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Hello From Beijing at the BIRTV Show

BIRTVI am always looking for new products, better ways to do things and cutting costs … that’s why I am the Frugal Filmmaker.

With so many products now coming out of China I thought why not go there and see what they are doing. And no place better than to start with the BIRTV (Beijing International Radio & Television) show in Beijing. I was asked by Personal-View.com to cover the show for them and their YouTube Channel.

BIRTV

Alan Halfhill at BIRTV

Similar to the NAB in Las Vegas, this is a huge show for Chinese manufacturers of broadcast and filmmaking equipment.  In four full days at the show I could barely cover 3 of the 8 buildings. It was mostly indoors with some outdoors displays. What I did learn about was some amazing new products from some great Chinese manufactures. There was, accessories for cameras, lighting, monitors and microphones that were top notch, world class as these firms are the manufactures for other well-known Companies. In the camera gear area there were new cages, rails, cheese plates, shoulder rigs and gimbals. Also, I found incredible monitors, small lightweight, high rez and a low price. 4K Larger monitors are being put into flight cases. Very cool. The lighting was almost all LED now and much better than earlier units with a better quality of light. There are all types, from big high powered Fresnel’s to small on camera lights. The new category is flexible LED lights.

The whole experience was wonderful and the Chinese welcomed me with open arms. In most of the booths the people were young and quite a few spoke English. There were a lot of women working the booths also.

I really like Beijing. It is a modern city with English words on most street signs because of the Olympic a few years back. There was English names on the Subway system when we took a ride. All the younger people had cellphones and were in them just as much as our young people do. The older ones did not as much.

Where we were staying was a Chinese hotel near the convention center in what I would call an upscale part of town. We ate at local Chinese restaurants and walked with the other commuters to the Expo Hall. It was quicker than taking a taxi in crowded traffic. We found at quite a few restaurants the menu was written in English as well as Chinese. Also, there were pictures. The food was great and not like our Americanized versions. Westerners are still new to the locals as they would look at us and my wife had her picture taken with two women for no reason.

To learn more, watch my BIRTV product interviews at the Personal-View channel on YouTube or just click the link below. Please subscribe to the channel as that is where my reporting is being done. Happy Filming.