03.28.2008 — To maximize profits in this struggling market, Dennis Sage Home Entertainment, a Phoenix-based custom A/V integrator for the last 13 years, has focused on a variety of attachment sales.

Extended service agreements, upgraded cables, smaller automation systems, lighting control, and key fobs for remote controls are all options, but for Sage, power management products have had the greatest impact on profits.

“Because Phoenix is a relatively young city, it experiences a lot of power fluctuation,” explains Marty Hayse, director of purchasing for Dennis Sage Home Entertainment.

“Voltages can run as low as 95 volts at times, and as high as 130 volts. For sensitive components, this leads to lock-up and the potential for long-term damage.

“We have found that specifying power conditioning and voltage regulation in installations is the best way to offer end-users the best performance and most reliable experience while, at the same time, maximizing our profits.”

What Is Power Management?

While the ultra-sensitive circuits in today’s professional audio/video equipment and home theater components are technologically superb, they can be very fragile.

This has made it increasingly important to employ an advanced power protection system in many professional A/V installations.

A comprehensive power conditioner with voltage regulation accepts a wide range of voltage inputs from the power supply, and then transforms them to a safe, steady voltage rate that is sent on to connected equipment.

This keeps it performing correctly and protects it from spikes and surges that can damage, degrade and even destroy electronics within a home or commercial building.

In addition to protection against surges and spikes, power conditioners eliminate A/C noise, which can mask much of the detail needed for the best possible sound definition and resolution.

Noise affects virtually every element involved in a high-end audio or visual environment. Because of this noise, A/C power must be properly filtered.

Filtering means taking the noise present on an A/C line and lowering it in level to such a dramatic degree and over such a wide range of frequencies that it cannot contaminate a signal being captured or reproduced.

Trends in Selling Power Management

Some time ago, adding power management to A/V systems was challenging, with the intrinsic difficulty of effectively communicating power-related issues to builders and end-users.

Dennis Sage Home Entertainment has found, though, that the trend is changing. “In the past, there really wasn’t a strong awareness of the consequences of voltage irregularities and the importance of power conditioning,” says Hayse.

“Today, however, we are finding that awareness has increased. Much of this can be attributed to the computer industry.

“With the emergence of the PC and large networks, it became evident to most end-users that some sort of power protection was needed to prevent damage to hardware and loss of data. For many, this protection started with a simple power strip.

“Over time, end-users have realized that simply isn’t enough and have come to rely on more advanced power conditioners and UPS backups. Much to our advantage, this knowledge has carried over to the A/V industry.”

Adding power management to installations has had a beneficial and reliable effect on profits for Dennis Sage Home Entertainment.

“Depending on the system, power management can shift the profit margins by at least a couple points,” Hayse says. “Naturally, on smaller installations, the increased profits won’t be as noticeable as on larger installations. In this market, power management has been essential to business.”

And while power management has been essential for Dennis Sage Home Entertainment, the greatest benefit, the company says, has been to its end-users.

Clients receive better performance, increased component longevity and, in a few cases of lightning strikes, the systems have saved components entirely by completely cutting A/C power to connected equipment.

With the success selling power management that Dennis Sage Home Entertainment reports, it plans on continuing its focus on adding power management to every installation, no matter if the market is up or down.

Material for this story was submitted by Panamax Corp., a maker of power management products.