Tamil Teri Maa
Had the privilege of mixing the FOH for AR Rahman’s ‘Netru Indru Nalai’ Wembley Concert last
week - not by choice but by substitute, when the visas don’t make it back on time. Anyways
I have been doing this for all the guys who have worked with me over the past two decades and
my role has varied in no ascending order from FOH, Systems, Monitors, RF Tech, Stage Tech,
Audio Supplier. On AR’s concerts I wouldn’t mind even being the Backline tech.
It was pretty precarious as I hadn’t been to any of the production rehearsals and Mark Thomas
was at the helm of Monitorland for the first time; it was like pulling someone out of
semi-retirement back into the pitch and a rookie at the crease. Like two opening batsmen we
braced the occasion. Big shows are always about stamping your authority on the audio
production and having total control of every audio parameter from the test & measurement
tools, sound systems administrator controls, FOH commandeering & a bit of aural musical
creativity. Now here is where this helps, having been in every nook and cranny of his
audio production, coming into the show wasn’t like it was an entry barrier and we pulled
of a blinder all thanks to a little help from the music director & the legendary Shridhar’s
son helping me with the solo’s entries or the names of some of the backing singers.
Wembley went like a dream with barely a day prior of PA rigging, alignment and show day’s
line test, sound-check into show.
So what it’s like doing gigs for the man himself. I guess you put all your experience you
have learnt over the years on this gig and every little thing matters. We have always
strived for excellence on his technical productions, leaving Wembley with a great sense
of pride of our ‘Made In India’ music, whilst I was appalled to hear later about anti-social
media cribbing about being a ‘Tamil’ & not ‘Hindi’ concert. Firstly, of all the shows I have
done, this hasn’t even occurred to me. Since when do our audiences demand language
and ‘Made In Hindi’ is the only acceptable medium or musical instruction. Secondly this
whole thing about walking out was one big lie as everyone stayed glued to their seats or
danced in the aisles, I was at FOH and hence a witness! The few who left early were elderly
or physically challenged people who wanted to break away from the exit crowds post the
concert.
A friend of mine interestingly mentioned to me about the expats being called “Coconuts” - Brown
from the outside and very white from the inside. This reminds me a lot of the snob value
they have developed from living in western countries where even the popular musicals on
West-End are called ‘Touristy Musicals”. No point educating these pseudo-highbrow’s
about anything. All they have is their opinion on app based phones. They should never
be dancing to ‘Despacito’ and thanks to Hindi dubbed versions of Tamil films you have
Humma & Urvashi in Hindi. Are you saying your body is not going to get on the floor
when you hear Urvashi in Tamil!!
Sorry to burst your bubble folks but the best concerts I have worked on, are Rahman’s
Tamil concerts and his ‘Nenje Ezhu Tour” & News7 Concert in Chennai are the most
spectacular shows I have been witness to. The gigs open to such loud screams from the
audiences that you barely can even hear the PA system during the highlights of the concert.
Such is the love and adulation this man receives.
The News7 concert for Live & TV in Chennai was such a sonic spectacular, we had 168 inputs
of his entire elaborate band, two sets of strings sections, a grand brass, north & south
Indian classical instruments from sitar, veena, tabla, mrindagam, thaval & the works. Some
of the arrangements were so awe-inspiring that my hair was standing through practically 30%
of the set. How do you control your emotions when ‘Karma Veeran’ is being performed live
with such amazing orchestration, the grandeur of horns section and the classical
instruments infused altogether to make a phenomenal sound and an audience continually
yelling in oblivion to the fact that it is also a Rajnikant flick. But the highlight
of the evening was for me Kalpana’s vocal rendition of ‘Kannodu Kanbathellan’ with such
amazing support of the Indian classical musical instruments. That song just left me blown
away!
Imagine this mans discography of hits are so many that it would practically take him a
weeklong concert to complete his “Greatest Hits LIVE”. And working with the composer
himself, is always a journey of learning as he has been at every step of the way making
the songs. So if it’s the orchestration in Jab tak hain jaan, the bass-line in ‘Humma
Humma’, the drums & guitars in ‘Naadan Parinde’ or the piano in ‘Dil Se’ which by the
way is something I have discovered. He has changed his set list in all his concerts but
I haven’t attended or worked on a single concert without ‘Dil Se’ seems like this song
is closest to his heart!
We cannot fathom AR’s contribution to “Made In India” the superlatives are in the awards
and in the recognition. And to all those Hindi concert audiences for your pleasure, be
happy he even made a record like the music for ‘Taal’ which according to me is his
‘Masterpiece’ in your language. Why don’t you make a song in Tamil for the world to
appreciate before you even decide to jig to a Latin or Middle Eastern song on the
dance floor. I also find it extremely distasteful when people make internet parodies
of India’s Global Ambassador of Music whilst these deadbeats who have not achieved
anything, could actually spend their time doing some social work or making better
music.
We have to respect people for their work and contribution to the world of music and
this doesn’t mean just the top tier music directors, producers or singers, this also
goes out to small resto-bars & clubs where Live music is performed. Everybody’s voice
or music has a place under this sun. Being disrespectful just brings us discredit
and puts us in very poor light.
PS – Whilst all of us fans & colleagues who are standing by him on social media or
our blogs, he himself was deeply hurt and wants what’s best for his fans and owes
his success to his fans. Humbled beyond words. And Thank You! AR it is a privilege
and honour to serve you Sir.
Warren D’souza - Founder, Managing Director, & Working Member of Sound.Com
#SoundGuyForlife | #AudioEvangelist
Trade Fairs, Courses, Tests & Measurements
The best thing about doing trainings is the fact that the market is growing and
manufacturers are looking at you seriously, this also means good things for the
guys who wish to get some formal education or certification. Few have travelled
across globally to derive such knowledge and many have happened locally.
But my observation, which actually is true, is that if you read the fine text,
which in many cases is in ‘BOLD’, is that it was a certificate of participation
or completion but not a certificate of competency. Now this according to me is
the most important aspect of audio training, workshops & certification courses.
It is not an exam of technical competency & attending them doesn’t make you an
expert because someone embossed a name on a course certificate.
I have personally attended a few (honestly very few) because unless I do not see
value in the exercise or what it can do for me or vet the course in itself, my
bum isn’t going to be on that chair. And sometimes I have been humbled going
for one with a, ‘know it all’ attitude to show up at the course discovering how
much I don’t know. Which leads me to my best teachings at workshops that provide
certification.
#1 please come with an open mind. You do not know everything.
#2 you are the student not the sir
#3 you will never learn about everything you needed to know by just
attendance
#4 you learn how things get done, not how to do it (think about this)
#5 you do not qualify on competency by just by having the certificate.
I just attended the course offered by a leading manufacturer and my experience
was nothing short of amazing. Firstly the course was conducted in a venue that
was already simulated for the course. The entire venue was mapped in order for
the readings & simulations to represent what we were being taught.
We had four instructors instead of one, two blokes taught theory & two blokes gave
the practical’s the nice thing is that the theory guys attended the practical’s
& the practical instructors attended the theory. To be in sync with whatever each
one was teaching.
Our questions & problems were put on the dartboard even before the course kicked off,
so they probably knew what topics to highlight upon based on our questions. Not
taking much out of the learning experience or maybe for the sake of secrecy I will
not further elaborate on the same as that would be too much of a give away. But my
learning’s were good and after all these years setting up PA systems, I was glad I
did it as it gave me immense knowledge about a few key points I absorbed from the
course.
Now this leads me to thinking why would you attend the same even if you would barely
learn a thing or two. I think THAT separates the men from the boys, it’s sometimes
barely the one crucial thing you take home and do good with would make the course
really worth it.
Now talking about trade fairs, they are the reason why so much of training & workshops
do happen because instructors and students are always around this neck of the woods.
A lot of people ask me at the exhibitions the one stupid question I cant get to answer.
‘So what are you buying” and this leads me to the thought that is so close to my heart
and that goes without saying is that it is never, never ever about the product. It never
was and it will never be. (With the odd exception of accidentally stumbling across a
brand/product you never knew about).
But its always about the people, I look forward to meeting people discussing things that
no books, internet or hearsay can teach you. This journey has been long and I can say
I have met the most amazing audio designers, business mavericks, audio gurus, sales
wizzes and the one thing is that the best are the most humble and the learning’s they
impart to you will last you a lifetime.
Some of them I make it a point to meet them every year and some are reserved but after
two drinks at the bar there are no borders and the information superhighways get
translated into friendships.
That’s what I love about trade fairs; we meet either knowlegable or interesting people
or both. Off course we do meet the ones we should also keep away from but that its an
exhibit of also whose side we take in our life’s journey.
I am looking forward to PALM 2017 this year too; our show is better than no other. It’s
vibrant, its not snooty, and its no quiet either. Its fun and serious in nice synergy
and if there are any manufacturers reading this who are not participating a small advise
from someone who has been around. “Be There Or Be Left Out” and hey we have our own
industry awards too!!!
FOH - The Way forward
What is the way forward from here, how do we raise the bar, what’s next in our decision making, are we happy
with what we are using, do we need to change our console or workflow or are we just simply sorted with what
we are currently working with?
Looking forward I see that there are happy times ahead for the FOH guy and also interesting times with
technology. Some guy’s love working within the control surface and on-board FX and Eq and others have
their own ways. Well just to talk about the current scenarios.
Everyone has a choice to why he works with a particular console or has a personal set of favourite desks
and also what he doesn’t like to work with. That’s entirely his or her discretion.
Today consoles are still rated by their sound quality, preamps, eq, metering and workflow as top priority
however off lately the addition of interfacing with plug-ins and hardware processing outside of the console
has taken a serious note as to why certain engineers make choices about which console they will work with
especially when it comes to plug-ins and the console manufacturers relationship with the plug-in developers.
Whilst many just choose ease of availability and the convenience of just loading their show file and having
the band up and running in no time (assuming all the lines are patched perfectly and we also have a well
tuned PA)
Mixing on digital consoles the analog way is the only way I see the success of a great sonic soundscape on a
gig. What that means for me is that if I think ‘digital’ then my thoughts are to go to 4K or any other
frequency I have chosen and cut/boost it. Whilst if I think ‘analog’ then I’d probably just do it. (makes
sense?)
Whilst as a systems engineer personally I have always done corrective EQ rather than creative EQ and that’s
partly been my failing. Which leads me to the point that how do I get better at doing this. For starters I
have learnt some amazing ways to EQ guitars and drums just by using presets provided by iconic engineers on
developed plug-ins. And then made small tweaks from there. I have achieved some amazing results and this also
cannot be from a spark of spontaneity but some amount of time required to work on the sound. But in the long
run it just helps you hone your skills (and off course develop spontaneity & speed when your working for
results in a tight time constraint)
Under the hood
What no manufacturer talks about is their consoles “summing amps” which to me is the genesis of a great console
especially when your mixing many channels and the higher the count then the bigger the dependency is on this
feature. You will notice that the ability for there to be coherency (coming together) across all channels
summing up to a two channel LR output is all because of this and not just the quality of your mic preamps.
It is the ‘acoustic plumbing’ of your console.
Buss structuring is so important in desks that we fail to see how important buss count is. We always want to
know how many inputs we can do and never be concerned about the buss capabilities. That’s a more important
decision in investing in your consoles future. I also hate buss sharing and whenever I am told that if I
want more auxiliaries then I have to forego some matrixes and then that’s just not my cup of tea.
Digital audio transport mechanism of the console is also such an important decision out here, and sometimes
I just don’t understand why manufacturers didn’t stick to the realms of industry standard protocols. Many have
their own dig at justifying their decisions, but according to me there are just two MADI and AES. They are
simply just tried, tested and plug & play. I don’t understand why many manufacturers just gamble with these
decisions.
Console preamps & EQ
Is something I am not going to touch upon as all of you readers are past masters on this subject and have
been exposed to the best of these products in your respective studios and production houses but for the
rental companies let me say that the moment your microphone gets into the console its destiny on sonic
quality is totally based on the preamp and the maximum amount of money you spend on a console is due to the
quality of the mic-pre. Don’t ever forget that!
Protocols
This really surprises me that there are so many protocols to wire consoles and one end of the spectrum we
have a HMA Optics connector from Control Surface or Engine to Stage box which is the most amazing and robust
contact & protocol, to a CAT6 cable on a Ethercon off course the latter has on many occasions the cheapest
disposable CAT5E cable with poorest quality connectors, putting the entire production at peril.
Console Care and Health
Don’t we all succumb or responsible most of the time about our consoles health and why don’t we understand
that we need to be in the wellness business when it comes to consoles rather than waiting for the service
engineer on call with respect to them. India has a major dust and moisture problem and it just takes a
minimum of 2 years before your console needs a new set of faders, on a fair duty cycle of the console going
out twice a week.
Socially they are the most photographed pieces of your rental gear and making the right choices in purchase
or use says a lot about what works best for your artist/customer and not just yourself.
My opinions and simply my opinions, Happy Mixing !
Warren D'souza - Founder, Managing
Director, & Working Member of Sound.Com
#SoundGuyForLife
#AudioEvanglist
Big Stage DJ
So much is been written on big DJ festivals & arena gigs I was for once wondering what to write and the one thing that came to my
mind was that over the past one year we have moved from the arena to the stadia.
The gigs have just scaled so much bigger and the tickets sales have done so too. Off course this has logically increased the demand
for large size PA systems. But the point I would like to make is that what really goes behind the scenes to make these events a
sonic success. Is a lot of planning for the event, surprisingly all done during the prep and not on the site.
The Layout
This is the most important requisite for you to decide how much PA is required to do the job and thus defines 80% of the costs of
the show; the rest of the 20% depends on the artist audio riders. When we receive the layout we are able to plot the speaker
systems coverage and SPL across the venue so that the fans no matter where they are receive good sound & even coverage. This
is not just for sonic purposes but the layout also establishes where the scaffolding towers or cranes need to be erected for
putting the PA system. From here all the power distribution & amplification gets its demographic locations too.
Riders
Responding to all the artists’ technical riders is a part of the job & once finalized with them then the job of collating all the
riders together to make one set for seamless changeovers is the second part of the job. Nowadays DJ’s bring live acts with drums,
percs & synthesizers as a part of their entourage and many even travel with a dedicated monitor engineer for all their stage
requirements. Timecode, MIDI devices are extensively used to sync with their lighting and visuals and some shows are completely
scripted musically from the first song to the last.
Infrastructure
Using good infrastructure to erect the loudspeaker systems will always be the key to the success of any format of show, not just
electronic music & I can’t highlight this matter enough. I have noticed most events where the audio failed, was due to poor
integration of the infrastructure. It is so important to use the correct scaffolding and get the height you need without
compromising on safety for the event. Good infrastructure also means good safety standards; its important to note that you
never compromise on safety no matter what & definitely no matter what unsafe things even your client makes you want to do.
Power Distribution
Without this we are nothing, good clean power with ample power headroom too is the genesis of a good show and if you underestimate
the power requirements for the event you will surely realize it in the last few hours of the event when the headliners are
juicing out every ampere of the generator through your PA system especially the frequencies between 30Hz & 70Hz. Whenever I
walk onto site the first thing I check even before checking the PA system is if the power distribution & generators were set up
as per plan. Nowadays its important to also insist on a dedicated cable contractor because the gensets that come to the gigs have
the most pathetic stock cables & no distribution & fake earthing mechanisms.
PA System
What can I say here that would actually nail this right? Well probably three things. Quality, Power (Headroom), Coverage. Any of
these three things missing in the equation and we have failed in doing this right.
A - Quality
What’s the purpose of having tremendous amount of power if the system sounds distorted and the choice of turnkey system isn’t good
enough? The quality of the system plays a very important role here, not just sheer amount of boxes alone.
B - Power (Headroom)
In fact most of the mistakes are made here, where we mostly get good sounding systems to the venue with inadequate power/ number of
boxes. This makes things extremely dangerous because many times you are putting a great sound system at risk by being over
driven.
C – Coverage
Off course its practically impossible to provide near perfect coverage in a stadia no matter what anyone tells you as the
demographic is too large to achieve this. What would happen is that even for a 6db increase in the overall SPL of the venue
in a certain location and you have to double the amount of the loudspeakers to achieve that. So when we plan for coverage it
is the most calculated decision that we need to account for, as this is the sole decider of how many speakers & stacks do you
need to achieve this job.
DriveLines, Control, Calibration & Alignment
Everyone uses different methods to do this however there is a step procedure here it starts with good design, then the quality
of source drivelines being provided to each of the speaker towers, Calibration is an aspect of tuning a PA system even without
having to turn it on, this is sometimes extremely helpful when you have no time for soundcheck. Alignment using test & measurement
tools is the final cut of the entire project and honestly once the system is time aligned and equalized then every step procedure
you have taken in this small synopsis will ensure that you are sipping coffee at the console doing just fine staring at your
control computer all in the green and the fans having a great time
At the end of the day we do this for the festival punters & the visiting engineers who have good stories to say about India.
Warren D'souza - Founder, Managing
Director, & Working Member of Sound.Com
#SoundGuyForLife
#AudioEvanglist
Sound Logistics
I have always maintained that the success of a tour sound company lies in the
ability to do many gigs back to back and in its ability to do logistics
extremely well. For me, logistics begins with minimalistic paperwork but
effective marking and standardizing of equipment racks & kit list.
So how does this all really work?
It begins from a decision to start getting organized rather than blaming
others for faults we need to fix. It begins right from the time the order
is confirmed. We usually start advance planning the kit list, make sure there
are no double bookings. In such a scenario we either buy or sub-rent the gear
that’s not available. Another major task is figuring out how long it takes to
get to the venue with a buffer time of 3 hours for a city gig, 12 hours for a
regional one and 24 hours for an outstation show. This only applies to the gear.
The crew arriving also follows a near similar schedule and the engineers buffer
time is only to make contingencies for flight delays.
Strike-In at the venue is much faster than loading out at the warehouse and
the warehouse prep & Load-Out according to me is the most crucial aspect of
the event from the perspective of an event company. I can assure you if this
is done well and on time, it will ensure a good gig. One has to make a habit
out of doing this for a lifetime, and there is no two ways about it.
Trucks & drivers: They are the lifeline of logistics, without doubt.
Haven’t we had our fair share of nightmares & heart-burn with them? Mind you,
they have very difficult lives with poor infrastructure and bad road
conditions. It is a very challenging task and we have to recognize their
difficulties even before we start hurling accusations.
Today’s transporters have vehicles and there is no shortage of them. Try and
get vehicles of the right payload or well built containers and you shall
realize that they are few and far between. Especially, the floor deck of all
the vehicles are in appalling conditions. Picture this; the same guy who
transports wheat grains also transports your expensive audio equipment.
Our touring duty cycle has increased so much last year that we had issues on our
own vehicles, thefts, accidents, hospitalizations & vehicle tyre bursts due to
overheating & always had to pay fines due to going over the vehicle payload.
This got us to think a lot about our fleet management & we then started putting
systems & processes in place there too. Beginning with GPS trackers on all
vehicles. This in itself improved our vehicles tracking & helped our back end
staff with stringent monitoring of our transport vehicles. We applied new rules
of how many hours in a stretch a driver can drive the trucks. And a maintenance
protocol for all vehicles.
Transport via air: At the air cargo terminals, we have learnt that rules
keep changing all the time and sending the gear early is always the best
solution to avoid delays & heartburn. We have had incidents of airlines sending
the gear to the wrong city or off-loading the cargo due to medical equipment
being sent on priority (sometimes it’s the case of what they want you to
believe, rather than what you need to know). Air cargo is so expensive that
if you are disorganized then your profits will be eaten up in flights.
Sometimes there is also an element of human error and operational mistakes like
not loading the gear in the truck. It’s hard to deal with such
situations.
Crew Logistics: Crew travel too can get tricky, I see the biggest cost
over-run here because we are always booking airlines at the last minute not
because we haven’t allocated the crew but bleed due to the fact that the
client’s advances or confirmations came in very late. We sometimes don’t
even book tickets till we have received the funds because cancellations are
common & this is perilous when you have to book over 8 tickets for a set of
crew travelling flights that are over 2 hours. But I find air far much better
than train even for the crew if you have booked early enough. This gives them
better opportunity to do more work and be more productive on site, reduces
fatigue and in commercial terms, the per diem for extra days.
Accommodation is always the simplest thing but we always make bad decisions
just to save a few bucks. Our first call to action is to stay closest to
the venue. A lower priced, decent accommodation closer to the venue is better
than a better place further away. And if the hotel is walking distance then
that’s the best place to be in. According to me for the crew, the choice of
the place has to be clean bed & bath & if they serve up a good breakfast, the
crew is in sorted for start of the day.
Now thanks to aggregators like Ola & Uber, even local transport is a breeze &
also a huge cost saving as against having to hire a vehicle for the entire day
or probably two on bigger gigs. No brainer here.
Overall, any of our major projects the logistics comes up to nearly 35% of our
total billing & you will understand why this concerns me the most. The moral
of the story is not compromising on health & safety is subconsciously the motive
of this foreword. Cost saving is the secondary aspect here, but important
too!
Building Brands Through Exhibitions & Events
Why do all manufacturers want to participate at exhibitions they see important to their
business? Let’s just say it is the industry norm around the world and the truth is it’s
not just sales that drive companies. Building their brand through the expo & other event
related activities that bolsters this exercise of building a brand in a highly competitive
space.
As a keen observer of this trend, I have seen that exhibitions are also growing bigger and
better, almost competing with international standards. Now case in point- PALM. As a leading
expo for professional audio and lighting in India the Expo has been organically growing
for the past so many years. Adding a plethora of facilities and features to help companies
not just grow their sales or marketing managers to just advertise and promote their products
but to also strategically build their brands. Now really what does this all do for the
customer is very specific to the product & the strategy. However a holistic approach to
the same gives companies an ability to build a brand recognition that no amount of sales
discounts could. That is why many organizations are keen to spend this money as a part of
their allocated marketing budget.
Music Branding:
HARMAN, the leading Professional audio brand, who I am closely associated with, have
spearheaded this over the past few years by building the HARMAN Live Arena @ The PALM
Expo which in itself has become a movement and an Intellectual Property of HARMAN
India.
What worked for them? They took music branding extremely seriously by roping in the top
of the line musicians to perform on their platform and showcased their brands which are
a turnkey audio solution from microphones, consoles, amplifiers and loudspeaker systems
and in addition to that, top of line lighting solutions. This is the key to making music
the best medium to tell your brand story. The thing about performance venue in the Expos
will surprise you that not only the punters/customers want to see the live acts even the
musicians and bands want a slot to perform on these platforms and backline companies too
wish to have their endorsees perform center stage rather than just a visit at the booth.
I can surely say that this is the NUMERO UNO form of brand building at an event. Nobody
can tell their story in the audio industry better than powering music through their products
and HARMAN got it right in India since the first Live Arena.
Looking at this success, many other brands too have followed and I would not be surprised
that in years to come the quality of musicianship that will perform will just grow.
Knowledge Branding
Many manufacturers have conducted knowledge workshops and forums on the exhibition grounds
at scheduled times roping in either a celebrity engineer or applications engineer. These
experts have conducted numerous such workshops making the consumers aware that the
companies are serious about training & empowering their customers. This according to me is
also a very important initiative to establish the brand as serious players in the competitive
market.
Demo Branding
Now this is a crucial thing as most of the time it is approached quite haphazardly. A few
years ago, PALM Expo organizers took a good decision to have a demo area allocated with
timed slots so that manufacturers can demo their products to their customers and many
decisions especially on PA systems are actually taken in these demo areas. Some may think
that there is a snob value associated with attending these demos & certain manufacturers
feel strongly about not wanting to be in the demo zone. But I can surely say that a lot
of people want you to take decisions based on hearing and if you want that business then
you have to be in that space. Some nearlfield monitor companies just take allocated rooms
where they can give personalized demos to their customers and this is a god way to make
decisions & conduct business. Many even allocate a room in a nearby hotel to make it more
personalized and provide a true listening experience.
Stall Branding
I would say that everyone has a stall, everyone has a layout and everyone has the best of
their product line displayed or demoed on the booth. This has historically been the way
all exhibitions have been, now really what kind of stall would really get my attention,
considering I am the target audience?
First based on what product you are showcasing. So the strategy for a microphone company
may totally differ to that from a loudspeaker manufacturer. But I always think that the
importance of being able to attend to the customer’s queries, questions makes all the
difference. It’s a given that I am going to see the companies flagship products and
legacy products at the booth but at the end of the day I am doing business with people
and not their products. It’s also very common to see microphone & headphone manufacturers
having performances & conducting music branding at their booths itself since the headphones
help with creating a noise free environment.
Whether you are a distributor or the manufacturer you cannot ignore that most
purchasing/investment decisions are taken at expos & exhibitions. Brand & product visibility
is the highest during these trade fairs and the aspiration for the customers to attend them
and derive knowledge & pricing is very high. Your ability to convert new customers and to
keep existing ones totally depend on your ability to engage them well during the
exhibitions.
Which leads me to the conclusion that even the most iconic companies have their presence
during the trade fairs and that is something which will only increase. If you really
look at it, their brand recognition and position determines the stake and ability to
purchase the annual real estate on the fair grounds. As the story goes, to be seen is
to be in the market.