Visitors' Voice Vol.1

Inter BEE 2007 opened on November 20, and we interviewed some of the 11,355 people who visited the exhibition on the first day. Quite a few of them had travelled from afar, and many expressed excitement about Inter BEE.

Male, working at a broadcasting station (Kagoshima) for 6 years
'I'm in charge of selecting new equipment for our station and I've come here on a combined business trip. I'm investigating codec-related equipment. As regards cameras, a decision has already been made on the next model we'll be buying, but one of my reasons for being here is to actually get my hands on it. For us Inter BEE is an important exhibition, and we always follow it with interest.'

Male (39yrs), working in a production company (Nagasaki prefecture)
'It's time for us to replace our non-linear editing equipment, so I've come here to check out what's on offer. I've found a hard disc-based product with a reasonable price tag that would be perfect for us so, considering the company system, I'm going to propose that we buy it. It can be very difficult to get your hands on new equipment before buying, so this Inter BEE exhibition is really very useful. The only thing I regret is that I didn't register on the website earlier so that I could have got even more information before coming here.'

Male (53yrs), working in an IAI (Tokyo) linked to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
'I'm taking the day off today, so I've not really here as part of my work, although I suppose my motivation is half business interest and half personal interest. Previously, when I was involved with e-learning projects at university, I started coming to Inter BEE because I wanted to find out about codecs, audio, lighting, speakers and so on. This is my fifth year here. I've come this time to find out more about JPEG2000, which is connected with something new I'm working on. I've gone around almost all the booths, so I'm pretty tired [laughs]. At university, there are frequent lecture meetings and symposia, but the people involved in setting them up are not really familiar with sound and lighting equipment. That's why I'm also looking at the displays here to get some good ideas about presentation, both visual and acoustic. The public sector lags behind when it comes to presentation expertise, and this event provides some very useful ideas. An ulterior motive is to find ways to facilitate negotiations with our suppliers when placing orders for new equipment.'

Male (46yrs), working at a broadcasting station (Yamanashi prefecture)
'I belong to the Program Department, but I used to work on the technical side. I'm here today to look at close-captioned and sync sound equipment. If I find something good, I'm in a position to recommend that the station purchase it, so I'm giving serious consideration to the exhibits. It takes two and a half hours to get to Makuhari from Yamanashi - quite far, but not too far. It's a reasonable distance, so as an exhibition it's easy for me to get to. I would like to see more detailed information on the website about the products on display.'

Male (35yrs), working at a video & web production company (Sapporo)
'I'm looking mainly at the HDTV and interactive exhibits, especially the booths connected with Adobe Systems, Apple Japan, and Ajax. I've also been checking out the new Handycam camera. There are a lot of very attractive products here. I've come quite a distance, so what I do is to get hold of one of the technical people and bombard them with questions about what I can do with the product if I buy it. For those of us who work outside the major cities, Inter BEE provides a very welcome opportunity to check out a slew of different things at one time. The last time I came I had the impression it was too crowded, but this year I felt it was easy to look around. However, I think it could be improved. I realize that there are small booths where they're exhibiting products that target very specific needs, but all the same I thought a little more could be done in the way they are presented. Although there are good products and good technologies on display, the presentation can be too narrowly focused, making it difficult for the general visitor. I thought that was a bit of a shame. If you manage to talk to someone you'll probably understand what it's all about, but you can't ask about everything, so I'd like them to make these exhibits more accessible.'

(News Center)