Strategy in TECH...
Perhaps this story will be a bit of a mirror of my experience from CE Week, some short takes on the interesting stories and technologies I uncovered there. Nothing was particularly earth-shattering…but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t many interesting items. So I encourage you to read on…
At CE Week last month, I was prepared to see the usual crop of gadgets and doodads designed to be sold to the masses through the retail channel. However this year, I was pleased to see a few more exhibitors offering products responsive to the custom integration channel. That includes the acoustics experts from Acoustic Innovations.
Smart home and security solutions were all over CE Week last month in Manhattan at the Jacob Javits Center. One solution I saw that hits both of those markets was the cleverly designed Smart Safe by Motorola. Didn’t think you needed your really dumb safe to be smart? Didn’t think you needed a safe at all? You may rethink all that when you hear Motorola’s pitch for their Flex and Bolt Smart Safe.
One of the more interesting booths I visited at CE Week earlier this month was by a company called Plott, a startup that offers very cool digital interactive measuring tools featuring augmented reality (AR) – or what they like to call extended reality (XR) – technology that interacts with an app on your smartphone in remarkable ways. This could be a game changer not only for the consumer, but for the construction, remodeling, custom integration communities as well.
At CE Week in Manhattan last week, I ran across Kangaroo, a simple home security system that just might disrupt the professional security world. Systems are simple, hubless, expandable, and incredibly affordable…what’s not to like?
CE Week, a production of the folks from CT Labs (publishers of Dealerscope, Technology Integrator, Connected Design), launched their latest iteration of of the event last week again at the Jacob Javits Center in midtown Manhattan. The gods were smiling on the promoters…granting them stunningly beautiful weather that was brightly sunshiny, with deep blue skies, and insanely comfortable temps in the mid-70s. What a dramatic contrast from the normal mid-June heat, humidity, and rain that is much more typical.
The long sad saga of Thiel is just about over for good. Having entered bankruptcy in October 2018, an auction house has finally been selected and started the process of liquidating all that remains of the former Nashville, Tenn-based Thiel…including Thiel Loudspeakers, Aurora by Thiel wireless music systems, and detritus from the Aurora Studio live streaming music studio.
Many years ago, I worked at a audio specialty retailer in East Lansing, Michigan. As audio specialists, we not only sold and serviced some of the finest audio brands around, but we also sold test gear for users and pros to use to test and fine tune their systems. And one of the brands we sold that offered high quality testing products was AudioControl, who along with their line of graphic equalizers also offered things like spectrum analyzers with calibrated microphones.
They still sell testing gear and now will be showing their latest iOS-based digital test measurement solutions at InfoComm 2019.
Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), a leading provider of trade shows and events and the current owner of CEDIA Expo, announced their financial results today for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. And while this tends to be a rather mundane or even robotic process, there were a few things unique about this report from Emerald – most notably their head-scratching comments that dramatically contrasted with the numbers.
Luxman America took advantage of the recent high-end AXPONA 2019 show to announce awards to two top manufacturer sales representatives for outstanding sales achievements. Luxman Corp. president Terry Kawakami, presented both John Pravel and Rick Tydings with special gifts from Japan to honor their over-and-above efforts.
