Koba

108 EXPO

• Will Cheng of Avolites, Niclas Ardvisson of W-DMX and Yehuda Shukrun of Compulite

• The Soundus team line up in the DiGiCo area of the booth

• Frankey Ng and Menze Van Der Sluis of Prolyte with the Tongsuh management team

KOBA

SEOUL, KOREA / 15-18 MAY

Having not visited KOBA, personally, for the last couple of years - Jamie had stepped in - I was looking forward to being back and seeing how the show had developed. Seoul was exactly as I remembered it; clean, efficient and welcoming, and I was met at the show in a similar fashion by many familiar faces. It was the 28th edition of the show this year, which takes place at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center. It had a total of 927 companies exhibiting from 32 countries. Visitor wise, the event peaked on day three, but overall welcomed 41,616 across the four days. The exhibition offers

a professional audio hall - combined with some lighting stands - on the lower floor, while the vast broadcast section of the show is located upstairs. Most of the usual suspects were on the show floor in terms of the larger distributors - many with European representatives flying in to show their support, including Minuit Une and Music&Lights, having quite recently set up distribution deals - however, a couple of major players, Sovico and Dasan SR, were missing, and not for the first time. Some manufacturers opted to run seminars to coincide with the show, these included FBT, XTA and Shure.

On the event floor itself, Bose Professional was showcasing its F1 / L1 system, while Tech Data presented the CBT Series, the PRX/SRX Series and the new VTX A12 from JBL, the i-Tech Series from Crown, the SVS/N300 Series from AMX, and products from Soundcraft and BSS, too - demonstrating a full HARMAN solution. Sound Solution had an impressive booth, displaying RCF’s HDL 6-A, Adamson’s S10 line array with E219 subwoofers, and FENIX Stage’s ELV/300/6 lifting tower with new swing-arm plates. L-Acoustics distributor, Klausys had the recently

• Stagetec and Merging products on display

• Soundus’ DJ Kwon and Edan Kwon flank Marc Vincent of K-array

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109 EXPO

• The L-Acoustics stand

• Clair Brothers had products on display and a comfy meeting area to talk business

• The focus Blizzard on Lighting the Hansam booth booth was MA Lighting’s new grandMA 3

• Steve Kim of Ingang Audio

• Allen & Heath showcasing the dLive

• The Absen booth

• Adamson distributor, Sound Solution

• President of C&C Lighting Hwan-Soo Chung with Ruben Rizzo of Music&Lights

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110 EXPO

• Robert Juliat’s Claus Spreyer and François Juliat • Electro-Voice products on display • Kevic’s Hae-Young Park

• Calrec’s Dave Letson

• Eric Phelep of Minuit Une flanked by his Korean distributors, Tongsuh

launched Syva on the stand, and DLOGIXS was debuting the new EVC Series from Electro-Voice in the region. Ingang Audio had Peavey’s RBN112 loudspeakers, Calrec’s brio 12, brio 36, SUMMA and Type R, as well as the latest offerings from Meyer Sound on display for visitors. A highlight on the Hansam stand was the Asian debut of the eagerly awaited grandMA3 from MA Lighting. Launched at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt, it was founded on the legacy of the previous grandMA consoles. The elegant new systemarchitecture incorporates new fixture, features and effects-handling at its very heart. Upon my return to the show, the exhibition seemed larger, however, after chatting with exhibitors and visitors, the change in fact seemed to be wider aisles - not an unusual move for a tradeshow. Despite that, the show was busy, and with fewer Asian exhibitions

in the calendar these days, busy is what the industry needs to see. Although heavily broadcast based, the professional audio and lighting section of the show offers us the chance to catch up with the local market, which, by all accounts, appears healthy at present, having had plenty of discussions about ongoing projects, as well as a site visit to Hallelujah Community Church during the show - check-out the write-up on the DiGiCo installation on page 94. Unlike other shows, KOBA has a steeped history and stands in solid form. It will certainly remain on our regular hit list of exhibitions for the future.

KOBA returns to the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center next year between 22-25 May. For more information, go to: www.kobashow.com

• Nam Joon of Art Tech representing Robe

• The Tech Data team, which distributes HARMAN in the region

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