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CEDIA Bars All News Media from CEDIA Symposium on AI

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Photo of CEDIA HQ
CEDIA’s headquarters building in Fishers, Indiana

At the end of July, CEDIA announced that it would be holding a new kind of event called the CEDIA Symposium on the day before the CEDIA Expo 2023 opens. The association is all-in on AI apparently, and this symposium is all about AI in custom integration. The announcement promises it will offer “an engaging afternoon of thought-provoking discussions led by industry visionaries, AI experts, top integrators, and manufacturers.”

From the very beginning, there were, in my eyes, troubling elements to this initiative. Little did I know what was to come – that CEDIA would choose to bar the news media from its CEDIA Symposium

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Nationwide Marketing Group Partners Again with LG Electronics

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Nationwide Marketing Group partners with LG Electronics

Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) announced today that it has reestablished its home entertainment program with LG Electronics USA. As a result of this reconnection, NMG’s membership, including independent retailers and custom integrators, have access to a wide range of LG’s TV, audio and video products.

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Masimo Consumer Partners with Oasys Residential Technology Group

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Masimo Consumer, part of Masimo Corp (Nasdaq: MASI), announced today that it has formed a partnership with Oasys Residential Technology Group, a buying group of residential technology integrators that is part of the Nationwide Marketing Group. Formerly known as HTSN, the rebranded and rechartered Oasys Residential Technology Group recently held its inaugural launch event in May in Nashville with Strata-gee in attendance.

Learn more about Masimo Consumer at Oasys

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Nationwide Launches Ellipsys, A New Commercial Integrator Buying Group

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Ellipsys commercial technology group, part of Nationwide

Nationwide Marketing Group announced on Wednesday the launch of a new buying group targeted at the commercial integration channel called Ellipsys. Part of its strategy to build its overall membership organization to 1,000 members, Ellipsys actually made its debut, sort of a soft launch, last week at InfoComm in Orlando.

Learn more about Ellipsys commercial integration group

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Nationwide Marketing Group Opens Up Registration: It’s Time for PrimeTime

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Nationwide Marketing Group's PrimeTime conference will be at Nashville's Music City Convention Center
Nashville’s Music City Convention Center

Nationwide Marketing Group announced this week that it is opening up registration for its upcoming PrimeTime event, scheduled to take place in Nashville, TN from August 13-16. While this is the 61st edition of PrimeTime, and it is the fourth time the event has taken place in Nashville, aka Music City, it is the first time the event will take center stage at the Music City Convention Center in the very heart of a vibrant and active downtown Nashville.

Learn more about the upcoming PrimeTime

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Enthusiasm Builds at Inaugural Spring Conference; OASYS has Arrived

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Nashville downtown with Oasys logo

Last week, I was invited to attend the inaugural OASYS Spring Conference at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Nashville, TN, aka Music City. Formerly known as HTSN (Home Technology Specialists of Nationwide), the group has been rebranded and infused with new energy as Oasys Residential Technology Group. This spring gathering was its inaugural event launching a new brand, a new operating process, and – I have to say – a new attitude.

It was an eye-opening experience that helped me realize just how serious Nationwide is at cementing Oasys as the bedrock foundation of its buying group dominance.

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HTSN Becomes Oasys, Welcomes an Expanded Class of Dealers as Part of Nationwide’s ‘Drive to 1,000’

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HTSN is now Oaysis

Home Technology Specialists Nationwide (HTSN), part of the Nationwide Marketing Group’s stable of dealer/integrator buying organizations, announced today that it is rebranding its group, signifying an all-new image and an expanded mission to welcome an underserved class of dealers as part Nationwide’s “path to 1,000” members. HTSN will now be known as Oasys Residential Technology Group (ORTG).

Learn more about Oasys and Its expanding role

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Savant Exec Angela Larson Joins Azione Unlimited Advisory Board

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Angela Larson, an SVP of Savant, joins the Azione advisory board

Azione Unlimited announced that it has elected Savant Senior Vice President of Services & Customer Operations Angela Larson to its advisory board. Unique to the buying group scene, Azione’s advisory board consists of five dealer members and five vendor members who all work together with the goal of “creating, expanding, and implementing the organization’s mission.”

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Influential East Coast Integrator Bob Gullo Dies

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Bob Gullo

Services to Be Held February 10th in Pearl River, New York

Robert R. (Bob) Gullo, founder, President, and Chief Creative Officer of influential East Coast integrator Electronic Design Group, Inc. (EDG) died on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. According to several sources, the cause of death was cancer. A creative, energetic promoter of the then-nascent custom installation, now custom integration, industry, Gullo played an influential…even outsized…role in the development of the industry and was an oft-cited inspiration for many others to follow his path and embrace the industry.

Learn more about the life of Bob Gullo

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Nationwide Sets Sights on Custom Integration & Luxury Home Dominance

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Nationwide tiny home with home automation display

See My Interview w/Nationwide President Tom Hickman

In the days leading up to the recent CEDIA Expo in Dallas, Nationwide Marketing Group, one of the largest buying groups in the U.S., announced that former ProSource VP Andy Orozco would be joining Nationwide as its Senior Vice President of Custom Integration. That news grabbed my attention as it came less than a year after Nationwide’s acquisition of one of the top custom integration buying groups, Azione Unlimited, back in October 2021.

Clearly, something big is going on at Nationwide…

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