IPRO Reps Explore Streaming, IT, Commercial Opportunities

The custom electronics industry seems to be shifting at warp speed these days, and it’s not just the integrators and manufacturers that need to keep pace with the changes. Despite much talk in recent months about manufacturers eschewing or trimming sales representative forces, reps continue to play a key role in the industry food chain, which is why technology education was a big topic addressed during the IPRO Conference.

Sixty-five attendees (45 reps, 20 manufacturers) were at the annual event of the Independent Professional Representatives Organization, held in New Orleans. That was an increase from 48 in 2010, according to executive director Ray Wright, who also noted that membership in IPRO, the largest association of manufacturer’s reps, has increased roughly 20 percent over the past six months.

It marked the third year that IPRO manufacturer members had been extended invitations, and fittingly for this year’s conference titled “New Opportunities and Increased Business,” they represented a good cross-section of today’s hot technologies.

New Markets & Going Commercial

The presence of companies - which also made presentations to the group - like Clare Controls (cloud-based automation), Pakedge (networking), IC Realtime (security, surveillance), ReQuest (A/V distribution) and Panamax/Furman (power protection, energy management) exemplified where the industry is heading.

It’s not just the integrators who create and install such systems that need to adjust their thinking from the traditional A/V and automation focus, but the reps who can influence them by educating and pitching them on technology and brands that may spur new business.

“The technology of eight or nine years ago is going, going, gone. Categories like video that were leading categories are becoming irrelevant,” IPRO president Dave Humphries, principal of metro New York-based Thea Integrated Systems, told reps. “Categories like power management, networking control, media streaming … you’re seeing more synergy between those, and if you look around the room at these manufacturers and what they do, you’ll see it. Sony won’t be here.”

Humphries’ company is a nice example of a rep firm that’s bolstered its 15-brand roster with most of the aforementioned manufacturers to address the trending technologies, complementing its traditional bread-and-butter likes of KEF, Linn, Tannoy and Vutec.

Another market called out as a potential for reps to tap into also mirrors an area in which many custom integrators turned, especially during the recession, to expand their services: commercial. And not only light commercial work, but full-fledged, sophisticated commercial systems integration.

To underscore the growing importance of the commercial market, IPRO announced at the conference the addition of successful commercial rep Mark Adams to its board. Adams split his Georgia-based firm into two so each could stay focused on its targeted sides of the sector - EDA Marketing on the commercial video side and EDA Pro on the commercial audio side.

Coincidentally, IPRO needed to employ a key commercial technology to bring its speaker on that subject to the conference. Randal Lemke, executive director of Virginia-based InfoComm International, which IPRO has joined as a member, could not make it to New Orleans, so instead he spoke to the group via video conference.


InfoComm executive director Randal Lemke talks to the IPRO Conference attendees over a video conference setup.