ISE 2023 – The View from Barcelona

After a three year forced hiatus from ISE, and my first visit to the show’s new location, I am happy to report that the 2023 edition did not disappoint. Attendance was massive and high-quality, the representation and quality of exhibitors excellent, and the overall experience of visiting both the show and the city world-class.

ISE has now cemented itself as the premiere trade show for much of our industry. Video, audio, integration, and control are all totally covered. Next year, the show is said to be adding a hall that’s half-dark and smoke isolated, so hopefully the lighting industry will turn up in force. That’s really the only thing keeping ISE from being the one-stop-shop for everyone, from live production to system integration. Chuck in a few more microphone manufacturers and some studio gear and we’ll have a full house.

There’s always a lot of talk on the stands of which other shows we’ll either be going to or exhibiting at. Most people are now calling time on PL+S in Frankfurt, and putting most other shows into the ‘regional’ or ‘specialist’ categories. I, for one, would be quite happy to make ISE the only show I go to all year, on the provision that they can expand the lighting and staging sections.

While there weren’t many major product releases, there was enough to pique your interest on most stands. Technology stand outs for me were Brompton’s Tessera G1 LED receiver and the profusion of MicroLED. Having only seen a MicroLED screen for the first time in August 2022, I was pretty surprised to see almost every LED manufacturer now cranking out their own version.

I also got to experience the German audio phenomenon that is Holoplot, and their X1 Matrix Array in their demo room. The hype was lived up to. Their 3D audio beamforming and wavefield synthesis that steers sound both vertically and horizontally is not only capable of some brain-melting effects and applications, it also just sounds great as a standard PA.

The biggest impact of the show was more conceptual than product oriented. The much-touted AV ‘convergence’ of the 2010s is now just everyday reality, so much so that no-one even uses the word. What we’re seeing is the first real changes to how companies approach business and product development as a result, a trend that accelerated greatly due to the pandemic.

The subscription and ‘software as a service’ business models from the IT end of the show are permeating into the worlds of hardware. ‘AV as a service’ was a concept being seriously discussed. While no-one’s cracked the model yet, the rewards will be great for those who do. Tech giants like Google and Zoom are already creeping into domains that are traditionally the remit of the system integrator and AV provider; their business models will come with them.

We’ll be running a full show report in the March edition of CX Magazine. Subscribe to their print edition for the full tech run down and all the new product releases, and you’ll also go into monthly draw to win some huge prizes from Jands, plus a shot at winning the L-Acoustics home stereo in October 2023, worth a cool $17K!