Specialty AV specialty retailer Bjorn’s in San Antonio is...

Specialty AV specialty retailer Bjorn’s in San Antonio is re-launching its Sony store-within-a-store space, Marketing Manager Kris Dybdahl told us. The store sent out an email invitation to its customer list Thursday inviting patrons to the grand opening of the 700-square-foot space, a redesign of a previous Sony-dedicated section that “never did what we wanted it to do,” Dybdahl said. Top billing for the event goes to Sony’s 84-inch Ultra HD TV. Sony-funded giveaways for the event include headphones, tablets, a Blu-ray player and movie tickets to a local Sony 4K theater, Dybdahl said. When Sony approached the store about a redesign, it jumped at the chance, converting what had been a dark home theater-oriented section focused on TVs into a brightly lit area showing a broad range of products, Dybdahl said. The initial Sony store opened four years ago and featured “mostly TVs” representing a “different time” in AV specialty retailing, Dybdahl said. The newer product selection branches out into categories including tablets, ES Series receivers, computers, camcorders, iPod docking systems and portable speakers, he said. The store is also featuring Sony’s G-Tank music system, a high-powered speaker with built-in pulsing LED lights that the store brought in last fall. “People freaked out about them” at an event last fall, Dybdahl said. “We sold out of them in a weekend,” he said.