“G2E 2013 was a very good tradeshow for Advantech”

How do you feel overall about this year’s G2E?  
G2E 2013 was a very good tradeshow for Advantech. The number of enquiries from new customers was a new record for us at this show.  This shows that gaming industry customers are attracted to Advantech’s broad gaming sector solutions which we support in all regions of the world through Advantech’s many offices.

We were also able to meet many of our existing customers and talk with them about their future plans and some exciting projects were discussed. In general the show seemed well attended this year.   The larger slot machine manufacturers put on impressive showcases for their latest titles with plenty of pizzazz! But even with that going on we were pleased with the meetings conducted at our booth and the results from the show overall.

How did the public respond to DPX-S435 and  your other products?
We unveiled two new products at G2E this year: the DPX-S435, the first Intel Xeon capable gaming motherboard, and the  DPX-E130, a new full integrated platform for the upcoming regulation changes in Italy. 

We also showed a carefully selected line-up of some of Advantech’s other 4000 products including Digital signage controllers, LCD monitors, embedded motherboards, embedded computing modules, long lifecycle graphics cards.

However it was the DPX-S435 that got most interest.  Customers were intrigued to see the board supports the Intel Xeon brand of CPUs which are traditionally associated with server class platforms. 

Being the latest in our very popular DPX-S series, the DPX-S435 gives existing customers an easy migration to a much higher class of performance with a board that is compatible with all the other boards in the S series.

It can even save them some cost since the DPX-S435 comes with a large range of Intel® 4th Generation Core CPUs to choose from.  So customers may not need such an expensive CPU as they currently use.

The other hot products for us at G2E were the digital signage controllers.  Advantech has a wide range of digital signage controllers ranging from very low cost ARM RISC based products, to Intel Core i-7 based systems.

How important is the US market for the company?
The US gaming market is hugely important for Advantech.  The Innocore brand of gaming platforms is well known in the US and we have a broad customer and ecosystem base here.

Over the last 2 years we have broadened both the product offering and the customer base and most of that growth has been in the US market.

Considering your conversations with colleagues and operators at the show, what do you feel we can expect for the industry next year?
Our existing clients were generally optimistic for next year and we hope for a rapid turnaround from the somewhat depressed market for the last 12 months.

Several stated they had new projects, several will migrate to our next generation DPX-S435 and most were predicting a better 2014.  Indeed several new orders that were mentioned at the tradeshow have since been placed with us and we hope for a great fourth quarter for 2013 before 2014 even starts.

What are your plans at a global level for the near future?
We will be present at ENADA tradeshow in Italy in October, but our next main tradeshow will be ICE in London in February 2014. Globally, Advantech continues to expand our sales and support network for the gaming products worldwide through Advantech’s existing offices. So we are better able to support customers in new and emerging markets as well as maintain our responsive support and service for customers in the US and Europe.