06.12.2008 — By presenting itself to designers, Cosmopolitan Entertainment Systems hopes to generate additional business with its new showroom.

After consistently getting requests from its large commercial audio/video customers to do residential projects in their homes, integration company Real Time Systems Inc. decided there was definitely a market to be tapped.

So, about two years ago, it opened its New York Metro area division, Cosmopolitan Entertainment Systems (CES).

CES decided the best way to go after the commercial A/V market was to take a "wholesale approach." To do that, the company wanted to find a convenient way to put itself in front of the largest number of interior designers and architects possible.

Since there were already two major design centers in the Manhattan area, the company chose to partner with existing high-end interior design showrooms to highlight its products.

CES' first showroom effort was in conjunction with an interior design company named Herendon Interior Design. Kevin Berman, of CES, describes that initial showroom as "a bit over the top."

"Unless a person is looking at a $180,000 system, I will usually bring them to my home, which is also set up as a showroom," he says. "Especially regarding home theater, most people are put on guard because of the cost."

The company recently decided to branch out and increase its exposure by venturing into another partnership, this time with interior design company Robert Allen/Beacon Hill also in a New York-area design center.

Learning from its first showroom installation, CES decided to create a more generalized display that could be scaled to a customer's preference.

As of press time, the new showroom had reached its completion point, but had yet to be officially launched. It was a good time to speak with Berman about the process and about his hopes for the showroom.

What kind of A/V products do you sell?

Our customers don't just buy a TV. We don't sell boxes of DIY [do-it-yourself] products.

Most of our systems are complete integration packages with wholehouse control, distributed audio, movies, music and comfort.

Why did you open this new showroom?

We wanted to go after the trades. We wanted to be working where designers, architects and others in the building industry already are.

This new showroom is in the Decoration & Design Building. It is a design center that doesn't sell retail, but there is a lot of foot traffic.

We wanted to find out where all the designers are headed. That was pretty easy -- they all regularly go to one of these two design centers.

Who approached whom in this partnership?

We specifically sought out Robert Allen/Beacon Hill because it is the biggest showroom in that design center.

We figured we can go after individual clients and they might recommend us to their friends, but if we went after designers, they might have multiple projects and we would get even more referrals.

Because of this wholesale approach, we wanted to find out where all the designers are going and be able to put our product in front of them.