Strategy in TECH...
The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) announced on Monday that it will launch a general strike against Samsung that will continue until the company meets its demands for better pay and more time off, according to a report by Reuters. The union went on to warn “of [a] more damaging action” against the company than a one-day walkout last month.
In yet another sign of mega changes in the electronics industry, news comes to us out of Japan via the Nikkei that Sharp Corp. – a division of Apple supplier Foxconn – is in negotiation to sell off a majority of the property and factory associated with its largest LCD panel manufacturing facility in Japan. That news alone surprised many in Japan, as Sharp has been a world leader in developing LCD TVs, but also surprising is that it would choose to sell this facility, a flagship for them in Sakai, a coastal city in Osaka.
Also surprising, a bidding war has broken out as multiple big players seek to turn the factory into a data center for use in generative AI, a technology in which Japan feels it lags.
Many readers of Strata-gee have some kind of role in the consumer electronics/custom integration world. But how do you define that role? You might, for example, think you are a manufacturer of speakers. Or perhaps you help design and install A/V systems in residential environments. But actually, what we all really do is elevate the enjoyment and the elegance of the end user’s lifestyle.
That point was driven home to me when I had the opportunity to experience Crestron battery powered motorized shades – and its Crestron Home control solution – in my very own home.
Tidal Music AS (Tidal) has announced that users “will no longer be able to access music in the MQA or 360 Reality Audio formats via any TIDAL application or integration.” So that’s that…MQA is done and gone…as of July 24, 2024. The company says it will replace all MQA tracks with “the highest quality FLAC version” available.
For reasons I’ll explain in some detail below, I recently posted a story that was not entirely as it seems. Since I deeply value my relationship with Strata-gee readers and always strive to bring you the absolute truth, I have decided for the sake of transparency to explain to you what I did and why I made the choices I made. You can decide for yourself if you feel that I did the right thing.
Savant Systems, Inc. announced today that it has expanded its popular line of Inception motorized shades designed by J. Geiger, and in so doing says it created more opportunities for custom integration specialists everywhere – including for integrators using other brands of system control solutions. Inception features a unique, elegant, minimalist roller shade design that was very much popularized by J. Geiger – which is now owned by, and exclusively available from, Savant.
Trident IoT, a relatively new company founded by a group of industry veterans with extensive experience behind them (“over a century of industry knowledge” according to the company), announced this week that it is launching a new series of chips that it says will decrease the time-to-market for connected device manufacturers. This new series of chips is the Taurus Z-Wave Series.
But just what is the Taurus chip all about?
A Federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York delivered a verdict against Lutron Electronics Co., finding that it had infringed on a window shade patent held by GeigTech East Bay, a South Carolina company. The jury awarded GeigTech $34.6 million in damages for Lutron’s infringement, a figure that Lutron called “grossly excessive.”
When it comes to a potentially ground-breaking remote control, good things come to those who wait. But the wait is over and AVA, Inc. has announced it is now shipping its remarkable Cinema Remote, an innovative new remote control design first previewed to dealers at CEDIA Expo 2023. They may have had to wait longer than anticipated due to a manufacturing glitch, but now that is resolved and the product is flowing to the field.
A new high-end, high-performance, direct-to-consumer audio company called Austin AudioWorks is officially launching the brand during the upcoming AXPONA show at the Schaumberg Convention Center in Chicago, IL from April 12-14. The company says its products “are very different from the mainstream” and show attendees will want to stop by and audition the new line in person at the show.
