#AmiExpo?
16 messages in this thread
Well from the plethora of messages left concerning AmiExpo in D.C. I can
only conclude two things…
A. Everyone had their socks bored off, as nothing really happened,
or B. CBM forced everyone who set foot inside the convention hall
to sign
non-disclosure agreements until two years after product shipments have
ceased.
Which of the above is it?
-Chas
Charles, not too much new was there. The most noticable thing was the
lack of a NewTek booth. I know people who planned to meet "by the NewTek
booth", being that it is the mainstay of AmiExpo. Supposedly, they have
nothing new to show until NAB. Realistically, they are probably beginning
to realize their budget isn't unlimited.
There was a 40MHz GVP board shown at a big reception, it is public
knowledge as it was on the price lists they gave out to everyone, but they
didn't feel it was ready to show in their booth. They did show it in the
reception, and ran speed tests on it, but it wasn't ranking much more than
the slower models (33 and 28MHz) so I think they may have had last minute
problems with it. It is supposed to ship real soon.
Digital Creations showed their new product which seemed to take a
composite signal and make it work as a screen on the Amiga. On the Amiga
monitor it was just a grey screen, however the monitor connected after
their hardware added the picture in. It is supposed to be full broadcast
quality. There did seem to be a LOT of flicker, but that might have been
their monitors. They had a very big booth right by the entrance, so this
appears to be their big move.
Active Circuits, makers of ImageLink, showed a Sony 650MB optical
read/write drive. The price was $5,000 and $250 for extra cartridges. There
was a Sony rep. roaming the hall.
There were also Canon reps in the FrameGrabber booth showing the
XapShot camera and hooking it up to the FrameGrabber.
Commodore showed their multimedia authoring system. It was a
black-and-white "NeXT" like interface (just the interface was B&W) that
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looked very crisp. It seemed really excellent. Very Vivid showed InterActor
which allows you to interact with moving objects on the screen. When they
are selected they change to the next "state" on the list of states.
Mike Lehman showed UltraCard Plus 1.9 and guaranteed it to be
bug-free.
PeopleLink was there sponsoring a party. They had a suite which was
quite busy.
Overall, it wasn't very crowded. Now, I'm not saying it was slow, but
it was probably less than last year's AmiExpo NYC. The largest boothes were
held by mail-order companies, most notably Creative Computing with a HUGE
booth right in the center. There was a booth by the people who make
AV/Video magazine, apparently showing a dedication to the Amiga market.
Mike Lehman had an Amiga with a CD player in the 5 1/4" bay. Viva had
a Kiosk right by the entrance which listed all the participants and had all
sorts of amiga advertisements, all from a Laser Disc.
Last, but certainly not least, there were LOTS of Commodore reps
roaming everywhere. Oh yes, lest I forget: The first thing that Commodore
is making with their authoring system IS A TUTORIAL FOR 1.4! They have
woken up. BTW, GVP also has educational discounts.
I'm sure I've forgot a lot. The AmigaNET people were there, although
apparently it isn't completely bug-free. It was revealed that Commodore
went around to three cities in the country over the past week and showed
the 3000 and 1.4 to all developers.
— Ethan
Whoa, there Ethan… It was'nt PeopleLink that was there sponsoring a
party, it was GEnie, I know, because I was there…
It was some P-Linkers that *crashed* the GEnie party….
🙂
Anyway, you forgot two of the most interesting attractions at the AmiExpo.
The Rejuvenator and Digital animation Productions 24 bit graphics
transputer board….
That transputer board didn't seem to be doing anything that wild. At
least it was hard to tell. Unlike every other booth, there was no real
literature lying around and the one machine was hidden in the back of the
booth. A very poor setup. I saw it do the Mandelbrot set very quickly,
without significantly slowing down in the middle. I give it that. However
there are other frame-buffers available, so it has to win on its
transputing abilities, and that wasn't shown.
BTW, That was a GEnie party in suite 5022? I kept seeing it and
wondering what the heck it was. I was told by someone it was PeopleLink.
— Ethan
Ohhhh, suite 5022? That was the Plink suite, sorry. The GEnie suite was
1045. I thought you were confused because there were several Plink'ers in
the Gnie suite that night, and they kept comming up to entice our guests
down to their suite 🙂
I was going to come down and see the Penn&Teller video they were showing,
but I was tied up upstairs… Did they ever get a poker game started, btw?
🙂
I wasn't on the show floor much; I spent most of the time in my electronics
laboratory (err hotel room) building Rejuvenators. However, I was down
there and was disappointed at teh crowd Saturady afternoon. It seemed like
Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, it was dead until about 1pm and then it was
about as busy as any other time until 4pm, when it died like usual.
This is my personal opinion, but I feel that, as a vendor, that AmiExpo
better do better in the future or you will see more Newteks pulling out of
the show. The total display area was the smallest that I have seen and was
dominated by resellers, at least 50 percent. This ratio has to decrease.
There has been a general trend of lower attendance and I think part is word
of mouth related. People are saying that last years or last quarter's
AmiExpo wasn't worth going to, so why go this time. I also felt that there
were very few people pulled in from the DC area, but I could be mistaken.
-Greg
I've been told that our Lattice booth was quite busy and that we and at
least one of the suppliers sold out of compilers (Creative Computers I
believe). They told us that it didn't make since. Our compiler was
selling like game software. 🙂
If you feel that the show was less crowded, etc. Maybe there were fewer
'consumer' type people attending and more 'technical' people. I don't
know, since I wasn't there. Just speculation.
— Mike Roth
Interesting, though predictable. With CeBitt around the corner (extra
expense getting to Germany), the World of Amiga in NYC next month, and the
few specialty shows (multimedia, etc.) that Commodore is getting into I
would expect that the Amiga community is spreading itself a bit thin on
shows. I attended the AmiExpo in Orlando (where I live) last year and was
intreagued.
The Rujuvenator is a good idea, and I hope you have lots of success. Those
A1000 w/256k RAM would make great terminals on an Amiga network or an
X-Windows terminal with a bit more RAM. The Rejuvenator has sparked
interest locally and I know a few people here that have claimed to have
placed orders (written to somewhere in the midwest? I think it was you who
gave me the address.) and are anxiously awaiting delivery.
On the bright side, CBM hasn't had major layoffs…yet. (IBM is looking to
layoff 15,000 more, Atari, Wang, HP, Apple, etc. are going nuts with the
axe.)
When exactly is CeBitt? Supposedly in March but we're running out of
March.
-Chas
IMHO, some downsizing of Amiga shows is to be expected. We're past the
exponential part of the product growth curve for a new (and dare I say
"successful") computer. Absent new product, NewTek rightly feels that
toaster demos won't generate the same excitement they have in the past.
Also, in the early days the Amiga community was akin to an endangered whale
species <roll eyes> where the members are too few and far between to find
each other for mating purposes. AmiExpo served as a gathering place to
develop critical mass but now everybody knows who's doing what. — Art
It figures New Tek would think that the toaster wouldnt generate any more
interest as in past shows. Especially since this was my first Ami-Expo and
I've never seen the toaster yet. Laura Longfellow was there and said that
they were gearing up for a big Broadcastors conference and that was why
they werent there this time.
R. Niklos
I tend to agree with you, Art. I feel that AmiExpo is held far too often
and its impact has been greatly reduced. My biggest problem is that there
is that trend of smaller and smaller shows and that is killing incentive
for many people to come. The prospect of spending an extra day to tour DC
probably meant the difference to a few people in whether or not to attend.
Some probably skipped a day of the show to tour. Of course, unless you were
interested in a class or panel, there really wasn't a whole lot to keep you
interested beyond one day, anyway.
-Greg
I quite agree… After I got my camera shots of the show (Including one of
you holding the Rejuvenator), I was off on a cab ride tour of the city, and
went to the Air and Space Museum. 🙂 I also managed to catch the first day
of the FOSE
I even got Harold Copperman to pose for a few camera shots at the
Commodore Booth at the FOSE show…
Scott Bennett was there demoing Professional Page and Saxon, outputing
pages on a QMS Colorscript printer on loan to the C= booth.
The particualr machine he was on was networked to another machine display
via Hydra Systems AmigaNet Ethernet/Cheapernet card.
We were trying to get the other 2500 networked with Scott's machine to
babble nonsense by remotely accessing it's speak: dvice 🙂
That's the what prompted me to make the trip to AmiExpo, the chance to get
out and see an interesting city. I'm debating about Chicago, because It
didn't seem all that exiting 2 years ago. I would sure like to see a show
in Boston or Atlanta, almost anywhere outside of Ohio!
Mikey
Hi Mike!
Well, I believe the Atlanta Dev-Con overlaps AmiExpo Chicago, so I'll be
down south since I have relatives there. There are a few interesting things
there.
-Greg
Mike, there is the World of Amiga show in New York, and Commodore is
even having a booth there!
— Ethan