A couple of interesting announcements this week from Premium Audio Company (PAC), the Voxx Int’l subsidiary that markets the company’s premier audio brands such as Klipsch, Onkyo, Integra, Jamo, Pioneer, Elite, and more. First up, Rob Standley gets a big promotion to President of Technology and Product, a big step up. Second, and I would say counter-intuitively, the company says it’s lowering prices on many of its “most popular and best-selling audio solutions.”
Strategy
HTSN Becomes Oasys, Welcomes an Expanded Class of Dealers as Part of Nationwide’s ‘Drive to 1,000’
Home Technology Specialists Nationwide (HTSN), part of the Nationwide Marketing Group’s stable of dealer/integrator buying organizations, announced today that it is rebranding its group, signifying an all-new image and an expanded mission to welcome an underserved class of dealers as part Nationwide’s “path to 1,000” members. HTSN will now be known as Oasys Residential Technology Group (ORTG).
Learn more about Oasys and Its expanding role
[Read more…] about HTSN Becomes Oasys, Welcomes an Expanded Class of Dealers as Part of Nationwide’s ‘Drive to 1,000’Snap One Reports Mixed Results for Fiscal ’22 Q4 & Full Year; Forecasts 2023 Resi Decline
Red Flags: Residential Market is ‘Softening’; Consumers are ‘Cautious’; Channel Inventory ‘Destocking’
Snap One Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SNPO) released their fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and full-year results after the close of the market on Tuesday and held a conference call for investment analysts shortly afterward with more details. The company produced a prodigious amount of data that they suggest shows success in the face of adversity, and forecast a decline in their performance in fiscal 2023.
They also said the industry slowed down in 2022 and will continue to be slow for the first three quarters of 2023.
See more on the latest Snap One earnings report and forecast
[Read more…] about Snap One Reports Mixed Results for Fiscal ’22 Q4 & Full Year; Forecasts 2023 Resi DeclineAzione Unlimited Spring Conf. Shows Members Their Future is Unlimited
Launches Two Major Initiatives Partnering with Nationwide
On Thursday, Azione Unlimited wrapped up its spring conference, this year known as the Didactic Dovecote in the Desert, which took place in Scottsdale, AZ from March 7th to March 9th. Although this is the first Azione event I have personally attended, it was an impressive display of solidarity, sharing, learning, and planning with a lot of enthusiastic participation by the organization’s members and vendors.
Perhaps most importantly, as part of the Nationwide Marketing Group’s family of companies, the association announced two major new initiatives: the Azione Academy, an online self-paced education program; and the Drive to 1,000 collective membership drive. This initiative by Nationwide is their plan to drive collective group membership to 1,000 members overall.
Learn more about the Azione spring conference…
[Read more…] about Azione Unlimited Spring Conf. Shows Members Their Future is UnlimitedSony Offers Unusual Incentive to Attract Chip Engineers for Expanding Division
Sony is looking to make a major investment to fuel even greater growth in its semiconductor business – a hot category right now around the globe. This means they need to hire engineers, dozens of engineers. But one of the consequences of so many companies chasing the semiconductor category is that competition has really been turbocharged for everything…especially engineers.
Now the company thinks it has found the perfect incentive to lock up the best engineers – something that is not nearly as prevalent in Japan as in the U.S.
See what Sony plans to offer to lock up the right engineers
[Read more…] about Sony Offers Unusual Incentive to Attract Chip Engineers for Expanding DivisionCEDIA Intros New Workforce Initiative – NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit
CEDIA has launched a new workforce acquisition initiative called CEDIA NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit. Designed to provide integrators the tools they need to improve and expand their outreach to attract new candidates to the smart home industry, the association has created an impressive series of multimedia tools to grease the skids in getting new recruits through integrators’ doors.
Learn more about this new CEDIA workforce initiative
[Read more…] about CEDIA Intros New Workforce Initiative – NextGen: Smart Home Career ToolkitDraper Announces Further Expansion of Its Resi CI Sales Team
Draper, Inc. (Draper), a leading manufacturer of window shades, projection screens, AV mounts, and architectural gym equipment, announced this week that it is further expanding its residential sales team, adding another member covering the southeastern U.S. This makes the team targeted to offering sales and support of the custom integration channel now five dedicated folks strong.
Learn more about the Draper sales team expansion
[Read more…] about Draper Announces Further Expansion of Its Resi CI Sales TeamCrestron Announces ‘Modern Work Summit’ on Latest Workplace Trends
Crestron Electronics, a leading provider of smart workplace collaboration technology, announced today that in May 2023, it will hold another Modern Work Summit 2023 in Madrid. A follow-up to the first such event held in Orlando, FL last year, Modern Work Summit 2023 is a two-day in-person event centered on the topic of the dynamic and evolving workplace of today (and tomorrow), and the technology that helps power the transition.
See more on the Crestron Modern Work Summit 2023
[Read more…] about Crestron Announces ‘Modern Work Summit’ on Latest Workplace TrendsSonance Shifts into Overdrive Building New Canada Resi Sales Structure
Sonance announced today that it has made tremendous progress in building out its new company-direct sales structure for the residential channel in Canada. Within days of launching the shift away from a national distributor based approach to an HQ-driven network, the company says it has already signed up multiple new manufacturer sales representative firms in key Canadian regions.
Learn more about the new Sonance sales structure in Canada
[Read more…] about Sonance Shifts into Overdrive Building New Canada Resi Sales StructureMasimo, Parent of Sound United, Scores Big Win in Patent Action Against Apple
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), a medical products manufacturer who also owns audio products maker Sound United, said this week that a U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) Administrative Law Judge in Washington D.C. has ruled that Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing and selling models of their Apple Watch that incorporate light-based pulse oximetry technology that infringes on two of Masimo’s patents. Apple first introduced its pulse oximeter sensor in their Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020 and continues to incorporate it into models up to the current series.