Sony Appears to Have Pulled Out of the CEDIA Expo 2021

BREAKING NEWS

I have been covering the rapidly unfolding events as more announcements come every day of companies choosing to withdraw from CEDIA Expo 2021 in the wake of the surging infections from the COVID-19 Delta variant. While several large exhibitors have already announced their decision to pull out of the annual event, there are many more who are thought to be caught somewhere along the path of the decision process – a tough path to walk in an environment that is extremely fluid and changing daily.

One of the top brands rumored to be exiting the show, but has not yet officially announced anything, is Sony. But now, there is a strong reason to believe that Sony has already exited the Expo.

See the evidence that suggests that Sony is out of the Expo…

Although I have monitored Sony’s official channels of communication and reached out directly to Sony officials (who have yet to respond), to my knowledge, no official announcement has come from the leading tech brand on whether they are in or they are out. Yet I keep running into Sony connected sources, such as key dealers, who tell me that they have been told by company representatives that Sony is in fact out of the event.

I have not been comfortable publishing this fact until I had concrete evidence that confirms that this was the official position of the company. Well, in an accidental, roundabout manner, I believe that I have discovered that evidence.

How Researching Sound United Led Me to Sony

Recently, I reported that Sound United, another major CEDIA exhibitor, had pulled out of CEDIA citing the safety of employees and customers in a deteriorating public health environment. In reporting that news, I had looked up Sound United’s booth position on the floor. They were right in the front row with other major brands, as I noted:

“Positioned on prime real estate in the front row of the convention hall, with power brands Sony on one side and Samsung on the other, Sound United says that their booth at next month’s CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis, IN, will remain empty.”

Strata-gee story Sound United Follows Others to the Exit as CEDIA Expo Loses Another Exhibitor

That’s right, on the Expo floorplan map, Sound United had Samsung on one side of them, and Sony on the other. By the way, Samsung has officially notified their dealers that they too have pulled out of the event. It was a premium positioning between two significant tech brands in the custom integration industry.

Then I Stumbled Across This Curious Piece of Evidence

However, doing further research this weekend, I noted that Emerald has inexplicably changed their floorplan map in just the last couple of days. The booth that Sony was to occupy has been changed from the normal yellow color to a green color and had its designation changed from “Sony” to “Emerald Reserved 1.” Not only that but Sony has been removed from the master list of exhibitors.

This bit of evidence seems pretty significant to me and appears to be pretty solid evidence that Sony is out of the CEDIA Expo 2021. For these reasons, I am comfortable reporting this news to you now. So Sony, yet another major brand with a significant booth space, has exited the Expo. No doubt dealers will hear about this with some type of official notification in the next day or so.

Sony is Erased While Others Remain in Emerald’s Materials

Interestingly, Sony is still heralded as an event sponsor on the cediaexpo.com website. More interesting is the question of why Emerald chose to take immediate action to remove evidence of Sony’s participation in Expo when the company has not even at this point announced their decision. Note, for example, that Savant, Sound United, Sonos, Samsung, and Snap One all are still showing on the show’s floorplan map and are all still listed as exhibitors – even though they’ve all officially announced or notified their dealers that they are out.

Curious…

Learn more about Sony here: sony.com.