Strategy in TECH...
RTI, a leading control and home automation manufacturer, announced on Thursday that it has expanded its sales team. The company announced the appointment of Brittany Delgado as regional sales manager.
Sonance surprised us at CEDIA Expo 2023 with the launch of an all-new Visual Experience line of architectural loudspeakers. Embodying several true innovations, and available in both Sonance and James versions, the Visual Experience line will supersede the highly successful and award-winning Visual Performance series – a series that was a best-seller for most Sonance integrators.
VOXX International Corporation (Voxx) (NASDAQ: VOXX), a manufacturer and distributor of a wide range of automotive and consumer electronics products, late on Tuesday released its second quarter of fiscal 2024 financial results for the period ending August 31, 2023. These results mostly echoed those of its first quarter and the company says it is still dealing with multiple negative macroeconomic factors such as a durable drop in consumer spending, inflated retail inventories, a UAW strike, and remaining supply chain challenges. However, the results in the second quarter were slightly more moderate than in the first quarter and there was a modest improvement on a sequential basis.
Last week, Sonos quietly let the Securities and Exchange Commission know that Panos Panay resigned from the Sonos board of directors, effective September 27, 2023. They made no public announcement that I am aware of, even though this news could have a major impact on the company’s direction. Why? Simply because Panos Panay is one of the most respected technology product gurus in the industry – so much so that Sonos trumpeted his arrival loudly when they convinced him to join their board in 2020.
Separately, and within just days of the exit of Panay, the company announced three “new” (I’ll explain the quotes around the word new below) additions to its executive team, including a new, promoted from within, Chief Product Officer…
VOXX International Corporation [NASDAQ: VOXX] (VOXX Int’l) announced this morning before the stock market opened several executive changes, including the extension of the employment agreement of VOXX Chief Executive Officer Pat Lavelle. How did Wall Street react to this news? The value of VOXX stock showed a significant decline on a day when the NASDAQ exchange, where VOXX is traded, saw an overall increase of nearly +2/3rds of a percent.
Barely out of CEDIA Expo 2023, Snap One announced this week that it has launched six new warehouse locations they call local partner stores, further filling out its national distribution footprint. The company also said it will finish 2023 having hosted no fewer than 400 events – a prodigious effort at connecting with its customers, the local integrators.
Well, another CEDIA Expo is in the books and we return to our daily duties and launch into a new Fall season full of promise…and concerns. What were the big stories of this year’s edition of Emerald’s (a public, for-profit company that owns the show) CEDIA Expo? Well, I’ve scanned several summations from others in the media and it almost seems like we attended different Expos. Here’s what I think they are…
Lenbrook Corporation, a Canadian company that holds a portfolio of premium specialty brands, announced this morning it has acquired the assets of MQA, ltd., the U.K.-based company behind the Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) high-resolution audio encoding system in a transaction it hopes will breathe new life into the technology that had fallen into a form of receivership upon the loss of its major financial backer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed as part of this announcement.
Ellipsys Commercial Technology Group, part of the Nationwide Marketing Group family of dealer buying groups, announced ahead of CEDIA Expo 2023 that it has sealed a big deal with industry leader Sonance as a founding vendor partner for the new group. The news will surely provide a big boost to the young, rapidly growing, commercial integrator buying group.
AudioControl Pro (AudioControl) is launching some interesting new products at CEDIA Expo 2023, including new min-chassis audio/video receivers (AVRs) and adding Dante network connectivity to a popular multichannel amplifier. In both cases, these products open up new opportunities and capabilities for integrators – a role the company has enjoyed for several years now.
