Strategy in TECH...
In a special presentation to Strata-gee, Snap One educators Rus Rassmussen and Shayne Larsen shared with me the company’s latest revamped educational initiative designed to better educate integrators by improving comprehension and retention. This program, created and designed by the company’s education team, is now beginning to roll out and is impressive in scope, style, and design – it just may be Snap One’s greatest invention yet.
Last week, Crestron Electronics, a leading provider of control and automation solutions, wrapped up their two-day regional show, the Crestron Next Road Trip, at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. The well-attended two-day event saw hundreds of integrators descend on Boston to participate in an event that included whole sections of their displays from the CEDIA Expo and InfoComm trade show booths and offered full-day educational courses for both their residential and commercial dealers.
Crestron Electronics, one of the industry’s most powerful home automation brands, announced today that it has launched a new line of battery-powered custom shades. While Crestron has been in the shading business for quite some time now, this new line of battery-powered shades – to my mind at least – seems perfectly suited as a complement to their burgeoning Crestron Home residential automation ecosystem.
Snap One Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SNPO) announced the results for its fiscal 2021 third quarter last week and said that thanks in part to an August 2021 price increase and continued expansion of its dealer base, the company booked a substantial revenue increase to $260.7 million, or 15% higher than the same quarter the year before. However, the company additionally reported a net loss of -$21.5 million, way below the net income of $1.4 million in the quarter last year, due to a significant increase in SG&A expenses.
Snap One announced this week that it has opened another “Partner Store” – a locally based warehouse location – that carries its products as well as other brands and offers support and training for area integrators. This new location opened in Hollywood, Florida, and – interestingly – is being operated by their Allnet branch.
Major industry player Sound United is on the cusp of launching its first-ever virtual event called, appropriately enough, “Inside Sound United” (ISU). Coming November 9-12, 2021 to a computer near you, this highly immersive 4-day virtual event will be chock full of useful content and allow integrators to experience a side of the company not usually seen.
In a rare show of bipartisanship, a group of U.S. Senators has sent a strongly worded letter to a leading consumer electronics industry remote control maker Universal Electronics, Inc. (UEI) launching a probe into the company’s hiring practices in China. Unique to UEI is that they own their own factories in China (most contract with existing China OEM factories) and a recent damning investigation by Reuters alleges the company is working with the Chinese government to utilize a widely persecuted Uyghur minority in a forced labor arrangement, a human rights violation. UEI has denied the accusation but so far has not provided data to back up their denial.
I have just learned that Crestron is planning to launch a monster series of regional dealer shows, called the Crestron NEXT Road Trip, that sounds as though they’re going to be spectacular – with new product launches, full product displays & demos, and in-depth educational courses offered. The multi-day event will include huge displays from both the company’s commercial and residential business units in what promises to be quite a show.
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) continues to launch new products without missing a beat since they became part of Sound United a little over a year ago. And those products span the range from their revered high-end 800 Series Diamond models to now, a refresh of their Zeppelin speaker system that the company describes as “a complete stereo system in one component.”
As the first and one of the most prominent brands that decided to pull out of the recent CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis last month, Savant based their difficult decision on placing the safety of their employees and customers as their key concern in a time of surging Delta-variant COVID infections. But that decision did not mean that they didn’t want to communicate with their dealers about the many exciting developments at the company. So Savant developed a powerful two-pronged approach (the 1-2 punch I mentioned) to deliver their dealers a better – virtual – trade show.
