Speakercraft's Burning Man Expo Show Becomes a Firestorm

I was going to leave this alone, I really was, but the anonymous commentariat has gone absolutely bananas on the subject of custom vendor Speakercraft's booth show featuring LA troupe Lucent Dossier at CEDIA Expo. Who knew that some performance artists could generate so much controversy?

CE Pro: SpeakerCraft at CEDIA 2008: Awesome or Annoying?

At nearly 100 comments, some furious, some supportive, clearly my friends at Speakercraft have hit it out of the park from a publicity standpoint.

Personally, I've got little interest in what people who post angry anonymous comments have to say. It's hardly coincidence that the commenters with the most cogent and articulate things to say post with recognizable real names, as opposed to pseudonyms. Player hating is lame.

Never mind that some of the more outraged commenters sound like they represent the American Taliban, based on their reaction to seeing a little skin, more importantly, you have to search far and wide to find a vendor who supports their dealers to the nth degree the way Speakercraft does. They really do "get it" with regard to what dealers need from their vendors. It seems likely to me that the people doing the most squawking about a little artistic T&A at Expo have never actually benefitted from Speakercraft's platinum-class service and support, and thus, can't see the forest for the trees.

*pictured above: Speakercraft's Dave McCoy and friends.

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This Week in Marketnews: CEDIA Wrap-up

Marketnews: CEDIA EXPO: Custom Corner: Let’s Wrap it Up!

pictured: MediaMax's movie servers show great promise.

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Serious Photo Journalism From CEDIA Expo

Big props to CE Pro's Jason Knott and Julie Jacobsen for bringing us both the Best and Worst Booth Babes from CEDIA Expo.

Pictured: Nicole McClain from Nexus 21 has an uplifting experience.

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Video Distribution at CEDIA Expo for Marketnews

Custom Corner: CEDIA EXPO Distribution Round-up

*pictured: Owner Kevin Knoll of Knoll Systems, a video distribution vendor with some exciting new products at Expo.

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Covering CEDIA Expo for CE Pro

The show ended yesterday, but the reports continue to filter in.

Integrator on the Scene: Zektor, Speakercraft, Little Giant, Nexus 21 and Leon

*pictured: Speakercraft's Neat 7.5 is totally bezeless, leaving a smaller footprint on the ceiling.

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More CEDIA Expo reporting for CE Pro

CE Pro: Integrator on the Scene: PlanetWaves, Knoll, Brother

My friend and CE Pro editor Jason Unger is absolutely swamped, so we're a little behind on getting the updates posted. Your patience is appreciated.

Pictured: the P-Touch Edge PT7600 from Brother is one sassy little label maker.

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Denver Dining, Etc.

Dinner last night in the hotel lounge while I worked was grilled chicken quesadilla and tamarind pork riblets, the later with a molasses BBQ glaze, chopped peanuts and French fried sweet potatoes. It was as artsy looking as it was delicious.

Notable mention for breakfast goes to the hotel's Carnitas Rancheros, a pulled pork and frijoles quesadilla topped with two eggs and salsa. And absolutely amazing. Here's what that looked like:

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Speakercraft brings Burning Man to CEDIA Expo

Never content to be ordinary, and in keeping with their whole weirdness theme this year, my friends at Speakercraft hosted a performance art happening, presented by the Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, a dance troupe from Los Angeles.

A big thanks to Speakercraft for putting on such a spectacular show!

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Dining In Denver, Redux

I totally forgot to mention that last night the Marketnews crew and I had a fantastic dinner at the Trinity Grille, on Broadway across from the Brown Palace. Since I'd dined there last year, the group accepted my recommendation, and we had a wonderful meal.

I've been on a big caesar salad kick this week, and Trinity Grille's concoction was head and shoulders about all the others. The main course was peppered venison with portobello mushrooms, port wine demiglace and parmesan risotto. The venison was superb.

The only downside to the evening was an incident of cultural misunderstanding: maybe it's normal here, but we were shocked that the server hand wrote at the bottom of the bill "suggested gratuity = 18%." Our host was incensed at her temerity, and while the service was adequate, let's just say she suggested her way to a lot less than 18%.

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Random Observations on CEDIA Expo

Despite total attendance being down by all accounts, you can easily judge how successful the Friday night vendor parties were by how subdued the attendees and exhibitors were on the show floor this morning. As a matter of fact, my 9am appoinment was late opening up their booth because they had a little too much fun last night. Additionally, it's noticeable how empty the press room is, even despite the promise of free food.

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Rumors about Planar true: Vidikron is toast

I reported earlier on the rumours swirling that Planar was going to roll up the Vidikron banner. Now it's confirmed.

CE Pro: Runco Phases out Vidikron Brand, Reveals Opal Technology

Runco is phasing out its step-down Vidikron brand. The new "focus, focus, focus is Runco, Runco, Runco," says Andrew Ard of KA Marketing, an independent rep for Runco."We've decided to realign our business focus so the center of our business is Runco," says Gerry Perkel, CEO of Planar, the parent company of Runco. "Runco is the key brand, Runco is the key product portfolio. ..."

It's probably for the best, really.

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What's in store for Hitachi?

Looking around the Hitachi booth at Expo, I've really got to wonder what the future holds for them in the video category.

Granted, they've bowed a really cool looking 50-inch Plasma that's only 1.5 inches deep. But the planned 42, 50, and 60-inch models aren't slated to be released until Q2, 2009. If history has anything to teach us, it's more likely to be Q4. That's a long way off.

Mostly, I'm just dissapointed in their decision to permanently scrub the 85-inch model that was supposed to have been released this year.

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Speakercraft Gets Weird(er)

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of both the products and the business philosophy of Speakercraft. As a dealer, you'd have to look long and hard to find a vendor partner as supportive as they.

That said, their theme at this year's Expo is kinda creepy. First, there's their banner ads all over the DCC of creepy looking performance artists.



And then there's the look of their booth, which is reminsicent of Day of the Triffids:

I recognize that alternative lifestyles, goatees, and full-body tatoos are part of Speakercraft's corporate image, so maybe I'm just too square to "get it."

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Reporting on CEDIA Expo for Marketnews

CEDIA EXPO: Custom Corner: Course Review

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Reporting on CEDIA Expo for CE Pro

CE Pro: Integrator on the Scene: JVC, Totem Acoustics

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Reporting on CEDIA Expo for CE Pro

Integrator on the Scene: Aurora Multimedia, Belkin Flywire

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Plenty of Non-Custom Vendors At The Custom Show

CE Pro's Jason Knott went off on a tirade about the sheer number of vendors on the show floor at CEDIA Expo who's products have nothing to do with custom installation.

CE Pro: Vendors Taking “Custom” Out of CEDIA Expo

At CEDIA Expo, several of the exhibiting manufacturers unveiled products completely targeted toward consumers with little to no application for custom installation. This trend, very apparent during Wednesday's press day, appears to be growing.

Jason makes some excellent points in his story, but I would suggest that this has been going on for some time. As long as I can remember, the show floor at Expo has had many products on display that are only tenuously related to custom AV installation.

I would even go so far as to suggest that the hundreds of big, sexy, expensive freestanding loudspeakers with exotic wood veneers are out of place at a Custom show.

There, I said it.

Don't get me wrong, I like big, expensive speakers as much as anyone, but for me and the dealers I know, in 99 custom installs out of a hundred, the client wants the speakers hidden. It's possible to spend a lot of money on high end in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, and lots of clients want quality sound, they just don't want to look at it.

Regardless, Expo has always had a fair number of direct-to-consumer products, although I agree with Jason that the trend seems to be growing. You can look at it as a mark of CEDIA's success that the big CE brands use it as a fall show, unveiling products before Christmas, when they feel it's too long to wait for the next CES.

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More Dining In Denver

Contrary to every possible negative expectation you might have, Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co, a chain restaurant with a Forrest Gump theme, is actually surprisingly good.

I'll be honest, I only went because it was right across the street from the Hyatt, where my last class of the day (Advanced Network Design for Kaleidescape) had wrapped up at 5pm.

Regardless, the New Orleans Shrimp were as blackened and as Cajun as I could have hoped for, and the caesar I started off with was markedly better than the one at my hotel the night before.

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Breaking Your Fast In Denver

Regular readers will know that when staying in Denver, you have to have breakfast at Sam's No 3, uniformly hailed as the best breakfast joint in Denver, if not the whole of the U.S. Whether your jones is for steak and eggs, or a burrito the size of your head, Sam's is the place.

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Dining In Denver

I was so incensed yesterday about being banished to the wilderness of the Denver Tech Center that I forgot to report on the cuisine of Zink, the hotel's restaurant, which was a mixed bag.

The caesar salad was a disappointment. Despite being described as using herbed foccaccia croutons, shaved parmesan and creamy caesar, the dressing was waaaay too heavy on the lemon. But since I hadn't eaten in twelve hours I ate it anyway.

The Cowboy Ribeye must have come from a different kitchen, because it was spectacular. Served with tobacco onions (whatever those are), a pinto bean bacon ragout, and cabrales butter, it was heavenly, and much appreciated after a long day.

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