Hey Brian!
BPM/PRO 2014

This month I’ve decided to share a little about my experience attending the BPM/PRO 2014 show in Birmingham, UK.

Visiting England is always a treat for me. Especially when I’m going to the BPM Show in Birmingham, UK. It’s a great joy to visit my ADJ Europe colleagues to see how things are going with them personally, and of course to see how the ADJ brand is doing in Europe. It’s also fun to catch up with BPM attendees that I’ve made friends with on Facebook and from attending the show each year. And it’s a thrill to get into the British culture by driving on the other side of the street, using the “British English”, and eating the different foods (and candy; ie. Cadbury chocolate, Haribo and of course Kinder Surprise for my kids) offered in Europe.

Now in it’s eight year, and my seventh year attending the show, BPM has expanded it’s exhibit offerings this year to include the “PRO” show. What is the PRO show? The PRO side of the event is for professional audio, lighting and installation companies to exhibit their products. The show organizers reported that there were over 9,000 people that attended the show. The BPM side of the event was packed to the brim with every leading DJ manufacture. The onslaught of noises and beats coming from that side of the hall, along with the plethora of new gear, was any DJ’s dream to say the least.

This year, ADJ switched things up and participated in the PRO side of the show. It was the perfect move for us. In the past we’ve had the large stage with DJ Etronik spinning the party tunes and Sparky B wrangling in the crowd. This year we went with more of an ADJ USA style booth with a programmed lightshow. DJ Etronik transformed into LD Etronik (booth Lighting Designer) and product demo specialist, while Sparky B used his legendary emcee skills to talk about new products on the microphone, and to also do what he does best, hype up the crowd and draw people to the booth.

In order to keep things exciting, we changed our customer appreciation event from the ADJ Pizzafest to ‘ADJ Ice Ice Baby’ free soft serve ice cream. First of all, who doesn’t like ice cream? Second, this gave us the opportunity to say thank you to dealers and product end users all three entire days at the show rather on one day with one event.

Many of the attendees hadn’t see any new lighting gear that we’ve released over the summer, so this was a great time to introduce all of ADJ’s new offerings of pure lighting excitement. I found that the lighting products that got the most attention were the ones that were some of the least expensive. It goes to show you, you don’t have to have the most expensive, brighter than the sun, Moving Head out there to make DJs drool! Sometimes it’s the traditional effect, just improved on, that get them excited.

Attendees were dazzled by the Rotobeam 4, a retro Helicopter effect that originated from the late 70’s - early 80’s. Like other retro products, we’ve updated them with LED light sources and made them far more reliable, cost effective, and far less of a power drain. BPM/PRO goers also liked the compactness and affordability of the Inno Pocket Scan and Inno Pocket Roll. Does anyone remember the American DJ Pocket Scan from the late 90’s? We sold a ton of those in the states, especially in systems of 4! Now with the Inno Pocket Scan and Inno Pocket Roll we added the same 12-watt LED source found in the Inno Pocket Scan Moving Head. The compact size and light weight along with the 12-watt LED is the perfect marriage for the ultimate mobile scanner for DJs, small clubs and bowling and fun centers. Plus, with so many Moving Heads dominating the lighting landscape, I think DJs and Lighting Designers are going to enjoy a fresh approach by getting back into Scanners.

With another year of BPM, now BPM/PRO, under my belt, I’m looking forward to what the new event format will bring next year. It’s definitely a growing trade show with much more potential in the years to come. In fact, I’m already looking forward to next year! And, I must say, thank you for the hospitality of so many people that I was with during my week in England.

Brian Dowdle is the marketing director of ADJ USA.

P.S. - Check out this very cool time lapse video of the ADJ & Elation booths being built (it took 3 days to build):

For more information Contact ADJ:
U.S. Office - Tel: 800-322-6337/+1-323-582-2650 • Web: www.adj.com