In recent years, AES shows have tended to be measured quantitatively, particularly in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks in New York City. That year, the annual U.S. iteration of the audio technology convention and exhibition was scheduled to take place literally within a couple of weeks of 9/11. Most of the organization's own assessments of the shows since then tend to emphasize its size, while exhibitors would be naturally inclined to assess the show based on floor traffic. As humanly natural as it is to use such a life-changing event as a yardstick, 2001 isn't the correct benchmark. It's more like 1991, around when digital recording equipment changed the show in two critical ways–it gave it a pronounced emphasis on music recording, which edged out some of the show's other constituencies, including broadcast, post and live sound, and it portended the inevitable and ongoing erosion of that same studio-based music sector in favor of powerful, personally-oriented recording paradigms that have arguably taken AES partially into history along with the Hit Factory, Enterprise Recording and other legacy studios that were once the anchors of the industry and the show.
Live Sound Card
Meanwhile, ticket sales may have slumped in recent years, but live sound has grown as a sector, expanded its horizons and–coupled with technologies like the DVD–given both the music business and pro audio something to be thankful for. At both the European convention in Barcelona last May and this year's U.S. show in New York, AES is playing the live-sound card in a big way. It's a good move; it will help add some "street cred" to an organization whose foundations have shifted considerably with the personal recording revolution and that some observers thought was headed towards becoming solely an academic forum for technical papers. It's also good for live sound in general, which has experienced something of a diaspora as its elements have threaded their way into a range of other trade shows.
Those shows–including InfoComm and NSCA–were alert to picking up on the disaffection for AES on the part of many in the live sound sector. Live sound manufacturing and distribution presence at each show has increased significantly in the last decade. Even NAMM, which is a musician's show at its core, has become a showcase for live sound technologies as the gear has gotten more digital, compact and affordable.
"AES has always covered the technical side of live sound very well," comments Paul Gallo, executive director of PAMA, a trade group representing several dozen pro audio manufacturers. "AES has not done as good a job of exhibiting the products. To many of our members, it does not enhance the value of the trade show floor for them. In the last few years, live sound has taken something of a back seat at AES. That gave shows like InfoComm and NSCA an opportunity to mine that sector of the business. And they did."
A spokesperson for AES concedes that this may be the case. "AES has become aware in the last few years of the increased importance of live sound in the pro audio world, and that it may have been underserved in previous years," the source tells me. "So Barcelona will have been the first example of a new emphasis on live sound at the show, and this is expanding dramatically at the New York convention, which is themed 'Where Audio Comes Alive.'"
In Barcelona, the show had a continuous workshop track dedicated to live sound for all three days of the convention. Held in a large, venue-like space, the tracks included demos of line arrays (which is something you could never do on the trade show floor), digital mixing of live sound, personal monitor and FOH monitoring techniques and DJ mixing.
AES is making a few other moves out of character with its historical stodginess. For the first time, the organization has retained both marketing and PR simultaneously; respectively, Marty Porter, the former group publisher of Pro Sound News and more recently an industry consultant, and Howard Sherman, whose agency has done media rep work for AES in the past. Both have emphasized the new importance that live sound workshop tracks are playing at AES in New York this month.
Manufacturers have taken note, but understand that the context has changed. "We always looked at AES as a significant show," says Ken Berger, senior VP of marketing and product development at Mackie/EAW. "The U.S. show never had a huge focus on live sound, and at one point, we stopped exhibiting at the Europe show for that same reason. But it's still regarded as a good way to reach the industry with new products."
John Wiggins, VP at Community Sound, is more pointed: "AES isn't necessarily the best live sound venue," he says. "But what's the alternative?"
AES is at its heart a political entity because pro audio is a fractured electorate, pulled in many different directions by digital technologies and new business models, both of which are often at odds with the traditional methodologies of the business of audio. SSL was recently sold, and two dozen major studio rooms have either disappeared or changed hands in recent months, yet the co-chairs of the New York show are closely linked to the old-school studio business: Zoe Thrall, former general manager of the Hit Factory, Avatar and Power Station, and producer/engineer Jim Anderson.
AES is also a bit of a forced chronological fit for live sound–its autumn scheduling positions it when the touring season is winding down. People are buying gear in the winter and spring, when NAMM and NSCA are on.
But give credit where credit's due: AES is trying to be more catholic in a business filed with competing interests and philosophies. It still has a marketable brand, and live sound components can only lend strength to it. See you at the show.
