P14 OCTOBER 2015
Vocal channel
Winter of satisfaction
L ERICA BASNICKI is a writer and sound designer
adies and gentlemen, professional audio folks of every stripe, grab yourselves a glass of something bubbly and raise it. A season of celebration is upon us, and I am definitely not talking about the weather. I have been somewhat of a broken record talking about the importance of sound, but this time will be slightly different: This time I am merely reporting what others are talking about and, call me overly-excited, but I do believe we are on the brink of a sonic revolution. In the last two months at least four major publications have published pieces on the rise of sound in various forms. Publications whose core audiences don’t normally concern themselves with the audible world. Susan Philipsz was the first sound artist to win the Turner Prize for her piece, Lowlands, in 2010 (a massive victory somewhat marred by the heavy use of quotation marks –“sound art” – as if it wasn’t a real art form). Fast forward to last month, when the highly-respected
visual arts magazine Apollo trumpeted the increasing popularity of sound art, calling it “ the next vogue in terms of art experimentation and curation”. No quotation marks. Brilliant! The hybrid blog/publishing platform Medium – a purveyor of highly shareable, quality written content founded by the folks who gave us Twitter – recently hosted an article entitled ‘Why sound design is the next great digital frontier’. In it, author George Webster, director of content strategy at global digital design agency Critical Mass, predicts that “smart brands, smart agencies and smart innovators will be searching for new ways to connect people to products and ideas through sounds”. In an unrelated piece just over a month later, Fast Company’s Co.CREATE profiled Soho’s Grand Central Recording Studios’ (GCRS) educational campaign ‘Experience the Sound’: a series of in-house talks to sell its clients on sound’s creative potential. As the first studio to create a commercial in the Dolby Atmos format, GCRS is acutely aware
of the potency of good sound design. Finally, The New York Times recently profiled a few of the city’s restaurants addressing the issue of unwanted noise in its dining areas. Though focussed on a very niche market, the article also highlights the fact that poor acoustics is no longer an issue restaurants can afford to ignore. Addressing said sound-sophisticated diners, author Jeff Gordinier explains: “In the San Francisco Bay Area, a company called Meyer Sound, founded and owned by Helen and John Meyer, has developed a system called Constellation in which tiny microphones and speakers are placed throughout a restaurant and piped into a computer so that noise levels can be monitored and adjusted automatically.” Has this sunk in? The NYT is educating foodies about pro audio. “Brand creatives” (sorry) figure sound is the Next Big Thing. This is more than chance; more than coincidence; more than a pattern. Audio is definitely moving from afterthought to forethought, which ought to keep you feeling warm and fuzzy for a while...
combined fears of not knowing what one might miss and what people might say if one were not present were greater than the pain of paying for it. That view still exists to a degree, but is no longer prevalent, principally because many potential exhibitors have found more productive uses for some or all of those trade show budgets. It’s also a combination of technical factors. The internet and all the informationsharing opportunities it provides, plus increasingly savvy use of online facilities by potential exhibitors, means that it is much less important than previously to have ‘hands-on’ time with products. This is especially true when you consider that, despite many sincere attempts to do so, it is exceedingly difficult to offer meaningful product demonstrations at a trade show. These are perhaps just more indicators of a maturing industry, and nowadays the principal attraction of trade shows for both exhibitors and visitors is networking via physical interaction. Paradoxically, the
ease with which we all now communicate non-personally enhances the value of face-to-face communication, and trade shows should take advantage of this. In the right setting, business can be discussed, appointments made, site visits arranged and plans mooted in a civilised manner. To win back lost business and attract new customers, trade shows must deliver real efficiencies not just in direct costs but also in personnel, logistics and other areas such that exhibitors can support these events sustainably. Shows need to deliver a complete package which includes, among other things, geographical relevance, accessibility, economic reality, venue suitability, visitor footfall, event duration and pre- and post-show marketing support. In my view at least, the business still needs and should benefit from trade events, but they must evolve and adapt to its changing demands and the economic environment. Some do already – and some don’t.
Trading... up?
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DAVE WIGGINS is a freelance marketeer and pro-audio pundit
or many individuals involved in the equipment supply side of the industry, the numerous pro-audio trade shows around the world are part of the warp and weft of their working lives. For years most of these events have changed but little, with the seemingly endless round of shows feeling sometimes like a global audio village groundhog day... However, things are changing. A few shows have stopped altogether, some have merged and others have shortened, while the titles of ‘most important’ shows in their respective locations and markets have occasionally changed hands. At the same time we have seen the odd new one pop up, but in general the trend is towards a lower total number of trade show days globally than in previous years Why? One reason is fear, or more accurately, the new lack of it. Twenty years ago there were a significant number of trade shows that many exhibitors simply could not miss regardless of cost. The issue was that the
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