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Help Lightning Virtual Support Offers Free 60-Day Trial to CEDIA Members

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photo of Help Lightning merged reality

Help Lightning, a new support solution the company likes to call “virtual expertise,” not only offers a new potential benefit for integrators to increase the amount of safe in-home support for their clients in these COVID-19 times – they also offer CEDIA members a free 60-day try-before-you-buy experience to test it out in your market with your clients. And in the middle of the pandemic, there has never been a better time to look at offering clients a new support solution that adheres to strict safety standards by limiting person-to-person exposure.

Learn more about Help Lighting’s free trial

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CEO Confidence Explodes, But Consumer Confidence Remains Strained

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Axios logo

Political newsletter Axios ran a surprising graph this week showing a stunning disconnect between the confidence of consumers – measured by the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index – versus the confidence of CEOs (tracked separately by the Conference Board). While it is not entirely clear just what the ramifications may be of this huge disparity in how these two groups are feeling about the economy – it is nonetheless a notable disconnect.

See Axios’ Graph based on Conf. Board Data…

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Housing Starts Split Again in September for Good News/Bad News Result

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Housing Prices Photo

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released their latest report on residential construction for the month of September 2020. Like last month, the results on housing starts were mixed, with both good news for custom integrators and bad news for the overall industry – suggesting again that housing growth, while robust, is beginning to moderate.

See housing starts results for September…

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Harman’s Mark Levinson Brand Launches Lower Cost 5000 Series; Seeks Expansion into Broader Market

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Lifestyle photo showing LPs and turntable in a home

Last week, in dramatic fashion, Harman (part of Samsung) brand Mark Levinson announced the launch of an entirely new 5000 series family of products, whose lower price tag is designed to appeal to an expanded share of the market of audio enthusiasts. In a combination of well-produced video segments, coupled with live presentations to the industry media, Harman executives laid out their vision for the brand and presented the details of the engineering and craftsmanship behind their new line of electronics and sources that included a preamp, power amp, turntable and streaming SACD player

Learn more about the new Mark Levinson 5000 Series…

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Suspicious Changes at CEDIA; CEO O’Connor is Out With No Explanation

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Photo of new CEDIA HQ rendering

This News Follows Other Prominent Departures

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) announced at the end of last week that Global President and CEO Tabatha O’Connor will “depart” the organization at the end of her contract period in January. The news caught many by surprise and the organization’s announcement gives no clue as to any of the reasons behind this leadership change.

See more on O’Connor’s departure from CEDIA

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Change of Strategy: Emerald Board Tells Company Managers to Buy Stock…Theirs

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Emerald Holding logo

Emerald Holding, Inc. (Formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc.) [NYSE: EEX], the company that owns the CEDIA Expo show and CE Pro, announced last week that its Board of Directors has authorized company managers to purchase up to $20 Million of Emerald’s stock in a share buyback program. As Strata-gee noted back in May in a report on the company’s large fiscal first quarter loss, this program had previously been suspended when cash had tightened up after the cancellation of their events due to COVID-19.

Now the company has been recapitalized, thanks to help from sugar daddy Onex who now owns more than 80% of the company, and – gosh – the stock is so darn cheap. Maybe now is the time to buy…

See more on this stock purchase by Emerald

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SnapAV Unleashes a Broad Array of New Products at Snap Pro Live

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New Control4 Touchscreen T4 launched at Snap Pro Live
New Control4 T4 Touchscreens [Click to enlarge]

Kicking off their first ever virtual dealer event called Snap Pro Live, SnapAV unleashes a broad array of new products covering their wide gamut of product and service segments. Snap Pro Live runs for three days and kicked off today (Tuesday) afternoon with a keynote from CEO John Heyman – and this major product launch.

See what new products SnapAV launched at Snap Pro Live…

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SnapAV Kicks Off Snap Pro Live; CEO Says They are ‘Stronger Than Ever’

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John Hayman, SnapAV CEO

New Product Platforms & Business Platforms to Drive Future Growth

SnapAV kicked off their first major three-day virtual event called Snap Pro Live Tuesday afternoon. In a keynote presentation, SnapAV CEO John Heyman hailed the work of the integrator in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the dealer “took on the role of a courageous warrior.” And with that, Snap Pro Live was launched offering three full days packed with useful content. (See more details on Snap Pro Live here…)

Learn more about Snap Pro Live…

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Sound United Deal to Acquire Bowers & Wilkins Closes

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bowers & wilkins 702 signature speakers
702 Signature Photography

The Band’s Back Together – B&W Reunited with Classé Under Sound United

Sound United announced today that it has closed on its acquisition of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), as expected. With this deal, B&W is rejoined with Classé – a high-end electronics manufacturer that itself was once part of B&W but then was acquired by Sound United back in Jaunuary 2018.

See more on Sound United acquiring Bowers & Wilkins

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Considering Bringing Remote Workers Back to the Office? Consider This First…

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Upset person needing help with mental wellbeing issues

Mental Wellbeing Issues Emerge as a Major Side-Effect of COVID-19

One of the questions I’m frequently asked is, “When will the economy bounce back to pre-COVID levels so we can all get back to normal?” The answer: We won’t “bounce back” to a pre-pandemic economy, and “normal” won’t be the same. The details on this answer is a topic for another post, but suffice it to say that one of the reasons is due to emerging, unforeseen variables, such as deteriorating employee mental wellbeing issues.

And THAT IS the topic of this post. Two new surveys provide troubling but important data that will impact how – or if – you re-centralize your team…if that’s your plan.

See new data on your team’s mental wellness…

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