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In a New Twist, CEDIA Board Names Not One, But Two Interim Co-CEOs

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CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association, announced earlier this week that it has named Giles Sutton, current Senior Vice President of Member Success and Sales, and Kory Dickerson, current Senior Vice President of Operations, as Interim Co-CEOs, replacing Tabatha O’Connor – the current CEO whose contract is ending in January. The Board of Directors had previously announced that it decided not to extend O’Connor’s contract, but didn’t say why. Ostensibly, the organization is still searching for a more permanent solution, but for now, we get two CEOs instead of one.

See more on this eyebrow raising CEDIA announcement…

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EVA Automation Escapes Forced Bankruptcy; But Shuts Down Anyway

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eva automation executives
EVA Automation in happier times

EVA Admits ‘Financial Distress’ & A Business ‘Wind Down’

EVA Automation, the now former owner of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) dodged a bullet when late last month U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, the Honorable Hannah L. Blumenstiel, entered an order dismissing the involuntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy brought against them by Top Victory Investments Limited (whose attorneys use the acronym TPV). With that decision, a forced bankruptcy was avoided. However, as court records clearly demonstrate, the company did feel some pain as a result of this filing, and according to their attorneys were in the process of conducting an orderly shut down of the business.

Not only that, but we learn much more about EVA Automation‘s relationship with Bowers & Wilkins – and their degraded circumstances based largely on the failure of their Formation wireless speaker line marketed under the B&W brand.

Learn more about EVA Automation’s situation…

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Guitar Center, Owner of AVDG, Files for Bankruptcy

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Guitar Center store
Guitar Center store [Click to enlarge]

In an unusual Saturday night filing, Guitar Center, Inc., parent company to AV integration company Audio Visual Design Group (AVDG), filed for bankruptcy protection. The move was widely expected by many industry watchers for years, and caps a difficult business history for Guitar Center, starting back in 2007 when they were first acquired by Bain Capital.

See what we know so far about the Guitar Center and AVDG bankruptcy…

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Sonos is Getting Hooked on D2C Biz; Revenues & Profits Exceed Expectations

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But Is Everything Really as Good as It Looks?

Sonos, Inc. [NASDAQ: SONO] released their fourth quarter and full year financial results for fiscal 2020. Their performance pleasantly surprised Wall Street and their stock value exploded well over 20% in Thursday trading as the company exceeded analysts’ estimates for both revenue growth and profits. But is everything as it appears here?

See more on Sonos financial results…

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Onkyo Corp. is Insolvent; Now It’s in a Struggle to Survive

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image from Onkyo report on Fiscal 2020 results
Image from Onkyo report on fiscal 2020 results, heading section on new plans [Click to enlarge]

Onkyo Corporation had a really tough fiscal 2020 – the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2020. How tough was it? So tough that the company was forced to announce that a massive drop in revenues and record losses had pushed the company into insolvency – calling into question its ability to continue as a going concern. It doesn’t get much tougher than that. And this announcement triggered a Tokyo Stock Exchange action – invoking a rule that starts a clock on a limited grace period for the company to cure the situation – their insolvency – before a forced delisting from the JASDAQ stock exchange is implemented.

So what happens now with Onkyo?

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Let’s Get Ready to Ruummbbblllleee…Subwoofer Powerhouse Velodyne is Back

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Velodyne Acoustics' insane 1812 subwoofer
Velodyne Acoustics’ insane 1812 subwoofer with 18″ & 12″ drivers

When we last visited with Velodyne, it was all the way back in 2014 when the company quietly laid off audio staff, and suddenly – without warning – fired all of their manufacturer sales representatives and their dealers. Shortly after this, the company hired a high-powered retail executive (who would go on to eventually go to prison) to launch a direct-to-consumer business. Our coverage drew the attention of then Velodyne President Marta Thoma Hall, who is wife of company founder and chief engineer David Hall, leading to an interview with her on the many dramatic changes taking place at the company. Whew! That was a lot of action in a very short period of time.

Ultimately, it appears that David Hall got bored with audio and moved on with his new prized invention – an improved Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor technology that is important to the autonomous vehicle market. According to a report by Audioholics, Ford and China’s Baidu partnered to invest $150 million in Velodyne’s Lidar technology and Elvis…er…Hall…has definitely left the audio building. Velodyne split into two companies (Velodyne Lidar is now a $100 million public company [NASDAQ:VLDR]) and for a time last year, it looked like curtains for the audio division.

But now Velodyne’s audio division is back…

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AKM Fire: 2020 was Almost Over, Then Disaster Struck Again

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A photo of the burned out AKM factory after the fire was extinguished
AKM Factory Fire [Click to enlarge]

Massive AKM Factory Fire in Japan to Disrupt Global Supply of Critical Digital ICs

Just when you thought 2020 was almost over and the COVID calamity and its associated disasters were mostly behind us, a source tipped Strata-gee off to a major new disaster that will almost surely cause a significant disruption in the 2021 supply of those critical A/V products we all use/sell/and install every day. You may not be aware of this AKM fire story now, but we are all facing what will likely be another major supply chain headache in the near future.

Warning – your supply of key products is now threatened…

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Despite 90 Virtual Events & $40M in Claims Income, Emerald Loses $22.3M

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Emerald Holding logo

Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), formerly Emerald Expositions, reported their fiscal 2020 third quarter results this week and despite their best efforts to shift their business to online virtual conferences, the company reported revenues of just $8.5 million and generated a net loss of $22.3 million. This loss was even deeper than their loss of $19.7 million in the same quarter in 2019 which was well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S.

See more on the results for Emerald Holding this past fiscal quarter…

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In the Age of COVID, Savant Recasts The Showroom Experience in NYC

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photo of the interior of Savant's New York City Experience Center

In what constitutes just one more sign that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to have a lasting impact on how we do business for the near-to-medium-term future, Savant has come up with a cool way to cleverly optimize the showroom experience in this new difficult environment. The company was in the process of building an all-new Savant Experience Center in New York City when the pandemic hit. Then, when construction was completed, company managers looked at each other and said, now what?

What did Savant come up with? Read on…

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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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