SnapAV’s ‘Episode’ Promo Involves Some Serious Horsepower
By Jeremy Glowacki
SnapAV is so enthusiastic about its new Episode Architectural and Bookshelf Loudspeaker line, that beginning this month, the company is offering a dealer incentive promotion with some serious sales prizes.
Called “Holy Snap!” the promotion rewards dealer loyalty with sports car leases (Porsche, BMW, Audi), motorcycle (Harley Davidson) and Wave Runner giveaways, vacation getaways, and business solutions like computers, truck wraps, and website design.SnapAV, which considers itself a “new breed of supplier” in the CEDIA channel has been gaining market share consistently since its ...
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ELAN’s New ‘g’ Thang
By Jeremy Glowacki
ELAN has taken its lumps in recent years, particularly as a result of an overly long product development cycle for its ELAN Tools programming software. Now the company is hoping to put all that frustration behind them with the multi-tiered launch schedule of a completely new software, hardware, user interface, controller platform, called “g.”
ELAN's 'g' family of products Though the first wave of products won’t ship until April 1 (not a joke, they assure me), the company will first unveil an interactive website, called gvangelist.com, that will help build enthusiasm for and knowledge ...
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HTSA Hits New York with Soho 3D Showcase
By Jeremy Glowacki
With James Cameron's 3D extravaganza, Avatar, purported to have made $232 million from worldwide box office sales over the past weekend, Digital Projection picked the perfect time re-pitch its Total 3D Experience. Joining television manufacturer, Mitsubishi and home control innovator, Control4 at Manhattan's electronic retail store Stereo Exchange, Digital Projection's Titan demo was part of a one-day event last Friday hosted by the Home Theater Specialists of America to showcase 3D display technology.
Digital Projection, Mitsubishi, and Control4 helped the HTSA showcase 3D technology ...
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My Impressions of 'Green Life Smart Life'
By Jeremy Glowacki
You might have heard about this strangely named home construction project in Rhode Island called Green Life Smart Life. We’ve run articles about it a bit over the past year, most recently in regards to the challenges of using “green” wiring in a smart home. But last week was the first time I got to see the place in person. Let me tell you, it’s an amazing place.
The front porch of the home It did, afterall, earn an official rating by the US Green Building Council as a GOLD certified LEED for Homes Project. The 4529 sq/ft home scored an impressive 92.5 out of 136 points. The ...
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What I Learned About CEDIA’s ROI Program
By Jeremy Glowacki
I’ve been writing and reading about CEDIA’s Industry Outreach Education and Registered Outreach Instructor Programs over the past couple years, but wanted to gain a much better understanding of what these courses are all about. So I asked CEDIA’s PR director Jamie Antcliff to allow me sit in on a class at the association’s Indianapolis headquarters and chat with Matt Carter, who helps direct the program and teach the course. Essentially, CEDIA’s Registered Outreach Instructor (ROI) program enables CEDIA members to provide continuing education to their local design and build industry ...
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Getting Design Ideas from a CEDIA Book
By Jeremy Glowacki
CEDIA’s 2009 Electronic Lifestyles Idea Book is now available while supplies last.
This comprehensive publication features all the entrants of the CEDIA 2009 Designer Awards and is a great tool to use while discussing new installations with your clients. There is a limit of five books per order, so make sure to visit www.cedia.org/marketplace/index.php to order online.CEDIA Member Price: $10.00 If you want to get an idea what your competition has been up to or want to see a photo from one of your own winning entries, then click here to see a slideshow of all the winners. ...
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My Thoughts on CEDIA EXPO’s Indy Return
By Jeremy Glowacki
I was pretty excited to find out on Tuesday (I was sworn to secrecy until the next day) that CEDIA was moving its annual EXPO convention back to Indianapolis in 2011. Hopefully by then the industry will be buzzing again and the energy that we all felt in earlier Indy years is there again.Of course I have a selfish reason for appreciating the Indy move, because I live nearby in Carmel, Indiana. In prior years, I was still in NYC, and Indy was simply an excuse to visit family during an annual business trip. But in 2011 and 2012 the party can be at my house (everyone’s invited!)I wrote in the ...
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The Return of Runco
By Jeremy Glowacki
I learned two things during my visit with Runco in Beaverton, Oregon, last week. The first was to stay away from the rainy Pacific Northwest this time of year if you’re susceptible to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The second (and more important) was that Runco is finally back on the right course.I know it’s not news that Oregon is a little gloomy this time of year, but unless you saw Runco’s demo at CEDIA EXPO in September, then my proclamation that the company headed back toward a market-leader position in video products might come as a surprise.
Matt Christensen, Adam Schmidt, and ...
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Zobo.tv Hosts NFL Charity Event
By Jeremy Glowacki
I recently learned how an electronic systems contractor used out-of-the-box thinking to market itself and introduce its showroom to a group of local NFL players (who just happen to be their target demographic).
Thomas Davis signs a jersey for Zobo.tv’s silent auctionAnd, it wasn’t a pure profit play either. The event benefitted a charity. Zobo.tv., the sister integration company of SnapAV, recently hosted their charity event with members of the Carolina Panthers NFL team in their showroom in Charlotte. The event raised money for defensive lineman Thomas Davis’sfoundation, Defending ...
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Komendera Gives SurgeX a Boost
By Jeremy Glowacki
Rick Komendera, former president of Richard Gray’s Power Company, has been hired by SurgeX to serve as its VP of sales. According to Komendera, the opportunity to work with SurgeX was “just too exciting” for him to let pass, but that he left on good terms with RGPC's Richard Gray and Dick McCarthy.Before he parted ways with RGPC, Komendera says, he helped broker a deal with the company’s Chicago-area manufacturing partner, TMI, for an ownership stake in RGPC. He was hired as a vice president in 2003 and promoted to president in 2006.
Rick KomenderaNow that the ink is dried on his new ...
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My Tour of Crestron's Experience Center
By Jeremy Glowacki
It was not that long ago that I visited Crestron’s world headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey, and wrote about my experience on a behind-the-scenes tour of the company’s multiple facilities. At the time the company’s massive Experience Center was still under construction, so I couldn’t say anything about that in my report.On October 20, I was again invited to tour the company’s facility, this time with the state-of-the-art Crestron Experience Center as the centerpiece of my visit. More than 700 guests, including Crestron dealers, consultants, architects, lighting designers, media, and ...
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How PanTech is More Than Just a Programming Company
By Jeremy Glowacki
I’ve never been a big fan of the outsourcing trend in our country. Yet, the notion that electronic systems contractors can offer more efficient services and better quality products to their customers by outsourcing time-consuming programming chores is something that I’m learning to accept.One such independent programmer that is gaining momentum in the CEDIA channel is Texas’ PanTech Design, a provider of AV system design, control system programming and module development that has expanded its operations beyond the southwest region. I recently spoke with the company’s two principles, Troy ...
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A Review of Orb Audio’s Premium Speaker Line
By Jeremy Glowacki
I don’t review a lot of AV products in my day-to-day role as editorial director, but when a product offer is particularly intriguing or of a certain "size" (shipping freight is such a pain), I’ll sometimes agree to test out “a loaner” for a few weeks. Such was the case when the PR folks for Orb Audio offered me a hands-on look at their client’s décor-friendly home theater speakers.
Orb Audio's small, round satellite speakers are available in five finishes. The heart of the American-made Orb speaker system is the spherical Mod1 satellite speaker, which is a little bigger than a baseball ...
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Q&A: Ray Wright Previews Next Week's Annual IPRO Conference
By Jeremy Glowacki
The theme of next week’s IPRO Conference is “Survive and Thrive,” which couldn’t be any more appropriate than it is right now as members of the CEDIA channel’s sales representative community and its new IPRO Manufacturers Group learn to cope with new economic challenges and an industry in transition. IPRO executive director Ray Wright says that the goal of the conference is to increase the level of partnership between representatives and manufacturers, and provide his members with information and realistic tools to help them prosper. As Wright prepares for IPRO’s annual conference, November ...
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Lutron Takes Its ‘Experience’ on the Road
By Jeremy Glowacki
Lutron is one of the pioneers from the CEDIA-channel manufacturing community behind the whole “experience center” demo facility concept. Now other companies in the industry have begun to embrace the same idea (see also Crestron, Savant...). Not to be outdone, I suppose, the lighting control experts are taking their show on the road with a new “Mobile Experience Center.”The Pennsylvania-based manufacturer hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 20 to launch its national mobile experience center tour, followed by a stop off in Midtown Manhattan on October 21, where Residential Systems ...
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