IBC 2016 Round Up - Part Two

Read the second part of our blog about all things IBC 2016 - enjoy! Chris West - on the Fomex EX Range Fomex are an emerging lighting brand. Building on the success of their FL-600 LED Flexible Light IBC gave them the opportunity to release their new EX Range. At first you notice this is no Flexi light but a solid, robust fixture reminiscent of the Kino Celeb design. Designed with high CRI 98R, it’s a bi-colour, V mount battery or mains powered light with an in –built control panel to quickly operate brightness and temp. The units come in 3 sizes, the 600, 1200 and 1800. The 600 has an output of 60W and is a 1x1 size, you then have the 1200 at 120W and twice the size 2x1 and finally the 1800 with 180W designed with studio application in mind. All three can be controlled by a directly connected DMX console and a simple LCD display shows colour temp, output and address. With tentative pricing set to trump their competitors and the shorter days drawing in it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. Jane Lawson - the view from marketing After a one day flying visit last year this was my second visit to IBC.  At Top-Teks we go as a team which is great for me as the marketing person as the boys looks out for (and very patiently explain) all the new technology and products whilst I get to meet and catch up with all the people that help me do my job. Having a bit more time to look around this year I am still in awe and almost overwhelmed by the spectacle and scale of the show.   Having come from the film distribution side of the business it has been a while since I have visited and experienced a show such as this.  The nearest I can compare it to are the content markets of MIPTV & MIPCOM.  Both these events are hugely impressive with the larger broadcasters having a huge presence but to me the sheer scale and size of IBC is something else again.  Winding your way around the Palais Des Festival and along the Croisette in Cannes seems positively sedate compared with the frenzy of IBC. The resources that are put behind this show are clearly staggering – logistics, kit, stands (design, build and breakdown), staffing and communications to name a few is a massive undertaking for manufacturers and suppliers.  Having done this myself (on a smaller scale) I have nothing but huge praise to the sales and marketing teams for pulling it all together so impressively.  The boys tell me that IBC is dwarfed by NAB so I can only imagine what that would be like….. I do enjoy a stand tour and this year one of the highlights was my tour of the Panasonic stand. Ollie showed us around their fantastic looking stand and ran through their impressive range.  We were also treated to lunch and a nice site down and bite to eat was gratefully received so thank you Ollie and Panasonic.   This is one of the joys for me about the show – I can catch up with our manufacturers on new kit, existing products and marketing plans for the coming year.  Everything is in one place and everyone has time to talk through any issues.  I am always particularly grateful for a memory stick with all the updated marketing materials! Even in this wonderful digital age where we can launch products, organise great campaigns and run businesses from behind a desk I feel it is so valuable to meet face to face and IBC is the perfect place for this. IBC also allows us to meet up with our distribution partners.  Our business is global and our partners are scattered around the world so it is at these events we can come together and plan our strategies for the coming year.  This year I was lucky enough to meet our colleagues from Hollyland.  They are based in China we are exclusively distributing their wireless transmitters in the UK.  If you haven’t heard about them do take a look – they certainly give the market leader a run for its money in performance and reliability.  Of course I would say that being the distributor but please do see for yourself and make up your own mind – you might just be pleasantly surprised! Last but not least we also get to meet our media partners.  We have just embarked on our first joint advertising campaign with our friends at Redshark and Sony which has grown from meetings such as this.  We are very much looking forward to developing our advertising and promotion strategy and a nice cold drink and a catch up is a wonderful way to do this!  I really value shows such as IBC and now my feet are almost recovered – I am looking forward to next year!