Between the third and sixth of April was held in the city of Las Vegas the exhibition ISA 2013 organized by the International Sign Association where we can rescue some trends.
By Adrian Morel *
One of the first issues to highlight is that for the first time in ISA's history, the 200,000 square feet of exhibition have been exceeded. This is a sign that business and commercial activity in this industry is in full growth and consolidates the economic reactivation that we are all waiting for, given that since 2008 it did not exceed 199,000 square feet of stands. The event registered more than 550 companies represented and approximately a total of 18,000 visitors.
This fair was a mixture of traditional and modern signage, because much of it had gigantographies, printing machinery, signage, decoration, vinyl and films for car coverage, interactive signage, LEDs for outdoor letters, LED screens, etc.
In terms of Plasma and TV, lg technology of 84 inches (83.9 diagonal) ultra HD or 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 P) with 3D was available, which in the United States can be obtained at a price of approximately US $ 20,000.
As is logical, the visual products were the most outstanding and in this area we can mention the films of vynil adhesives for the coverage of automobiles, among them presented live demonstrations companies such as 3M, Hexis, Oracal, Mimaki, Arlon, Avery among others.
Giant printing machines represented a large proportion of the exhibitors with gigantographs of very high resolution in various materials, including acrylic. Roland, Mutch, Mutoh were the most prominent and visited stands.
In the segment of lighting for outdoor letters and luminous posters we can find companies such as GE, Sylvania, SloanLED and Rishang where they have presented lighting with more powerful and more efficient LEDs. In this segment for interiors, neon displays were also seen, but this product has fewer and fewer followers.
In LED screens the most recognized brands were Daktronics and Optec, both from the United States. There was also a group of brands from other countries, especially Asian, that exhibited under the same category, but this time there was no news from the industry, since the screens were with the same formats, the same materials, the same resolution.
The only thing outstanding in this type of screens is that the modules or panels looked more compact and at first glance would seem of less weight than the traditional ones.
Conclusions:
As we mentioned in the first paragraph of presentation, the signage industry seems to be in a good moment, with many novelties and, above all, a clear definition in HD. This fair is characterized by a display of companies and traditional products, flesh and blood, or as the Americans say "Brick & Mortar". This B&M exhibition is in contrast to other exhibitions such as Infocomm, NAB or DSE where you can see countless digital products that point to the cyberspace of the internet, mobile telephony or wireless products.
Although this expo has an international character, Latinos have had a very reduced presence within the public and almost non-existent within the exhibitors. Perhaps this is due to the greater and growing number of local exhibitions that are being developed in the main countries of Latin America.
* Adrian Morel is an audio, video and lighting consultant, lives in Silicon Valley, California USA, and can be contacted by email: [email protected]
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