Every 2 months, SEDA members and their colleagues congregate on a Sunday evening at The Moat in Wrotham in Kent for a SEDA Shownight. This involves several elements; something to learn, something to entertain, something to buy, something to sell, and a raffle. So, what a brilliant start to the new year we had! On Sunday 23rd January 2023, our SEDA members and visitors were treated to 2 exclusives, some very generous offers, and a packed schedule with a battery powered theme running through some of the presentations.
It all started at 6:30pm as SEDA members brought in their excess items for sale at the SEDA members second hand table. The evening was hosted by Jack Wilson and Bradley Penhallow.
Tony Murphy, who came all the way from Manchester, ran a lively demo of the tablet based Speedquizzing system which many of us used during the Covid months to try and keep sane! This is a very popular system which attracted a lot of interest, many thanks for the great demo Tony! Incidentally, Tony is trying to compete with me on his floral shirt choices – good effort mate 🙂 Steven Honeyball from ProMobile Magazine was also trying to compete with me on floral shirts, but was also there to tell us all about the forthcoming ProMobile Conference, which we are looking forward to.
After a break, Pat Mulligan, who had driven all the way from Bradford had our first exclusive demo, showing off the awesome Bambuu Starter Kits from Red Panda Lighting for the first time. These were reviewed in the last edition of ProMobile magazine, and created quite a buzz, and a very generous discount was offered to SEDA members on the night. This legend also came armed with a tray of fabulous donuts – the freebie bar has now been raised a notch!!! 🤩
Next up was an in house showdown, featuring a comparison between some of the industries most recent battery powered speakers including the Bose S1 Pro, Electro-Voice Everse 8, HK Audio Move 8, Mackie Thump Go, HH Electronics Tensor Go, ZZiPP Ziggy, and an exclusive first time demo of the brand new Yamaha Commercial Audio StagePass 200! Obviously, these are not designed as main PA speakers for DJ’s, but many other uses including backup if power is lost, background music, speeches PA, and ceremony music PA were discussed as these add value to the professional DJ’s offering.
It was good to welcome back Richard Ward representing Polar Audio, who demonstrated in more detail the HK Audio Move 8, Mackie Thump Go, Mackie Thump212, and Mackie Thump115S using a nifty Mackie Onyx 8 mixing desk, and a new range of very versatile and innovative distance poles and loudspeaker stands from Ultimate Support.
Our very own lighting and tech wizard ‘Lofty’ Ryan Lockett from KMG ran a brilliant demonstration of battery powered lighting including the ADJ Lighting Mirage Q6 and the Ape Labs Maxi Par V2.
Our featured retailer for the night was Dan Young from DY Pro Audio based in Staplehurst in Kent. Dan brought along a good selection of sound and lighting for sale, again with generous discounts for SEDA members. Many of Dan’s items were battery powered to compliment the theme of this Shownight. He also had in stock Pioneer’s new DDJ-FLX4 controller (also reviewed in last months ProMobile Mag), and I was using one of those on the night for the Essential mix later on.
Each shownight features a SEDA member’s show, and this time it was Ashford based SEDA member, and award winning wedding DJ Andrew Broughton’s turn to introduce us to how and what he does.
Also at each SEDA Shownight, we feature a SEDA member’s top 10 music choices for a specific genre they are experts in, and this time is was Tony Caliandro’s turn to educate us on his Top 10 Essential 90’s dance floor fillers. As Tony is a expert at mixing, he prepared a wicked 10 minute mix with these absolute bangers, and it was a pure joy to hear and dance to as well! Thank you Tony, we love you! One of the comments overheard in the room at the end of the night says it all really “Thank you, it’s great to know why we all do this DJ thing, and take it back to the music we love”.
Before we sent everyone home, there was one thing left to do – the SEDA raffle! Every Shownight ends on this, with the proceeds going to our chosen charity – The RNID’s Action On Hearing Loss.
On behalf of all the SEDA members, and the committee, I wish to thank everyone for attending this busy night. The atmosphere was quite electric with lots of networking going on between colleagues in this great industry. It was amazing to see old and new friends, and a big welcome to Wayne Davies the new NADJ chair who came all the way from Leicestershire for the evening – we all look forward to working with you in the future.
Our next SEDA Shownight is on Sunday 12th March 2023, from 7pm at The Moat in Wrotham. If you haven’t been yet, you don’t have to be a member, although we would love you to join! You are most welcome to visit us then.
Brian Mole
SEDA Hon Sec 2022 – 2023