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EXCLUSIVE> CEDIA Executives Address Issues Raised by strata-GEE.com Readers

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As long time readers of strata-GEE.com (and the previous stratecongroup.com) know, for the last three years, we have conducted a survey of our readers on their attitudes of both the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the CEDIA EXPO. Last month, our CEDIA EXPO survey saw a dramatic increase in participation – up over 90%.

Over 80% of the participants completed the entire survey and a review of the survey results showed that we got a lot of great comments on our open-ended questions. Whether positive or negative, it was clear that strata-GEE.com readers were serious, thoughtful, engaged, and concerned about this event.

Now, in a first for us, CEDIA responds to our survey – and more – in an exclusive interview… [Read more…] about EXCLUSIVE> CEDIA Executives Address Issues Raised by strata-GEE.com Readers

Start-up ube Wins $1 Million People’s Choice Award

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Launched earlier this week at DEMO, the high-tech conference in Silicon Valley that just wrapped up, start-up company ube won the People’s Choice Award and $1 million worth of media from IDG properties. We profiled ube in our post here…saying that they just may be on to something and the DEMO judges apparently agree.

Learn more about this win here… [Read more…] about Start-up ube Wins $1 Million People’s Choice Award

NEC & Partners Launch Program to Drive Adoption of Residential Energy Storage

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Photo of NEC's residential storage unit.
NEC’s residential storage unit

It seems that a great green wave is sweeping over Japan as the government and several businesses partner to drive adoption of, and set standards for, the residential energy storage (RES) system business. In a separate post, we reported on a story out of Japan of an effort by Toshiba, Hitachi, and the Japanese government to persuade the IEC, an international standards setting commission, to set an international standard for RES systems based on their proposal.

And on the same day that this was reported, separately the NEC Corp. announced that they have partnered with Orix Corp. to roll-out a national program (in the domestic Japan market) to lease NEC residential energy storage systems to consumers. Although these systems are not new, they have struggled to grow their share of the market – largely because the systems tend to be expensive.

But that’s all about to change… [Read more…] about NEC & Partners Launch Program to Drive Adoption of Residential Energy Storage

Energy Squad Wants to Help Integrators to Catch the Green Wave

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Photo of Energy Squad Founder Jonathan Stovall
Jonathan Stovall, Energy Squad Founder

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?

Boy was I in for a surprise… [Read more…] about Energy Squad Wants to Help Integrators to Catch the Green Wave

AudioXperts Korners the Market

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Photo of AudioXperts President Eli Harary Showing KornersThe 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.

And Korners may just represent the first successful attempt to bring peace in our industry’s biggest and bloodiest war… [Read more…] about AudioXperts Korners the Market

NuLEDs Gets a New Spark…Or Should We Say, A New Sparky?

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Photo of Mike DetmerNuLEDs, Inc., an LED lighting specialty company launching a new Power-over-Ethernet, IP-addressable LED lighting system, announced late last night that Mike “Sparky” Detmer is joining the company as its new Global Vice President for residential and light commercial markets. Detmer’s appointment is part of the company’s aggressive new ramp-up as it prepares to launch its latest PoE LED lighting solution, expected to hit the market in just a few months.

Is Detmer just the spark NuLEDs needs?… [Read more…] about NuLEDs Gets a New Spark…Or Should We Say, A New Sparky?

You Don’t Know LEDs Until You NuLEDs

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Photo of the NuLEDs Booth at 2012 CEDIA Expo

>>See a slide show of photos from the NuLEDs booth at CEDIA Expo<<

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.

PoE…it’s what’s nu in lighting…

[Read more…] about You Don’t Know LEDs Until You NuLEDs

EXCLUSIVE: Nortek’s Core Brands Clears the Air with strata-GEE.com in Exclusive EXPO Interview

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Nortek's Core Brands LogoThe 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.

Now we’re getting somewhere… [Read more…] about EXCLUSIVE: Nortek’s Core Brands Clears the Air with strata-GEE.com in Exclusive EXPO Interview

CEDIA Releases New Market Data It Says is Even More Accurate

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Erica Shonkwiler of CEDIA Market Research
Erica Shonkwiler
CEDIA Market Research

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.

See results from this new survey and find out why CEDIA says it’s more accurate than ever… [Read more…] about CEDIA Releases New Market Data It Says is Even More Accurate

EXPO Attendance Declines Again

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2012 CEDIA Expo LogoThen 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.

But is there a silver lining?… [Read more…] about EXPO Attendance Declines Again