NAMM’s new hall, the ACC North, was built to contain the tech revolution in music, but it couldn’t; tech booths spilled out into the guitar, drum, cases, and other topical areas. And DJ equipment was plentiful throughout NAMM’s halls, mirroring the spike in EDM and DJ’s. From turntables to lights to special effects and speaker systems, there were dozens of booths full of spinning equipment. One of the most interesting was the Hercules DJ Control booth.

The Hercules booth deserves a special mention. The company introduced its new DJ Control Inpulse 300, a model designed for beginners but with features and power for serious DJs and did a very smart thing. It set up and promoted “Learn to be a DJ,” 15-minute teaching sessions. Scattered throughout its booth were workstations consisting of Control Impulse 300 units, speakers, headphones and an experienced DJ who gave “students” a quick lesson in the concepts and basics and then guided them through a hands-on session of their own. The entire lesson from one of the stations was projected on a big screen at the back of the booth, attracting a good deal of traffic and giving looky-loos an idea of what DJ’ing was all about.