This week on the CE Pro Podcast, we talk to a pair of executives from leading custom-channel providers about some industry segments that have become especially pressing during the coronavirus lockdown.
First up on the CE Pro Podcast, Hagai Feiner, founder and CEO of Access Networks, addresses numerous aspects of selling, designing and installing home networks.
The pandemic has put a significant strain on the public’s home bandwidth as people work from home and in many cases share their network with children who are educating from home … and meanwhile the entire family is now spending much more time streaming music, movies and more.
Last week on the podcast we heard from FulTech Solutions’ Dan Fulmer about how his integration company has handled this increased demand from customers. This week Feiner, whose company provides enterprise-grade solutions for the industry, continues the topic thread.
Stuck at home in his apartment, however, Feiner notes that residences of all sizes now have a greater need for reliable networks, no matter which manufacturers are providing them.
“All brands are experiencing this,” Feiner notes. “Because even if you have let’s say an Access Networks system deployed in your house, just like I do, this area when all this started – and the lockdown in California [where Feiner lives] started last month – I even felt the challenge with my network because this is an apartment where we moved into, it’s a rental.
“We put the network in that we brought from our old house, didn’t really think about it, there’s no wiring here so there’s one access point downstairs … and guess what, all my conferences are up here in my master bedroom and video doesn’t transmit that well because of the issues in this apartment.”
There are plenty of lessons to be learned, no matter the size of the clientele’s house, as Feiner explains during the segment.
CE Pro Podcast Segment 2: Award-Winning Tech Support
Meanwhile, CE pros are always more confident selling and installing systems when they know they can lean on their suppliers’ support staff.
Every year, CE Pro doles out its Quest for Quality Awards to manufacturers and distributors in various categories of support services. Our awards nominees come straight from the horses’ mouths, so to speak, as they are compiled from votes and testimonials by our readers (integrators).
Audio manufacturer AudioControl has managed to cultivate a technical support team that’s been singled out by readers in multiple years of the awards program, which is now in its 10th year. In the second segment of the CE Pro Podcast, CEO Alex Camara details some of the ways his company has created such a service-first environment.
It’s particularly in focus now as dealers adjust to the evolving business climate that the coronavirus has dealt society while integrators continue to operate as “essential” workers.
“What’s helped for us, I think, is having a manufacturing base here in the United States up here in Seattle,” Camara says.
“We’re able to react really quickly to what appear to be urgent needs. A lot of projects have been delayed – I think everyone’s seeing that – but there’s a lot of urgent work that’s appearing, whether it’s somebody can’t get a product from somebody else, whether it’s a failure in a home office system or in a commercial facility … so we’re really responding and building, literally day by day, to the needs.”
Hear much more from our guests by viewing this week’s podcast above, and make sure to subscribe to CE Pro’s YouTube page to see all of our podcast episodes.