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BUSINESS: SHOW REVIEW Ruisheng’s GM Stanley with the Midas M32 which was making its Chinese debut at PALM China close proximity, d&b audiotechnik and Meyer Sound are often viewed as the crème de la crème of loudspeaker systems, but when they opted to promote V-series and Lyon respectively on day four at extremely high SPLs, visitors realised that their ear drums were not safe anywhere in the CIEC. Thirteen manufacturers opted to demonstrate their line arrays on a rig outside Hall 1E, but the high winds made it dif cult to analyse any of them meaningfully. Audio products either need to be heard in dedicated demonstration environments or heard at low volumes, but if the organisers will not cater for this, it seems clear that non-offending exhibitors and upset visitors will shun future Palm Expo editions. Many of those new products unveiled at Frankfurt’s Pro Light & Sound were making their Chinese debuts. Amongst them were the Yamaha QL series of digital mixers, Midas M32 console, Coda Audio Linus 10 processor, L-Acoustics K2 system and Powersoft X series ampli ers. Taking developments a stage further, Martin Audio launched its new series of Blackline 3 speakers that have been speci cally produced for the Chinese domestic market. Simon Bull was joined by three of his colleagues and they presented distributor Sino Huifeng with the Best Distributor Award in the entertainment sector. The UK manufacturer has achieved phenomenal success in the Chinese KTV and club entertainment sector for the past two decades, but wisely Rightway Audio’s Danny Lau was joined by Camco’s Reiner Sassmann and DiGiCo’s James Bradley dB Technologies’ Andrea Salvioli and Elio Caia supported distributor Paul Li from N Power decided to split its distribution in order to promote growth in the live sound and xed installation sectors. With the Chinese government’s crackdown on such entertainment spots, many manufacturers who previously relied on these customers are having to seek new markets quickly. Shure promoted a multitude of microphone systems including the Axient, BLX, QLX-D, SLX, UHF-R and ULX wireless systems and PSM900/1000 in ear monitors, together with some other products on ACE’s booth. Sennheiser meanwhile displayed a raft of models including the Series 9000 system together with products from Neumann and K-Array which it distributes. A new addition to Sennheiser’s booth was Apart, having recently been appointed as the Belgian manufacturer’s sole distributor. A range of Mask speakers, Champ digital ampli ers, players, paging microphones, ceiling and column speakers were displayed. Sennheiser could also be viewed on the Sound Work Supplies (Neumann products, 9000 series and SKM series), Rightway Audio (2000 series) and the DMT (5000 series) booths. Rightway Audio exhibited its wares simply and effectively – without any emitting SPLs – prominently showcasing the entire range of DiGiCo SD series of consoles, Camco iD4, Q Power6 and Vortex6 EZ Pro’s Alan Ho and EAW’s Rusty Waite with the new Anya system Sino Huifeng’s Jason Chen and Martin Audio’s Simon Bull with the new Blackline 3 speakers 1/2 Horizontal July–August 2014 PR