RMAF 2019

The first day of RMAF pointed out to those attending both the promise and the pitfalls of the new Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center located a few miles from Denver International Airport. The hotel is a sprawling, enormous resort. To navigate your way around requires downloading an app. Seriously. It's that big. You have to plan your time carefully because to get from the tower hotel room exhibits to the Convention Center takes at least 10 minutes and once you are there, arriving at the rooms or the seminar space can take another 10.

Unlike at the previous venue, where RMAF "owned" the space, here, multiple conventions were underway. Some conventioneers were caught off guard by the noise in the rooms. I told one "be glad it's not a dog show. Here it's only a bit of noise. It could have been elevators with dog shit all over the floors". I'm joking. I'm writing that only to see if my wife is reading the coverage.

But not joking about the enormity of the venue and the feeling of getting lost in it. Problems began immediately as I learned that some people were told today (Thursday) was "set-up day", while others were told today was "press day". Consequently many if not most of the rooms were either locked or not set up as I walked the halls of the North Tower where the hotel room exhibits were. The 7th 8th, 9th and 11th floors had surprisingly few exhibitors per floor. Not until late in the afternoon was there signage indicating that all exhibitors were to the left upon exiting the elevators. Some attendees (me) walked right, which led to nothing but guest rooms that seemed to stretch into the next time zone, and no exhibitors.

When I went to register in the morning I found a sign pointing me to registration, which was a long walk from where the sign was located. It was the only sign and I had to guess which way to turn to find the table. When I got there no one was there. It wouldn't open for another hour. How difficult would it have been to post on the first sign what time registration would open?

When I returned to register I found that the show guides hadn't arrived and wouldn't be available until late in the afternoon, which was yet another glitch. I'm not trying to be negative. What I'm just telling you is that any new venue presents unforeseen problems as anyone who attended the L.A. and Orange County show near LAX a few years ago could tell you. However, there was no excuse for the opening day confusion about set-up vs. press day, which left many on both sides—press and exhibitor—pissed off.

Nonetheless I managed to shoot an hour's worth of worthwhile video, the editing of which is almost finished and will be posted either later this evening or tomorrow. One thing that's great at this hotel is the Internet upload speed. It's by far the best in the world that I've experienced and by a lot!

The most significant debut so far (but not the only one as the second video will show you) was Wilson Audio Specialties' introduction of the new flagship XVX speaker priced at $329,000. It's not the first speaker designed by David Wilson's son Daryl. Daryl is responsible or mostly responsible for the moderately priced high successful Sabrina (the one I brought to the courtroom for the Quincy Jones vs. the Estate of Michael Jackson trial) as well as the superb Sasha DAWs, among others, but with the new XVX it seems clear that Daryl Wilson has arrived as a "world class" speaker designer, though final judgement must wait until actually hearing it. Only a single not quite finished sample was available and only on static display.

Here are excerpts from the speaker debut press conference video coverage. The photo at the top does not do justice to the speaker's graceful lines and the attention to detail that went into the design. If I can get a better photo I'll replace this one.