What’s on the menu at Integrate 2019?

Australia:

Following a successful 2018 outing at Sydney’s ICEEP at Darling Harbour, Integrate has returned to Melbourne once again to take up residence within the MCEC opposite Crown Casino.

Nobody likes to gamble with their time, so all visitors and exhibitors have made calculated decisions to get something out of this year’s show – ranging from meetings to product information to free beverages. Both paid and free educational classes and workshops lie at the very heart of Integrate, for which the Avixa Education platform focuses on helping the industry understand the new market opportunities open. Notable among the highlights are the retail and corporate insights, Level 2 Dante Certification and consumerisation of the workplace. While some visitors headed for the Cedia training, AVIXA Flashtracks and Tech Talk discussions, others sampled the finer aural details within the L-Acoustics L-ISA, Midwich Australiasia and Harman sound experience demo rooms.

Established distributors Audio Brands, Australis Music Group, Hills, Jands, National Audio Systems, Production AV Technologies, Sennheiser, Technical Audio Group and tm stagetec systems have returned to woo old and new customers alike, while Bose is one of the few manufacturers present in its own right. Reinforcing the show’s growing international reputation, many exhibiting distributors and suppliers are joined by representatives from Asia, Europe and North America to better assist their customers during the three-day event.

Australian trade show marketing is at an advanced stage. The more experienced exhibitors know how to attract crowds and, more importantly, how to keep them on their booths without losing them to competing companies. The scene upon entering this year’s Integrate was set by the appealing AV screens of Christie, Crestron, Epson, Hitachi, LG, Samsung, SiliconCore Technology and Sony at the entrance of the hall together. Melbourne-based Production AV Technologies also muscled its way into this ensemble by continuing to entice visitors with live music reinforced by the newly launched EAW RS123 portable speakers together with good food and drink. International product managers were on hand to provide technical explanations on the latest Symetrix processors, Powersoft Mezzo amplifier, Audix microphones, Atlas IED, ClearOne and RDL technologies.

The Jands booth continues to evolve, for which Biamp’s line-up was greater this year with the addition of Crowd Mics, desono loudspeakers and Parlé beamtracking microphones. In addition to the large Robe lighting exhibit, the latest products from Ampetronic, Dynacord, EV and Shure are being showcased in detail. ‘We’re dividing our time between Audio Brands and Jands here at the show,’ explained Mario Bentley from Bosch Communications. Founded only six years ago, Audio Brands continues to grow and, this year, is premiering UK amplifier manufacturer Linea Research.

Having opened a new upmarket four-level facility dedicated for the Victoria market, Technical Audio Group (TAG) continues to serve great coffees while engaging and educating customers on Allen & Heath, Audio-Technica, Martin Audio and QSC. Making his way to Integrate for the first time, QSC president and AVIXA’s chairman of the board, Joe Pham, was in attendance and clearly impressed with the show.

The AV industry is surprisingly compact for which the shakers and movers making it tick are pretty much represented in hall 8 of the MCEC. Integrate represents a good annual barometer for the trade down under, especially for those suppliers who want to engage with the market first-hand, which in turn serves as an accurate gauge as to what events have taken place since the last public outing of the exhibition 12 months previously.

Integrate continues until Thursday 26 August.

For more photos from the show floor, take a look at our Integrate 2019 photo album on Facebook.