Backstage Pass: What We Saw At NAMM 2020

 

January is a big month for trade shows, pro audio, and event tech industries. That includes NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants Trade Show.

Ben MacKinney, Audio Services Manager for Alford Media, was Alford’s boots on the ground for the event. He joins host Daniel Litwin on this episode of Backstage Pass to give us the NAMM 2020 recap, and shares all the exciting products and innovations that he saw at the event.

Ben said that one trend driving the conversation at the show was providing more options in speakers. He said that one cool thing he saw was a small speaker that allowed individual control with signal and power coming from a single cable.

Another trend he saw at the show for the event tech crowd was networking becoming more and more integrated with their systems.

“We’re not far away from microphones having a network port on it, and we’re not plugging it in with an XLR anymore, we’re using a Cat 5,” he said.

Some microphones with the port already exist, and Ben said that the trend is coming whether we like it or not.

On the more quirky side of technology, he mentioned some interesting finds at the show. One was a soft release of a 360-degree camera on top of a Zoom 360 audio recorder. Another product he saw was initially a gag item — a bed in a road case. What started as a joke to lure people to a company’s booth turned into a product they actually sold.

One of Ben’s biggest takeaways from the show is that audio technology seems to be more or less settled.

“We’re now just refining,” he said. “There’s not really a new way to put sound into the air, but you can refine the unit that puts sound into the air and make it better and more efficient.”

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Pro AV Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication. A new episode of the Pro AV Show drops every Thursday.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

AI Infrastructure
Execution at Scale: The Real Challenge of Building AI Infrastructure
July 17, 2025

AI infrastructure is evolving at breakneck speed, and the real challenge is no longer just designing next-generation data centers—it’s executing them at scale. As demand for AI-ready facilities grows, operators must adapt to immense increases in power density, new cooling technologies, and unconventional deployment locations. Power density requirements for AI workloads are pushing the…

Read More
workplace visibility
Workplace Visibility Builds Careers and Communities Through Trust, Recognition, and Shared Growth
July 17, 2025

What if the most powerful way to grow your career isn’t by perfecting your pitch, but by telling your story? In this episode of Professional Quotient: Conversations that Build Equity, host Jason Winningham welcomes Hunter Lopatin, the Director of MarketScale, to explore the real value of visibility and voice in the workplace. The discussion…

Read More
Marketplace Inclusion
How TEKsystems Uses Marketplace Inclusion to Drive Equitable AI Adoption
July 16, 2025

As organizations race to integrate AI into every corner of business, an equally urgent conversation is emerging: How do we ensure this adoption doesn’t widen existing equity gaps? AI is both a disruptive force and an opportunity engine, as recent data shows that AI adoption among HR professionals jumped to 72 percent in 2025, up…

Read More
storytelling
The Secret to Brand Loyalty: Why Storytelling Is the Best Way to Be Heard in a Crowded Market
July 16, 2025

In today’s fast-evolving digital marketplace, attention is scarce, and trust even more so. In an era of remote work, AI-driven marketing, and constant digital noise, storytelling has emerged as one of the most powerful tools to cut through the clutter. In fact, research shows that people who used storytelling techniques to remember information recalled seven…

Read More