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A customizer, a buying group executive and an A/V specialist/C-tailer vent their views
What is the overall outlook for audio in 2006? What is being done to promote audio better?
Bob Gartland: Our audio business is up and distributed audio is growing. There are a few aspects to it. We've been selling in-wall speakers with volume control, with keypad control, with speaker selectors for a long time. There's a reasonable amount of consumers who have owned some version of it, and will want to own it again in their next home or when they step up-repeat buyers. And among those customers, there's a much higher knowledge about the ability to distribute audio through the house. I wouldn't want to say that customer is a huge chunk of overall audio consumers, but within that group, there's much more clarity about distributed audio. The next, probably most important element, is that most systems are sold through recommendation by a dealer, and they are recommending it in every job-it really becomes a 'delete option.'
Some newer technology also makes some of these systems more operable and so, more desirable. For systems that provide a highway for digital content throughout the house, like NetStreams' DigiLinx system and Miles' ICS system, there's a lot of enthusiasm around. That's driving dealer enthusiasm, which is capturing more consumers on the other end.
David Wexler: Our audio business has been up from eight to 10 percent in 2006 over 2005. Audio sales in general aren't great, but better components have been selling well.
Alberto Fabiano: Our customers are L.A. customers. They're "too busy to know," and they trust the custom project manager when it comes to everything, including audio choices, and they rely on the architect or interior designer to recommend installers. So it's not difficult at all to get customers to buy audio. They are becoming more and more savvy-thanks to the omnipresent iPod. They want music everywhere. But when they go home, they don't want to walk around with an earpiece.
Have flat-panel price drops opened up a spot for the audio add-on sale? With the money consumers are saving, are they spending on audio?
Fabiano: Customers are adding more audio because of this. They are taking the budget...