Surround conference in Beverly Hills?

[hollywood_steve]

Did anyone make it down to the Beverly Hilton on Thursday for the 1st day of the 2 day Surround 2003 event? Although there is a good number of DVD-V type of exhibits, the pro audio world is supposed to be well represented as well, with companies like Manley, MartinSound, Genelec, Genex, Mergin Technologies, Universal Audio, etc. showing products. I have an absurdly over-scheduled day lined up for tomorrow, but I do want to swing over to Merv's crib for an hour or two. But if anybody checked it out today and thought it was a complete waste of time, I could really use the time I'd save by blowing it off. Somebody here must have stopped by........

[hollywood_steve]

OK, I'll answer my own post.......
I found some posts from people who made it to the 2002 show and they made it seem interesting enough that I crammed a trip to Beverly Hills into my stupidly overbooked day. I only visited the free exhibit area, so I can't comment on the various seminars, workshops and product demonstrations open only to the paying crowd.

The good news is that I saw a few cool products and talked to some interesting folks. I finally got to check out the Soundfield surround mic system and it really does seem like a good idea. I got the 10 minute marketing talk which did a good job of describing all the cool ways that this thing can be used; from producing both stereo and surround recordings from a single mic at a location session, to creating surround mixes from old stereo archive recordings. This is one of those products that would be a great thing to have around, and might even pay for itself down the road when it makes generating surround mixes from archive recordings a super simple, very fast job. But many of us might have a harder time figuring out a way to make it pay for itself right now, unless we are in that very small club of folks who regularly are producing surround product.

Being a surround conference, it wasn't surprising to see several very nice hardware surround controllers (sorry, the software based systems all remind me of Dilbert....) including the new Manley Flurb, the Martinsound line and the new surround monitor controller from Grace. Although API did not have any gear on site (unless I missed it), they were pushing the new surround capable Vision console in a variety of brochures, review reprints, etc. The winner of the "I wish I had one of these during my drug days" award goes to the MSI Spider Vision Surround Sound Analyzer. This thing does for surround metering what the Dorrough meters did for stereo. And remarkably, its a hardware box, not another software meter/analyzer.

There was plenty of gear that was not specifically surround gear, but could be used as part of a surround system; gear like the DM1000 and DM2000 mixers from Yamaha, the GX9000 and GX9048 from Genex and the usual sweet outboard from Manley and Universal Audio. I got my first view of the new SSL outboard equipment and finally got a chance to see the new boom stand that is being marketed under two completely different names by two different companies; the version at the show was the "Ghost" stand, but the same stand is also available as the AiRR Support stand. What's that all about? Its a BIG step up from the $100 guitar store stands, but not up there with the new Latchlake Music stand or the Manley Starbird. (Ironically, right after the show I purchased yet another Atlas M20.....I could have bought a new Starbird for all the Atlas stands I've trashed, lost or had stolen.)

The downside starts with the location; dog butt ugly on the outside, the Beverly Hilton is one of the nicest Hiltons you'll ever set foot in, Merv should be congratulated for running a nice hotel. But the location sucks unless you are staying in the hotel or nearby. There's always a line to get into the hotel's parking and that has got to be one of the world's worst neighborhoods for cruising around looking for parking. Don't even ask about public transport.......local pols reamed local residents years ago by forcing a design change to the Red Line subway, killing the origninal plans for it to run the entire length of Wilshire, from downtown to Westwood. I know that Surround 200? can hardly fill up the LA convention center, but there has to be some place better than the BH Hilton.

The other negative would be the lack of critical mass; there aren't enough exhibitors to draw a decent crowd, and the surround market isn't strong enough to convince a lot of exhibitors to shell out the bucks to appear at this event. Unless you paid for the seminars, the 2003 show was a 1hr event; after 45 minutes you could have checked out each booth 3 times and then you start feeling like a stalker. Maybe the surround folks could hook up with the Hi-Rez folks and offer a combined show that would be large enough to make it worth traveling to. As it is, its strictly for locals.