Read More

60
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
PALM EXPO 2015:
The Show Changes Guard, Gets Bigger and Wider
By Ram Bhavanashi
PALM EXPO 2015 – the 15th edition of the annual ensemble of pro audio, rental and staging industries of
India – held under new management in Mumbai in May end, appeared to better its best, and set itself on
a new course of growth, albeit challenges. Looked holistically, the three-day event not only grew in size
and scale, but also brought some promises to the fore. An ETA report:
• Show Floor spread : >21,916 sqm
• Number of exhibitors: 166
• Number of brands: 400+
• Products on display: >5000
• Visitors: >24,000
• Highlights:
- Yamaha occupied entire Hall
2B&C, taking 1150sqm.
“PALM Expo has once again
proved to be an ideal platform
for building the commerce of
Pro Sound & Light market in
India. With over 90 pc growth
in floor space, it was evident
that the industry is all geared to
take the next big leap.”
- Ramesh Chetwani,
Executive Director, PALM Expo India
The 2015 edition of PALM Expo – 15th
year in the running – while improving
its numbers, essentially appeared to
consolidate and expand what it had
initiated in the previous edition of the
annual fare. The event’s floor spread got
bigger and wider; number of exhibitors,
brands and products they brought to floor
scaled up; booths got bigger; technical
programming appeared getting more
focused; and its two big innovations from
last year – the Demo Cube and the DJ
Soundscape – got more demonstratively
bigger and louder. So, many measurable
positives, and coming from under a new
management, and, of course a handful of
challenges too.
For one- PALM Expo had a change of
guard early this year, with the event’s
erstwhile promoter Diversified India
transferring the ownership to Londonbased ITE Group PLC’s Indian subsidiary
ABEC Exhibitions and Conferences Pvt.
Ltd.
Bose Demo Cube
The event’s impact this year got more
demonstrative, essentially in the Demo
Cubes and the DJ SoundScape. Bose
and HiTech occupied the two Demo
Cubes this year, whilst Yamaha decided
on a different strategy from last year by
taking up space in the Hall beside the
Exhibitor Registration site and occupying
a massive 1150sqm space. Bose Corp
made it more of a technology demo
rather than just product demo – with
technical presentations by its global tech
execs on a large screen whilst Yamaha
took its concept a few steps further in a
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
Yamaha’s expansive floor space
la Musikmesse fashion- with an expansive
floor space for product showcasing, and
an acoustically-treated enclosure for
product action-demo with popular young
Indian singers such as Shibani Kashyap;
renowned Russian guitarist Victory
Smolski; and percussionist Zak Bond.
For one, Shibani appeared to steal the
thunder with her “ho gayi hai mohabbat”
number and more.
The DJ SoundScape – upping the
ante from where it stopped last
year – appeared to have turned the
biggest feature at this year’s PALM with
reportedly over 400 DJs registering
for DJ conferencing and championship
programmes. It brought together some
of India’s top DJs and musicians along
with leading industry professionals who
spoke to packed audiences on trends of
music business. The DJ Championship
programme appears to be evolving into
a gravity centre at PALM for aspiring and
pro DJs.
The Open Line Array feature this
year – we were told – got a little finer
with a golf cart service to help visitors
move comfortably between the LA
area and the exhibition halls. More, the
Music Expo has moved to VIP parking
area under a new sturdy fully covered
structure, with a fairly-comforting degree
of air-conditioning wafts that were
missing in the main exhibition hall for a
good part of the show.
The Line Array Demo area featured 11 brands
this year
Harman Professional India sought to
bring more nerve and verve to the event
with its Harman Live Arena fare- a whole
big host of performers and bands such as
Sivamani, Ragas2Riches, Func, Bombay
Bassment, Demonic Resurrection,
Dhruv and Niladri, Victronica, Caralisa
Monteiro, and more…
New Comers, New Deals,
and New Directions
In line with the PALM convention, the
event did have its own share of new
61
comers, new deals announcements, and
some new directions too. Some of the
most significant announcements have
been the arrival of Music Group with an
exclusive national distributor – Alphatec
– British lighting design major ChamSys
coming through a deal with Jagmag
Electric Co, and MA Lighting appointing
Modern Stage Service as its exclusive
distributor for India.
Music Group and Alphatec join together to
bring a wide array of solutions to the floor
There have been at least a dozen new
comers to the show – mostly from
lighting domain – in addition to the
repeat visitors such as Epson and TOA,
adding to the increase in the number
of exhibitors. There have been some
significant misses as well, such as
Reynolds, and Drego.
The Show Floor…
A spread of 21,916 sqm, 166 exhibitors,
showcasing over 400+ brands and 5000
products –some of them coming to the
region, and world markets for the first
62
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
time – that’s an expansive fare! Seeking
to steal the thunder from the rest were,
of course, quite a handful. Modern Stage
Service continued to maintain its lead
with the event’s largest booth measuring
over 500 sqm, followed by Imax Lighting
(they had 252 sqm space), Alphatec,
Ahuja Radios, Harman, IES, etc.
A distributor-dominated event that
PALM Expo is, it did have a fairly good
share of manufacturers coming direct
- Bose; Harman; Bosch (Eletro-Voice);
Sennheiser; TOA; Philips, Pioneer and
Osram.
the player can select between 3/4 and
4/4 time signatures. Other product
highlights included Soundcraft V1
mixer; JBL EON portable speakers with
Bluetooth control; JBL SRX800 series;
DBX DriveRack; Martin Pro Rush Gobo
projector and M6 console.
Harman India has also brought to market
yet another user-friendly programme
of equipment financing. The service,
however, would be available to those
who buy equipment worth over INR
5,000,000 (close to 80,000 USD).
From the Audio Domain
Evidently, the audio segment at PALM
Expo 2015 is dominated by Harman who
made a slew of sorts on the show floor.
Making their biggest presence thus far
at the event, the audio major not only
brought a slew of products to the floor
but also used it to create its own kind
of powerful impact on the industry with
some innovate programming offers. The
most important being the H-APPI app – a
24/7 mobile service – aimed at supporting
professional audio customers anytime,
anywhere. (Refer to News page 24)
The DigiTech TRIO Band Creator being
demonstrated at the Harman booth
Product demos from Harman included,
among others, most noticeably, the
DigiTech TRIO Band Creator. Simply said,
the TRIO listens to the way one plays,
and automatically generates bass and
drum parts that match the song being
played. The player just needs to plug the
guitar into TRIO, press the footswitch
to teach TRIO the chords and rhythm,
then press the footswitch again to
start playing with his/her own personal
band. The system provides for seven
music genres to choose from Blues,
Pop, Alternative Rock, Rock, Country,
R&B, and Jazz. Up to twelve song styles
will be available for each genre and
Fuat Koro, Director, Global Sales & Marketing,
Professional Systems Division, Bose with the
F1 Model 812 speakers)
BOSE Corporation brought to show for
the first time in India, its F1 Model 812
Flexible Array Loudspeaker that enables
the user to shape their sound coverage
through four different configurations.
This powered portable loudspeakers let
the user control their vertical coverage
pattern by simply pushing or pulling the
array into position to create “straight”,
“C”, “J” or “reverse J” coverage
patterns. Once the pattern is set, the
system automatically changes the EQ
to maintain optimum tonal balance for
each coverage pattern. Engineered with
a flexible array of eight high-output mid/
high drivers, a high-powered 12-inch
woofer, a lower crossover point and
1,000-watt amplifier, the loudspeaker
delivers high SPL performance while
maintaining vocal and midrange
clarity that’s dramatically better than
conventional loudspeakers.
Electro-Voice brought to show its X-LINE
Advance line arrays demonstrated
prominently on its booth, apart from the
EVID S44 Compact Sound systems, and
EKX portable loudspeakers. Claimed
to bring to place an unprecedented
performance-to-size for installed
and concert sound applications, with
Tushar Srivastava, Johanness Huth, and
Santosh Kumar of Electro-Voice (Bosch) with
EV’s X-LINE system
improved Hydra wave-shaping devices,
high output transducers, and proprietary
FIR-Drive optimization, the new-look
X-LINE systems are taken to be top of
the line array systems on market.
Sennheiser India’s products demo was
highlighted by its launch of AVX wireless
microphones, apart from the D1 range
of wireless microphones, and Neumann’s
legendary U47-Collector’s Edition
microphone, coming back to PALM, and
. Besides these, the German audio major
also highlighted its show with Apart
Audio’s Mask-12 and Mask-12T cabinet
loudspeakers.
Japanese audio major TOA Corporation
highlighted its product displays with
AM-1 array microphones, and HX-7B line
array speakers.
Kolkata-based Indian manufacturer
Sonodyne International brought to
show floor three new professional
reference monitor models. The new
launches included SM3300, which is
a high definition mid field monitor;
PM Series of professional active
loudspeakers; and SRT Series studio
monitors.
From the distributor’s front, industry
majors such as HiTech Audio, Sun
InfoNet, ProVisual Audio,GM Audio,
and Rivera Digitech, apart from the new
entrant Alphatec accounted for a major
floor space and show. The new entrant
Alphatec, coming with the exclusive
India distribution agreement with the
Music Group demonstrated a big range
that included products from the Group’s
brands- Midas, KlarkTeknik Turbosound,
Bugera, and Behringer.
Truss Exchange Programme
Exchange your old truss for
brand-new Prolyte truss
For each kilogram of old truss you
trade in you will get 5 times the scrap
value of aluminium
No handling, no fuss - Prolyte will
arrange delivery and pick-up of
discarded truss
Keeping it green - Truss materials will
be scrapped and recycled
www.prolyte.com - www.prolytepap.com - www.prolyte-doughty.jp
64
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
Rivera International brought its ranges
from Radial, Atlas Sound, Tone Art,
SoundTube, and Ansata brought d&b
audiotechnik’s Y-series line arrays Y-8
and Y-10 installed system LAs, besides
the Max-2 stage monitors, and D-20
amplifiers.
The Modern Stage booth was half occupied
by Christie and Dataton showcase
ProVisual Audio Booth
ProVisual Audio demonstrated its
popular ranges from its major principal
brands QSC and Audio Technica. The
QSC brands included the Touchmix-S
series, AcousticDesign series of
surface mount speaker AD-S4T, and
AcousticCoverage series of AC-C4T; ACC6T; AC-S4T; and AC-S6T ceiling mount
speakers. This apart, the distributor also
demoed QSC’s GXD-4 and 8-channel
power amplifiers.
Audio Technica ranges on the
booth included the ES947/LED and
945LED cardioid condenser boundary
microphones, apart from the ATND971
boundary microphones. The booth also
had the ATW series of headphones used
for various professional applications.
SunInfoNet brought to floor popular
products from all its principals- Shure,
Quest, Allen&Heath, and Nexo. The
key highlights of the product displays
included Shure’s PSM-300 personal
monitor system, and PG Alta series of
microphones; Allen&Heath’s Qu-32
digital mixers, Zed 1000 mixer ranges,
and AB168 audio rack with 16 inputs and
8 outputs; and Quest Engineering’s QM700 loudspeakers as well as QTA digital
amplifiers.
GM Audio, India distributor for D.A.S.
Audio demonstrated the Spanish
major’s 210A and 208A Event Line
Array solutions, apart from the Vantec
portable speaker systems. There have
been a host of other distribution
majors – Sound Team brought Genelec
8351 speakers; Harness showed OHM
speaker systems, apart from new
highlights from RAM Audio’s S6004, and
Z440 power amplifiers; HiTech Audio
showed Bose, RCF, DiGiCo systems;
Modi Digital showed up with Auro
3D, RME and Violet Design systems;
Sonotone brought P-Audio systems;
Jagmag Electric appointed as Chamsys
distributor in India
That apart, the distribution major
showcased a range of lighting solutions
from Danish lighting solutions provider
SGM Lighting. Further, MDS also
demonstrated a whole big range of its
own brand of Showlite lighting solutions.
The Lighting and Visual
Aspect
IES exhibited a whole big new range of
products from its newly added principals,
besides those from its existing partners
Robe, Martin Audio, and Lumen Radio.
Prominent among those exhibited were
Avolites’ Titan lighting control and
Ai video control, and Madrix lighting
control software.
Elsewhere on the show floor, Mumbaibased Jagmag Electric Co. exhibited
latest lighting design ranges from its
newest partner ChamSys.
• German lighting console major MA
Lighting has appointed Modern Stage
Service (MSS)
• British lighting console leader Avolites
appointed Integrated Entertainment
Solutions (IES)
• British lighting control solutions player
ChamSys appointed Jagmag Electric
There have been a host of other lighting
solutions exhibitors occupying large floor
spaces. Prominent among them were
Dhawan Stagecrafts who brought a
host of new ranges from Clay Paky; LBT
who demonstrated their IP67 LED fixture
solutions; iMAX Lighting who brought a
big range of spot washes, including the
Superray 330, and others from Lightsky
Lighting.
Perhaps the most strikingly visible
feature of PALM Expo 2015 has been
the Lighting exhibitors. Understandably,
there have been some very decisive
market movements from the domain,
and the same has flown on to the PALM
floor too. Noticeably, three lighting
solutions majors took to the PALM floor
through their newly appointed India
distributors:
Taking the lead as always has been
the Modern Stage Service, continuing
with its practice of largest booth and
flashiest product demos. Its show on
the floor was arguably dominated by
its visual solutions principals Christie
Digital Systems – who demonstrated a
270-degree curved projection solution
– and Dataton – who demonstrated 3D
mesh-model projection mapping solution
through its new WatchOut 6.0 version.
While Christie and Dataton occupied
almost half of its floor space, MSS
showcased its newest principal MA
Lighting’s DOT.2 lighting control console
solution with even prominence.
Trussing
Trussing solutions at this year’s PALM
were as usual dominated by Dutch
trussing major Prolyte Group who
brought their latest offerings of
heavyweight bearing rigging solutions.
Interestingly, this domain at the show
is also taken by iMAX Lighting who
demonstrated ICTC trusses and cases.
Overall, PALM Expo 2015 appeared
something for everyone who has a
connect with Pro Audio and Rental and
Staging industry.
www.palmexpo.in
66
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
Highlights From The Show Floor
3rd Prolyte Campus Live Stage
team responsible for the sales of the
MA Lighting desks have also undergone
training to better understand the various
features that the desks provide.
Eshdeep Singh, Director, LBT
Chinese manufacturers. “We offer
stability, reliability and great features that
are better than the lower end Chinese
manufactured solutions. So we are priced
higher than the Chinese solutions but
lower than the International solutions,”
said Eshdeep Singh, Director, LBT.
For the third time, Prolyte Group
brought their successful and exhaustive
seminar programe to PALM Expo.
“Bringing knowledge to the people
involved, with day-to-day practical side
of it, is our way of contributing to safe
working practices and building skills and
expertise” said Prolyte spokesperson
Marina Prak.
The seminars were held Live during
the show and were free for all visitors.
Prolyte Brand Manager Ivo Mulder
presented the seminars sharing his
experiences from daily practice.
There were two presentations. The first
touched on outdoor structures and
environmental influences - the effect
of wind loading on outdoor structures
and why proper ballast is important and
the other was also related to outdoor
structures but was concentrated on safe
set-up procedures - the how’s and why of
guy-wires and where and how to apply
these on outdoor structures.
MA Lighting Appoints Modern
Stage Services
MA Lighting has appointed Modern
Stage Services as its exclusive distributor
in India. According to Franco Zaghini,
Director of Business Development, MA
Lighting, the company’s objective is to
make the desk known all over India.
“We also need good, quick and efficient
support and Modern Stage is able to
provide that.” In respect to that, Modern
Stage has already set up a sales and
maintenance office in Calcutta to give
better assistance to the market in the
South of India and are in the midst of
finalising a service centre in Mumbai as
well. Their office in Delhi will provide
support for the North of India. The
Davinder Wadhwa, Director of Modern
Stage Services highlights, “We see great
potential for MA Lighting in the Indian
market. It is a reputable brand and is well
known for its products throughout the
world and there is high praise within the
lighting industry for MA Lighting boards.
The ease of learning is what
differentiates the MA Lighting consoles
from its competitors. As more and more
clients are looking for easy and durable
solutions for their projects which include
corporate museums, lighting rental
companies and places of worship, MA
seems to be just the right solution for it.
In fact we have already sold 8 of MA
Lighting’s dot2 consoles. The market in
India is transitioning from low to better
quality solutions and clientsHighlights
From The Show Floor
www.modernstageservice.in
www.malighting.com
Home Grown LBT Soars With
Lighting Solutions
LBT (Lumen Bright Technology),
established in 2006 in New Delhi has
over the years grown by leaps and
bounds. Showcasing a range of lighting
fixtures, the company positions itself
between the top end international
lighting manufacturers and lower end
This year the focus at the exhibition for
LBT was related to LED technology and
their IP67 range of lighting fixtures. “Our
solutions are manufactured in China but I
would say we are an ODM (Own Design
Manufacturer). We have a seasoned
professional consultant from Germany
who works with us for our lighting fixture
design. We use European hardware and
lamps from GE and Philips. We pride
ourselves in our quality and reliability.”
LBT has forty different models currently
and according to Eshdeep has been used
at Bollywood studios, national television
studios and are also well used amongst
the EDM concerts. “I am pleased to say
that users aspire to get our products,
which makes us really happy. There
is much potential in India we are
continuously gaining momentum.”
www.lbtpro.com
Integrated Entertainment
Solutions Grows Its Portfolio
IES is known for its stable of premium
brands that it represents and at this
year’s PALM India, the company unveiled
new brands that the company has
recently added to its portfolio.
IES has been appointed by Avolites as
the sole distributor for India where the
company will undertake local marketing,
training and support for Avolite’s Titan
lighting control and Ai video control
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
Kekul Sheth and Rasesh Parekh of IES
product ranges, in addition to sales
for the Indian market. Rasesh Parekh,
Director, commented, “Avolites is
already a popular brand in India and
we are happy to be associated with
them. As a pure distribution company,
we believe IES will be able to further
enhance the sales of Avolites solutions in
India.”
Robert Juliat is another new brand that
IES has taken on. “RJ had identified us
as a company that is able to handle highend products and will work together with
them to explore the market together.
In our opinion there are no high quality
Followspots in India. It is of course going
to take some time to move the solution
due to the market’s sensitivity for pricing
but we believe we can persuade the
market to look at reliability, quality and
67
other key features other than pricing,”
said Rasesh.
Also shown at the stand was Madrix – a
software solution from Germany that
is specifically targeted at control of
LED lighting fixtures across different
applications offering versatility for its
users.
Of course, IES also showcased all their
other quality brands including Robe
lighting fixtures, Martin Audio solutions.
Lumen Radio amongst others.
www.iesolns.com
Photo Gallery
1. Ansata sh owcased at its booth d&b
audiotechnik's xC-Series, xS-Series,
J-Series and Y-Series speakers.
2. MRH Digital Systems demonstrated
Dynacord PowerMate 3 mixers and
Mipro solutions such as the AT-70W
and AT-90W wideband extension
antennas.
3. The GM Audio booth featured D.A.S.
Audio Event Line Array and Vantec
solutions.
4. Over at the Cinetekk booth, taking
centre-stage were KV2 Audio solutions
from their large venue ES system and
K-RIG to their smaller range Active EX
speakers and Passive ESD speakers.
The company also participated in
the outdoor line array demonstration
featuring the KV2 VH-D system.
5. The popular Harman PALM Live Arena
once again featured a mix genre of
music and musicians to the delight
of visitors. Not only did the Arena
showcase the multiple talents that
India had to offer but it of course also
showcased the total solutions from
lighting to sound that Harman is able
to offer.
6. Dhawan Stagecrafts Pvt Ltd showcased
a full range of Clay Paky lighting fixture
solutions at its booth.
68
EXHIBITION REVIEW
E-TECH ASIA July - August 2015
The Arrival of Alphatec, Music Group Together
“We will have a dedicated team structure
to take this initiative forward,” explained
Devasis. “Our target is to reach out PA
dealers, Rental and Staging, and other
B2B market players. We will have onboard dedicated trainers from Midas
and Behringer to begin with, and add up
other brands as we move ahead.”
Alphatec intends to conduct a series
of roadshows across the country to get
message into the market segments and
players.
I
n one of the most significant
developments in Indian Pro audio
industry, Music Group, and newlyinstituted, Kolkata-based Alphatec Audio
Video have come together towards
pursuing a combined business fortunes
in the rapidly growing industry. While
the news of the big development was
out a few weeks in the run-up to the
PALM Expo 2015, both the groups
chose to make the event show floor
platform in Mumbai to make the decisive
announcement.
Interestingly, it’s a new journey for both
the groups. The move is Music Group’s
entry step to Indian market, it’s an
expanded, purely-distribution role for
Alphatec.
demanding nothing but highest quality
products, service and assurance,” he
said. “We believe it’s time we introduced
top brands of Music Group to Indian
clientele. We are happy about our
association with Music Group.”
According to him, it’s a pure distribution
initiative on a national level, with the
objective of connecting around 300
towns in India. Having already set up a
15,000 square feet warehouse facility in
Kolkata, the company is contemplating
setting up one more in Delhi shortly, as
also back them up with at least 15-20
service centres all over the country in
about three months’ time.
According to Karan Kathuria, Senior
Manager, Customer Management,
Professional Division-APAC at Music
Group, the pro audio conglomerate
has such a wide basket of products
and solutions that it addresses every
segment of the market, and application.
In a diverse market that India is, Music
Group’s solutions will address them
better than the most.
“Indian market plays a critical role in the
overall industry growth in APAC as far
as ProAV market is concerned,” he said.
“We are sure that with a convincing and
impacting representation of Music Group
in India through Alphatec Audio Video,
we have a great future.”
www.alphatec.co.in
www.music-group.com
Alphatec’s founder-managing director
Devasis Barataki who had been one of
the founding directors of the Kolkatabased Ace Acoustics – a Harman
distribution and integration partner for
Eastern India – decided to move on
from the dual role of SI-cum-distribution
to pure-distribution from a bigger and
wider platter.
“Demand for world class pro audio,
video products and solutions in India
has been growing at a rapid pace.
Facility owners, A/V professionals,
sound engineers and consultants are
now more discerning than ever; they are
Karan Kathuria and Devasis Barataki