History / Inter BEE in the Past
History
The Broadcast Equipment Exhibition, the original name of Inter BEE, was first held in 1965 by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB-J) as a joint exhibition with the 2nd Technical Report Conference on Commercial Broadcasting at the Invention Hall in Toranomon, Tokyo, with some 12 companies exhibiting products.
The second exhibition was held in 1966 under the joint sponsorship of NAB-J and the Electronic Industry Association (currently known as the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association/JEITA). From the third exhibition in 1967, the venue was moved to the Science Museum located in Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo, which had just opened at the time. The fourth exhibition in 1968 was held under the main sponsorship of the Electronic Industry Association with the NAB-J as a supporting organization.
And from the tenth exhibition in 1974, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) also became a cooperating organization. Established specifically for the benefit of broadcast equipment users, the exhibition garnered much attention within the industry to earn it a prominent position among domestic exhibitions.
The eleventh exhibition in 1975 attracted a remarkable amount of attention when an experimental display called, “Broadcast-TV Multiplex Broadcasts — The Wave of the Future”, was created as a special exhibit. The number of visitors and exhibitors increased significantly from the thirteenth exhibition in 1977 and by the fourteenth exhibition in 1978, the number of overseas exhibits grew to coincide with the rising amount of international visitors.
The venue for the eighteenth exhibition in 1982 was moved to the TRC (Tokyo Ryutsu Center) in Heiwajima, Tokyo, which offered 2.5 times more exhibition space than the Science Museum. Taking advantage of this move, the exhibition name was changed to “The International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (Inter BEE)”, to reflect the growing number of participants from overseas.
Sections within the exhibition become more specialized and were clearly grouped into different categories such as Professional Audio, Broadcast Equipment-Materials, and Camera/VTR/Studio Equipment. This helped provide participants with unfettered access to an expanding range of fields to better answer the needs of broadcast stations, software producers, CATV, and public organizations, as well as companies seeking to purchase new broadcast equipment.
In 1985, the twenty-first exhibition was relocated to the Convention Center–Tokyo at Ikebukuro Sunshine City, which expanded exhibition space to 13,000 square meters. Moreover, the exhibition was now recognized both in Japan and overseas as a truly international event that included exhibitors from over 250 companies. This period also marked the beginning of a series of new services such as the publication a broadcast equipment catalog, the holding of international symposiums, and a system for full visitor registration.
The exhibition venue was relocated in 1990 to its current site at Makuhari Messe with an initial exhibition space of 20,000 square meters. Since then, a new exhibition hall has been added about once every five years to expand exhibition space to its current size of 47,000 square meters. More than 30,000 visitors attended the thirty-fourth exhibition in 1998, with the event now ranking alongside the NAB in the USA and the IBC in Europe as one of the top exhibitions in the broadcast equipment field.
The current wave of digital broadcasting is rapidly expanding to encompass industries in Japan and around the world. Always at the forefront of technological progress, Inter BEE has continually showcased top-ranked both domestic and overseas broadcast equipment, video equipment, audio equipment as well as peripheral applications and solutions under one roof. Well recognized as the “Professional Show for Audio, Video and Communications”, this event is very popular not only among people directly related to the broadcast field but also for a diverse range of participants involved in the growing field of digital broadcasting.
Inter BEE Achievements
Inter BEE 2009
November 18th (Wed.) to 20th (Fri.)
No. of exhibiting companies: 816
No. of visitors: 31,694
Inter BEE 2008
November 19th (Wed.) to 21st (Fri.)
No. of exhibiting companies: 781
No. of visitors: 35,715
Inter BEE 2007
November 20th (Tue.) to 22nd (Thu.)
No. of exhibiting companies: 754
No. of visitors: 31,637
Inter BEE 2006
November 15th (Wed.) to 17th (Fri.)
No. of exhibiting companies: 733
No. of visitors: 34,471
