Strategy in TECH...
Russound announced this week that it has selected and appointed Michael Everett as Vice President of Sales. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Everett brings extensive market intelligence and a vast skill set to help advance Russound’s business to the next level.
This is CEDIA Expo week, and many in the custom integration industry have travelled to Denver for the last CEDIA Expo to be held with the big blue bear. Next year, CEDIA Expo moves to Las Vegas, NV, and in 2028 to Orlando, FL. But this year, all signs point to a noticeably scaled-back event in Denver, with more exhibitors pulling off the floor and cutting back on events and attendance.
Apollo Global Management, the large private equity company that recently acquired both Emerald Holdings and Questex, announced this month the creation of a new corporate entity that will manage and control the combined business of both trade show aggregators from this point forward. That new corporate parent will be known as Forge.
On Tuesday, Commercial Integrator reported that D-Tools has acquired Portal.io in a deal for which the terms were not revealed. Although the story called the deal a merger, it almost certainly was an acquisition by D-Tools, the larger of the two companies. D-Tools is majority-owned by Greybull Stewardship, a private equity company headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming. It also recently received a $12 million investment from StellarIQ, another private equity company led by John Heyman, former CEO of SnapOne.
In an overall challenging global economy, Sony Group recently released financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The company reported a solid 8% or ¥216.2 billion of revenue growth for a total revenue in the quarter of ¥2.83 trillion. Even more impressive, the company reported that net income grew 32%. While operations did improve, the lion’s share of these overall gains was due to a favorable foreign exchange rates and the return of tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration’s “reciprocal tariffs” program as illegal.
Still, Sony Group had a lot of positives to talk about.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based AVPro Global Holdings, parent company of AVPro Edge, AudioControl, RTI, Bullet Train, Murideo, ProControl, and ThenAudio, is a leading house of brands in custom integration for both the residential and commercial markets. And now we’ve learned that the AVPro Global train just keeps rolling down the track, picking up momentum at every turn, based on the announcement this month that it has once again qualified for, and been recognized by, Inc. (which owns Inc. Magazine) as one of the 5000 fastest-growing privately owned companies in America.
As our industry has transitioned from the retail consumer electronics trade to the more sophisticated, professionally installed home automation and smart home systems based on IP networks with sophisticated and sensitive control systems, the game has changed. Sensitive equipment like the electronics being installed today can be susceptible to power supply quality issues. This can lead to system performance problems, equipment failures, reduced system lifespans, unhappy clients, and profit-robbing additional truck rolls to try to solve often vexing, intermittent conditions.
Now integrators can offer an affordable and effective solution called Wavecrest that prevents these problems from occurring in the first place.
Universal Electronics Inc. (Nasdaq: UEIC) – one of the industry’s leading manufacturers of remote controls – made several consequential announcements at the end of last week, including its second quarter of Fiscal 2026 financial results, a significant management shakeup, the launch of an infringement lawsuit against Amazon, and the issuance of a special dividend for investors.
That’s a lot of change for one company…
Marantz, a Sound United brand, and both of which are part of Harman International Industries, Inc., which itself is part of Samsung Electronics, announced today that it has launched a new series of the popular Cinema Series AV receivers (AVRs). This new “Series 2” builds upon the technologies and techniques of the original series, as well as moves the ball down the field with several new advancements.
In retrofit projects, lighting conversations often begin with a limitation. The client wants a more polished, layered environment. They want rooms that feel warmer at night, more comfortable during the day, and more intentional overall. But the house itself may not cooperate.
The ceilings may not be worth opening. The existing wiring may only support a few fixtures. The architecture may be too valuable, too delicate, or simply too expensive to disrupt in pursuit of a full lighting rebuild.
