Last Week’s NAB Show Pulls 52K+ Attendees; Hints At What We Might See With InfoComm In June

April 29, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Integrated Systems Europe is coming up shortly in Spain and InfoComm is just a few weeks later in las Vegas, so trade shows this spring that attract some of the same exhibitors and attendees offer clues as to what might happen when the giant scissors come out and the exhibit halls open for those big Pro AV shows.

The National Association of Broadcasters says its annual trade show – which wrapped up last week in Las Vegas – had 52,468 registered attendance. The last show held before COVID-19 turned up was in 2019, and had a registered attendance of 91,460. The event – if it’s not obvious – caters to broadcasters and OTT streamers, and has a lot of AV tech on show, notably fine pitch LED walls used for TV studios and virtual productions.

“We are thrilled that our exhibitors, attendees and partners from all corners of the world turned out in force this week in Las Vegas. The enthusiasm and engagement on the show floor, in sessions and throughout the entire event have been invigorating,” says NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “We thank the NAB Show community for making this year’s convention an incredible experience as we get back to doing business in person.”

Among the attendees were 11,542 from outside the US, with people coming from 155 countries. NAB noted these were preliminary numbers.

We can very safely assume numbers will be down for both ISE and InfoComm, but still attract enough people to crowd the aisles and create some line-ups. ISE was seeing more and more people coming from North America pre-COVID, but given that its sister show InfoComm is mere weeks later, I wonder how many will make the trans-Atlantic trip this year. I think InfoComm could be pretty normal-ish, though the inverse applies – with EU and UK people passing on the trip because they were just at ISE.

The two shows will be separated by several months once again come 2023, and HOPEFULLY, our collective days as armchair epidemiologists will be behind us by then.