Strategy in TECH...
*SEE UPDATE BELOW
We learned Wednesday that long time industry veteran and for the last 28-years New York Metropolitan market sales representative Steve Glatzl has passed away. According to his company, the New York Marketing Team, Glatzl passed away suddenly last week on July 3rd.
Gibson Brands (née Gibson Guitars) announced last week that it has opened a showroom in Tokyo, Japan that it calls a “pioneering music lifestyle concept showroom.” Although Gibson Brands owns many different brands, this particular showroom focuses on just three of them: Gibson Guitars, TEAC and Onkyo.
When the history of Monster Products is written some day in the future, there will be many legitimate highlights for their historian to ponder. First and foremost among these will be the fact that CEO Noel Lee (known as the Head Monster) virtually single-handedly created an industry when in the late 70s he popularized step-up, higher quality speaker cables that independent specialty retailers pushed like crazy over zip cord because it was much more profitable for them (and for Lee). And even though Monster Cable was more expensive for consumers, a clever Monster-created retail display demonstrated to them that they could indeed hear the difference with their own ears.
But we’re pretty certain one scene will not make Monster’s corporate history highlight reel – the company’s failure to continue to capitalize on its partnership with Beats by Dr. Dre. That partnership dissolved some two-plus years ago…with Beats going on to be purchased by Apple recently for $3.2 billion. Monster’s share of that eye-popping windfall: $0.
Sony Corp., the troubled Japanese giant consumer electronics company, has launched an internal early retirement program in a bid to cut overhead in its headquarters. The company has already announced major worldwide staff cutbacks, but it hopes this new incentive for headquarters staff will cut administrative costs by about 30%.
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, 1845
Is Dolby’s new Atmos format the next frontier in surround sound processing? Or will it merit a repeat of Paul Klipsch’s famous line: “Ho, hum, another breakthrough”?
You’d certainly think the former after prowling the aisles at the just-concluded CE Week in NYC. Both Onkyo and Pioneer showed prototype Atmos-enabled A/V receivers (complete with demonstrations under what must be called “challenging” conditions) while Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, and Integra all indicate they’ll be ready with an array of products in late Q3 or early Q4 this year. But will Paul Klipsch be proven prophetic once again, even if posthumously? That remains to be seen.
[Read more…] about A Deeper Dive into the World of Dolby Atmos; Is This Audio’s 3D?
Core Brands, LLC, a division of Nortek, Inc., announced Tuesday that Atlantic Integrated, a Rockleigh, NJ-based sales representative company, has been awarded most of its brands for representation in the New York Metropolitan region and Fairfield County, CT. This appointment is effective immediately and represents a realignment of the brands under one rep firm.
One of the big themes at CE Week 2014 was the unofficial official rollout of Dolby’s latest surround sound technology – Atmos. Both Onkyo and Pioneer intro’d, displayed, and demo’d Atmos systems. However, since both companies showed prototypes, what we heard was only an approximation of what the final production units should sound like.
We participated in demos of, and closely listened to, BOTH the Onkyo and the Pioneer Atmos systems.
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.
Harry S. Truman, quoted by Time, June 9, 1975
