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D&M Sells McIntosh Labs to Italian High-End Marketer Backed by Private Equity

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McIntosh LogoNews emerged today that Italian holding company Fine Sounds SpA has acquired 100% of McIntosh Laboratory, the Binghamton, NY-based high-end brand most recently owned by D&M Holdings. The announcement – which came from Fine Sounds, contained only a short statement from Charles Randall, President of McIntosh, with no other comments attributed to D&M Holdings or its parent Bain Capital.

Fine Sounds, backed by private equity company Quadrivio – also based in Milan, Italy – is the owner and distributor of other high-end brands such as Sonus Faber, Audio Research Corporation, Wadia Digital, and Sumiko. According to the company, their strategy is to “offer products that are the best in the world in their category.

But does this strategy make sense for McIntosh?…

[Read more…] about D&M Sells McIntosh Labs to Italian High-End Marketer Backed by Private Equity

Start-up ube Wins $1 Million People’s Choice Award

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Launched earlier this week at DEMO, the high-tech conference in Silicon Valley that just wrapped up, start-up company ube won the People’s Choice Award and $1 million worth of media from IDG properties. We profiled ube in our post here…saying that they just may be on to something and the DEMO judges apparently agree.

Learn more about this win here… [Read more…] about Start-up ube Wins $1 Million People’s Choice Award

Sharp, Struggling to Survive, Provides Banks with a New Plan; Ratchets Up Painful Cuts

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Photo of Sharp booth at CESSharp Corp., once a high flying superstar of Japanese manufacturing might, finds itself engaged in a multi-front battle for survival as it seeks to replenish its depleted capital reserves. Recently, the company had announced that it was negotiating a partnership deal that included the sale of factories and a capital investment from Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. But these talks stalled when Sharp’s share price dropped to a value less than half the agreed-upon level.

Now, in a series of announcements, the company has submitted a new plan seeking the support of its banks by “upping the ante” in its restructuring plans, more than doubling staff cuts, selling off company assets, and offering several Sharp-owned properties as collateral – including its headquarters facility.

Sharp’s new plan cuts deeper and will be more painful…but is it enough?… [Read more…] about Sharp, Struggling to Survive, Provides Banks with a New Plan; Ratchets Up Painful Cuts

Batteries Big Enough to Run Your Whole House from Rosewater Energy Group

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Photo of Joe Piccirilli of Rosewater Energy Group
Joe Piccirilli, Rosewater Energy Group

At this month’s CEDIA Expo, no sooner had I finished an interview on the show floor when I saw what looked like two huge caskets standing on end and side-by-side. That’s a little dramatic, they didn’t really look like caskets, just two huge rectangular racks standing about eight-feet up in the air. Curiosity drew me to Rosewater Energy Group’s booth where I discovered an old friend: Joe Piccirilli (formerly of AVAD and Sound Advice).

Those monstrous boxes (actually a little over 7-feet tall, the display base they were shown on made them look taller) really contain a lot of technology and take power conditioning to a whole new level.

See why Rosewater’s “Storage Hub” was even more impressive than it looked… [Read more…] about Batteries Big Enough to Run Your Whole House from Rosewater Energy Group

Energy Squad Wants to Help Integrators to Catch the Green Wave

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Photo of Energy Squad Founder Jonathan Stovall
Jonathan Stovall, Energy Squad Founder

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. When I ask business owners and executives to tell me why they started their business, you’d be surprised at the mushy gobbledy-gook I’m often offered in response. So when strata-GEE.com readers at the CEDIA Expo pointed me in the direction of the Energy Squad booth – I was skeptical. Was this another tech head playing with toys who’ll be here-today and gone-tomorrow?

Boy was I in for a surprise… [Read more…] about Energy Squad Wants to Help Integrators to Catch the Green Wave

AudioXperts Korners the Market

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Photo of AudioXperts President Eli Harary Showing KornersThe recent CEDIA Expo was, as usual, dominated by hundreds of companies engaged in a seemingly endless and often mindless rash of line extensions – effectively burying us in a sea of products of uninspiring incrementalism. This year, however, thanks to the diligent effort of many of strata-GEE.com’s and ALERT’s  readers and followers that we saw at the show – we were often pointed us in direction of some hidden gems. Thanks to you, we were successful in uncovering wisps of innovation from a few new or reincarnated companies.

One such interesting start-up, whose launch we recently reported on here, with a follow-up story here, is AudioXperts. At Expo, AudioXperts showed us an interesting new product concept they call Korners.

And Korners may just represent the first successful attempt to bring peace in our industry’s biggest and bloodiest war… [Read more…] about AudioXperts Korners the Market

Expo Keynote: TV Personality Delivers a View That’s Fun, Futurisitic and Funny

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Photo of Dr. Michio KakuThis year’s Keynote Presentation at the CEDIA Expo earlier this month was given by well-known physicist and television personality, Dr. Michio Kaku. Kaku is undeniably well-qualified to talk about technology…and the future. And although the official title of this keynote presentation was “The Intuitive Home of 2016,” – like all great keynote speakers, Kaku ignored that topic and spoke on one closer to his heart – the physics of the future.

And what a wild future he envisions… [Read more…] about Expo Keynote: TV Personality Delivers a View That’s Fun, Futurisitic and Funny

You Don’t Know LEDs Until You NuLEDs

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Photo of the NuLEDs Booth at 2012 CEDIA Expo

>>See a slide show of photos from the NuLEDs booth at CEDIA Expo<<

Prior to CEDIA Expo, I knew very little about LED lighting systems, but I learned a lot after meeting with Frank Sterns, new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President at NuLEDs. The remarkable NuLEDs PoE IP-addressable LED lighting system brings a new level of control, flexibility, programmability, and energy efficiency to the market. It’s a cool system that offers a new profit opportunity to industry integrators and installers.

PoE…it’s what’s nu in lighting…

[Read more…] about You Don’t Know LEDs Until You NuLEDs

EXCLUSIVE: Nortek’s Core Brands Clears the Air with strata-GEE.com in Exclusive EXPO Interview

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Nortek's Core Brands LogoThe 2012 CEDIA Expo launched with a bang for me as I previously reported when, upon entering the convention center, I was collared by a PR person who quickly walked me (without explanation) to a high-level executive for a Nortek company who felt the need to tell me – in compelling and direct terms – what he thought of strata-GEE.com’s coverage of the Core Brands consolidation. (Hint: he didn’t like it.) After a few minutes of somewhat hot-under-the-collar conversation, things cooled off a bit and he offered to get me together with the Core Brands management to clarify the situation.

Now we’re getting somewhere… [Read more…] about EXCLUSIVE: Nortek’s Core Brands Clears the Air with strata-GEE.com in Exclusive EXPO Interview

CEDIA Releases New Market Data It Says is Even More Accurate

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Erica Shonkwiler of CEDIA Market Research
Erica Shonkwiler
CEDIA Market Research

At last week’s CEDIA Expo show in Indianapolis, IN, the trade group released select market data from their second annual survey called the Size and Scope of the Residential Electronic Systems Market in the US 2012. Although compiled and released this year, the data is actually from 2011 and is a follow-up to the same report they excerpted last year for 2010.

See results from this new survey and find out why CEDIA says it’s more accurate than ever… [Read more…] about CEDIA Releases New Market Data It Says is Even More Accurate