Live'95 - The show report ========================= Well, just got back from the show at Earls Court. Not much there for Amiga users I'm afraid :-( The only Amigas on show were at the Future Publishing stand. Unlike Amiga specific shows the stand was only there to sell FP's magazines - no technical people or magazine writers to help you out. In fact the A1200s on show were only old Commodore jobbies - one still had the original "C= Commodore A1200" sticker in the corner! As far as "ESCOMs new Amigas" go, Future Publishing only had the cardboard cover for the new "Amiga Magic" pack :-( The actual show was packed but the queues were moving quickly. Guides were given away free for a change but then, tickets were 8 quid! Like a mug I didn't bring any food with me - usual rip-off abounded, check out these prices: Filled french bread sandwiches 3.20 Drinks (small coke bottles) 1.20 Booze (pint/half pint) 3.30/1.15 Hot Dogs 2.20 Restaurant meals 6.25 upwards Bleeding 'eck, wot a cheek eh? Best advice for ANY show is to bring a few cans of coke/beer and your own pies, sandwiches and crisps! Although queues were brisk, I still recommend buying tickets in advance just in case. Okay, so what else was there? I'll have a quick run through the stands: TV and Video Equipment ---------------------- Hmm, nice gear! Loads of flashy 30" TV sets - usual extras, Picture-in-Picture, Dolby stereo etc. All the sort of stuff you buy when you win the Lottery! One really interesting stand was Sanyo with their 3D television technology. Two systems were on show, the standard specs version - two images with the usual left eye/right eye shutter system. This has been refined a bit by Sanyo for their Widescreen TVs. The second system uses LCD screens without specs, it relies on each eye seeing the screen at slightly different angles. The effect works but if you don't view it at just the right angle you'll end up with a serious headache! Fancy camcorders aplenty were also on show. Digital recording to tape and fancy zooms and picture enhancements on the newest models. Bit too fancy for actual usage at the moment. A few stands were showing off video equipment: wipe and fade machines, titlers etc. again no Amiga mentions in this section :-( Hi-fi gear ---------- Wow! Really KEWL gear!!! As always, nothing I could afford. The serious hi-fi equipment is not so much a technological addition to your living room but an artistic statement :-D Quick plug to my mates at Richer Sounds - they were the only ones with anything affordable to humans! Advanced multispeaker sound systems seem the next big thing. I doubt if most people realised these things need setting up specifically for your front room; you need to adjust em if you move the sofa two inches! Car Stuff --------- Well, more heavy duty shit here too. There was an extra show for this stuff which I didn't manage to see. Mostly fancy sound systems and alarms for when you're wondering what to do with all that boot space! Some of these sound systems are worth as much as the car :-) Music ----- Capital FM were there with a few live bands. The usual grabbing and fighting ensued when Pat Sharp was giving stuff away or doing quizzes. Some music stands selling records etc. to the serious punter but I didn't see much in the way of instruments or synths. Internet -------- Service Providers were touting supposedly cheap connection: Demon, Pipex and UK-Online. Other stands had "surf the internet" sections such as Novell and British Telecom. All of course for PC/Windows and Mac users :-( BT were showing off their new Wireplay network. Again PC based, this is for playing DOOM and flight sim type games head-to-head with anyone in the UK. Currently in the testing stage, Wireplay will be open for the public next year. Telephones and general comms ---------------------------- Well, wadda ya know - special offers on mobile 'phones. Wot a shock eh? Usual bollox on how affordable it is to get connected. Cellnet, Vodafone and Orange were there, Mercury were strangely absent. Manufacturers like Nokia had some nice alternative 'phones: designer patterns, styles and colours - jazzy compared to the usual boring grey boxes. Photography etc. ---------------- Nikon had a few compact SLR cameras and fancy binoculars but I didn't see any digital cameras, saving pictures to disk :-( Computers - not Amiga :-( and Tech stuff ---------------------------------------- Nintento, Sega, Sony, 3DO - all the big boys with the small boys games. (Do you really want to know about them?) Microsoft and Novell were the big software players with seminars, demos and mass tuition of Microsoft Office/Perfect Office. Compaq and other big PC manufacturers had a few stands... who cares really? And so... --------- Well plenty to see and do if you don't mind being sucked into the hi-tech, no-brain required society we currently live in. Marketing blitzes abounded, with every few stands doing a compo if you just take time to fill in a questionnaire. One stand gave away "Soviet" surplus fur hats (cheap tat) if you answered a few questions. Sanyo on the other hand wanted replies to 28 questions for a chance to with a holiday. I'm surprised they didn't want to know which hand I wanked with :-D All in all not a show really worth parting with 8 quid... plus the 2.20 tube fare and, least we forget, the outrageous food prices. If you've got a few grand kicking about, there weren't any serious special offers to take advantage of. Still, got to get out and about once in a while :-) Cheerio m8ys, \|/ (O.o) \=/ Andy Pandy END ===