Timing is everything, and the Nortek Chapter 11 bankruptcy announcement was really bad timing to happen in the middle of CEDIA Expo 2009.

As the news about the bankruptcy spread on the show floor, most of the Nortek companies were not there to quell speculation or anxiety among its dealer base.

Companies like Elan, Sunfire, Homelogic and Linear chose not to have exhibits at this year's show. OmniMount and SpeakerCraft did have strong presences in Atlanta and probably were sidetracked a bit by having to spend time talking to dealers about it vs. showing off products.

I heard some competitors of Elan adding fuel to the fire by raising doubt about the future of the company, telling integrators they should drop the line despite assurances from Nortek that the

Panamorphs's VP of Sales and Marketing, John Schuermann talks with CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery about how dealers can differentiate themselves by offering anamorphic lenses and screens.


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Lowell Manufacturing's National Sales Manager, Jeff Garstick talks with CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery about the new Lowell Vari-Rack product.


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Home Automation Inc. (HAI) President, Jay McLellan talks with CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery about HAI's new IP enabled product introductions.


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AVAD's VP and GM Jim Annes discusses AVAD's product lines and its commitment to supporting the custom install channel with CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery.


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Arlington Industries midwest regional manager Joe Carroll demos several of Arlington's new low voltage market products to CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery.

Black & Decker's VP of business development Dave Albert explains the new Residential Access Control systems to CE Pro's Lisa Montgomery.


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There's good news and bad news on the horizon, according to leading economist Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research who spoke at CEDIA Expo 2009 as part of the Niles Audio Business Dynamics Seminar.

Beaulieu says that while the U.S. economic recovery is underway, the recovery will be slow. He says the bottom of the trough, in terms of 5 leading economic indicators, will be February 2010, and there won't be a "re-dip" or double-dip recession.

The Institute for Trend Research says on its Web site that "we forecast economic indicators with 96% accuracy." Beaulieu made the following predictions:

• The economy will be slowly improving in 2010, but unemployment will remain high
• Credit will flow more freely, and inflation will be 3 percent by the end of the year
• The economy will be on the upswing in 2011, and inflation will spike to 6 percent and interest rates will rise dramatically
• Business…

Centralite is a sleeper in the lighting controls business but a favorite among many integrators. At CEDIA Expo 2009, they're sharing a booth with Somfy, a giant in the motorized shading business.

Rumor has it that Somfy may be acquiring Centralite.

It would make perfectly good sense. Lutron has shown us again and again that lighting and shade control are great complements for comfort and energy savings: Turn off the lights during the day when the motorized shades lift to let in the sun.

For a perfect trifecta, Somfy should acquire Residential Control Systems (RCS), a sleeping giant in residential HVAC controls and home automation.

They could follow Lutron's lead of integrating lighting, thermostats and motorized shades.

If your customers love AMX, but not the price or the button configuration of its touchscreens, they can use Philips Pronto remote controls instead.

Former AMX dealer Brian Anderson of Axis Control has created Emulinx for Pronto – software that basically turns a relatively affordable Pronto into an AMX touchscreen.

In a demo at the Philips booth during CEDIA Expo 2009, Axis demonstrated the emulation software pitting a Pronto TSU9800 Web-enabled touchscreen against an AMX Modero touchpanel.

Sure enough, the two touchscreens tracked each other perfectly.

Anderson said he got the idea last year at CEDIA when he visited the Philips booth with a friend who was a heavy Pronto user.

"I didn't really understand how powerful ProntoScript is," he says of the Pronto JavaScript programming environment.

Emulinx is not necessarily plug-and-play but Anderson says, "If you can program AMX and you…