A videoforums virgin reports on the show.

[Mark W]

It's expensive to park ! Sixteen quid if you book the place in advance, 24 on the day, but the car park smelled of roses so that was ok.

Only a small queue to get in then I had to get my badge " Zasakr films - managing director " - well why not!

The show nearly filled earls court 2 and a day was enough to see everything twice.

There were lots of cool free seminars (Ben fogle on ben fogle anyone?) and not so cool - I booked for a few and missed them cos I got chatting to people, and, er, some podium dancers.

Coffee was expensive and crap (take a flask).

With it being a trade show everyone was really friendly (or oily befitting my new status) and no one minded you pushing buttons, playing, sitting in front of things and saying 'run vt' or 'beaming up now captain'.

Very few bargains to be had, but i was broke so didnt really try.

It was great to meet Guru, Alan and Grazie.

Well worth 15 quid for the podium dancers alone - we were on first name terms at the end of the day, I was a podium dancer fir a bit many years ago see.

[Mark W]

Some pics - I liked the ob vans.

[Mark W]

More - the sony stand was huge - and you could film a guy doing carving !? Didnt give me wood...

[Mark W]

Huge sony stand.

[Marc Peters]

I ended up spending an hour or so there on Friday and I'm in two minds.

It's now a curious mix of huge corporate schmooze and niche players. And the two don't sit well together. More importantly, I felt there was a lack of a killer punch with regards to video that nVidia so greatly achieved with their impressive racing car.

I'm a gadget freak and was looking forward to seeing a whole host of new technology in display. What I actually saw was a whole host of professional broadcast equipment that wouldn't interest the aspiring film maker. More importantly there were so many stands dedicated to online disemination of video for big corporates. Where's the latest and greatest gadgets? And there weren't nearly enough people walking around with steadicams and nowhere near enough cranes swooping accross my path.

There were however 2 VIP lounges and a couple of book stands. Oh and some woman selling copies of DVuser. I don't want these. I want something more along the lines of "this is what everyone will be using next year". I don't want yesterday's technology and I certainly don't care to see DVD duplication technology.

Give me Blu Ray burners. Give me a HD camera you could accidently swallow. Show me something I don't know and for christs sake don't bore me! Now I love the seminars (just couldn't be arsed to put my name down) and the opportunity to talk to people that know their stuff about the software. But I doubt I'll be back next year!

[Mark W]

Yes- the racing car was cool - I came 5th on the day - Guru was rubbsih and even cut his hand he as trying so hard.

I have to agree with marc - many stands appeared to be selling bland boxes by having dishy birds handing oput dull leaflets for the latest 10 trerabit per secnond Dmac muliplxing stream caster wossisname.

Two stedicam stands - only one where you could try them, and 2 crane stands, wanst many considering.

I found some green screen gloves, and a hood - that made me smile. And the guy on the 'photon Beard' stand had a huge beard...

[Marc Peters]

Originally Posted by Mark W And the guy on the 'photon Beard' stand had a huge beard...

It's in his contract.

[Andy Lockwood]

All makes me sad I didn't go - Word of advice on parking Mark - take the train next time. Ken bloody Livingstone hates anything with wheels, and what with congestion charging, car parking etc, it's just not worth it.

Going to see Jonathon Ross being taped in a few weeks - investigated car parking and then slit my wrists. An overnight stay in our fair capital with a car is just uneconomical. Taking the train there and back for fifty quid for me and wife. Petrol costs that alone.

Rant over, sorry. The show looked interesting......

[The Guru]

I was very disappointed.

When it first started, it was at Wembley and had a much more adventurous feeling. There were a few seminars, geared at enthusiasts and held by working professionals (yup, I was one of them) and the atmosphere was cool. You could buy stuff offf the stands, manufacturers had lots of gear ranging from "works in progress" to ex-demo stuff which they would sell if you asked. There were geeks and nerds and stands full of secondhand gear.
Then you had the small businesses selling stuff which they'd made in their shed.
All in all a forum for video makers.

Then it moved to Earl's Court.

I still held the occasional seminar but the show went "upmarket" and the enthusiasts stopped coming. Earls Court didn't want prosumers and students, they wanted to be seen as the UK version of Nab or ibc, so the small firms were priced out of the show. At Wembley the larger firms could afford to have massive stands because they were paying a low price-per-meter, at Earl's Court they can only afford a few square feet.

Then it moved to Earl's Court 2 and the standard dropped even further.

There was hardly any public compared to previous years. The stands were smaller and... well... boring. The seminars were a joke. There were a couple of decent ones on the Arri stand but the rest were bum-numbingly boring.
On the other forums there were bland, uninteresting topics and lethargic speakers. I was there for a couple of days and started to watch a dozen or so seminars and... didn't sit through one.
Not worth it.

This year the stands were all too small, resulting in the manufacturers having to cram everything into a small area. Only half the hall was used, giving a feeling of a small, cheap trade show. I was very disappointed and probably won't bother going next year.

[Mark W]

You only went in the seninars to sleep I tht?

I really enjoyed the whole package (mostly meeting you Guys, and finding out what matt boxes are for) - and I am soo totally a half full kind of guy.