Prior to the show Karl Christmas, sales and marketing manager (UK & ROI), candidly admitted that this year's return was something of a 'toe in the water' exercise at an exhibition which had become more renowned for its lighting content in recent years.
However, he and the rest of the Yamaha team were pleasantly surprised at the quantity of visitors to the company's stand, with the CIS series installation products, QL/CL series digital consoles and RMio64-D Dante/MADI converter attracting particular attention.
"We were very impressed with the number of visitors and the positivity being shown by all the professional audio dealers, rental companies, installers and, indeed, fellow manufacturers that we spoke to throughout the show," said Karl.
"Sunday has traditionally been 'students and laymen' day at PLASA. As the future of our industry, we will always take the time to give them as much information and explanation as they want. But we were very pleased with the number of audio professionals who were present on the Sunday. It was 'full on' for the first three days of the show and still very busy throughout the Wednesday."
Karl and technical sales engineer Wayne Powell reported having to give 'non-stop' demonstrations of the new V3.0 software for the QL and CL series consoles, while regional representatives Stuart McKay and Terry Murphy highlighted the high level of interest shown in the CIS series and RMio64-D.
"As the first UK trade show for the RMio64-D and one of the first for the QL series, both generated a lot of interest. We have a huge amount of leads to follow up from both new and existing customers. Overall, the show completely surpassed our expectations," says Karl.
Yamaha has already confirmed that it will be exhibiting at next year's PLASA London, with a bigger stand in a more central location.
(Jim Evans)
