With a huge number of educational events being staged around the show, ISE these days is much more than just turning up and creating a booth, and our show actually kicked off on Monday with the AudioForum conference , which this year discussed ‘Sound Democracy’ – putting people and their experience back at the centre of the listening process. The impressive list of guest speakers included our own Aki Mäkivirta, who explained how the clarity, intelligibility and uniform in-room coverage of Smart IP loudspeakers is helping to deliver a better listener experience, even in challenging acoustic environments.

Aki Mäkivirta, speaking at AudioForum.

The show itself commenced on the Tuesday, with our focus firmly on the 4420 and 4430 Smart IP installation loudspeakers, both making their ISE debut. There’s no doubt that the single cable connectivity of Smart IP – with power, audio and speaker management all being provided via a standard CAT cable – is rapidly attracting attention, and our press event at lunchtime on Tuesday gave us the opportunity to explain the new Smart IP models to the world’s AV press. At the event, Aki Mäkivirta gave a technical overview after which we were delighted that Moesgaard Museum’s Johan Ahrenfeldt was then able to talk about his experiences with Smart IP on their latest Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition, which deployed over fifty 4430 loudspeakers.

Moesgaard Museum’s Johan Ahrenfeldt.

That evening after the show we headed back to the stunning Hotel De Witte Dame in Abcoude to celebrate the Genelec 2020 AV Awards, where we got a chance to recognise our business partners’ finest AV projects of the last 12 months. We are always blown away by the premium quality of these installations, and this year the nominees were the Music Hall of Fame in Helsinki, Elite Park Avenue hotel in Gothenburg and the Amerikalinjen Hotel in Oslo – with the Music Hall of Fame picking up the winner’s award. Congratulations to the teams at the Hall of Fame and Bright Installation, who handled this amazing project.

Another essential part of ISE is the training programs that surround the show, and this year we took the opportunity to provide Smart IP training for our AV business partners, with Markus Kahelin and Anders Nyman handling the training sessions. Attendance was fantastic, with over 60 guests getting hands-on experience of using Smart IP loudspeakers as part of their certification process. This is just part of an ongoing program of training to ensure that we deliver the best possible Smart IP customer experience.

Smart IP training with Markus Kahelin.

Back on the booth, we were once again delighted to be selected as a finalist in the ISE Stand Design Awards, organised by Exhibitor Magazine. The awards recognise the best ISE booths for their “use of design to attract attention, convey key messages, and put their products and services in the best possible light." We’ve been a finalist for three consecutive years now, and were winners in 2018, but this year were up against some stiff competition from global brands including Canon, Dell and Google, with Lindy finally being judged the winner – so many congratulations to them.

Genelec's AV Installation Business Manager Sami Mäkinen.

And so the show finally wrapped up on Friday evening, and we now look forward to Barcelona next year. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and visited us, and we hope that you’re as excited about Smart IP as we are!