Gadget Show Live A Report from Professional Day 2013

I adore a good technology show. I used to fantasise about going to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show when I was working for American Autosounds in the early Nineties. (or was that late Eightiesmurrrrr?) And when I finally got to go, I was utterly thrilled and yet had a grim time. I stayed in the Hacienda, a low rise hotel with single storey room blocks and glass covered walkways. Up the end of the strip, the Luxor’s pyramid was not yet built, I think Anyway, they ripped it down and the Mandalay Bay stands there now, massive and with great earth banks in front of it that were just not there once amazing. I was glad. I had lain ill there, thinking no-one cared if I perished in ‘Vegas.
But it was the bustling and successful atmosphere that set the CES show in such sexy light for me. And that UK telly item, The Gadget Show, has a live spin-off show, twice a year, that has some of the flavour of CES. It is usually heaving with folks looking for new technology, cool toys and nutter-level gaming stuff like real robot warring.

The organisers are rabidly keen to get the maximum number of proper press and trade folks to attend what is called Professional Day, rather than ‘trade day’ and I was e-mailed and responded to sign up as a press bod. Then, I was automatically signed up as a previous show goer. Then I was telephoned. Twice, to check I really had signed up! When I arrived, I actually had TWO er, ‘unique’ numbered entry doohickies and scanned both and got two passes! I didn’t need to swag one for reporter (and now, I know, nutter adrenaline junkie) Simon King as he had registered and been happily accepted as ‘press’ due to his by-line on Talk Audio.
The companies we went to see included (alphabetically&;) Alpine, who had their Golf R32 demo car on the stand, as well as Steve ‘Lem’ Le Masurier, the installer from Oxford Car Audio there with his lovely fiancée, just to see the toys. (Heartiest congrats by the way – Yay!) I met up with Alpine’s Atsuhiro Takeda and again asked him to be in my video and take us through the new system in the car. They had Erica Dancer, (the partner of one of their colleagues) and a pro promo lass named Sarah Widdowson on the stand and Sarah was just not persuadable to do the video. We did ask, Atsu and me but no. Sarah would be good but Atsu knew the model numbers and more&;
http://youtu.be/5KGcaaWQq4U

The day was delightful for more than the tech as I was able to make the video below with Adam Wiegleb of JVC UK. About their offering at Gadget Show as well as the fact that Talk Audio can now count JVC as a Talk Audio Site Associate. I do look chuffed and Adam and I thought it entertaining to use each other’s names rather than ‘mate’ throughout. Then, I found out the depths of lunacy that Mr. King gets up to and how perfect a mad tester for the JVC ADDIXXION quad-proof action-cam he is. Git
http://youtu.be/vu0L71TAF7w
Parrot take a flying aviary of drones with them to shows, as A.R. Drone 2.0 can do some real cool stuff. Here’s a shot of the back stage ‘roost’.

And Asif from Parrot standing nervously in the ‘volume’ – worried that a fat bloke was going to tread on the markers and lamps!

They use coloured squares upon the floor and indicator LED lamps to program them to dance, four at a time as they can be programmed. This lot flying around were all on auto-pilot. Is that one crashing part way through?
http://youtu.be/SQJx1dtDGpg
At 1pm, the Pioneer stand suddenly burst into life and Brandon Block was on the decks I have inserted a video clip of him amongst the stuff covering the new model of AppRadio launched at the show, the Pioneer SPH-DA110. The first part is about app development and the website, link where you can be let into the SDK.
Brandon Block, whizzing about&;

While the second shows off the unit’s iPhone 5 compatibility, which is as yet rare in-car. Spot the Pioneer exec see that the camera’s red lamp for RECORD was on as I lofted it fifteen foot up and scuttles out of shot, poor lass. I never warned her. Brandon, however got his hand shaken for giving good ‘lurk’. I had never even realised he was cavorting for me&;. I was busy being as smooth a camera crane as I could.
http://youtu.be/MfDePOpnM3I
ON the way out, we met LJ – who we helped make a bit famouserer by doing a hair trick at Brands Hatch, whereafter, she claps her ample bosom and said. ‘Oh I can feel it in my implants!’ and garnered a slice of extra fans. Only Laura Jane is a true petrol head and is fully capable as an informative executive type and so was on the Citroen stand as staff all week. I have even caught her in a huge branch of Tesco’s working for Colgate! (she does have lovely bones and teeth!) This means, big agency, big brands, genuine living to be made. Attagirl! Too many wannabes get nowhere and LJ is clever

And of all the shots, this one is the most oddly poignant – for some. The Overclockers girls, who work for those who push their computers too hard, were giving out Haribo.
Reporter Simon King with the Overclockers Girls

Then there were the cool systems at the show. The best may well have been the one on the Rewaco trike&;

And Simon was like Will Smith after I had first posed on the trike. ‘The difference is, I make this LOOK good!’ Bastid!

But I think it was the one in the Maserati Quattroporte saloon, by Bowers & Wilkins&;

See all the shots we used from the show, in their very own gallery as a slide show by clicking this link:
link
Thanks to GSL management and their PR folks for a well run showjust tell the jobsworths at the NEC that the press office opens BEFORE the show. Silly Billies had three TV crews setting up in the public area, as a result&;.told us they opened only at TEN&;.