HTSA Hopes Comcast Presence Yields Better Communication With Installers

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Comcast stuck out as an atypical attendee at the Home Technology Specialists of America spring conference, which attracted some 210 vendors, dealers, press and industry association members. It’s the second appearance at a custom electronics event for Comcast, which attended CEDIA Expo last fall.

Bob Hana, HTSA’s managing director, told us HTSA has been talking to Comcast for six months about how “the country’s largest integrated media company that’s interfacing with our clients can work better with system integrators so that at the end of the day customer satisfaction is extremely high.” Today, he said, “that’s not always the case.” Hana cited a “level of frustration” among system integrators who install an electronics system in a customer’s upscale home that’s “often comprised by the cable guy who doesn’t understand how it’s really integrated."

Comcast is interested in feedback “because we're all on the same path,” Hana said. “You can’t fight one another about it. You have to figure out how to make it seamless for the customer,” he said. Cable updates are one area of concern for installers because they often result in turning off equipment in the home. When the TV doesn’t come on, the HTSA member gets the phone call from the customer, because “they're their guy or gal,” Hana said. HTSA members then have to send a service truck to the customer’s home to turn the cable equipment back on, Hana said.

Hana’s hope is that discussions lead to an understanding on Comcast’s part of how updates affect HTSA members and including them on those plans so installers can anticipate and respond to Comcast updates. Another part of discussions is allowing installers to turn on the cable service at the end of an installation without having to wait for a cable technician to arrive. That way dealers can provide an end-to-end service, including testing of the video system, without having to rely on Comcast to complete the process. Installers are “already there” in the customer’s home, so it “just seems to make sense” to let installers handle the cable installation portion as well, he said.

Hana said he’s not privy to Comcast’s long-term plans but believes Comcast needs to work with HTSA to help it reach goals with subscribers and incorporate installers as part of the solution. “I think it speaks volumes about the space our members occupy that a company like that would recognize that here are the best of the best,” he said.

Comcast Labs launched a beta program called CXI (Custom Xfinity Integration) at CEDIA working with a small number of integrators with the objective of ensuring that Comcast Xfinity products work seamlessly in customers’ homes, Cherie Cremer, Comcast vice president-planning & operations for technology & product, told us. The products cover Comcast’s existing Triple Play products for voice, video and data, she said. Comcast is at the spring HTSA conference to meet with other integrators and educate them about the CXI program, she said. She cited Comcast’s X1 video platform and said, “We want to make sure it works beautifully in customers’ homes.”

HTSA added two dealer members -- Epic Audio Video, Naples, Fla., and Hanson Audio Video, Dayton, Ohio -- bringing the dealer membership to 62, Hana told us. The organization is “comfortable with the size” but is looking to add more dealers, he said. The group has valued marketing packages it provides for free to member dealers at “well over $35,000,” which include email newsletters, email database management, pay-per-click management for directing traffic to websites, lead management to direct vendor leads to dealers, HD Living magazine, website support and development. The group’s goals are to help dealers improve marketing and customer acquisition, he said.

On the vendor side, Autonomic joined HTSA, Hana said. The vendor roster numbers 48, representing 57 brands, Hana told us. HTSA cut back on AV receiver and speaker vendors to ensure remaining vendors’ return on investment, Hana said. “When we can’t get proper traction, we want to part friends,” he said.

In 2013, 70 percent of dealers posted year-over-year revenue growth, with many posting double-digit growth over 2012, Hana said. Overall, HTSA member revenue grew 10 percent over the prior year, he said, despite lower average selling prices. “It’s a double win when you can grow sales year over year from a sales standpoint and have lower ASPs,” he said. Hana didn’t give more specific financial information, citing organization policy. HTSA purchases through member vendors grew 70 percent last year, reinforcing the group’s mission to “refine our business within our authorized vendors,” Hana said. He cited upward curves in high-resolution music, new TV display technologies and networking -- along with an upswing in the housing market -- as positive business drivers.

Hana told dealers the HTSA membership “touches” 1.6 million customers including past clients, consumers on the HTSA database, email and postal mail lists, Hana said. His goal is to be able to tell members at some point that all 1.6 million customers are accessible through a newsletter or email available to the group.

HTSA Spring Conference Notebook

Starting price for a Sony 4K Ultra HD TV is $2,499 following a $500 promotional rebate that went into effect March 16, said Frank Sterns, Sony vice president-AV specialty and custom installation. The $500 rebate applies to four models: the XBR65X900A, now $4,499; the XBR55X900A, now $2,999; the XBR65X850A, now $3,999; and the XBR55X850A, now $2,499. Abe’s of Maine took the price of the leader model down another $40, we found Wednesday. On whether the competitive move was reactive or proactive, Sterns said there are three brands -- Sony, Samsung and LG -- “that decided in 2014 that premium and 4K is a cornerstone of their strategy.” Sales and assortments are growing and price points are “going both up and down” as offerings expand at the entry level and at the high end, Sterns said. Unlike 3D, the industry’s last stab at a new premium TV technology, “it looks like 4K is really here and it will stick,” Sterns said. Content remains an issue, but “more is coming,” Sterns said. He cited Winter Olympics games footage and episodes of Breaking Bad as a few programs shot in 4K. He also noted Sony’s 4K download service that launched last fall along with the company’s partnership with Netflix to offer a 4K streaming service via select TVs in the first half of this year. To promote 4K, Sony has been holding TV and projector events with HTSA dealers around the country that will continue throughout the year, he said. “Many consumers don’t know what 4K or UHD is,” Sterns said, “but that seems to be changing.” Part of that comes from having the two 4K and UHD labels, he said. But once consumers see 4K TV, “they're sold,” he said. “There’s no question that it’s compelling when people see it.” Cost, too, is a limiting factor for consumers aside from early adopters and upscale customers. By Christmas, pricing “will go down but I don’t know how much,” he said. After sweeping changes at Sony earlier in the year that included layoffs and a spinoff of the company’s TV business (CED Feb 7 p1), Sony now wants to be known in custom circles as a “company that’s focused on delivering new technologies to the premium home,” Sterns said. Demand has been strong for 4K Ultra HD TVs and “we're behind” in filling it, Sterns said. Inventory has been “quite good” but during the model year transition, a few models, including the $25,000 84-inch model, sold out ahead of expectations, he said. It will be followed by an 85-inch model this summer at roughly $26,000, he said.

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B&W is studying “evolutionary” wireless audio platforms including Wireless Speaker & Audio (WiSA), Doug Henderson, president, B&W Group, told us at the conference. The company offers the AirPlay-enabled A7 speaker that can be configured in a multi-room setup as a solution “somewhere between a full multi-cast, multi-room system and single-room solution.” The company isn’t ready to commit to a wireless platform at this time, Henderson said, saying there are “a number of platforms coming” that are under review by B&W technical staff. “It’s not something that’s going to pop up in the next few months,” he said. Issues that need to be considered are sound fidelity, robustness of streaming, flexibility in architecture and user interface design, he said. Also under consideration are the various types of wireless applications including point-to-point transmission such as Bluetooth, multi-zone and multi-source designs and home theater-based 5.1- or 7.1-channel solutions. Most of the platforms being studied “aren’t in the market today,” Henderson said, saying wireless is “absolutely” a given for the company in the future. “Wireless will continue to grow in scale,” he said. Elsewhere in the B&W Group, Rotel launched this month a new lineup of Rotel distribution amplifiers with digital inputs that can “add a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) improvement” to multi-room systems such as Sonos. The RKB series includes four models: 50- and 100-watt models available with digital or analog inputs. Prices range from $1,600 for an eight-channel by 50-watt amplifier with analog inputs, to $2,400 for an 8 x 100-watt digital version, Henderson said. “I saw the centralization of Sonos,” said Henderson, who came up with the idea for the amp/DAC. “Since Sonos allow volume control via digital output, it seemed the logical thing” for B&W to capitalize on the success of Sonos while beefing up the sound quality and offering dealers an add-on opportunity, he said.