Strategy in TECH...
Wow, surprising numbers from a new research report from Parks Associates shows that control system adoption jumped a full 38% in 2019 as compared to 2018. That’s a really big jump in a really short period of time.
U.K. based high-end electronics manufacturer Chord Electronics has selected The Sound Organization, of Arlington, TX, as its importer and distributor for the North American market. The move follows the termination of their previous distributor, Bluebird Music who is said to have represented the line for 20-years.
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.
A few months ago, I unexpectedly became unemployed. There had been occasions in my career when it was clear that I needed to get the hell out of Dodge —but this wasn’t one of them.
A new job would not appear overnight; that was obvious. I was up to my ears in fearful self-absorption.
Then things changed…and the world was in upheaval.
No doubt about it, Crestron is on a roll. They have recently had a series of announcements – not of the ho-hum type, but of the more meaningful, perhaps industry-changing type. Now we learn about another new partnership being announced – Crestron is working with Logitech and Zoom to deliver HomeTime, an upgraded home video conferencing solution perfect for this strange new work-from-home (WFH) world in which we all find ourselves.
On Wednesday, we learned that Savant Systems Inc. (Savant), has acquired the lighting business from none other than the mighty GE. Terms of the transaction were not released, but the Wall Street Journal reports that “the transaction valued the unit at around $250 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.” GE has been a major lighting provider for over a hundred years.
Telling me, “I’m just taking some time to do those things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Sandy Gross, renowned² founder of three major speaker brands (Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, GoldenEar Technology), has stepped down as President Emeritus from his most recent one – GoldenEar. In a telephone interview this week, Gross shares with Strata-gee readers his reasons for making this announcement now, and reminisces on his nearly 50-year career building three popular speaker brands now in the homes of many thousands of consumers.
OK…I don’t want to overstate this, but over the last few years, integration industry giants Crestron and Lutron have been…shall we say…a little competitive with each other. Maybe not directly so, but certainly there have been skirmishes over several lines of products. Over time, the two companies’ line extensions have been progressively encroaching more and more into each other’s territory.
Well, that’s over now, as Creston announced last week that it has forged “an alliance” with Lutron – integrating several of the lighting company’s products into the Crestron Home ecosystem. Dealers who sell both brands are undoubtedly rejoicing – Hallelujah! Peace has come!
I’ve been saying for a while now that really, really tough economic data was coming. Even though it was obvious to many of us that the economy was crashing – thanks to COVID-19 – it takes time for backward-looking statistics to catch up. Well, now they’re starting to catch up and with overall residential housing construction starts dropping an eye-popping 30.2% in April…they are ugly.
But read on to see why one piece of data seems to suggest that a housing turnaround make be lurking in the near future – or is even already here…
Mike Park, a key partner and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of James Loudspeaker, retired this month due to health issues, the company has announced. It would be hard to overstate Park’s influence in the growth and success of James Loudspeaker. As a key role player in the company for the last 15 years, Park has made many contributions to the company’s technology direction and product development, driving an era of rapid growth that ultimately led to James’ acquisition by Sonance in 2019.
