Successful show

Despite the recession, the hotel bombings in Jakarta and the A (H1N1) pandemic, the recent KL International AV Show was more successful that last year's edition.

According to Dick Tan of 3Dot Events Sdn Bhd, which organises the annual event, 12,000-13,000 tickets were sold.

"This came up to around 800 tickets more than last year. Also, we had eight more exhibitors than last year," he said.

There were initial worries that holding the event at J.W. Marriott hotel would discourage audiophiles from turning up for personal safety reasons as the hotels that were bombed in Jakarta were the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott.

The explosions, which killed seven people, took place on July 17, a week before the KL International AV Show opened. Since the event was held at J.W. Marriott hotel in Kuala Lumpur, security was quite tight and those who turned up were scanned with metal detectors before being allowed in.

According to Dick Tan, around 85% of the audiophiles who turned up were Malaysians while the rest were Singaporeans and some hotel guests.

Dick Tan estimates sales of around RM15 million mostly involving home theatre systems and LCD TVs.

But the hi-fi players had a strong presence too and some reported good sales, he said.