The most succinct spin I’ve heard over the last couple of days about how best to analyze the dichotomy between the clearly smaller flow of attendees to NAB this year and the show’s potential for productivity came late this morning from audio veteran Norman Levenstein, sales and product development director for Azden Corporation (manufacturer of wireless microphone technologies). Norman said there is no point in pretending numbers aren’t, or won’t be, down this year at NAB.

“However, the people who are here this year, want to be here, and that means they are more serious about business,” he pointed out.

As to his own business, Norman says Azden is more than holding its own these days, partly becuase of excellent growth in sales in Latin America and Europe, among other overseas locales.

“It happens to be a really good time to be an exporter,” he says. “They can get a good price because of the American dollar and we can get business from new markets.”

–MG