September 3rd, 2019 NMK hosted their annual season kick-off night tailored for the rental and events market at Hard Rock Café, Dubai.

Interactive floor projection using Epson’s laser projector (EB-L1755U) + ultra short-throw lens (ELPLX02) welcomed 250+ market professionals to the event, the isle lead to brand displays from NMK distributed brands showcasing solutions for the rental and events market from audio, video, lighting to communication system and everything in between. Event stage was lit by Astera’s Award winning, ‘Titan Tube’ installed by ‘Even2’ team who partnered with NMK for the night.

Commencing the night, Stuart Kennedy - event host and Dino Drimakis – BDM, NMK set the stage by unveiling customized packages for the guests; following this was a live performance by one of the top local rock/pop band, The Boxtones leading to a fun-filled session of Olympics that included games for all highlighting Neon game developed by event partner ‘EventAgrate’, utilizing Epson’s professional display range. Interactive drum display masking the existing drums with visual backdrops was another addition by EventAgrate alongside live stage content and floor projection.

The event drew high praise from those in attendance. ‘I could not have asked for a better partner that is professional and, most importantly, adapts to the ever-changing market requirements while keeping the highest of standards,’ commented Chant Utukian, senior sales manager at Shure MEA. ‘This event has attracted a lot of people from the industry and is another great initiative from NMK. Our busy schedules rarely afford us such opportunities to interact with friends and colleagues outside of office hours. Industry nights like these give everybody the chance to meet in a more casual environment, connect and get to know each other personally, which I think is healthy. Look around you, daytime competitors are talking, laughing and just being “friends”. This opens up many opportunities for us as well. As manufacturers, we want to hear honest opinions from our partners whether good or not so good. Tonight’s discussions were all positive, one partner who recently invested in our High Tier Wireless system, Axient Digital, was sharing his experience and how pleased he was with the system. Another big rental company saw the Twinplex, our new Premium Subminiature Lavaliers & Headsets, in action on the stage tonight and now is planning on investing on a number of them’.

‘This type of social gathering for industry professionals is very unique in the region and the NMK Team executed this with true passion for the industry and the attendees,’ added Ansgar Liem, territorial account manager for live sound and pro audio, Middle East, Avid. ‘The mix between high-level technical conversations and entertainment is in perfect balance. I observed many interesting conversations about varying topics for the rental and production market that gave us a good insight into the local business requirements.’

Avid displayed an S6L 24D – 192 live sound mixing console at the event, offering 192 dedicated input channels and 96 discrete output busses. This was connected to an Apple laptop running the latest version of Pro Tools 2019.5, where it played back 64 channels at 96kHz via a single Cat-5 cable, using the AVB compatibility of the S6L as well as the Apple laptop which has a native Core Audio support for AVB.

‘On top of this,’ furthered Liem, ‘NMK displayed the Luminex network switches that we will soon support with our S6L Live Sound Mixing range for more complex AVB-based networking setups.’

‘Bose has been focusing on the rental market for the past couple of years with the launch of ShowMatch systems,’ stated Nittin Dargan, regional manager at Bose Professional. ‘Hard Rock Cafe, Dubai, was one of the first global marquee projects for ShowMatch. We are now working closely with our distributor NMK to grow this segment here in UAE.’

‘This event is an excellent opportunity to display what Epson does best and showcase solutions that can open possible doors for the rental and events markets,’ concluded Abdulnassir Ali, sales manager – visual instruments and professional display at Epson Middle East. ‘We look forward to a lot of growth and business in the future.’

Brands On Display/Demonstration: Shure, Bose, Epson, Avid, Roland, Astera, Ayrton, Terbly, Furman, Luminex, Clear-Com, Mersive, Neutrik and Denon DJ.