Custom AV integrators seeking to weather the economic storm are riding the green wave -- offering clients energy management solutions as stand-alone tools, as value-add incentives or in integrated packages, our poll of integrators found. “We're moving our company in the direction of not only being able to conserve energy through our control technology but actually generating clean energy as well,” said David Young, president of the Sound Room in Chesterfield, Mo., typifying others. “It’s a combination of conserving and generating to offer a complete technology package.”
While some manufacturers are scaling back or dropping exhibit plans for the CEDIA Expo in Atlanta in September, specialty AV supplier Russound is gearing up for its biggest presence ever at the show, executives told us last week. The company has booked more exhibit-floor space than at previous Expos and plans to trumpet its 1,000-plus-SKU catalog rather than just promote high-profile products, as it has usually done, they said.
In the worst economic climate that custom home electronics retailing has endured in its short history, specialty AV dealers are scrambling to recover, redefine and reshape their businesses, our poll of those merchants found. Hit by the falloff in the home-building market, the fast- rising threat of the Internet as a distribution rival, and consumers’ reluctance to spend discretionary income, many in the custom channel are reeling and seeing little hope for an uptick any time soon.
D&M is pulling all its brands out of this year’s CEDIA Expo in Atlanta, the company confirmed late Tuesday. Executives described the move as a temporary, but prudent “hiatus” from the event, and said exhibiting at the show would be unnecessary because all the D&M brands will have introduced or shipped new products by the time its five-day run opens Sept. 9.
Hoping to fill a high-end TV niche that companies like Pioneer and Runco once occupied, specialty TV supplier NuVision met with dealers at the exclusive Soho House members’ club in Manhattan this week to re-launch its brand of upscale LCD TVs. It came armed with new financial backing from a Weston, Conn.-based investment firm, Cat Trail Capital.
Falling short of its goal to reach the coveted top spot in AV receiver market share for 2008 didn’t deter Denon from debuting an ambitious 2009 slate of AV receivers, Blu-ray players and headphones at a New York media event Monday.
Promoting the blending of Internet content with HD cable, Digeo on Thursday will release a spring update for its Moxi software that will give users additional functionality combining the two platforms, company executives told us in a briefing. Digeo launched its first retail product at CES through a limited-distribution deal with Amazon, and with the software release today, both existing and new customers with broadband connectivity will have access to half a dozen new features as they roll out this weekend, they said.
Promoting the blending of Internet content with HD cable, Digeo on Thursday will release a spring update for its Moxi software that will give users additional functionality combining the two platforms, company executives told us in a briefing. Digeo launched its first retail product at CES through a limited-distribution deal with Amazon, and with the software release today, both existing and new customers with broadband connectivity will have access to half a dozen new features as they roll out this weekend, they said.
Hoping to capitalize on the 99 percent of the residential market that custom AV installers largely have ignored, distribution company Capitol Sales is targeting six markets this year to push no-new-wires installation of multi- room and multi-channel audio for retrofits, a senior executive told us Tuesday.
PHILADELPHIA -- Consumers can “touch the future” when they visit the Sony Style Comcast Labs store, the first co- branded retail outlet between a CE vendor and a cable company, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told a ribbon-cutting ceremony late Monday. The 3,400-square-foot store at the base of the Comcast Center opened to the public Tuesday (CED March 17 p6).