Strategy in TECH...
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.
San Clemente, CA-based Dana Innovations announced today that it is launching a major rebranding effort, the results of which will better reflect their business initiatives, clarify the meaning and positioning of their various brands, and assert new brand “pillars” to better convey who they are and what they represent. It will also reassert the prominence of the Sonance brand.
The company will no longer be known as Dana Innovations thanks to a “back to the future” decision to elevate Sonance – the brand under which they were founded. Company management has granted Strata-gee exclusive access to this story, including to behind-the-scenes information revealing the depth and detail of the thinking, discussions, and even arguments of the last year and a half or so that were behind this major – and some would say somewhat risky – decision.
AudioControl said today they will introduce the greatest number of new products they have ever launched at a show at the upcoming 2019 CEDIA Expo taking place next month in Denver, CO. A specialty electronics supplier of high-performance residential, automotive, and commercial products, the company will show all-new home theater products, 70-volt amplifiers, and more.
PS Audio, a specialty manufacturer of affordable audiophilia, announced today that it is suspending sales of its products through local specialty retail stores and online retailers to focus on direct sales only. While the company has always sold products directly to end-users, it had a complementary channel of approximately 65 local specialty dealers, and a few online retailers supporting the brand as well.
When Strata-gee broke the news last week on Bravas Group being sold to a private equity firm, a buzz erupted around the industry as different constituencies tried to digest the meaning of this development. While other groups of integrators have made similar efforts in the past, this type of roll-up has usually failed. If this attempt by Bravas works, just what would that mean for the CI industry in general. And is this an emerging competitor to buying groups?
I surveyed top buying group executives to get their take on just what this move by Bravas meant for the industry…and for them.
This is Part 2 of Strata-gee’s series on my recent visit to Crestron. In some ways, as much fun as I had at their Research Center, I can almost say it was eclipsed (if only slightly) by a visit to, at that point, their yet-to-be-officially launched factory that was actually a couple of miles away from the main Crestron campus at a facility in the state of New York.
They call it their “Factory of the Future,” and after touring it…I can see why.
Dirac, a fast growing provider of room acoustics management software, announced today that it will launch Dirac Live Bass Management at next month’s CEDIA Expo 2019. Industry attendees at Expo can see the new system in Booth #3235 in the Colorado Convention Center.
Bravas Group, a cooperative of integrators aggregated by Paul Starkey and Steve Firszt of VITAL MGMT, was first put together as part of VITAL MGMT’s consulting practice helping member companies better organize their operations, improve their financial performance, and drive greater profitability. Ultimately, the group’s fifteen members coalesced into one widely-spread unified organization, with over-arching centralized management and plans for the group to be packaged and sold.
Now, in a deal said to be valued at $75 million, Bravas Group has been sold to Presidio Investors, a private equity investment company with offices in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX.
The industry is still adjusting to the new normal of SnapAV combining with Control4…even as it continues to gobble up more local distributors and talk about their e-commerce prowess. It can get a little confusing. Is SnapAV a manufacturer? An e-commerce play? A local distributor? Or are they attempting to be all of the above?
I spoke with SnapAV’s John Heyman and Charlie Kindel to try and help our readers sort this all out. It’s certainly a new world out there…but just what planet are we on?
