Sony, Harman Have Big Plans for CEDIA Expo

Sony and Harman International are looking to create a new buzz at CEDIA Expo 2009 in Atlanta.

Both companies are bolstering their Expo presence in efforts to increase their shares of the integration market.

Sony and Harman both restructured to work better with custom dealers.

Sony: Less Products, More Space

“This is the biggest [CEDIA Expo] for us ever,” says Sony PR manager Greg Belloni.

Sony will have its largest booth ever at the upcoming show — it also appears to be one of the largest at this year's Expo — but its emphasis won’t be on product demonstrations. It’s more about conversations with dealers and meetings.

“Rather than putting out all our new products as we’ve done in the past, we’re focusing more on products that matter to the CEDIA crowd,” Belloni says.

Sony’s ultimate goal at CEDIA Expo is to get closer to dealers and make them “Sony evangelists,” according to Neal Manowitz, director of marketing for Sony's consumer systems and applications division. The hope is that Sony dealers will start to package Sony systems.

“We’ll be not just standing by our products but supporting dealers in terms of making it easier to get our products and making our products work for them,” Belloni says.

Sony also is officially launching Sony Digital Home at CEDIA Expo. This means the “custom,” “pure retail” and “custom retail” divisions will all be brought under one umbrella. The umbrella includes:

• TVs
• Sony ES product lines
• Blu-ray
• Megachangers
• Front projectors
• HomeShare
• Switchers
• Spostato in-wall speaker lines
• Security cameras

Sony also is distributing from multiple regional distribution centers, meaning product availability shouldn't be a problem going forward. Sony used to ship products from Japan on a periodic basis, which sometimes left Sony dealers needing products that weren’t in North America.

Harman: Upping the Ante for Integrators

Harman International — parent company of Mark Levinson, JBL Synthesis, Revel and Lexicon — also sees an opportunity to grab a bigger market share at CEDIA Expo 2009.

The biggest change is that many of Harman’s pro division products are now available to residential dealers. Harman VP of marketing Marc Kellom says this was a no-brainer since so many residential installers are doing commercial work.

Kellom says Harman engineers will now benefit from having all relevant technology in front of them, instead of having to develop products independently.

Harman plans to to show 15 new products at CEDIA. And to demonstrate a commitment to dealers, Harman has instituted a new shipping policy. “When we introduce a product [at CEDIA Expo], it must ship within 45 days,” Kellom says.

Harman showed its LS Series speakers at CEDIA Expo 2008, but hasn’t shipped it yet. “We screwed up there,” Kellom admits. “And we have applied a lesson learned.”

Some notable product announcements:

• Lexicon plans to launch the first THX-certified Blu-ray player
• JBL’s K2 Series update includes the K2 9900, a $30,000/pair floorstanding speaker solution
• Mark Levinson’s 500H series amplifiers, which comes in 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-channel versions
• Revel’s Performa B150 subwoofer, which is designed for dealers to pair with the finest main loudspeakers

Kellom expects Harman's new mobile showroom to also leave quite the impression. The enormous mobile showroom, formerly a traveling Abraham Lincoln museum, is currently being converted to a traveling product demo and dealer consultation vehicle.