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© 2024 CE Pro Podcast
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Interviews addressing the business needs of professional integrators serving the small and midsize business (SMB) market.
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Daryl Friedman admits he doesn’t have time for hobbies these days leading CEDIA as global president & CEO. It didn’t help that the former GRAMMY executive took reins of those roles in 2021, when the pandemic was experiencing a surge. He came into CEDIA and embarked on a worldwide tour of the organization’s conferences and meetings with integrator members. Thankfully, I was able to capture 30 minutes of Friedman’s time recently – on a day when he only had eight meetings. We chatted about Friedman’s challenges after being named as head of CEDIA; his investment into the community; his and the association’s commitment to advocating for members; and the direction of the organization for the rest of 2024 into 2025.
HDMI Licensing President Rob Tobias chats about AI's impact on AV, improving immersive experiences, Blu-ray discs vs. streaming content, identifying counterfeit cables and more.
One of the most enduring companies serving the custom integration industry is Russound. The New Hampshire-based company has some exciting products for 2024, highlighted by its AVA-Series of mini-AV receivers (AVRs) to expand its audio riches for the CEDIA channel.In the latest edition of the CE Pro Podcast, Russound CEO Charlie Porritt joins to chat about the latest happenings and R&D developments from the audio company.
Vetting a new vendor for your portfolio can be a daunting process, but that’s where your industry networking comes in handy. Down in Florida, Anthony Petrone, founder and CEO of Wellington-based Petrone Technology Group, was seeking an outdoor audio solution and his dealer friends kept pushing him toward Coastal Source. Hear how the match was an immediate success and why Coastal Source CEO Franco D’Ascanio is expecting big things from 2024, all in this latest CE Pro Podcast episode. Editor’s note, we recorded the conversation in late 2023, so the references to “next year” in it refer to 2024.
Everyone knows about CEDIA, the leading association for the custom integration industry. Chances are you’ve attended CEDIA Expo and taken CEDIA instructor-led technology courses. But did you know about all the stuff the association engages in behind the scenes to benefit the entire industry? In case you didn’t, I talked to Darren Reaman, director of government affairs at CEDIA, to discuss the group’s advocacy efforts and other endeavors that help elevate the industry, all in this week’s CE Pro podcast episode.
The fall and early winter periods are important times of the year in the world of home AV. For many homeowners, it means buying new AV systems in preparation for a winter of staying home and watching movies, streamed content, and sports such as hockey and basketball. The annual CEDIA Expo, which took place just after Labor Day, the 2023 event in Denver marked a milestone period for the electronics market. Recapping some of the most important video developments from the CEDIA Expo 2023 show floor in Denver, the latest CE Pro Podcast features our expert ‘Video Guys’: Joel Silver, CEO & lead developer, Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), Jason Dustal of Murideo, Robert Zohn, president and founder of Value Electronics, and first-time guest John Bishop of Bishop Architectural Entertainment Services.
Following a successful CEDIA Expo 2023 in which home audio – particularly immersive audio – was front-and-center on the show floor, it was time to talk surround sound with our “Audio Guys” regulars on the latest CE Pro Podcast.Joined by CE Pro All-Star Band keyboard player Steve Haas, who is a nationally recognized acoustician in the residential and commercial audio markets, along with the CE Pro Podcast resident audiophiles Steve Silberman, director of sales, West for Savant, and Paul Bochner, owner and president of Electronic Concepts, the trio dove into several immersive audio related topics.
This year, Nationwide Marketing Group expanded its reach with the rebranding of its residential dealer group to Oasys Residential Technology Group and launched a commercial counterpart, the Ellipsys Commercial Technology Group, in addition to the well-established Azione Unlimited. The leaders of those organizations – Richard Glikes, president and chief creative officer of Azione Unlimited, Hank Alexander, director of the Oasys Residential Technology Group, and Chris Whitley, executive director the Ellipsys Commercial Technology Group – chatted with me about the latest initiatives for members in this week’s CE Pro Podcast.
We just wrapped up CEDIA Expo 2023, and beyond the usual product innovations and education sessions, CEDIA hosted its annual awards banquet where it honors a Lifetime Achievement Award winner and often, but not always, a special CEDIA Fellow recognition. This year the special CEDIA Fellow recipient was James Chen, managing director of Kordz. We were privileged to have Chen connect with us from Australia over Zoom. In this episode, he tells us about his three decades in the industry, his instruction and volunteerism with CEDIA and how he’s helped Kordz grow since joining 15 years ago.
One of the highlights at CEDIA Expo every year are the amazing home theater and audiophile demo rooms, and it looks like this year will be no different. One in particular that’s sure to stand out at CEDIA Expo 2023 in Denver (Sept. 7-9) is the 11.6.6-channel Dolby Atmos theater being staged by Seymour-Screen Excellence, StormAudio, Grimani Systems, and RowOne Seating. The brands say it will be the first fully digital AES67 Audio-over-IP (AoIP) home theater at the show in Sound Room 10 of the Colorado Convention Center. To tell us more about what that means and how the room will be set up, I chatted with Anthony Grimani of Grimani Systems and Gary Blouse, VP of Sales for North America at StormAudio in this week’s episode of the CE Pro Podcast.
While the show floor and demo rooms focused on new products are always the center of attention at CEDIA Expo, it’s always a good reminder that the annual tradeshow also delivers tons of education and training opportunities too.To help get CEDIA Expo attendees thinking about what kinds of sessions to add into their schedules this year in Denver, I spoke with Mandy Beckner, vice president of education and training to get the lowdown in this week’s CE Pro Podcast episode.
Veteran CE pros may remember Blake Vackar from his first stint on the sales side of leading screen and shades manufacturer Screen Innovations. Well, after a brief detour, Vackar is back at SI at Brand Ambassador and Screen Evangelist and ready to meet with integrators to evangelize the opportunities in those categories. What does all that entail? The big takeaway for integrators is that big screens and functional shades make a compelling combination to sell – that said, we’ll let Vackar tell you more in this week’s CE Pro Podcast episode discussion.From 2009 to 2020, Vackar was director and VP of sales at Screen Innovations, before going to Meyer Sound where he was residential sales manager until making the move back to SI.
This week we have back one of our favorite guests here on the CE Pro Podcast, UK-based Together For Cinema founder and industry do-gooder Ian Morrish. This time around, Morrish updates us on Together For Cinema’s 2023 children’s hospice home theater projects, donations and sponsors, as well as the group’s new status as a Community Interest Company, and another big fundraiser event happening in July, in the latest podcast episode.The organization, which Morrish established back in 2009, has been pulling off multiple children’s hospice home theater projects across the UK particularly ramping up in the past few years. This year is no different, as the first half of 2023 has been exceedingly busy for Together For Cinema.
With a portfolio of some of the most revered brands in home audio, few manufacturers can match the allure of Harman Luxury Audio.Jim Garrett, senior director, product strategy and planning for Harman Luxury Audio, is a long-time home audio market veteran and enthusiast. Harman’s stable of brands includes Mark Levinson, JBL, JBL Synthesis, Arcam, Lexicon, and Revel, and in the latest CE Pro Podcast, Garrett explains how the company has evolved to meet the diverse needs of consumers enjoying everything from immersive audio to personal audio.
The last time we talked to DoorBird, the IP doorstation specialist had recently expanded its North American offices from San Francisco to add an East Coast base in Jacksonville, Fla., where Justin Clark heads up sales for the Americas, Australia & New Zealand, and assists dealers in various ways. He rejoins the podcast with even more to discuss this time around. During this week’s CE Pro Podcast episode, Clark updates the custom integration channel by discussing DoorBird’s presence at this year’s International Builders’ Show and ISC West events; how last year’s acquisition by security giant ASSA ABLOY is impacting R&D; the growing multidwelling/multifamily unit (MDU) market potential; CEDIA Expo plans; and much more.
To paraphrase the classic rock band Styx, “these are the best of times” when it comes to home video entertainment. That sentiment is shared by CE Pro’s expert panel of “Video Guys” when they discussed spring 2023 trends on the latest CE Pro Podcast.According to our regular “Video Guys” in their most recent conversation with CE Pro Senior Editor Bob Archer, home video continues to experience a golden age of technologies – conveniently timed with what many consider to be a golden age of prestige TV content being produced by all of the myriad services.In this week’s CE Pro Podcast episode, Joel Silver, CEO and lead developer for the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), Robert Zohn, president and founder of Value Electronics, and Jason Dustal of Murideo offer insights into the latest trends to chat about why the latest displays, resolution, HDR tech and more are putting integrators in great position to indeed deliver “the best of times” to videophile and home theater customers.
The shortage of labor is not unique to the custom installation market, but it has been an ongoing struggle for many years. CEDIA is tackling the issue head on in several ways. First, the association unveiled its Next Gen Smart Home Career Toolkit to help integrators connect with the next generation of employees. Also, CEDIA unveiled its slate of 80 sessions for CEDIA Expo 2023 education this fall in Denver. Mandy Beckner, vice president of education and training at CEDIA, reviewed both the initiatives talking with CE Pro editor Jason Knott in this podcast episode.
With 2023 already flying by, CE Pro took the opportunity to ask its resident “Audio Guys” what trends they see in the market as we close out the first quarter, in the latest episode of the CE Pro Podcast.Paul Bochner, owner and president of Electronics Concepts and Professional Audio Consultants, in Rochelle Park, N.J., and Steve Silberman, business development, audio for Savant, agree that to a certain level homeowners tastes have evolved over the past few years. Bochner says his clients have become increasingly focused on how their electronics complement their daily lives.
Recent research shows that landscape lighting is among the most in-demand outdoor technologies by homeowners, designers and realtors, but there’s much more to the exterior than just “landscaping” as potential integration spots. Outdoor lighting and audio specialist Coastal Source gives installers solutions to cover all areas of the exterior, and technical sales specialist Shay Brummer returns to the CE Pro Podcast to discuss that, as well as what the company showed during the recent HTSA Lightapalooza event.
“We are on a 1,000-mile journey, and we're only about 500 miles into it,” says John Heyman, CEO of Snap One, in reference to the ambitious plans the company has ahead.That journey has taken the Charlotte, N.C.-based company from its humble beginnings in 2000 from founder Jay Faison to become the bellwether company in the smart home industry. Snap One holds several unique positions in the market as:The leading brand specified and installed by custom integrators in more than 20 categories of equipmentBoth a manufacturer and a distributorOne of the few pure-play publicly owned companies in the custom integration industry.Heyman, along with Chief Product Office GPaul Hess, spoke with CE Pro about what the past year has been like, offered their outlook for 2023 and beyond, and provided a few glimpses of what might lie ahead in terms of a product roadmap and how they plan to help integrators thrive, operate more efficiently (especially in regards to service), and eventually build recurring monthly revenue (RMR).
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