ISE fair returns to make Barcelona the capital of the audiovisual world with record figures expected

The world's biggest audiovisual technology fair, Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), has landed once again in Barcelona to bring together the sector's biggest players this week from February 4-7 at Fira Gran Via.

More than 1,600 companies such as Samsung, LG, Epson, Panasonic, Lang, BlackMagic, Harman and Microsoft will exhibit innovative solutions from a sector that emerged stronger from the change in habits after the pandemic.

The show kicked off on Monday evening with a gala dinner among organizers and institutions, in which Catalan president Salvador Illa and Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni took part.

The sector arrives at the congress in good health and with the challenge of adapting to changing technology, such as the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI).

“AI is very important for our industry," ISE general director Mike Blackman told the Catalan News Agency (ACN). "There are more and more technologies, more and more hardware solutions that use artificial intelligence to broadcast, to create artificial backgrounds and environments in video, creating virtual studios, creating advertising.”

In total, the ISE fair will occupy 20% more space than last year in the congress hall, and expects to exceed the record of visitors of the previous edition, of 73,800 people, a figure that exceeded the maximum they achieved in Amsterdam (70,000), where it was previously based.

Blackman detailed that moving to Barcelona was “the right decision” because it has allowed the event to continue growing and open up to new markets. “The big news is Latin America, which we didn’t even have on our radar, and now we have a lot of people coming from there,” he explained.

20% higher economic impact

This year, the economic impact of the fair is estimated to be 20% higher than last year, when it reached €468 million.

With more than 1,600 exhibitors from the audiovisual business world, the organization recommends that visitors plan their visit to the fair well. 

The companies that have the largest stands will be Samsung, LG Electronics, Epson, Panasonic, Lang, BlackMagic, Harman and Microsoft.

In this fifth edition, the pavilions have been distributed in a similar way to the previous ones, with spaces dedicated to lighting and stages, education and smart homes, content production and distribution, digital multimedia signage, and another to demonstrate high-quality sound.

New features

One of the biggest new features this year is the e-sports arena.

There will also be a drone and robot testing area, a connected classroom, a hackathon to solve real problems and an investor summit.

The ISE event was born in Geneva in 2004, when it welcomed 3,500 visitors and took up 3,500 square meters of space.

Now, two decades later, it occupies all the available pavilions of the Gran Via venue of the Fira de Barcelona.

The audiovisual fair is already thinking about how to expand beyond the current 92,000 square meters when the expansion of the venue is completed in 2027.