AFIAL 09

AFIAL had stiff competition from three other tradeshows, which were all taking place at the same time: ISE Amsterdam, The ARC Show London and LLB Norway. Some companies decided to split their resources, while others decided to concentrate on just one show.

AFIAL is only a small trade event but it is one that remains important to the Spanish market and all the major manufacturers from the region you’d expect to be present were, except for VMB and Beyma who decided to visit this year but not exhibit.

The exhibitor numbers were high again this year as indicated by the use of the mezzanine level for the second time, there were more than 70 split over the two floors. Visitor numbers increased from 6,000 last year to just over 7,500 this year, much to the delight of the show organisers.
Distributor Pro Lighting had a large stand on the ground floor with products on show from Zero 88, Barco, High End Systems, SFAT, Tomcat, Litestructures and ShowLED, all of which they distribute in the Spanish region. Heading up the stand was Pro Lighting’s Monika Dominguez along with Zero 88’s Grant Bales-Smith and SFAT’s Christophe De Lora on hand for support.

Jorge Juan Sempere, Adagio Pro’s Product Manager, was displaying products from HK Audio and Martin Audio. The latter had a European industry debut at AFIAL; it was the first showing of Martin Audio’s ASX subwoofer - the completed version (not a prototype that some many have seen before), but the real thing, finished and ready to go!
EES’s Nacho Acha-Orbea was in charge of their stand and they had representatives from many of their major brands there to answers any of the visitors’ questions. Koy Neminathan from Avolites was promoting their new Titan software. He says that, “EES is one of our busiest European distributors and I’ve spoken to many customers who have visited the stand who seem very interested in our products.” Simon Harris of Green Hippo was marketing their Hippo Critter while Vari-Lite’s International Sales Manager for Latin America Jaime Friedstadt and Carl Pierre Blasor of Prolyte were both advertising their retrospective product ranges. Friedstadt said: “Lighting designers, production companies and artists were all very excited to see the new VL3500 Wash FX.”
Acha-Orbea explained, “ Business has been very good up until September last year, even though Spain has been said to have been in a recession for three or four years, it is only now that EES is starting to suffer a little.”

Stonex is another large Spanish distributor, they look after brands such as MA Lighting, Clay Paky, ETC, Anolis, Aryton and one of their newest recruits, Pulsar. Jon Petts from Pulsar was at the Stonex stand on the opening day of the show, he said he was pleased to see a steady flow of visitors.

The carpet at the SeeSound stand was pillar-box red, perhaps an attempt to stand out from the crowd, though they did so anyway with plenty of well known products dispersed in and around the vibrant backdrop. See Sound distribute brands such as Funktion One, Vieta and DPA Microphones.

Earpro were pleased with the AFIAL organisation and said they have put on a very good show this year. The marketing team Montse Gimenez and Joan Cusco were extremely busy, being there for only one day, conducting press conferences each hour for the Spanish press, while their sales colleagues assisted visitors who came to enquire about brands from the Earpro range such as Coemar, Compulite, JBL and Crown.

EQC Audio had products on show from Peecker Sound and X-Treme Audio, Area Sales Manager Tomas Bonaut said he was especially pleased with the quality of visitors though personally he thinks some may have been put off travelling here because of the snowy weather across Europe. Wet weather put paid to the outdoor demos on the first day, but on Thursday and Friday they were back on track and X-Treme Audio took part. Bonaut continues, “We did spend time talking to visitors about money and payment conditions rather than news, features, applications and products, but from those who we did speak to about products we got an amazing response and the comments were very positive.”

A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd had a busy show with their new dealer Auprosa. Neil Vann from the Lighting Division said business is good and they’ve had plenty of interest in the Jands products they brought to AFIAL.

D.A.S. Audio’s Bob Giner said they had also had a busy show and had made some good business deals and contacts. They had an array of products on show, including the new Avant Series, which was launched at Namm in January. Giner said, “This is our third time at AFIAL and we will continue to attend as the Spanish market is our market. It has only been in the last quarter that we have seen business slow down a little in Europe, though business in South East Asia and Latin America right now is doing well.”

Leonardo Dani was promoting the K-Array products at the stand and he says he received a very positive response from the visitors, with comments like, “the products are so powerful for their size and weight.”
Universal-Effects had plenty of products on their stand including the new addition to the Inflatables, the LED Cone range. Sales Manager Eric Metreaud and CEO Jean-Yves Pizzini were happy to meet the needs of their customers who visited the stand.
Master Audio had plenty of offer for their visitors: A sneak preview of the Line Array System PA-208A PRO Series; New stage monitor SM-12D8; A new range of Digital Processors DSP/USB Series and the new XCELLENCE Series.

A new aspect to the show was the Star Product, which was a stand, which displayed a selection of products, which exhibitors had chosen to present as their most prominent and innovative product.

Seems that the AFIAL association is continuing to flourish with the AFIAL show proving itself an ongoing success. A date for AFIAL 2011 has yet to be confirmed.