All Articles Tagged Avc Group

Julie Jacobson | 05/22 09:43 AM, 19 Comments

The most colorful personality in the home systems business, Jeremy Burkhardt, is leaving SpeakerCraft, a subsidiary of Nortek Inc. (Nasdaq: NTK). Called a "retirement" by Nortek, Burkhardt's departure is effective May 25. Keith Marshall, president of SpeakerCraft spinoff Proficient Audio, has been named interim president. In a brief interview with CE Pro following the announcement, Burkhardt says, "I'll probably go off and travel, find another company I like and be a renegade again." And in what may be the understatement of the year, he notes, "I'm not so good at… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 03/01 04:37 AM, 0 Comments

Some of the most iconic brands in the home technology industry will now be led by Sean Burke, the recently appointed group president, Technology Products Segment, for Nortek Inc. (Nasdaq: NTK). Filling a position vacated by long-time group president Grant Rummell, who retired this year, Burke will oversee several leading home-technology brands in the audio, video, home automation, HVAC, security and related categories. They include Nortek subsidiaries Elan Home Systems, Niles Audio and Xantech (collectively, The AVC Group), as well as Gefen, Linear, Omnimount, Panamax/Furman, SpeakerCraft and others. Burke comes… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 01/27 10:13 AM, 2 Comments

Grant Rummell, the man responsible for amassing the largest collection of home technology manufacturers ever assembled, retired after 23 years at Nortek. Rummell most recently served as chairman and CEO of Nortek’s Linear subsidiary, running its stable of home technology brands. Among the impressive brands under his purview: Elan Home Systems, Gefen, Linear (security division), LiteTouch, Magenta Research, Niles Audio, OmniMount (recently merged with Ergotron, another mount manufacturer in the Linear home tech family), Panamax, Secure Wireless, SpeakerCraft, Sunfire and Xantech. Linear was “just” a home security manufacturer when Rummell… View this story

CE Pro Editors | 09/20 07:07 AM, 0 Comments

Carlsbad, Calif. - Adding additional strength to its international sales support programs, The AVC Group today announced the promotion of Niles western regional sales manager Kenneth Johnsen to the newly created position of international training manager. Effective immediately, Johnsen assumes responsibility for the development and implementation of all distributor and dealer training programs and training teams for the ELAN, Niles, Xantech, Sunfire, and ATON product lines outside of North America. In this new position he reports directly to Mark Terry, president of The AVC Group. “In his 12-year career at… View this story

Petro Shimonishi | 09/10 03:21 AM, 0 Comments

Wireless subwoofers are all the rage these days, but Sunfire is taking a different approach with the new Wireless Subwoofer Kit, which allows users to add wireless capabilities to any powered subwoofer. As a longtime specialist in subwoofers, why wouldn’t Sunfire - a member of Nortek's AVC Group - just ship a range of subs with wireless technology built in? Why make a kit? Mark Weisenberg, managing director for Sunfire says, “We did this because of two main reasons: flexibility for our customers who want to offer an easy upgrade… View this story

Jason Knott | 09/01 08:04 AM, 7 Comments

It must be a nervous time to be an industry rep. In the past two months, four prominent manufacturers have drastically altered their use of independent reps. AVC Group, Lenbrook, TruAudio and Velodyne have all announced consolidation or elimination of their reps. All of these companies are heavily in the audio category. I am not sure the moves are the fault of reps themselves, but rather a circumstance of the economy. DEALERS ONLY: Please take our one-minute survey on reps (Deadline: Sept. 13) All the reps I am in contact… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 08/30 05:54 AM, 2 Comments

Niles president Mike “Sparky” Detmer can’t count the number of dealers that have requested whole-house control via Niles’ popular IntelliControl ICS multiroom audio system. The infrastructure is there with the modular ICS system, so why not also control lighting, thermostats, TVs and other subsystems? And, by the way, how about some iPhone control? Now you can, thanks to the first real collaboration between Niles and sister company Elan Home Systems. Both companies, along with Xantech, were rolled up into the Nortek AVC (Audio Video Control) group last year. Yesterday, AVC… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 08/29 11:12 AM, 8 Comments

It’s been more than a year since Elan Home Systems, Niles and Xantech joined forces under one umbrella, The AVC Group, LLC, a division of Nortek's (OTCBB: NTKS) Home Technology Group. The three companies are finally formalizing a new structure of collaboration, starting with a consolidation of rep firms from 45 down to 15. We’ve seen some collaboration from the entities in the past, but it has been little more than a bunch of handshakes and a commitment to help each other. Today, The AVC (Audio Video Control) Group is… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 01/14 12:36 PM, 0 Comments

Over the years, Audiovox (Nasdaq: VOXX) has expressed an interest in the custom electronics channel, and it has been widely speculated that they would make acquisitions in the space. During CES 2011, the CE accessories giant announced its intention to buy Klipsch in an effort to bring higher margin brands to the Audiovox family. We expect Klipsch to be just the beginning for Audiovox in the custom home electronics market, following in the path of Nortek, Legrand, Duchossois and D&M. All of those organizations have acquired home technology companies over… View this story

CE Pro Editors | 12/28 09:18 AM, 0 Comments

Moving strategically to strengthen the long-term R&D and product development programs for its Elan, Niles, Xantech, Sunfire, and Aton brands, The AVC Group announced the appointment of Jim Hardiman to the position of vice president of engineering, effective January 3, 2011. Hardiman will report directly to Mark Terry, president of The AVC Group, and will be based at the company’s Carlsbad, California corporate headquarters. “Jim Hardiman brings more than 35 years of proven innovation and standards-setting thinking to his new position at The AVC Group,” Terry says. “A world-renowned technologist,… View this story