Rebecca Day

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest “as we have all known it will be no more,” emailed producers Marjorie Baumert and Marcie Miller Thursday, after COVID-19 forced them to scrap the event for the second straight year. “RMAF was our founder Al Stiefel’s dream, and we’ve done our best to nurture his vision for 12 years, along with help from the Colorado Audio Society and all our volunteers from around the world,” they said, saying they are “off to new adventures!” The next RMAF show was slated for Oct. 8-10 in Aurora, Colorado, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center. “The very worst thing that we can envision is for someone to fall ill because they came to our show,” they said. Though parts of the U.S. are "fully open," COVID-19 cases and deaths are still rising, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "is projecting an even more deadly Lambda wave this fall,” they said: “We are frightened on behalf of our friends in the audio industry on many levels.” RMAF had produced new room layouts and a handbook for exhibitors in the hope the show would go on, and the website still showed the event as active Thursday, leading to confusion on social media. After following news reports of the virus, reading feedback from industry members “and watching the cancellation of numerous other shows, we no longer hold that hope,” they said. Peachtree Audio didn’t sign up to be an exhibitor for RMAF 2021 “mostly due to COVID concerns,” Jim Spainhour, head-product development, told us Thursday. Though RMAF was “never the largest show,” it was “the most fun and had the most positive vibes,” he said. “It would be nice if someone came in and did the heavy lifting for Marjorie so it could continue; but we should respect the decision. Those shows are a ton of work.” Anthony Kershaw, publisher of high-end publication Audiophilia, tweeted Thursday that RMAF's shutdown of RMAF is a “truly sad event.” Lars Johansen, chief sales officer at Perlisten Audio, emailed: "We are of course disappointed as we saw the exhibition as a major part of our expansion plans -- and that RMAF was a major part of our marketing strategy." Krell Industries Chief Operating Officer Walter Schofield called Thursday a “sad day for the audio world,” saying “the many successful RMAF events that the amazing team there put forth over the years will always be remembered fondly.".

Smart home company Brilliant is stepping up efforts in the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) space, CEO Aaron Emigh told us Tuesday, from the National Apartment Association’s 2021 Apartmentalize conference in Chicago. The company had the first public unveiling of the Brilliant Command Center, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for managing smart technology at scale in MDUs.

Arizona and Georgia will be the first states to offer residents the ability to add their driver’s license or state Identification to Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Watch, said the tech company Wednesday. Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah will offer it next. The Transportation Security Administration will enable select airport security checkpoints in participating airports as locations where customers can use their driver’s license or state ID in Wallet, Apple said.

TV makers improvised on September announcements for the CEDIA channel, having withdrawn from CEDIA Expo being held this week in Indianapolis due to COVID-19 concerns. Samsung and JVC introduced products Wednesday in news releases, while Sony held live online events Wednesday for integrators and the media, following LG, which had a prerecorded product wrap (see 2108310057) as part of a 10-company CEDIA Expo virtual preview tour.

CEDIA Expo-themed announcements rolled out Tuesday as manufacturers look to gain mindshare during an Expo dented by cancellations due to rising COVID-19 cases nationwide. The event is in Indianapolis Wednesday through Friday, minus most marquee brands including LG, Lutron, Samsung, Savant, Sonance, Sonos and Sony. The registered exhibitor list shrunk to under 100 by Tuesday from over 250 in July on concerns over the delta variant.

Following the push of the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s certification program to 2022, ADT won’t likely participate in the first certification round, ADT Vice President-Product Engineering Mark Reimer, told us Monday. “I want to watch and make sure that everything goes really well, and then we’ll be most likely in the second certification round.”

The Home Technology Specialists of America buying group said Friday it suspended all in-person group events for the remainder of 2021, citing health and safety reasons amid “currently evolving events.” HTSA had planned a Tommapalooza training event associated with CEDIA Expo this week in Indianapolis and a cocktail party Tuesday before the Expo’s opening Wednesday. It also canceled its fall conference scheduled for Oct. 12-14 at the Renaissance Dallas Hotel and regional member events, a spokesperson emailed. HTSA will continue its member education initiatives with announcements forthcoming, it said.

Strength in the custom electronics channel drove a 34% sales increase to $253 million in Q2 at Snap One, which rebranded from SnapAV in June, said management Thursday on the company’s first earnings call. The company completed an initial public offering in July that generated $270 million. Cost of sales grew 39% to $152.1 million year on year due to net sales growth and higher costs from suppliers and inbound freight costs, said the company. Net loss for the quarter ended June 25 was $1.1 million vs. a net loss of $3.2 million in the comparable year-ago period.

Shorter attention spans, competition for entertainment time share and continually rising rights fees are ongoing challenges as the TV sports world straddles traditional pay-TV and over-the-top video models, said panelists on a Thursday FierceVideo webcast on TV monetization in the sports industry.

More exhibitors pulled out of CEDIA Expo this week, citing concerns over COVID-19. The show is to be Sept. 1-3 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Digital Projection put its North American trade show schedule “on hiatus” for the remainder of 2021, Kyle Greetham, marketing and communications manager, emailed industry contacts Wednesday. “Meeting face-to-face with our customers, partners, and friends is something we look forward to each year,” Greetham said, but due to risks of COVID-19, the company won't exhibit at CEDIA Expo, InfoComm, or Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference shows. “For 2022, we remain optimistic that we will return to most of the trade shows that we missed this year,” he said. Josh.ai, which held a webinar last week with Lutron (see 2108180057) announcing an integration for a light switch with its voice control technology, said Tuesday, “after much thought and consideration, Josh.ai will no longer be exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2021.” Though the Josh.ai sales team will have a presence at the show for meetings, the company canceled in-person activities, including its booth presence, it said. Other exhibitors that pulled out of CEDIA Expo 2021 over concerns about rising COVID-19 cases include JVC, Legrand, LG, Lutron, Nortek, Samsung, Savant, Sonance, Sonos, Sony and Sound United.