Strategy in TECH...
Kicking off their first ever virtual dealer event called Snap Pro Live, SnapAV unleashes a broad array of new products covering their wide gamut of product and service segments. Snap Pro Live runs for three days and kicked off today (Tuesday) afternoon with a keynote from CEO John Heyman – and this major product launch.
Sound United announced today that it has closed on its acquisition of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), as expected. With this deal, B&W is rejoined with Classé – a high-end electronics manufacturer that itself was once part of B&W but then was acquired by Sound United back in Jaunuary 2018.
Bloomberg News reported late on Monday that Apple is dropping Sonos [NASDAQ: SONO] and other non-Apple branded products from their stores. The news of Sonos losing such a major customer caused their stock to derail in after hours trading, down almost 7% in value at one point. On Tuesday, Sonos stock price closed down 3.2% as Wall Street digested the news.
URC and Somfy announced last week that they have come together in “a new phase of collaboration in smart home automation.” Building on the established strengths of the partners, both URC and Somfy end users will benefit from a seamless integration of Somfy products with URC control solutions.
No question about it, Savant is on a roll. Just four months ago in May, the company surprised the industry by announcing their acquisition of GE Lighting, instantly transforming the company into one of the top lighting providers in the US. But, clearly, they weren’t done yet, as the company announced two new partnerships at CEDIA Expo Virtual – one with Robern, a luxury bathroom furnishings manufacturer…and the second with Devialet, a unique design-centric powered speaker maker out of Europe.
AudioControl, a specialty electronics manufacturer of residential, commercial, and mobile audio products, had several announcements at last week’s CEDIA Expo Virtual. While many of those were announcing, for example, the shipping availability of previously announced products, one announcement in particular caught my eye. And it’s not about a product at all!
In a press conference at CEDIA Expo Virtual last week, James Loudspeaker showed the gathered press a dramatic new expansion of their all terrain line of outdoor speaker products – new outdoor towers that just might move the earth beneath your feet. The company says that these new All Terrain Outdoor Towers “are designed to deliver concert-level performance outdoors.”
At the dawn of the custom integration industry (then custom installation industry), it became clear to many that there was strong consumer demand for a more custom solution that allowed clients to reclaim floor space lost to big box speakers. This demand led to the creation of in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. Certainly, for many consumers, this was a dramatic step forward in regaining control of their interior design. Yet as time went by, it was clear that what many clients really wanted was…completely invisible sound.
But invisible speakers generally don’t match the sound quality of traditional visible in-ceiling/in-wall models – a major performance compromise that causes many integrators to refuse to offer them. But in a press conference at the CEDIA Expo Virtual this week, Sonance told the gathered media that they have solved the conundrum of the sound quality compromise of invisible speaker performance.
Creston, one of the industry’s largest and most respected brands of control and automation solutions for the residential and commercial channels, is holding their Crestron NEXT virtual event next week – and it looks extremely interesting. Taking place over two days – September 15 & 16 (yes, during CEDIA’s virtual show), there are two versions: residential and commercial.
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) today launched an all-new upgrade to their popular 600 Series line-up that they call their Anniversary Edition. With the Anniversary Edition, the line – one of B&W’s longest running and most popular series – receives both aesthetic and technical updates…a true win-win for new 600 Series buyers.
