@NAMM program, at lunch in the press room during InfoComm back in June and gave him my take on how it was handled that first year. He acknowledged that they got some things right and some things not so right at the last NAMM and would be trying to improve the next one. But the problem is money - he said "We all work for Freeman" (for the uninitiated, that's the company that puts on the trade shows). That's why the technical program is almost entirely presented by the manufacturers. They chip in to get their names and knowledge out there.

 

Looking over the program again, I see that most of the sessions for The PSE program at AES were sponsored, but some were sufficiently general in scope that they weren't obvious sales pitches. But we had things like Microphone Modeling sponsored by Antelope and the present was someone from Antelope. I expect that what will be at NAMM will be similar. But the disappointment, for me, is that it appears that in order to attend those sessions, you need to be registered for AES@NAMM, which, I think, is a flat $99/day. NAMM has non-member registrations as low as $35 for the whole show, and it would be nice if people with those badges could take advantage of some of the AES programs.

 

I dunno. I go, I report. But I don't have any clout to steer them in the direction that would bring more of a mini-AES to the West Coast. Since most of the pro audio exhibitors are in the new section of the Convention Center, they could do something like the AES Exhibits Plus registration, with free-sponsored admission to that part of the show. They already have guards that check for badges when you enter the main part of the Convention Center, either from the outside doors or from the walkway that bridges the Audio section to the Music section, so, like AES checks for full registration in the section where the technical sessions are held, NAMM could keep the AES riff-raff away from the guitars and drums if they didn't have full NAMM registration. Maybe it never occurred to them, or maybe they couldn't get enough sponsor money to support it.