Strategy in TECH...
Adam Levy, one of the original founding executives of SnapAV in 2006 who left the organization about a year ago “to try some other things,” has rejoined the organization and been appointed President. Levy will be in charge of store operations with day-to-day operational responsibility focused on serving their dealers.
Several reports have emerged saying that Apple, Inc. has told suppliers that it is committed to upgrading the displays on its popular iPhone from the current LCD-based touchscreen to an OLED display, starting in 2018. This decision has industry-wide ramifications and has suppliers scrambling to increase the capacity of their OLED factories. There are also competitive ramifications from this decision that is bound to rattle competitors.
Control4 Corporation announced today that it will begin offering Denon products to Control4 dealers through a web portal at which products from both brands can be purchased. The move is a first for both brands, as far as we’re aware, and represents a potential expansion of Denon’s distribution channel.
ProSource, a national dealer buying group, announced this week that it has cut a deal with DTS Inc., to partner in marketing and promoting its Play-Fi wireless music system products. DTS, which announced an expanded roster of Play-Fi participating manufacturers at CEDIA Expo, has been a bit behind other wireless makers before now, but is seen as picking up the pace of its expansion.
At last month’s CEDIA Expo, we had the opportunity to meet Wilfried Van Baelen, the rather energetic, almost evangelistic, inventor of Auro-3D immersive surround sound technology. Van Baelen was quick to take credit for the concept of using speakers in the “z-axis” (height) to create a totally immersive surround experience. And he scoffed at the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X versions which miss the mark in several important ways, he tells us.
At last month’s CEDIA Expo, Core Brands announced that it has retained Vision Werks Consulting to help it establish a brand protection program. According to Core Brands release, Vision Werks will primarily be involved in issues revolving around unauthorized online resellers.
Denise Nemchev, the popular former President of AV Tech segment for Nortek, Inc., who was let go in the wake of a major company restructuring, has now been named President & CEO of tvONE, according to a report by AVNetwork. tvONE is a supplier of professional video conversion and signal distribution equipment. Once part of Nortek itself, tvONE recently was split-off from Nortek through a management buyout by the company’s existing managers in July of this year.
“I can tell you the last year has been a really exciting adventure,” Origin CEO Jeremy Burkhardt said, kicking off an Origin Acoustics press conference at last week’s 2015 CEDIA Expo in Dallas. Having officially launched the company at Expo last year, company executives sought to celebrate this milestone. And, much as they did last year – the company announced several new products for the coming year.
We found some interesting stuff here at the start (and from the days leading up to the start) of CEDIA’s 2015 Expo. There was a lot to sift through, but what follows are some of the more interesting products and technologies we found at the start of the show – presented in no particular order.
Dallas is hot right now – really hot – as in daily temperatures in the mid-90s. This is a shocking change from the cooling New England Fall now engulfing our home base. But it’s about to get even hotter as the nation’s custom integration community comes together for its annual pilgrimage, the pilgrimage known as Expo.
