Strategy in TECH...
Early last week, a holiday week, sources reached out to relay the news that multiple manufacturer sales representatives were being terminated by James Loudspeaker. Happy Thanksgiving…you’re fired. In chats, I heard of the pain that some those reps felt – for while getting terminated is never a happy circumstance, getting terminated during holidays seems particularly poignant.
Sonance announced today that they have entered into an agreement to acquire Minden, NV-based James Loudspeaker. This is the first major acquisition by Sonance since the purchase of Sound Advance in 2005, and is truly a marriage of two companies with a strong resonance in their approach to the custom integration industry.
It was like my Uber car was actually a time machine. After landing in Reno, Nevada, my Uber driver – an eccentric older fellow who is both a ride-share driver and a real estate agent – demonstrated an uncommon grasp of the local geography and history. Heading south on I-580 out of Reno there was a dramatic ridge of mountains to my right and a nonstop running monologue from my old-West style stagecoach driver: “Those are the Sierra-Nevada Mountains,” he helpfully offered. And on the left…the high desert.
James Loudspeaker, an innovative manufacturer of architectural speaker products for the residential and commercial custom integration industry, announced this week that they have redesigned their speaker grilles to a new Microperf-style for their small aperture product line. The new Microperf design is sure to be popular with architects, designers, integrators and end-users as it helps to more perfectly visually blend the speakers into the surrounding environment.
Innovative architectural loudspeaker designer/manufacturer James Loudspeaker announced this week that it will split off its Mavericks theater products into their own division, the Mavericks Architectural Cinema (MAC) division. This new division will offer the company’s dramatic Mavericks theater speakers for both the high-end residential and commercial cinema installation markets.
James Loudspeaker, the Napa, CA-based manufacturer of innovative, high-performance speaker solutions, announced this week that it is adding John Bishop in a new role with the company – Director of Architectural Audio Services. Bishop, a fairly well-known sales representative in New England, is being brought on in a contract basis and will continue with his rep firm in addition to this new role.
James Loudspeaker announced today that it has appointed Pulse Cinemas as its distributor for both the U.K. and Ireland. A custom installation and home cinema specialist, Pulse’s team of twelve professionals spread out to service the region’s A/V dealers and custom integrators.
James Loudspeaker, the specialty speaker manufacturer with a wide range of models mostly serving the high-end market, has intrigued us for some time now. The subject of our intrigue is largely centered around their prodigious custom manufacturing capability, which they use to create a plethora of one-off products designed to order. We told you about a VERY unique pair of speakers they made for one Colorado integrator, who uses James’ customization capabilities as his “competitive advantage.”
Factory Tour Shows James Loudspeaker To Be More Than You RealizedIn our work lives, we all try to project the most positive image of ourselves. Sometimes the only way to really get to known someone is to visit them in their home. Here, you can find a lot of clues to their true selves.
So it is with companies as well. Polished marketing and great looking products can give you an impression of a large, professional, smoothly-running operation. But, as we can attest from direct experience, that simply is not always the case.
And sometimes, as in the case of James Loudspeaker, you get surprised.
It was a fairly typical, if slightly larger than normal, system installation for Matt Durbahn of CDI Services in Denver, Colorado. The client was building a home in the countryside outside of Denver and the project called for a whole home automation solution with a media room, technology throughout the home, lighting, HVAC control, outdoor entertainment, security & surveillance, and all that goes with a system like this. Although fairly extensive, none of the client’s requests were unusual.
But then the client asked for something NO ONE has ever asked Durbahn for before…and things just got a whole lot more interesting.
