Mixermend Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Looking forward to visiting the PLASA exhibition on Monday 19 Sep, new venue and new management direction from Peter Heath. It will be interesting to see what this looks like at Olympia - and what visitors and exhibitors think of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Not going to be able to make it down there this year - but will be interested to hear from those who did regarding whether it's any bigger than it was last year. Personally I was very disappointed with how small PLASA was in 2015 at Excel, to the extent that I felt I'd wasted a day on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 I quite like it at Olympia - just popped in for a hour and may pop back tomorrow. Is much much smaller than I've ever seen it before - reminds me of ABTT when it was in Victoria, but a much better atmosphere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Smaller? Have I wasted seventy quid on a train ticket to see an ABTT sized exhibition? Oh dear = well might be just a one off then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRW Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 As others say, definately much smaller (again) this year. I'm down for two days, but only because there are quite a few seminars that I liked the look of. So far I've not been disappointed in that respect, but if I was actually here to see 'new technology', I feel I may have been disappointed. By the way, has anyone else clocked the rather confusing 'LED' sunstrip in the innovation gallery?! :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musht Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 PLASA show was at Olympia back in the day , when it outgrew the Heathtrow Novatel. Like the old joke, Only play this place twice, once on the way up and once on the way down, it`s good to be back... Anyone go to BPM in Brum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRW Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 By the way, has anyone else clocked the rather confusing 'LED' sunstrip in the innovation gallery?! :blink: Following up on this, I had another look today- turns out half the lamps are LED, and half are original, but it wasn't until a colleague was looking from one side, and I was looking from the other that we clocked it! Suppose that's a bonus point for the new lamps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Anyone go to BPM in Brum? Yes - Tuesday after the DJs went home, so just the PRO bit. Bigger than ABTT was this yearI think. Was quite quiet,which is all the better for talking to people.Thought it was really pretty good for sound stuff - better than the last two PLASA shows anyway. Took in several big speaker demos (with the inevitable "elf" there to try and spoil the fun http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif), a Le Maitre demo (we all like things that are shiny or go bang!), and some of the smaller PA "comparison" bits (it all sounded as if the sources were MP3 to me). Didn't really do much more than walk through the lighting section, which at a quick glance seemed more "DJ' that PLASA. Guess as that's the main bit of the first two days, that's what I'd expected.No getting out to local shops for lunch of course,which I've always liked about Earl's Court and Olympia, so had to pay through the nose for a sandwich. Finished my day with a very good hands on session on MagicQ - I may actually be able to use it a little now! Thanks guys.Will probably go again next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 BPM felt quieter this year, but I suspect that may have been a bit subjective, and influenced by the larger floorspace. I was also there on the Tuesday - because of my own schedule rather than a deliberate attempt to avoid the DJs.Most exhibitors said that Sunday and Monday had been far busier. I suspect a bit of competition between the shows could be good for everyone. Plasa definitely needed a shot in the arm. I'm en route to Olympia just now, and it'll be interesting to see how it compares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Much cosier, and the pizza place down the road was half the price and bigger than the very limited food available in Olympia. Not sure about the glass roof for lighting products! Saw some old friends and doing one of the Chamsys sessions soon. Not really sure it was a hundred quids worth though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Like others here, I was surprised by how much smaller the PLASA show is this year - not even half filling the Olympia. It made for a very convivial atmosphere (quite reminiscent of ABTT at the Royal Horticultural Hall in years gone by) and the exhibitors were liking it for the most part. Some worries about what the show is actually bringing to the trade show scene - and people being very interested into what PLASA are planning to do next ... My biggest gripe was with the bag search - it wasn't so much that everyone was having their bag search (though doing this manually meant the queue this morning was out of the door not long after opening), it was that when tools were confiscated, they were going to the security office. Which, when you go there to reclaim your Gerberman as you leave, means trekking several minutes under escort to their office, then identifying your particular tool from the selection, then making your way back, again under escort. Did someone not mention at some point that the clientale are largely technical people, that there will be a noticeably higher than expected amount of screwdrivers, knives and other interesting implements and that maybe an area nearer to the door would be easier all round, possibly along with a reminder notice when booking? Still, apparently someone had brought their replica shotgun to the show so there is only so much that can be done ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 Replica shotgun could been a props/armourer person? I presume they weren't going to hold up an off licence on their way home from the show... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 In the end it WAS worth the hundred quid, mainly because of two really useful Chamsys sessions, one intended, and one just because I had nothing to do for an hour. I've done a few of these sessions and very often the real awkward moment come when a smart-ar5e in the audience tries to point score from the trainer, asking awkward questions. In this case when one of these questions was posed, the trainer was the person who wrote the software, and could give a 100% definitive answer - lovely! The advanced MagicQ session was very useful. Only one person declared themselves as already expert, so we were pretty much similar. They showed us a series of useful key presses to do interesting things, and some were so obvious everyone in the room groaned that they didn't know these things worked. Happened three times, with everyone looking at each other saying "did you know it did that?" However £4.60 for a coffee is frankly outrageous! £3 for a bottle of water! 7" pizza £9, and around the corner outside, a 9" pizza and a drink for £4.99. Excel food wasn't too expensive and the choice much better - Olympia food was frankly a rip-off. Re: the security. It was rigid, and actually useless. I had something at the bottom of my bag they didn't even notice, and I saw one of the organisers having a row with the bleepy people and she snapped "I've come out of the office - AGAIN" The session on the Olympic lighting design was interesting I thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I had something at the bottom of my bag they didn't even notice Perhaps we should have a competition, with a prize for the person who can get the most gratuitously offensive item past security. I have a laptop rucksack with multiple pockets and compartments, and they only took a cursory glance into two of them. I also noticed a sniffer dog doing the rounds on the show floor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandall Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Perhaps we should have a competition, with a prize for the person who can get the most gratuitously offensive item past security. I have a laptop rucksack with multiple pockets and compartments, and they only took a cursory glance into two of them. I also noticed a sniffer dog doing the rounds on the show floor...I guess it depended on who you got. The guy in front of me had every nook & cranny of his rucksack searched while the queue built up, & the chap alongside him lost his rucksack to "the office". I noticed a few Leathermen on belts in the queue outside, so presumably they went the same way. The dog looked as bored as his handler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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