By Jeff Kocher
Systems Designer/Sales Manager, AVIO, Inc.

In our last issue of rAVe, rAVe founder Gary Kayye wrote a piece wondering why CEDIA liked Atlanta so much – to put it nicely.

CEDIA member, and Atlanta-fan, Jeff Kocher of AVIO Inc. responds to that article, and some of our other news stories from that issue:

First, “CEDIA in Suckville”?  Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh on Atlanta?  Yeah, I know your mother lives there.  I have an Uncle there and visit often, and saw you at InfoComm there a few years back.  I think the convention center is OK; in fact, I was more pleased with the concession quality and prices compared to some other venues.  If you’re willing to explore, the city offers a wide variety of experiences.  I’ll admit that you need to travel a little from the convention center, but I usually do that anyway, instead of the expensive, bland, tourist traps that normally spring up around convention centers.  Try some of the local color, like Little Five Points or East Atlanta, only a few miles east of the convention center.  There are also a number of major universities within the city, along with the kind of quirky, independent shops and restaurants you get in university towns.  Why not discover some of them, go for the urban experience, instead of getting exactly the same kind suburban experience in Buckhead that you’ll get in any other upscale suburb in America? You’ll be supporting independent business people like us.  Anyway, I don’t think badmouthing the place (crap hole?) does any good for CEDIA, the dealers or the manufacturers that are paying the big bucks to be there.

You make amends later by calling anyone who is not going an idiot!?  Of course, CEDIA is not a vacation; it’s a chance to see the latest gear, update our knowledge, and network with other dealers and suppliers.  As technology and the market continue their rapid transformations, CEDIA is an opportunity to brush up on the latest trends and to learn what is and is not working for others.  It’s a great place to learn how to add value for our clients.

You mention one of those trends in the Epson article – fewer dedicated theaters being built.  That may be true, but a there is definite uptick in upgrades to all those existing theaters. Now that 1080p displays are common, many old projectors and displays need updating. Now that most HDMI issues have been worked out, switching, surround processors and receivers need to be swapped out for new units.  Blu-ray has entered majority adoption (we have only one demo DVD player now, and that will be gone soon), so the DVD players need to be replaced. Media servers, streaming media, internet radio, photo players, more sophisticated, less expensive control systems – any theater more than a year old is probably a candidate for some kind of addition or update.  These are all opportunities to add value for the clients and profits for the integrator.

Speaking of media servers, you state in another article that the new Kaleidescape Mini System “is still way too expensive in our opinion, but with Kaleidescape, you are really paying for the user interface.”  You are not only paying for the interface, you are paying for something that works- right out of the box, every time, and keeps working.  I have even had them call us to say they were seeing increasing errors on one of our client’s drives, and were sending a replacement, before it failed.  And with Kaleidescape, we don’t have to load anybody else’s software to get DVDs onto the server, and we don’t have to hassle with Windows.  It just works.  Need to integrate it into your control systems?  No problem, they’ve done the work, instead of just printing their RS232 protocol in the manual.   Yes, it’s expensive, but it has been getting more affordable, at a reasonable rate.  It’s actually refreshing these days to have a company not rushing to under price the products we already have on our shelves, like all those display manufacturers.  They are adding value for us, and our clients.

Another company that’s not “rushing to the bottom” in regards to pricing is Runco.  You mentioned their “weird” press release.  Like many other display manufacturers, Runco was aiming to remind dealers that there are other options to consider now that Pioneer Elite is gone.  Integrators like us who did most of their flat panel biz with Pioneer Elite are in a tough spot.  Yeah, we are a HES member and Sony CIS dealer, so we have access to most any major video line.  But we were able to make a little money on Pioneer, and we can’t on any of the others.  I recently went up against an online price from a Panasonic Authorized Web Reseller (Vann’s) on a 50″ panel.  That dealer’s sale price was less than our cost through HES.

So where do we go?  Runco has always supported the AV and integration specialists.  They have a major flat panel manufacturer as a parent now (Planar), supplying them with R&D and support far beyond what they had available in the past.  They still support plasmas, which are still demonstrably superior to LCD for most residential applications, and the new OPAL technology on their latest LCDs is demonstrably superior to other LCDs.  I don’t think they are going to abandon the flat panel market soon.  They are doing a better job adding value to the flat panel category than ever before.

Well, I’ve been ranting.  But integrators shouldn’t let the fact that CEDIA is not in a vacation spot keep them from attending and looking for the things bring real value to their clients.  See you in Atlanta.

 

Atlanta Skyline photo via Flickr user james.rintamaki