What Hifi show 2008

I agree completely with this post. Last year (at Hammersmith) we had all the major manufacturers (with few execptions), and since I am in the process of specifying a brand-new system I found that show very useful to help me get a shorlist together of possible products and their suitability. So I was attending this year as a way to get updates on the latest developments and make some firm decisions to buy. But it was not to be. The focus mainly seemed to be on gadgets and 'integration' although enquiries into media centres produced very little i.e. most products compressed your data and integrated it into another box rather than allow you to record your CD/DVD collection 'raw'. A friend and I paid £21 each (online) to get in and £27.50 each for the return train fare from Portsmouth. Adding food and drink it was an expensive day out for very little content. Unless the major manufacturers come back next year we will not be going again.  

Again, we'll take all your feedback on board, and pass it onto our exhibitions department.

And i'm sorry you didn't enjoy the demo: every time we do a demo of budget kit at a Show, we get grumbles along the lines of 'I  can hear  that at home!', so decided to show people just what Blu-ray is capable of  (ie better sound and vision than the average small-screen multiplex!)

But it is - as you say, Chris - a bigger and better show, and also the first where real discounts could be had. I'm pretty sure it's currently the cheapest place in the UK (including online!) to pick up many of the best hi-fi, home cinema and TV products around.

Moving to a bigger venue is always a bonus and yes, the discounts were good. The advantage of moving is that we can grow from here - attendance was good, so you can only expect the show to get bigger and better.

As for the demos, we're always open to suggestions as to what type of product and demos you would like to see and why.

Thanks for your comments.

Give us stands where we can properly talk to exhibitors.

Give us stands where we can properly appreciate the equipment demo'd.

Get more major manufacturers on board

Give us stands where we can buy CDs, Blu-Ray and DVDs

Give us more audio demonstrations - there were (as in the past) far too many stands demo-ing home cinema set-ups.  It was so refreshing to go to both Odyssey (where they were using vinyl as a source - yes) and Clearer Audio.

Give us set up and product clinics

Make the exhibition space a more interesting, exciting, involving place.

Blind test of equipment and accessories would also be brilliant

Make the entry price lower

Make the security staff less surly

Special guests would also be fantastic - I remember an appearance from Tomlinson Holman from a show about ten years ago(?)

Is that enough to be getting on with?

I agree with you SA Cripps.The show is very small for what is promoted as the show for the best HiFi & home cinema magazine. How do the Americans still fill 1000000 sq ft of space and have crowds turn up to see lots and lots of manufacturers etc. For what is the premiere show in the Capital it was pretty small and unexciting. I seem to remember going to a show at Earls Court years ago when Sony had a stand that took up the entire end of Earls Court 1 and went up about 3 floors.Linn had 2 separate Log cabin demo rooms with systems at low & high price levels. I think I & my friend I went with were there for hours & hours talking to and seeing a very high number of equipment manufacturers. And if my memory serves me well Richer Sounds had set a a shop there for the duration of the show. Oh and by the way Claire I did not say the show was the biggest and the best that was the phrase you used to promote it.   

Las Vegas is surely a trade show, and as for New York, the last one I attended was a hotel show organised by Stereophile, which IIRC didn't even take place this year.

As to why this company or that company wasn't there, that's something to ask those companies. It wasn't a case of anyone putting restrictions on the size of the show, and if Sony had wanted a stand able to fill an entire wall of one hall, or indeed Samsung have a stand the size you say they had in Berlin, I'm sure - though I don't speak for the organisers - that could have happened, as could Linn's log cabins had they been required.

ChrisMumford:

Oh and by the way Claire I did not say the show was the biggest and the best that was the phrase you used to promote it.   

Apologies for that, my misunderstanding.

And yes,  we'd love to be part of a show as big as IFA  (in Germany), but even the NEC would struggle to house that - Samsung's stand, which you mention, for example, filled an entire hall and cost more than ?5m to build. Sony's cost even more. That's their European exhibitions budget blown for the year, even before the current financial meltdown is taken into account.

But thanks again for continuing feedback - we'll bring it to the attention of our exhibitions team, who, I know are also keen to have a larger-scale event (hence the move to ExCeL), much as they have for the many other markets they work in (eg Good Food Show, Clothes Show Live).

If the show was supposedly bigger and better then why wasn't it wasn't bigger or better? Last year's show was just so much more entertaining. Even if there were many discounts to be had, part of the fun of these shows is being able to experience the products without buying anything, without being labelled time-wasters. If all we wanted to do was buy stuff then we could just go to one of Sevenoaks' branches - in fact, if we had gone to Sevenoaks then we would have had much better demonstrations than we had anywhere at the show this year. I disagree with people who say that the What Hifi demo should have used budget kit - I wish they could have showed some decent content though.

And the security should be reassurring not intimidating. I'm sure I read somewhere about being able to feel how comfortable the world's first levitating chair was (or sumthing) but I merely touched it and was warned to step away by someone who looked far too much like he could handle himself than was comfortable.

To sum it up I would have to say it was very disappointing. If it wasn't for the fact that I had visited the exiting show last year then I would probably have given up on any idea of visiting the show in future.

i was abit disapointed the show wasnt bigger and there where too many gadgets and not enough hifi or av stuff

loved the various demo rooms , with all the kit , espically the projectors and the fixed screen ( need to research them , cost etc ... )

also with the blueray player , im a person with a ps3 i was surprised by the diffrence with the PANASONIC DMPBD35 to the ps3 the panasonic was alot better ,

shame i alreadt got a lot to my system with denon 1909 and kef 2005.3 and harmony 1000 aswell as other stuff , should of waited now

best thing i found was after i left there was a small shop outside which done custom installs it was nice with projectors and stuff and with loads of ideas for arond the house

ps - in the blueray chill out zone with all the games and stuff , there was a poker game table , anyone know where to get it from ,

thanks

Clare Newsome:

And i'm sorry you didn't enjoy the demo: every time we do a demo of budget kit at a Show, we get grumbles along the lines of 'Iÿ can hearÿ that at home!', so decided to show people just what Blu-ray is capable ofÿ (ie better sound and vision than the average small-screen multiplex!)

Hi Clare

Although I thought the show was poor, your demo suite was brilliant and exactly what you would expect to see at a show ... something you can't hear at home ... so a big thumbs up for that one!

ÿÿ

Thanks topbloke 55, we'll take that as a compliment then!

And by the way, there are complaints over on the Stuff forum that there was too much hi-fi...

whens the next show

isnt there one at bristol 

Yes, but that's an independent show, of which we are a sponsor.

SACripps:

Give us more audio demonstrations - there were (as in the past) far too many stands demo-ing home cinema set-ups. It was so refreshing to go to both Odyssey (where they were using vinyl as a source - yes) and Clearer Audio.