NAMM Show 2025, Part 1: The Expo Has Become Pro Audio's Main Showcase Moving beyond its music roots, the show begins to address broadcast's complex needs By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, January 20, 2025 - 2:22 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Back in the BeforeTimes - the pre-COVID era - the NAMM Show displayed its professional-audio bona fides with a noticeable emphasis on DJ products. It was a major nexus of the National Association of Music Merchandisers' core constituency of musicians and their subset who had embraced the process of producing and engineering music instead of simply playing and performing it.
When it came to the top end of pro audio, the category's big iron, such as high-end recording and mixing consoles, was viewed as largely out of cost and operational reach for most of that cohort at NAMM's annual main show each January. Meanwhile, the big touring-sound systems - the same ones routinely deployed in professional sports stadiums and arenas - had migrated mostly to the annual Infocomm Show.
That changed in 2018 with the opening of the Anaheim Convention Center's new North Hall, largely dedicated to pro audio. This year, at NAMM Show 2025 Jan. 21-25, the North Hall will be filled with top-end, increasingly sophisticated, yet often remarkably accessible (financially and operationally) gear from companies that were once only aspirational for most musicians and music producers. Among them will be PA makers L-Acoustics and d&b audiotechnik; large-scale console and mixer manufacturers DiGiCo and Solid State Logic; mic makers Shure and Schoeps; and Audinate (Dante) and Waves software. In addition, attendees will be able to participate in official Dante training by Audinate with sessions Jan. 22-24.
Emblematic of that shift, making its NAMM Show debut will be console manufacturer Germany-based Lawo, which has a large presence in broadcast and a growing one in music production.
Those brands and others will, says NAMM 2025's promotion, help make this one of the biggest NAMM shows on record for audio.
The Big Show NAMM's John Mlynczak: We are making more demo space for our exhibitors and more opportunities for our members to hear what state-of-the-art truly sounds like.
One of the main reasons that audio professionals come to the NAMM Show is to hear the latest equipment from the biggest pro-audio brands, said NAMM President/CEO John Mlynczak in a press release. We are making that easier than ever before with more demo space for our exhibitors and more opportunities for our members to hear what state-of-the-art truly sounds like.
Says Dale Pro Audio Marketing Director Eric Eldredge, It's pretty much the only show that some of our brands do. The show is often a launch pad for new brands to establish their presence, he adds, pointing out that Voyage Audio will have its own booth this year. For several years now, NAMM's North Hall has been somewhat of a de facto AES California, so I'm curious how that will play out. Overall, the brand lineup looks very solid, and I'm eager to see what other announcements come up soon from our other vendors.
A Long, Strange Trip NAMM has been moving in this direction for more than a decade. In 2014, the TEC Awards shifted to the NAMM Show, leaving its longtime roost at the AES Show, professional audio's putative showcase. The TEC Awards, sponsored by the non-profit TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio, were joined there four years later by the Parnelli Awards, which recognize achievements in live sound. With the completion of the convention center's North Hall, NAMM's takeover of the pro-audio expo action seemed nearly complete.
The AES Show, produced by the Audio Engineering Society, had been professional audio's primary exposition in the U.S. since the first one in 1949 in New York, which location alternated in the 1980s and '90s with Los Angeles and San Francisco. At its peak in the early aughts, the event attracted more than 15,000 visitors and new products from more than 350 exhibitors.
However, by the 2020s, the AES Show was less able to sustain a manufacturers event by itself, having begun in 2019 co-locating in New York at a satellite version of the much larger NAB Show. Registration numbers for the 2022 co-located show were reported as 7,000, with registration (AES did not report actual attendance numbers) reaching 10,000 by 2024.
Few industry pundits expect those numbers to significantly increase because the AES Show and NAB part ways this year. The pro-audio expo will be a standalone event at Southern California's Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center Oct. 21-24, its first time ever at that location and away from the national entertainment and media-production centers it had usually opted for.
The AES Show's diminution and the NAMM Show's ascendance - it had more than 62,000 attendees in 2024 - had left pro audio wandering a bit in the trade-show desert for several years. Some major manufacturers exhibited at only one or neither, as the pro-audio sector redefined itself and the expo business in general shouldered the effects of COVID. (Trade-show revenue overall witnessed a 68% drop in 2020.)
However, over the past 30-odd years, pro audio has transformed from a technically complex, expensive, hardware-intense vocation to a black-box, software/plugin-oriented DIY avocation. That transformation made it a good fit for NAMM's customer base, who were increasingly producing as well as performing their own music.
The 2024 NAM Show attracted more than 62,000 attendees to the Anaheim Convention Center.
Mlynczak declines to specifically address NAMM's position as an alternative or a successor to the AES Show as a primary expo for pro audio. But, in an email, he said, NAMM is in regular contact with e
North America Stories
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
12/11/2026
Ben Winston, Glenn Weiss, and FIFA's Jenni-Lee Van Gelder headlined a day fo...
12/11/2026
Free interactive platform visualizes team tendencies, formations, and schemes, updated weekly...
12/11/2026
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Jablonski's broadcasting career is...
12/11/2026
Gracenote's 2026 State of Play report signals a rising retention risk: More ...
NAMM Show 2025, Part 1: The Expo Has Become Pro Audio's Main Showcase Moving beyond its music roots, the show begins to address broadcast's complex needs By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
