Strategy in TECH...
Draper, Inc. (Draper), a leading manufacturer of window shades, projection screens, AV mounts, and architectural gym equipment, announced this week that it is further expanding its residential sales team, adding another member covering the southeastern U.S. This makes the team targeted to offering sales and support of the custom integration channel now five dedicated folks strong.
Crestron Electronics, a leading provider of smart workplace collaboration technology, announced today that in May 2023, it will hold another Modern Work Summit 2023 in Madrid. A follow-up to the first such event held in Orlando, FL last year, Modern Work Summit 2023 is a two-day in-person event centered on the topic of the dynamic and evolving workplace of today (and tomorrow), and the technology that helps power the transition.
Sonance announced today that it has made tremendous progress in building out its new company-direct sales structure for the residential channel in Canada. Within days of launching the shift away from a national distributor based approach to an HQ-driven network, the company says it has already signed up multiple new manufacturer sales representative firms in key Canadian regions.
Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), a medical products manufacturer who also owns audio products maker Sound United, said this week that a U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) Administrative Law Judge in Washington D.C. has ruled that Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing and selling models of their Apple Watch that incorporate light-based pulse oximetry technology that infringes on two of Masimo’s patents. Apple first introduced its pulse oximeter sensor in their Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020 and continues to incorporate it into models up to the current series.
CEDIA held its annual member meeting just a couple of weeks ago in mid-December. The version offered this year was decidedly different than those in the past. This is likely due to the professional association management style of the organization’s new Global President and CEO Daryl Friedman.
CEDIA and staff offered members a slick marketing package of largely pre-recorded content and carefully controlled live content. But was it too slick? Did it really brief members with a balanced picture of both the successes and the challenges that CEDIA is facing? Or was it just a form of advertisement for the association?
Hop on I-70 and head East out of Indianapolis for around forty-five minutes or so and you’ll arrive in Spiceland, a quiet, rural village of under 1,000 people that with its brick church, quaint bandstand in the park, and a picturesque running stream, feels as country-style homey as you could imagine. What brought me to Spiceland? I came to visit the town’s largest employer and Henry County’s (named for patriot Patrick Henry) second-largest employer – Draper, a manufacturer of leading projection screens and roller shades.
In a decision announced last week, U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna has granted a motion for reconsideration by Outlaw Audio that included a restraining order preventing OSD Audio “from falsely representing” a certain feature of one of its products. This decision is a result of legal action taking place between direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands Santos Elecs. Inc. dba OSD Audio and Outlaw Audio LLC.
In a dramatic move that represents a tremendous investment in consumer marketing, Savant Systems, Inc. (Savant) is piloting a second New York City showroom concept in Manhattan’s trendy SOHO district called, appropriately enough, Savant SOHO Smart Home Gallery. This new space joins the company’s long-running Flagship Experience Center, which is also in SOHO.
In what may turn out to be the best test yet of Masimo’s long-term plans for Sound United, the company announced today that it is launching an expansion of HEOS, the wireless home system initially developed by the company’s Denon division as part of a whole-home wireless music system. When Masimo acquired Sound United back in February of this year, Denon’s “cloud-connected home ecosystem” was one of the items it specifically mentioned as what attracted them to make the acquisition.
With today’s announcement, the company says that the launch of this “…expansion of the HEOS platform [will] provide a robust and always-on connection to the Masimo Health secure cloud.”
Savant Systems, Inc. (Savant) announced on Monday it’s Savant Power division has partnered with heavyweight energy solutions and services provider Sunnova Energy International, Inc. (Sunnova) (NYSE: NOVA). This is the kind of deal that can turbocharge Savant’s growth in the energy monitoring and control segment – a segment in which they are already a leader in the custom integration space.
