Strategy in TECH...
Alex Camara, CEO of Seattle-based specialty electronics manufacturer AudioControl, was featured Friday on a segment on the Fox Business Network (FBN) talking the real impact of tariffs on American manufacturers. In the wake of the move by the Trump administration pushing a dramatically increased 25% tariff on a wide range of Chinese goods, Camara explained to FBN anchor Liz Claman the true impact these tariffs have on his business…and ultimately the American consumer.
Control4 announced today an all-new and improved operating system for Control4 installations that they call Smart Home OS 3. OS 3 is designed to be an easy unifier of the many devices in consumers’ installations, offer a robust infrastructure, give consumers choice & simplicity, maintain privacy, and – critical for integrators – enables professional support. It is their most tested and intuitive user experience that is as simple to use as a smartphone.
KB Home, one of the largest home builders in America, has unveiled a concept home of the future they call KB Home ProjeKt: Where tomorrow Lives, that features both smart home and integrated health and wellness technologies. Originally shown at this years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, KB is announcing that many of the features of this futuristic home is available now at a new community in Irvine, CA called Genoa at Orchard Hills.
Many years ago, I worked at a audio specialty retailer in East Lansing, Michigan. As audio specialists, we not only sold and serviced some of the finest audio brands around, but we also sold test gear for users and pros to use to test and fine tune their systems. And one of the brands we sold that offered high quality testing products was AudioControl, who along with their line of graphic equalizers also offered things like spectrum analyzers with calibrated microphones.
They still sell testing gear and now will be showing their latest iOS-based digital test measurement solutions at InfoComm 2019.
The latest data from the US Census Bureau shows a pretty nice increase in April residential housing construction starts – a key economic data for the custom integration industry. According to the report, overall housing starts came in at 1,235,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual rate. This is 5.7% above the revised March rate of 1,168,000…and yet is it also down.
Fred Ampel, a long time, multi-decade member of CEDIA, a regular trainer at multiple CEDIA Expos, and a “CEDIA Fellow” has renounced his membership in the organization. In a Skype interview with Strata-gee, he shared his view that the organization has changed in ways that are counter to his view of the type of education that they should be providing to the membership. As a result, he feels forced to develop a new alternative program outside of the trade association.
We seem to be in a week of big deals. First, we learned that SnapAV had acquired Control4, then we learned that the original founder of Paradigm has acquired back the Paradigm, Anthem, and Martin Logan brands from the private equity company that had bought the company from him some time back. Now we learn that Sound United, owner of Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, HEOS, Classé, and Boston Acoustics has entered into an agreement with Onkyo Corp. to purchase Onkyo’s premier lineup of brands, including: Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer and Pioneer Elite.
The world exploded this morning with the news that SnapAV and Control4 are merging their operations in a transaction that no one saw coming. Although publicized as a merger, actually SnapAV is acquiring Control4, agreeing to pay $23.91/share in a deal that is worth a total of about $680 million.
Control4 has issued an advisory this week to reassure integrators and their clients that the company will support the ‘Works With Google Assistant’ program and is working on new Nest drivers consistent with Google’s Certification standards to avoid issues related to the recently announced shutting down of the ‘Works With Nest’ program.
It was clearly one of the most explosive stories I wrote back in May 2011 generating tons of email and phone calls in response. The topic? Lenbrook, darling of the specialty A/V channel that for decades had been selling specialty products through specialty reps to specialty dealers – had decided to terminate their entire network of independent specialty sales representatives. Dean Miller, who had just joined the organization, would go on to construct a dedicated full-time staff of salespeople that would represent only NAD and PSB products.
Now, almost exactly eight years later, Lenbrook has decided to return to utilizing independent sales representatives in their sales network. But why?
