One of the biggest companies appearing at NAB in Las Vegas each year (well, each non-pandemic year when the event actually goes ahead) is Sony. This year, NAB has been rescheduled from its usual date in April to October 9-13th at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, replacing the usual NAB New York shot at the Javits Center. Sony, however, has announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 Delta variant, Sony has decided to pull the plug and will not be attending in person at next month’s NAB Show. They also won’t be appearing at the audiovisual trade show InfoComm 2021 in Orlando, Florida, either.
After yesterday’s announcement of PhotoPlus 2021 in New York being cancelled, and exhibitors pulling out of The Photography Show, expected to begin in the UK in just nine days, it’s not much of a surprise that more companies are pulling out of other shows that are going ahead around the world, too. Sony also pulled out of last month’s WPPI in Las Vegas.
According to a statement from Sony Electronics, Sony has decided to pull out of both NAB and InfoComm as a result of the COVID-19 Delta variant and are planning to do virtual presentations to update customers on new products instead. The statement is pretty much a verbatim copy of the announcement made for WPPI in August, but with the names of the show adjusted. Sony will continue to monitor the situation to determine when they believe it’s safe to start reattending trade shows again and they appear to not be the only company doing so. The next major show for Sony now is potentially CES 2022 in Las Vegas in January. This show hasn’t yet been cancelled (yet) and is requiring that all attendees be vaccinated. Theresa Alesso, Pro Division President, Sony Electronics.
