Strategy in TECH...
After only a little more than one year in operation, AudioXperts – a new specialty brand of audio electronics targeted at the luxury consumer market – has closed down operations. According to AudioXperts President Eli Harary, the company was forced to shut down last Friday after a key investor stopped all funding.
CEDIA’s Expo in 2013 returned to Denver, CO, a favorite location for many attendees and exhibitors – a point to which we can attest as so many said so in Strata-gee’s CEDIA Survey over the last few years. So was Denver the panacea needed to get everyone back into a positive state of mind? Was the show everything everyone hoped it would be?
Niles Audio, a division of Core Brands, had an interesting display at CEDIA 2013’s Press Day event. Although the Cynema Soundfield – an in-wall soundbar – had been previously announced, Niles executives Michael Strange and Bill Hensley, presented it in a whole new, and much more meaningful way, with a wall cutaway showing just how unique the product really is.
Perhaps it is a touch poetic that TiO, the new division launched by Automated Control Technology Partners, and the company that emerged from the ruins of Colorado vNet (then 3vNet) – should launch their exciting new home automation system the year that CEDIA returns to Colorado. We’ve seen the system, and even though we have yet to have the opportunity to operate it (it was a non-powered display) we saw enough to strongly advise that you get to know it…and quickly.
GoldenEar, the now 3-year old brainchild of speaker savant Sandy Gross, continues an aggressive product launch schedule announcing both a new larger soundbar and a line of center channel speakers with the rather shopping mall-sounding name of SuperCenters. Like all GoldenEar products, these new models are reserved strictly for GoldenEars’ limited distribution to predominantly specialty dealers and installers.
The CEDIA Expo is next week and our annual CEDIA Survey is now closed for responses. Thank you all who participated – we truly appreciate those of you who took the time to respond. Results are in and we have to say, just when we think there are no surprises left…we get surprised again.
September is just days away and those of us in the custom integration channel knows what this fact means: it’s time for the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association’s (CEDIA) Expo – this year being held in Denver, Colorado from September 26-28. As this annual trade show is such a key event – and given the fact that it provides a barometer on the overall health of the custom integration industry – for several years now, we’ve been conducting a survey to learn your thoughts about the event itself.
One of the highlights of Audio Associates Dealer Expo in New Jersey last week was a key seminar on video screens given by none other than Joe Kane, one of this industry’s best known and most respected video technology experts. Kane’s presentation was supposed to cover how to select the best screen for the installation – but the enigmatic Kane couldn’t help himself and covered – rapid-fire – several topical industry subjects for an engaging presentation that went well past its scheduled 60-minute time slot.
Earlier this week during the Audio Associates Dealer Expo held in New Jersey, we had an opportunity to meet with Mike Weaver, President of San Diego-based Soundcast Systems, Inc. Soundcast, a manufacturer of wireless outdoor speakers has been around for quite some time and although it seems to have achieved some recognition for good quality products, the company has been a little sleepy and unremarkable…until recently, that is.
With new money from the founders, a new team of executives, and recently launched new products – Soundcast has definitely cast a new expanded role for itself in the industry…
New York manufacturers representative company Audio Associates wrapped up their 2013 Dealer Expo on Tuesday and company executives said they were thrilled with the results this year – its largest dealer event ever. Audio Associates “upped the ante” by investing in a major upgrade in facilities for the Expo this year – far exceeding an upgrade the previous year by holding the event at New Jersey’s exclusive Seaview Hotel and Golf Club.
