Why we like Broadcast Asia

Broadcast manufacturers spend an inordinate amount of money exhibiting at trade shows. In fact, according to research by industry groups like the IABM, this industry spends more of their marketing budgets shipping kit to big empty halls than almost any other industry.

Calrec add to this statistic in no small way. We exhibit at a dozen shows in any given year. These can be loosely catagorised as national and international shows. We would define a national show as a show that may have some international visitors, but probably not that many. These include Interbee (Japan), BIRTV (China), KOBA (Korea), SATIS (France), Cabsat (UAE), BVE (UK), KITFV (Ukraine), NAT Expo (Russia), Tonmeister (Germany) and the Australian SMPTE show. They are all worthwhile.

Then you have got the truly international shows. There are less of these – you can count them on the fingers of one hand, leaving you free to work out what denomination of strange coins you’re holding in the other.

NAB and IBC are the headliners, but Broadcast Asia is well up there, and this year’s show outstripped expectations. Calrec has been exhibiting at Broadcast Asia for the last five years, and it’s grown every single year in terms of both exhibitors and visitors. It’s a masterclass in how to organise and run an exhibition – organisation is very professional, exhibition staff are very friendly and very helpful , the food is excellent – not a sausage roll or hot dog in sight! It’s clean, tidy, everything works, rental prices are reasonable. They even switch on the air con during set up!

But the icing on the cake is the reach, with visitors from all across Asia. In the first two hours at Broadcast Asia we welcomed visitors from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, Indonesia and Thailand. And more followed over the course of the show – over a dozen countries from across the Asia Pacific region.

Many of these people do not get to IBC or NAB, which is what makes Broadcast Asia such an important show on the calendar.

So what makes this industry so reliant on trade shows? Why do you visit, and what do you expect to see? Do you still find them useful?

We have our own ideas, it would be interesting to see if we’ve got it right. Do tell.