Strategy in TECH...
Leading consumer speaker brand Klipsch announced this week that it is partnering with Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 as the official home speakers for the series which launched on Disney+ Wednesday. If you have kids, you likely know the popularity of the X-Men franchise, which with this new series looks to trade on that popularity to the benefit of both partners.
Two power players in the high performance home cinema game – media server specialist Kaleidescape and screen expert Stewart Filmscreen – have partnered to deliver a better “seamless screening experience.” And in the process, the partnership will result in a limited-time offer to buyers for a $1,000 discount off the MSRP of qualifying Kaleidescape products.
Help Lightning, a new support solution the company likes to call “virtual expertise,” not only offers a new potential benefit for integrators to increase the amount of safe in-home support for their clients in these COVID-19 times – they also offer CEDIA members a free 60-day try-before-you-buy experience to test it out in your market with your clients. And in the middle of the pandemic, there has never been a better time to look at offering clients a new support solution that adheres to strict safety standards by limiting person-to-person exposure.
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.
Here’s a dilemma…imagine you make a product that is so good that it may be your peak achievement. It’s built solidly with great technology, sounds great, and works today…and for many years of tomorrows-to-come. Your engineers forgot to build in “planned obsolescence” where the product will “automatically” require upgrading a few years down the road. In fact, it’s built so well, you put an industry-leading 20-year warranty on it!
How do you get owners – who are, for the most part, blissfully enjoying this product for years and years – to upgrade to the latest version with even newer and better technology? It is a conundrum that Bryston faced…and has now solved…by offering an easy upgrade program for owners of their famous 4B amplifiers.
Outlaw Audio, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketer of specialty electronics and speakers, is running a new type of promotion – one that may be totally in tune with the COVID-19 dominated world of today. Now, consumers making a qualifying purchase from Outlaw Audio can receive a number of high quality N95 masks included with their order for free.
Williams Sonoma launches a fun line of kitchen countertop appliances designed like popular Star Wars characters. These definitely should be on the top of your gift list for the person in your life who likes to cook…and loves Star Wars.
At the urging the industry minister of Japan, the country’s Fair Trade Commission will look at a new program announced by Amazon Japan that some suggest may be anti-competitive in nature. Depending on the Commission’s findings, Amazon may be forced to abandon the idea, which is a form of a consumer rebate program.
Emerald Expositions’ stock nose-dived 19% in early afternoon trading last Thursday as the company released its third quarter fiscal results and announced that David Loechner has resigned as the company’s President and CEO. Current CFO Philip Evans takes over as Interim President and CEO.
Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (stock symbol: EEX) reported last week that attendance at CEDIA Expo 2018, the first Expo run totally by Emerald Expositions employees, had an attendance of “more than 20,000 home tech pros” or flat as compared to their announcement of “more than 20,000 home tech professionals” at the event last year.
