The Mediterranean Industrial Summer Holiday

I don’t know how it is in other industries but in the pro audio and lighting market, here in the UK we always have to plan for our Italian and Spanish colleagues’ summer holidays!

Manufacturers in both countries indulge in their annual one month shut down for the whole of August. They all disappear to (other) sunny climes and leave us poor old Northern Europeans without access to equipment, spare parts or technical services.

I appreciate that this is a long standing tradition for such countries but, in this age of global trading, wouldn’t it be to everyone’s advantage and benefit for them to at least have a scaled down manufacturing and despatch service for the rest of us? Business normally slows down in the UK during August but it never stops dead. Attempting to create our own stockpile of products in July is often not financially viable and putting our clients off until September for their required deliveries is also not very impressive.

I deal with one Italian manufacturer which has a warehouse and despatch facility in Germany. – Now there’s a result!

David

It’s September Show Time Again

I recently spent two days at the PLASA show in Earls Court 1 and 2, London. Billed as the premier worldwide professional sound and lighting exhibition, it is claimed that there were over 300 exhibitors this year.

I’ve been to this event every year since 1975 and seen an enormous change in the style of the show over that time. This year, I felt that the show had lost its ‘sparkle’ and ‘fizz’. This was starting to happen in 2008 but was certainly evident a year later.

Whilst there were certainly some impressive stands from the ‘big players’, there was a notable absence of many of the industry leaders including at least three of the world’s top brand loudspeaker manufacturers. I also noted that the mobile DJ suppliers had all but evaporated with only a handful of suppliers making the effort to exhibit. Broad based UK distributors were also very few in number. ‘Word on the street’ was that a lot of this was down to the extortionate prices the organisers – PLASA Events – are now demanding for stand space and ancillary services. Many companies just couldn’t quantify the enormous investment to be there.

In terms of visitor attendance, it seemed a lot quieter in this aspect too. There was no frenetic energy or buzz. The whole thing just seems very steady and unremarkable.

If PLASA (the Professional Light and Sound Association) wants to ensure that their show remains as the self-proclaimed premier industry exhibition, they certainly need to entice a wider range and quantity of manufactures back to the show who offer the most relevant products in order to provide us, the trade customers, with an event which truly reflects all aspects and levels of our diverse industry.

David

The Tunnels at Bristol

Located beneath Temple Meads station in the centre of Bristol, The Tunnels is the city’s latest and hottest music venue – and it goes live tonight – Friday 18th September!

To cater for the forthcoming wide range of visiting bands, musicians and entertainers, RealSound has supplied and installed the entire sound system featuring Community house PA speakers, JBL stage monitors, QSC amplification, a 32 channel Soundcraft mixing desk, Shure and Audio Technica microphones plus audio processors from Lexicon, DBX, Kramer and Behringer.

We have also provided the stage lighting rig comprising of 24kW of Parcans plus back of stage Geni LED blinders and Geni ‘intelligent moving head’ fittings. The lighting system is powered by Zero 88 dimmer packs and a Zero 88 DMX control desk.

I would like to thank the venue’s owner, Gareth Chilcott, for awarding us the contract and personally wish him great success for the future with The Tunnels at Bristol.

David

RealSound vs. The Recession

We’ve just had our busiest August - ever! Over the many years I’ve been in this industry, August has reliably and relentlessly been the worst month for business. Half the civilised world seem to go on holiday and general interest in anything pro audio, AV or lighting is decidedly minimal!

This year, the recession hit us in March, April, May and June with a continued flow of requests for site surveys, system designs and quotations across all aspects of business, commercial leisure and education for sound system installations and portable PA systems. However, precious few actually spent the cash in case of… what?

But suddenly, come July and August, things suddenly started happening again – almost as frenetic activity to make up for those ‘lost’ months! And enquiries continue to flow in steadily during this month too. On a personal viewpoint, it would appear that potential clients had the money in previous months but may have been dissuaded from making capital purchases by the influence of the media as to what might happen to us all! The world did not end and, although we’re all a long way from getting back on track, for my company the signs are good ones.

David

Welcome to the RealSound Blog

Over the coming weeks we will post news here relating to the wide range of Public Address (PA) Systems, Portable PA, Background Music, Professional Sound, Lighting and Audio Visual Installations.