Strategy in TECH...
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. When I ask business owners and executives to tell me why they started their business, you’d be surprised at the mushy gobbledy-gook I’m often offered in response. So when strata-GEE.com readers at the CEDIA Expo pointed me in the direction of the Energy Squad booth – I was skeptical. Was this another tech head playing with toys who’ll be here-today and gone-tomorrow?
The recent CEDIA Expo was, as usual, dominated by hundreds of companies engaged in a seemingly endless and often mindless rash of line extensions – effectively burying us in a sea of products of uninspiring incrementalism. This year, however, thanks to the diligent effort of many of strata-GEE.com’s and ALERT’s readers and followers that we saw at the show – we were often pointed us in direction of some hidden gems. Thanks to you, we were successful in uncovering wisps of innovation from a few new or reincarnated companies.
One such interesting start-up, whose launch we recently reported on here, with a follow-up story here, is AudioXperts. At Expo, AudioXperts showed us an interesting new product concept they call Korners.
This year’s Keynote Presentation at the CEDIA Expo earlier this month was given by well-known physicist and television personality, Dr. Michio Kaku. Kaku is undeniably well-qualified to talk about technology…and the future. And although the official title of this keynote presentation was “The Intuitive Home of 2016,” – like all great keynote speakers, Kaku ignored that topic and spoke on one closer to his heart – the physics of the future.
Prior to CEDIA Expo, I knew very little about LED lighting systems, but I learned a lot after meeting with Frank Sterns, new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President at NuLEDs. The remarkable NuLEDs PoE IP-addressable LED lighting system brings a new level of control, flexibility, programmability, and energy efficiency to the market. It’s a cool system that offers a new profit opportunity to industry integrators and installers.
The 2012 CEDIA Expo launched with a bang for me as I previously reported when, upon entering the convention center, I was collared by a PR person who quickly walked me (without explanation) to a high-level executive for a Nortek company who felt the need to tell me – in compelling and direct terms – what he thought of strata-GEE.com’s coverage of the Core Brands consolidation. (Hint: he didn’t like it.) After a few minutes of somewhat hot-under-the-collar conversation, things cooled off a bit and he offered to get me together with the Core Brands management to clarify the situation.
At last week’s CEDIA Expo show in Indianapolis, IN, the trade group released select market data from their second annual survey called the Size and Scope of the Residential Electronic Systems Market in the US 2012. Although compiled and released this year, the data is actually from 2011 and is a follow-up to the same report they excerpted last year for 2010.
Then Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) today released attendance data from last week’s Expo in Indianapolis, IN and it was a mix of good news and bad news. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Total attendance at the event came in at 16,900, down 4 percent from last year’s attendance of 17,600. This figure is also the lowest recorded attendance since 2001, coming in 1.8 percent under that year’s attendance level of 17,200.
Wednesday, the day before the 2012 CEDIA Expo opens its show floor, is both the day many integrators come to the convention center to take educational classes – and also the press comes for a day full of press conferences.
I approached the event this year with a high level of anticipation, as our strata-GEE.com CEDIA survey suggested that attendance might be better than originally anticipated. As I approached the convention center, I was surprised by the lack of activity around the outside of the hall. Then a CEDIA hotel shuttle bus showed up and – suddenly – we had a fair amount of activity.
BREAKING NEWS
Multiple industry sources have confirmed that Xantech President Graham Hallett has resigned his position with the company, effective September 1st. Xantech is one of ten Nortek, Inc. brands being consolidated under the new “Core Brands” umbrella company, the formation of which we recently reported.
Since the consolidation of the various Nortek brands began back in 2010, there have been many employees leaving the company – mostly at lower- and mid-level positions. Recently, however, some of the top-level executives of the various Nortek brands have joined the exodus.
[Read more…] about Nortek Noise Continues – Xantech President Hallett Leaves Company
strata-GEE.com’s survey on the 2012 CEDIA Expo has wrapped up and we want to thank everyone for their participation. And participation this year was up over 90% as compared to last year – which was off 20% as compared to the 2010 survey. We have no explanation as to why so many more people took part in the survey this year – however, we received more support from various industry members spreading the word on Twitter and other social media networks than in year’s past, which may have been a factor. A special thanks to those who helped spread the word!
