Entertainment Design is one of the primary sponsors of ExpoLatina, the first international trade show and conference targeted for the Latin American entertainment design and technology market. The launch of ExpoLatina will be held May 5-7, 1999 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, FL, the gateway city to Latin America from the US, and a city alive with its own Latin verve and rhythms.
There are over 400 million inhabitants of Latin America, a multi-lingual area which stretches from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America to all of South America, including more than 25 different nations. ExpoLatina is designed to draw the decision makers and end users of entertainment technology from this diverse marketplace. Exhibitors include an international list of manufacturers and distributors of products geared to live performance, film and television production, themed environments, clubs, concerts, casinos, museums and heritage sites, and professional audio recording and mixing. Design companies, production companies, industry organizations, and publications will also be represented.
The main difference between ExpoLatina and its sister show, LDI (both are produced by Intertec Exhibitions) is the Latin American flavor of the workshop program. All of the seminars, panel discussions, and hands-on tutorials will be presented in Spanish or Portuguese, with translation between the two languages available. The sessions have been developed by Ellen Lampert-Greaux, producer of the LDI workshops, in conjunction with Hillel Resner, of Mix magazine, a specialist in the audio field.
The in-depth tutorials include a two- day Spanish-language version of the NSCA's course in the Technical Fundamentals of Audio, which has been developed exclusively for ExpoLatina. Hands-on training sessions in state-of-the-art lighting technology will be presented in conjunction with ETC (at Barbizon's Miami office), by Martin Professional at its Miami showroom, and by Chuck Gomez for High End Systems. A full-day session in working with lasers will be organized by Laser Production Network at its Miami headquarters, and a day-long workshop on designing with fiber-optic lighting will be led by Paula Vega of Super Vision. A design charette for themed environments will round out the tutorial program.
The lighting design and production techniques sessions at ExpoLatina are sponsored by Lighting Dimensions and TV & Video Latin America magazines. The sessions will open with an industry-wide standards update presented by Karl G. Ruling of ESTA (one of the few English-speaking panelists at ExpoLatina). He will be joined by Hiram Perez of Barbizon, who will provide the Spanish version of this session. Other sessions will range from club design, concert touring in Brazil, an international lighting design portfolio, and film and television lighting techniques with such leading lighting directors as Eddie Reyes, Henry Link, Peter Gaspar, and Jose Scheurun. CM Lodestar will present a session on working with chain motors and Le Maitre Special Effects will teach a session on the basics of pyrotechnics. There will also be a sneak preview of the renovation of the Teatro Universidad de Puerto Rico and a look at the retrofits and future designs for Latin American television studios.
A special series of audio workshops, sponsored by Mix magazine's Spanish-language edition, will offer in-depth explorations of such subjects as the correct use of microphones, digital signal processing, designing recording studios, and a producers' forum presented in conjunction with LARAS, the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Two additional sound sessions, one on audio production for large-scale outdoor events and one on theatrical acoustics, are sponsored by S&VC and Entertainment Design magazines. Speakers will include Hector Martinez of Aztec International, Francisco Miranda, a leading Mexican recording engineer, Jose "Chilitos" Valenzuela from Audiograph International, and studio design expert Horacio Malvicino.
Selected audio manufacturers who are exhibiting at the show will examine cutting-edge technology in the following sessions: D. Dino Virella of Digidesign Latin America will discuss digital audio workstations; Federico Serrano of Apogee will explain AmpNet, the company's advanced computer control system; Mauricio Ramirez of Meyer Sound will speak about polarity and phase in sound reinforcement systems; Joe Brusci of JBL will take a look at system design for discos and other installations, and also talk about sound system optimization with the JBL Smaart(TM) Pro System; and Felipe Pastor of DAS Audio will examine optimizing acoustic enclosure design.
A Latin American advisory committee for ExpoLatina has been established and includes representatives of companies based in Miami and others doing business in the Latin marketplace. The chair of this committee is Hiram Perez of Barbizon Lighting's Miami office. ESTA, the US-based Entertainment Services and Technology Association, is a sponsor of ExpoLatina and will help promote the show to its 300+ members.
"We are extremely excited about the launch of ExpoLatina," says Lampert-Greaux. "This show really gives us a chance to expand our workshops and training programs into new markets. There is so much happening in Latin America, from the building and renovating of opera houses to high-tech television studios, that ExpoLatina seems to have come along at exactly the right time to meet the needs of this expanding marketplace."