Strategy in TECH...
Earlier this week, sources told Strata-gee that Kaleidescape co-founders Michael Malcolm and Cheena Srinivasan have left the company. Malcolm is said to have left a couple of months ago and Srinivasan reportedly left the organization just last week.
A few weeks back while on a work assignment unrelated to Strata-gee, I had the opportunity to meet for the first time Alice Schmalzl, the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) at CT Lab, the company that owns Dealerscope, Connected Design, and the CE Week show. During the course of a lunch meeting lasting over two-hours, Schmalzl was engaging, articulate, thought-provoking, refreshingly transparent, and funny. I found her incredibly smart, with a strong business foundation, and I sensed she possessed a steely inner-toughness. I resolved then and there to interview her for a Strata-gist profile for Strata-gee readers.
IPORT, a Sonance company, announced this week it is launching an all-new, totally redesigned IPORT Connect Pro line of products. IPORT is an award-winning line of products that hold, charge, and protect tablets in a residential or commercial space. IPORT Connect Pro takes its already user-appreciated design and utility to the next level.
Over the last few weeks, a buzz began to swirl around yet another major tech industry trade event, the NAB Show, set to run from October 9-13 in Las Vegas, NV. The buzz was a series of rumors that exhibitors may begin pulling out of the event. Then last week, major exhibitors Sony and Canon did exactly that by withdrawing from NAB Show, both citing the COVID Delta surge in infections and the need to protect their employees’ and partners’ health and well-being first and foremost.
Quickly taking their cue, the NAB announced today that the event will be canceled as “…the Delta variant has presented unexpected and insurmountable challenges for our global community.”
LG Electronics announced today that it is targeting the super-luxury residential market with a new wall-sized display based on Direct View LED (DVLED) technology. They call their new series DVLED Extreme Home Cinema and while they are not the only purveyor of the technology, LG says they are best positioned for success in the category due to their “years of [experience] building premium consumer electronics, keen understanding of affluent consumers and deep expertise as an innovator of DVLED technologies.”
Emerald Expositions on Monday put out a final recap of the CEDIA Expo 2021 that took place earlier this month and while Group Vice President Jason McGraw called it “…a solid event,” the numbers they revealed told a much more sobering tale. Still, I need to say up front that I am actually impressed they released data from the event rather than the hazy and rough estimates as they have done in the past. It’s at least a step in the right direction towards some sort of transparency.
Premium networking systems and services specialist WhyReboot announced this week that they have set up a national network of independent specialty manufacturers sales representatives. The company has appointed nine top rep firms across the country, expanding their local presence for both sales and support.
The resurgence of COVID due to the Delta variant is causing increasing pandemonium throughout the exposition industry. In the face of growing headwinds, Emerald Expositions insisted on moving forward with CEDIA anyway, kind of. But with dismal attendance and most of the exhibitors pulling out in the weeks leading up to it – it was far less than a normal event. Now we learn that another show – the audio-centric Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) – after much pressure from media and exhibitor pull-outs, has decided to cancel its event, as well…this time for good.
Melrose PLC, the private equity turnaround expert that purchased the entirety of Nortek back in 2016, unceremoniously let it slip in a bullet point of a report on financial results, that it has found a buyer for the last remaining piece of the Nortek puzzle they have struggled to turn around over the years. Although they did not name the buyer, Melrose says a contract has been signed for a $285 million deal – remarkably low considering all the brands included in this transaction.
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) announced today that they have partnered with BMW as the audio system provider for their new luxury electric SAV (sports activity vehicle)…the eagerly anticipated iX. The company says that engineers from both of the partners worked closely together to develop an audio experience that “feels as though you are there with the artist in the studio” – or what B&W likes to call “true sound.”
