Strategy in TECH...
There has been a strong and vocal reaction to our story posted last week in which CEDIA’s Chairman of the Board, Dennis Erskine, countered our assertion that the members owned CEDIA. Noting that the law says that non-profit organizations have no owners, the chairman corrected our assumption. He was correct, we were wrong.
However, the story caught the attention of many of our readers, including some very prominent and influential executives in the custom integration community.
We asked for and participated in a telephone interview with CEDIA Chairman of the Board Dennis Erskine and Senior Director of Marketing Cris Pyle in late May to discuss several topics swirling around the organization. First and foremost, we were seeking greater insight into the departure of CEDIA’s CEO Vin Bruno, as well as Ron Fleming and others, but we also discussed a few other topics – notably what rights members have, and what rights they don’t have.
LG Electronics announced this week an interesting new compact laser projector targeted at the home cinema enthusiast. Although quite affordable, this light and compact projector – called the LG ProBeam – features some very cool technology and features sure to delight residential movie fans.
Nest Labs announced on Wednesday their all-new, upgraded indoor security camera, called the Nest Cam IQ, with new “intelligent” features to make it more useful and secure. For the first time, consumers are able to not just remotely monitor their homes, but receive more – and smarter – alerts thanks to this cameras remarkable new smart technologies and features.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced this week that at its upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2018 in Las Vegas, there will be a new area of focus on Smart City technologies. The group plans both a dedicated display space featuring the technologies of Smart Cities, as well as a full schedule of related conference programming.
Shortly after our story about layoffs at CEDIA was posted, we spoke with CEDIA Board Chairman Dennis Erskine, who sought to correct what he said were some “misconceptions” presented in that article. Specifically, Erskine felt our call for more transparency from the organization was off the mark due to our misunderstanding about non-profit organizations.
Only a matter of days after the announcement of Vin Bruno’s resignation as CEDIA CEO, and a few weeks after a 15% headquarters staff reduction, we now learn that Ron Fleming, CEDIA VP of Business Development is out in what appears to be a major reorganization at the industry trade group. The news went out earlier today in the form of an email from COO and interim CEO Tabatha O’Connor to exhibitors.
Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai is feeling pretty good these days. After an incredibly tough turnaround period where many questioned his plan, Hirai said this week that the company expects to book an operating profit of ¥500 billion ($4.5 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2018, its highest operating profit in 20-years according to a report by the Nikkei. But the CEO admits that, as good as this news is, the company is still short of a full turnaround.
What’s needed for a complete turnaround of Sony’s business? Innovation…
In February, we reported that George Leslie Manlove was convicted on approximately 170 out of a total of 200 Federal felony counts stemming from his tenure as CEO of the now-defunct Vann’s Electronics & Appliances in Montana. A few days ago, Manlove learned his fate in the form of a sentence from U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dana Christensen, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Manlove has been ordered to serve a sentence of more than 5 years in a Federal Penitentiary.
Ft. Collins, CO-based CasaTunes announced this week that it has launched a new feature to better address their growing global business. This new feature is a call to Muslim Prayer feature, which will be very handy for end users in their growing Middle East business. A unique capability ignored by most system providers, this new call to Muslim Prayer support allows users to schedule and customize their personal call to pray.
