Strategy in TECH...
The 2019 CEDIA Expo is in full swing and one of the busiest booths on the floor is Savant’s. The company has a large roster of new products, but perhaps most impressive were a couple of user experience upgrades that look as though they will delight clients everywhere.
SnapAV announced today that it will begin distributing Sonos wireless music systems beginning next month in October. The company says it will offer the entire line – including the Sonos Port, Sonos Move, and Sonos One SL – as part of its extensive assortment of gear targeted to the professional custom integrator.
A new AV-over-IP solution popular in the pro channel is launching at CEDIA Expo – Dante by Audinate. According to the company’s announcement, Dante “dominates the world of professional audio.” The company also claims that it is rapidly being adopted by several manufacturers of residential gear as well. A fact which brings them to CEDIA.
The assimilation of the custom integration industry by the once-reviled, now embraced soundbar is almost complete. And on the advent of another CEDIA Expo, yet another round of announcements of new soundbar products came rolling out. While this fact is now an accepted reality, what is remarkable is that some of these new soundbars are from companies that no reasonable person would have predicted would enter the category just a few short years ago.
Savant announced this week that it has broadened access to more of its models through its existing partnership with the AVAD & WAVE distribution centers across the country. This expansion is for all of the existing 25 distribution centers that AVAD/WAVE have throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Consolidation continues in the custom integration world – in this case, Denver-based manufacturer representative firm Momentum Group has acquired the residential division of Texas’ own renowned Dobbs Stanford rep firm based in Dallas. Consolidation has NOT been a big story on the sales representative side…up until now.
Sonance announced today that they have entered into an agreement to acquire Minden, NV-based James Loudspeaker. This is the first major acquisition by Sonance since the purchase of Sound Advance in 2005, and is truly a marriage of two companies with a strong resonance in their approach to the custom integration industry.
MQA, a leading provider of technology that helps deliver music that is authenticated to be master recording quality but with a small enough file structure that can be easily streamed or downloaded, announced today new partners, products and music in time for the 2019 CEDIA Expo show in Denver, CO next week. Visitors to their booth at CEDIA can expect to see the new products and audition the new music.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is pulling no punches when it comes to the latest revised tariff schedule being implemented by the Trump administration. The recently revised tariff schedule, which started a new round of tariffs just days ago on September 1st, with a second round scheduled to hit on December 15th means pain and uncertainty moving forward according to the CTA.
“You are WAY too excited about this news,” Jason Sloan, Sonance Chief Sales Officer joked when first telling me about their rebranding plans a few weeks ago. But I was excited – these plans put forth a major shift in the position of the Dana Innovations, Sonance, iPort, & Trufig brands. To Sloan and CEO Ari Supran, this was more of a refocus than a rebranding – a return to their largest and most beloved brand after a long and at times frustrating period of trying to establish another overarching entity.
But to me, it was much more than that.
