Indian expertise provides broadcasting show base - Sep 01

With an entertainment industry which is valued at US$3.6billion and expected to grow four-fold in five years, according to a report compiled by Arthur Andersen, it seems only natural India's 10th Broadcast India Exhibition & Symposium, reached a record-breaking number of visitors. International brand names from 26 countries attracted 21,641 visitors to the most recent event held over 3,700sqm at the Mumbai World Trade Centre. These statistics alone demonstrated the strong levels of growth in the broadcast industry since the show's inauguration in 1991, which counted just 34 exhibitors and 2,000 trade visitors. "Broadcast India was started ten years ago because the local technicians and engineers, who could really influence the sales in India, were not financially affluent to visit shows like IBC, NAB or even Broadcast Asia then," organiser Saicom Trade Fairs & Exhibitions director Ms Kavita Meer says. "Therefore, we decided we should bring the show to them, so they can judge the latest international technology available for their work." Held for three days every year, Broadcast India is the only show in India covering a large visitor profile from the trade of television, radio, video, audio, lights, cable, satellite, computer graphics, animation, multimedia, transmission and all their allied and associated technologies. And its location also helps boost visitor numbers; not only is Mumbai the commercial and financial capital of India, it is also home to 80% of the film and television industry. The show's chosen dates - always between the third week of October the first week of November - also proved beneficial for the show as it is the most appropriate period for visiting international exhibitors and trade attendees, including many from neighbouring countries. "The amount of solid business our exhibitors have been generating is immense," Ms Meer says, "which encourages them to permanently reserve stands at our show." India-based Cinecita Comoptronics director Mr SP Agarwal, is one such regular exhibitor. "I have been exhibiting at this show since its inception, in the same place and in the same corner," he enthuses. "The visitor's response is always excellent. There are people from government agencies like Doordarshan, educational institutes like Film Institute, plus private channels such as Sun TV, Sahara and ZEE." The exhibition, which is preceded by a two-day symposium where top industry professionals gather to debate and share ideas, is geared toward showcasing the latest technological trends of the industry. The symposium had seen Sony and Panasonic presenting the digital high-definition technology, which the film industry uses for making theatrical films. Other companies which presented futuristic technological papers included Radio Computing Services from the US, NDS Asia Pacific from Hong Kong, Odetics Broadcast from the UK, Seagate Technology from Singapore, Digital Media Authoring Studio, also from Singapore, and Radio World International. The FX Factory of India also presented a paper on the creation of digital visual effects for motion pictures and television. "As the Arthur Andersen report shows, India's entertainment industry is growing rapidly, so the volume of work in this field is also increasing at a fast rate," Ms Meer adds. "This has given a tremendous boost to the sales of equipment and technology in this field and the show has definitely improved since it began, both in terms of the number of leading exhibitors in this field, as well as the number of visiting trade visitors." Indeed, Broadcast India can claim to have progressed in every aspect of the show. For the first time this year, there will be an awards ceremony for the industry at the next edition of the show, called the "Seagate Technical Awards for Excellence in Digital Technology for Films and Television", sponsored by Seagate. At every year's show, Seagate hosts a cocktail party on the second day of the show and this year's gala dinner will be held alongside the awards ceremony. Broadcast India has always been held at Mumbai's World Trade Centre - except for the inaugural show in 1991 - and will continue to be held there. The centre is planning to build bigger and better halls in a separate building located behind the existing one. This new wing at the site is expected to be completed within the next two years and Broadcast India will thereafter hold the expanding tradeshow in these new halls. "We envisage using the same venue for the show until a better exhibition venue is available in Mumbai," Ms Meer explains. "This year's exhibition will have one additional hall for outdoor exhibits for the first time, making it the biggest event so far in its history." The majority of the exhibitors from the Broadcast India 2000 event have already made their booth reservations for this year's show. Broadcast India 2001 Exhibition & Symposium will take place between October 30 and November 3.