BarcelonaThe international congress of the audiovisual industry Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) will open its doors this Tuesday at the Fira de Barcelona with the aim of overcoming the barrier of 40,000 visitors. The show will occupy six of the eight pavilions at the Gran Via fairgrounds, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, with 30% more space for exhibitors compared to the 2022 edition.
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The ISE, which will last until this Friday, is the most important congress in the world for the audiovisual sector and the second most important event to be held this year in Barcelona, surpassed only by the Mobile World Congress – scheduled this year between the 27 of February and 2 March – and superior to other major fairs, such as Alimentaria or CPHI, a traveling world congress of the pharmaceutical industry that this year will take place in Barcelona in October.
The CEO of the ISE, Mike Blackman, has indicated to ACN that the economic impact for the city will be between 280 and 450 million euros, figures similar to those of the MWC. Last year was the first time it was held in Barcelona with relative normality, after a first edition in the Catalan capital in 2021 still marked by the pandemic. In 2022, around 43,600 visitors gathered in Barcelona.
The organization expects more than a thousand exhibitors from -just like last year- from sixty countries, among which there will be the main multinationals in the sector, such as Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, LG and Epson . Brands will present their latest products, such as 8K screens, surround sound systems, 3D or immersive audiovisual systems, or mappings.
The congress will also give weight to virtual and augmented reality systems and their applications in the entertainment industry – cinema, television or video games – and in education. In this sense, there will be a virtual production set and the opening of the congress will be in charge of Bernt Kare Johannessen, commercial director of Unreal Engine, the real-time 3D creation tool of the American multinational video game company Epic Games , creator among others of Fortnite.
More Catalan presence
Of all the companies, 73 will be Catalan, five more than the previous year, according to data from the Generalitat. Les companyies catalanes representaran el 63% del total d’espanyoles amb estand a la fira. The countries with the most exhibitors will be China, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
The ISE has a contract with Fira de Barcelona to be held until at least 2025, but the organization has expressed the wish that it can be maintained over time. Until 2020, the contest had held sixteen consecutive editions in Amsterdam.
In addition, the ISE coincides in dates and venue with two other congresses in the technology sector: The IoT Solutions World Congress, the main global event in the Internet of Things sector, and the Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress (BCC), organized by Fira de Barcelona and the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia.
