InterBEE 2019

Visitors flocked to the Makuhari Messe to bear witness to a mature and innovative Japanese AV market

With the Rugby World Cup done and dusted and the 2020 Summer Olympics on the horizon, it was no surprise that InterBEE 2019 was declared a ‘sports-themed event’ by show organiser, Japan Electronics Show Association (JESA). ‘It’s an exciting time to be in Japan, the first country to broadcast the Olympics in 8K,’ said NAB president and CEO, Gordon Smith, as he addressed the largely Japanese audience at his keynote speech on the opening morning. ‘Your country’s broadcasters are demonstrating a commitment to enhancing the viewing experience using the latest technology.’

As Tokyo 2020 approaches, sports was the theme for InterBEE

Smith’s words were borne out by the array of cutting-edge AV solutions on display, as established technology rubbed shoulders with an increased presence of gear for non-traditional broadcasting, including streaming, digital apps and social media. It goes without saying that AVoIP has become the main theme of most industry tradeshows. Raising the bar at InterBEE, an AVoIP remote production network had been created for the first time, linking manufacturers across the show. This included a Calrec Artemis console on the Hibino stand in Hall 1, a Lawo VSM broadcast control system, V_matrix on Otaritec’s Hall 2 booth together with a Riedel Artist 32 and Bolero BP, also in Hall 2, and a Tektronix Prism monitoring solution and Seiko servers in Hall 3.

Roland’s Tomoya Nakauchi demonstrates the VR-50HK multi-format AV mixer

Grass Valley transceivers in Hall 4, Itochu cable systems in Hall 5 and an EVS XT-VIA production server in Hall 6 joined the network, and, over in Hall 7, more equipment including an Ikegami camera, Arista Networks CloudVision cloud networking solution and a Harmonic Spectrum X media server completed the entire production workflow. Audinate was exhibiting Dante AV, Dante Domain Manager, Dante AVIO adapters and a wide range of Dante-enabled products in the midst of Hall 2, while the spread of Dante-enabled products continued apace across the show floor.

A young visitor to the Mix Wave stand gets a demo on the API Audio 2248 console

‘InterBEE attracts a very client-focused crowd and the main focus is on IP,’ said Boon Siong Tan, Lawo’s sales director for Southeast Asia. ‘Education is what is needed in an IP workflow as it is very complex, and many visitors come to us for that. We are showing audio, video, monitoring and control so they can see and appreciate how an IP workflow functions.’

Hibino Intersound’s audio brands were exhibited alongside the Harman portfolio

Another theme of the contemporary AV tradeshow was also very much in evidence, with many loudspeaker manufacturers offering immersive audio demos on their stands. This included d&b audiotechnik, which had created an impressive demo room and hosted the Asian launch of its new A Series augmented array system, and Genelec, which also introduced the latest members of The Ones studio monitors, the 8351B and the 8361A, to Japan. Astro Spatial Audio teamed up with Martin Audio and Brax LED panels to completely immerse the audience in sound and images to demonstrate its objectbased solution, Sara II.

Amphion’s Anssi Hyvonen on the Mix Wave stand

Away from the show floor, Meyer Sound and distributor Artwiz took a separate room for a demo based around its new Ultra-X40 point source and UPQ-D1 wide coverage speakers and D-Mitri digital audio platform, which was not only technically impressive but refreshingly entertaining as audio followed a vocalist moving around the room in an immersive show backed up by two DJs. Shure was promoting the AXT Digital 1.2GHz for a new bandwidth allocated in Japan. ‘This frequency band gives us almost 20MHz to work with and can be used all over the country,’ said Shure Japan’s Michael Golebiowski.

‘Before, it was very crowded. For many broadcasters this is going to be an interesting option. Because the frequency is high, the wavelength is shorter and can’t penetrate the space effectively. So if you can connect four antennas to a receiver, as our system does, it helps with maintaining stable coverage, even with a shorter wavelength.’ Having started life in 1965 as a broadcast show, InterBEE’s banner is now ‘Broadmedia & Entertainment’, and indeed the show has come to represent all things AV. As usual, Halls 1 and 2 covered the spectrum of audio applications, while over in the Makuhari Messe’s Event Hall, Japan’s prominent touring market was well represented in one of two InterBEE Experience sections, the X-Speaker loudspeaker demo.

8K screens around the show provided visitors with a distraction

This year, participants included Nexo, d&b audiotechnik, Coda Audio, Adamson, Bose, Ramsa, JBL, L-Acoustics, Martin Audio, Turbosound, EAW, Vue Audiotechnik, dBTechnologies and RCF. Back in Hall 1, two more Experience sections, X-Microphone and X-Headphone, saw the participation of companies including Shure, Sony, Sanken, Sennheiser, Otaritec, Tech Trust, Yamaha Music and Rewire. InterBEE initiatives to promote emerging sectors of the industry continued this year with the InterBEE Sport pavilion in Hall 7, which presented information on technology, software, tools and services used to broadcast sporting events; InterBEE Ignition in Hall 6, which was exploring the next generation of media; the InterBEE IP pavilion in Hall 3; InterBEE Connected in Hall 7 looking at new business models in broadcasting and communication; and InterBEE Creative in Hall 8, presenting the latest in 4K, 8K and HDR video production. InterBEE 2019 was as consistent and familiar as ever, with stands occupying their regular places on the show floor, and distributors displaying long-held brands.

The TASCAM Japan team was getting ready for 4K

This included Hibino with the entire range of Harman AV brands; neighbouring Hibino Intersound with Calrec, DiGiCo, DPA Microphones, Coda Audio and Klang Technologies; Otaritec with Lawo, XTA, PMC and Riedel; Bestec Audio with the Music Tribe brands including Midas, Klark Teknik, Tannoy and Turbosound as well as L-Acoustics; Onkyo Tokki with EAW, Mackie, QSC, RCF, Biamp and Atlona; Mix Wave with API Audio, Amphion, Prism Sound and Merging Technologies; and Tech Trust with Mipro, Schoeps, Wisycom and Lectrosonics.

Audio Brains has recently taken on Visionary Solutions, bringing its brand count to 15. The AV network specialist joins Martin Audio, Powersoft, beyerdynamic, Audinate, Symetrix and Astro Spatial Audio in the portfolio. ‘It’s been a very busy show for us,’ said president, Shuzo Fujii. ‘With all our brands, we can offer complete solutions to customers, mainly for audio but we are now starting with video as well.’ Over in Hall 8, away from the audio contingent, Roland was showing its first 4K product, the V600-UHD multi-format video switcher, which uses the manufacturer’s Ultra Scaler technology to transition to 4K workflows.

L–R: Genelec’s Thomas Lund, Juho Martikainen, Kanji Murai, Aki Makivirta and Ken Kimura

Stalwart InterBEE exhibitor AJA Video Systems was announcing 8K support for its HDR Image Analyser 12G HDR and WCG monitoring and analysis platform, firmware updates for its Ki Pro family of file-based recorders and launched an openGear 12G-SDI distribution amplifier among an extensive raft of products on its large stand in Hall 7. Williams AV hosted a demo of its new one-to-many AI translation system, Convey, on the stand of distributor, Media Plus. ‘We’ve had lots of interest; it’s a fun demo to do,’ said Williams AV’s Per Persson. ‘Here, we’re using a speaker to listen to the real-time translations but, in a live application, it can be broadcast over our WaveCAST assistive listening system, or whatever wireless protocol is required.’

RCF’s Federico Lugli with a range of Ayra studio monitors on the Onkyo Tokki stand

Strong and consistent as ever, InterBEE was once again indicative of the maturity and technical awareness of Japan’s AV market, bringing the best of the industry together for three days at the Makuhari Messe as the country gears up for its summer on the world stage when the international media descends on Tokyo.