Forgetting Earl's Court: The Rise And Rise Of BVE

So, another BVE has passed. And on behalf of all of us at Alias Hire, I think the show has regained its reputation, writes Managing Director Danny Dawson.

There were very few naysayers regarding the event’s being held at the ExCeL and, with exception of this article, I have not heard nor seen anything that contained the words ‘Earls Court’. And I think that’s important.

It’s our event for the UK and it can’t all be about NAB or IBC. Granted, there were the usual suspects in terms of manufacturers in the form of Canon, Sony, ARRI, Vitec etc. and there were very few product launches but still, it’s ours and therefore should be celebrated.

Of the launches this year, one of the biggest was, of course, the ARRI Alexa Mini. In fact, this was the busiest stand in my humble opinion and it’s not without good cause. A very good looking camera in every sense and it’s likely to safe-guard the ARRI Alexa brand in the face of oncoming competition from Red Camera and maybe even the Canon C300 mark 2 once official details have been released. It’s a great physical size and built exactly how you would expect ARRI to build a camera.

So, apart from the high ticket Arri Alexa Mini, what else did we see?

We saw LiveU’s LU200. We at Alias have been tempted by the notion of mobile IP streaming over mobile networks. We even had a similar unit on a trial a couple of years ago (pre 4G) and there were many reasons why we didn’t continue with that product; the two main reasons being price and the (lack of) ease for that product. However, both of those problems seem to be alleviated by the LU200.
We have a very firm commitment to expanding our product range this year and we will most certainly keep an eye on this particular unit (and its main competitors of course).
Next up was mLogic’s mTape LTO system. A boring black box that looks like a boring black box. However, it’s the world’s first stand alone LTO drive unit via a Thunderbolt connection. No complicated software /hardware systems needed. Just plug ’n play and hey presto, LTO at your fingertips. As a supplier of VTRs (from Beta SP to HDCAM and HDCAM-SR), we know the importance of archive and backing up and long-term archive solutions and this “boring black box” is right up our street. We will have this product in stock as soon as it ships to our shores. FACT!
We also saw a HUGE range of drones. Drones everywhere. Personally, I think that’s very exciting and in terms of that technology in particular, all I can say at this stage is ‘watch this space’. That or ‘watch Alias fly’! In any case, you get the picture and Alias Hire intends to offer a service that we think will hit new highs for us and really take off (you see what I did there, right?)

From the extreme to the simple, and there were plenty of sliders on view. We really like the extendable iFootage Shark that the good gents of MTF had on offer. Very nice. In fact, BVE has really become a great place for small, intricate grips and accessories and I think that’s what I liked most about BVE 2015. It’s very easy to get lost at IBC and NAB, and whilst the ExCeL centre doesn’t have the pull or glamour of Amsterdam or Las Vegas, you can actually find gems at BVE simply because it’s possible to!

Last year we found the Prosup Tango Roller - Just a roller (i.e. a slider with wheels) that happens to extend from 1.2m to 2m. A simple item, yet that single product has brought in lots of work and every client that uses it instead of a standard slider only wants to use the Prosup Tango Roller. We would have been very lucky to have found that product and others like it at IBC and NAB, and that’s why BVE has retained its importance.

The article is also available to read in BFV online.

(IT/CD)