3D TVs Being Readied

NuVision Expands LCD TV Distribution Through Standalone Magnolia Stores

March 31, 2010 by Mark Seavy|Top News

DALLAS -- A year after receiving fresh, new investment, supplier NuVision is expanding distribution, having launched sales of its LCD TVs through Best Buy’s standalone Magnolia stores, NuVision Chairman David Hester told us at the Brand Source Summit.

NuVision, which struggled financially before getting new funding last year from Cat Trail Capital, is selling its Lucidium-brand 19- to 65-inch LCD TVs through Magnolia stores in California, Illinois and Washington state, Hester said. Among these is Magnolia’s newest location in Chicago and one in Costa Mesa, Calif., that was moved next to a Best Buy store.

Best Buy sought to sell the NuVision sets through its Magnolia store-within-a-store departments, Hester said. But NuVision chose to stick with the standalone stores based on its ability to supply product, he said. NuVision’s 32-inch model is in short supply, the company said. NuVision sets are filling a hole in Magnolia’s TV line created by Pioneer’s leaving the plasma business last year, Hester said. Best Buy executives weren’t available to comment.

NuVision took space at Brand Source’s vendor show this week with an eye toward attracting new dealers. The company has doubled its base of retailers and custom-installer accounts to more than 400 since last year, Hester said. Among these is Bjorn’s Audio Video, of San Antonio, Texas, which was a major Pioneer plasma TV dealer. NuVision has been “a good supplier so far and their products seem to be holding up well,” said Brian Gibson, owner of Elite Media Solutions, Wellesley, Mass., which is using NuVision sets for an installation at a W Hotel near it.

NuVision also will revamp its line, Hester said. It will ship 40-, 46- and 55-inch 3D LCD TV models with LED backlighting and 240 Hz Samsung panels starting with the 55-inch set in August, said Michael Aiken, the director of product development. Pricing and key specs haven’t been set, he said. But NuVision is hoping that 3D won’t carry much of a premium, Hester said. The 3D sets will be packaged with glasses, he said. The company will add 55-inch and possibly 72-inch LED-backlit models with 480 Hz panels in the fall, Hester said. The 240 Hz and 480 Hz TVs will replace 120 Hz models that helped relaunch the company last year, he said.

As NuVision adds a set 72 inches or larger, it will drop the 65-inch model, Hester said. It bought a year’s supply of 65-inch panels from Sharp in 2009 after the panel manufacturer shifted production to 60-inch (CED Sept 11 p8). NuVision also is replacing a 19-inch LCD monitor with a 22-inch LCD TV with LED backlighting, Hester said. NuVision uses Samsung panels for 40-inch and larger sets, and LG Display for 37-inch and smaller models, Aiken said. It relies on two South Korean OEM suppliers to assemble the sets, which are shipped to NuVision’s Torrance, Calif., warehouse, Aiken said.

In addition to standard LCD TVs, NuVision also is getting ready at least two models with two-way glass, including a 55-inch set that will carry a $1,000 premium, Aiken said. A 40- or 46-inch model also is possible, he said. The sets will be available with “black” or “silver” glass and bezels in a dozen different colors, he said. The two-way glass adds about 5mm to the set’s depth , Aiken said.

Meanwhile, NuVision postponed until May delivery of its first DLP-based front projectors, Aiken said. NuVision expected to ship the first models in Q1, but changed plans because it switched light engine suppliers, he said. Aiken declined to identify the engine supplier. But NuVision co-developed and co-branded the projectors with Delta Electronics subsidiary Vivitek, he said. “It took us longer to get the light engine than we thought it would,” Aiken said. “The engine we thought we were going to use didn’t perform as well as we thought it would,” prompting the switch, he said. The P2 front projector ($20,000) features a single 0.95-inch DLP with 1080p resolution and delivers 500 lumens, he said. It uses Luminus LEDs and will ship in May, Aiken said. The P1 ($8,995) and P3 ($40,000) use 0.67- and 0.95-inch DLP panels with 1080p resolution (CED Sept 11 p8) and will ship by fall, the company has said. The P3 switches to dual 300-watt UHP lamps. NuVision discussed having six different anamorphic lens configurations available with the high-end projector, but the plans haven’t been firmed up, Aiken said. The P1 has a 250-watt lamp.

Brand Source Summit Notebook …

McIntosh will cut 20-25 percent of its 300-account dealer base as it cracks down on violations of its distribution agreements, McIntosh executive Marc Lamb told us. The changes will take effect in the next few weeks as supply pacts expire and McIntosh targets dealers that ignored rules barring Internet and phone sales, Lamb said. Some product was transshipped to international markets, including China, he said. “In the end, we'll have a much tighter group of dealers,” he said. After several months’ delay, McIntosh started limited deliveries of its MVP881BR Blu-ray player, MX-150 12-channel surround-sound preamp/processor and MEN220 automatic two-channel room correction system, Lamb said. The products were held back by a shortage of capacitors and other components, he said. Two suppliers went bankrupt, he said. “Because of the supply issues overseas, we're just getting them now and building them as quickly as we can,” Lamb said. It developed the audio board for the MX-150 with Lyngdorf. McIntosh has shipped 20 units of the MVP881BR, which can play back DVD, CD and multichannel SACD and DVD Audio in addition to Blu-ray, Lamb said. It has back orders for 100 units, he said. The MX-150 also is shipping as McIntosh moves to cut into back orders for 300 units expected to clear by late April, Lamb said. The MX-150 is McIntosh’s first AV processor capable of decoding all Blu-ray surround formats and has five HDMI inputs, 1080p upscaling, and second-zone audio and video. McIntosh has closed out its front projectors, deciding it “wasn’t a business model that worked for us,” Lamb said. McIntosh last year introduced the MDLP2 front projector featuring 0.8-inch DLP panels with 1,920x1,080 resolution, 800 lumens and 15,000:1 contrast ratio. McIntosh also is weighing plans to add receivers with iPod/iPhone docks. It will seek to introduce tube-based products at lower-than-usual prices for McIntosh, he said. McIntosh parent D&M has delayed the transfer of production of Snell speakers to McIntosh’s Binghamton, N.Y., facility, he said. The shift was expected to be completed in June 2009, but expansion was pushed off because of the economy, Lamb said. Snell speakers continue to be made at D&M’s Boston Acoustics plant in Peabody, Mass., he said. Snell products are being shipped from the McIntosh warehouse in Binghamton and some painting of the speakers is done there, Lamb said.

Monster Cable will ship a Boston Red Sox version of Beats by Dr. Dre Studio HD isolation headphones ($349) timed with the opening of the Major League Baseball season, said Rodney Esponilla, a Monster marketing and merchandise specialist. The headphones, the latest expansion of a line launched by rapper Dr. Dre in 2008, will feature the Red Sox logo, powered noise cancellation and an iSonTalk cable with built-in answer button and microphone for cellphones, Esponilla said. “They have a fan base that’s nationwide, so we'll start there” before deciding whether to introduce models for other major league teams, he said. Monster has no immediate plans to introduce a WirelessHD adapter, despite plans laid out last year for such a product, he said. “It’s on our road map, but we don’t have any product yet.”

Definitive Technology has started sales of its Mythos XTR-50 on-wall home theater speaker ($699), the company’s first product developed from the ground up and released since the departure of founder Sandy Gross last year. Gross has since formed Golden Ear Technologies and is working on speakers of his own, dealers said. The 1.5-inch thick Mythos XTR-50 is initially being sold through Amazon and Crutchfield.com before expanding distribution to regional chains including Sixth Avenue Electronics, Abt Electronics, OneCall, Ultimate Electronics and Vann’s, Executive Vice President David Peet said. The speakers, which measure 27x6x1.5 inches, are designed to be paired with 46- to 55-inch flat panel TVs. Definitive is aiming to have a version available for 60-inch flat-panel TVs by year-end, Peet said.

Sonos is weighing introducing an iPod docking cradle for its wireless multi-room music system by Q3, but plans no other major revisions to the line this year, National Sales Representative Matt Bruen said. While plans haven’t been finalized, the cradle will likely use the same variation of 802.11g as the Sonos’ ZoneBridge repeater, he said. Sonos’ last major introduction was the ZonePlayer S5 ($399), a one-piece tabletop client with built-in amplifier and stereo speakers that shipped in November.

Brand Source’s Home Entertainment Source instant rebate solution service has generated $8 million in incremental profit for dealers since launching late last year, Executive Director Jim Ristow said. The program has increased rebate-processing efficiency and cut administrative costs by half, he said. Processing time of the average rebate claim also was reduced to 15 days from 60 to 90 days, Ristow said.

Brand Source has increased its corps of regional reps to 14 from six, HES President Vance Pflanz said. They are handling both CE and major appliances, he said. Previously, each category had a dedicated sales staff, he said.