The mood was one of quiet efficiency on the first day of exhibition at SPIE's Defense, Security and Sensing (DSS) conference in Orlando Tuesday. While the exhibition hall may have been the only place to escape the scattered groups of Disney-bound tourists, it nonetheless had a steady flow of interested customers and customers-to-be. An attendee walks past SPIE's Defense, Security and Sensing conference banner. (Photo: Lynn Savage)Many exhibitors reported that the hall seemed fairly quiet in the opening hours, but got quite busy throughout the afternoon. The thinner morning crowd was likely due, one vendor supposed, to a variety of interesting talks occurring at the same time. Component makers like IRZoom.com reported a healthy amount of interest in their stock and custom-made devices at SPIE's Defense, Security & Sensing conference. (Photo: Lynn Savage)SPIE did not have attendance numbers available by the end of the day Tuesday, but press liaison Amy Nelson said that they believed the numbers were up about 5 percent over last year. The number of exhibitors rose considerably higher, growing from 467 in 2008 to 515 this year. Lynn Savage, Photonics Spectra features editor lynn.savage@laurin.com