Tuesday, February 7th was the opening day for Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) at the RAI in Amsterdam. This is the 14th ISE and is the biggest of all. As of 7:30 on opening day, there were 68,544 registered attendees, which was already ahead of the total of 65,686 for 2016.
Mike Blackman, Managing Director of ISE, was confidant at the pre-show press briefing that the on-site registration for the rest of the week will be enough to push the total over 70,000, and perhaps well over 70,000. 77% of the registered total are attendees, 22% are exhibitors and 1% (589) are press. Meko’s Managing Editor Bob Raikes and myself represent two of those 589 press registrations. While 80% of the attendees come from Europe, the show has a distinct international flavor with people from 176 different countries attending. The top countries with ISE attendance were (in order) the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, the United States and China.
Mike Blackman, Managing Director of ISE
Exhibitor totals have grown as well, from 1103 in 2016 to 1193 for 2017. While the majority of exhibitors are from Europe, the individual country sending the most exhibitors is China, with 153 companies exhibiting. The UK is second, with 129 exhibitors. Unsurprisingly, most of the exhibitors from China are manufacturers while many of the companies from Europe are distributors or system integrators. For example, Bob has asked me to sort out the direct-view LED wall manufacturers from China, as best as I could. He gave me a list of 12 to visit and said there were more than that – there a lot more! I’ll see what I can do, given the four day run of the show. This is an increase as well – last year’s ISE only ran 3 days.
Exhibit area has grown as well, up in 2017 to 47,200M² (508,057 sq. feet) from 44,108M² (474,775 sq. feet) in 2016. The RAI in Amsterdam is bursting at the seams and this year ISE has 14 halls, compared to 12 last year. According to Blackwell, the RAI built one additional hall at its venue mainly for ISE and the 14th hall is actually a temporary building.
Crowds at the Sony booth at ISE 2017
While in the US people think of InfoComm is a big show, ISE is significantly bigger, in terms of attendance. ISE, founded in 2004, is jointly run by InfoComm, founded in 1939, and CEDIA, founded in 1989. Yet at InfoComm 2016 there were “only” 38,833 visitors Physically, InfoComm is slightly larger, with 48,970M2 (527,105 sq. feet) in Las Vegas in 2016. This higher attendance at ISE, compared to InfoComm, with a smaller venue makes the show more crowded, something I suspect the exhibitors don’t mind at all. Of course, when Barco or AV Stumpfl gave away beer in their booths at 4:30, they were especially crowded.
Besides LED video walls, I’m here to cover projection technology. So far, I’ve got a good start with visits to Panasonic, NEC, BenQ, Optoma, Eyevis, Sony, DNP and Stewart Filmscreen. I was talking to Coretronic about their optical engines when the show closed and I had to leave. So far, the only two LED video walls I’ve seen is one from Mitsubishi targeting command and control and one made by Unilumin in the Eyevis booth. The Mitsubishi unit had a 1.5mm pitch and the rep said is not intended to compete with rear projection cubes in the control room but extend the product range to new applications. He said the LED wall will be more expensive than the same area of wall with rear projection cubes. The system will also be much brighter – maybe too bright for many applications, and controlling brightness was a major design effort. He said both rear projection cubes and direct view LEDs have 100,000 hour lifetime for their LEDs, which is 11.4 years of 24/7 operation. The rep said that the LEDs in competitor cubes is more typically 80,000 hours. Reliability and low maintenance, he told me, were two key properties that will distinguish the Mitsubishi video wall from other fine pitch walls.
Mitsubishi LED video wall targeting a command and control application and 100,000 hour life.
Meko has covered every ISE since its inception in Geneva in 2004 and will cover ISE 2017 in detail. A special report on ISE is expected to be out in two weeks, covering all the products Bob Raikes and I saw here. If you can’t wait two weeks, articles will go on line on www.displaydaily.com as they are written. A subscription is required for both the special report and to access the articles on-line. –Matthew Brennesholtz
