Rebecca Day

Always-on connections and smart home technology are delivering multiple and unexpected benefits for property managers, Vickie Rodgers, Cox Communities vice president, said at a virtual Parks Associates conference Wednesday. Parks data shows 70% of property managers have adopted smart home systems as a differentiator, primarily as a way to increase rent.

Summit Wireless CEO Brett Moyer pushed product breadth and a low barrier to entry for the company’s Wireless Speaker and Audio Association home theater technology, on a Thursday virtual investor road show. Summit hopes to broaden the customer base for the 24-bit/96kHz surround-sound standard to the entry level, pitching ease of setup in a wireless configuration.

Demand for technology for work, school and lifestyle will drive a 7.5% increase in retail tech sales this year to a record $487 billion, said CTA Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic “strengthened consumers’ relationship with technology forever,” said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro.

Comcast's supporting only Dolby Vision HDR in its Tokyo Olympics coverage reinforces that not all HDR formats are “created equally,” Colliers' Steven Frankel wrote investors Wednesday. Comcast said Tuesday it will deliver the Tokyo Olympics to X1, Flex and Stream customers in Dolby Vision and Atmos. The games open July 23 for a two-week run.

Savant’s 15,000-square-foot showcase in Henderson, Nevada, unveiled to the media on a Zoom call Wednesday, was 15 years in the making, said Blair Piersall, vice president-sales, calling the experience “the very edge of what is smart home today.” The goal of the house, dubbed Vegas Modern 001, was to define what’s on trend in smart home technology today “and where we feel it’s going in the next five years."

The audio market has experienced parts shortages in the past, but “I don’t think we’ve seen situations like this before,” said Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle, commenting on a Tuesday earnings call on the widespread COVID-19 impact. “I’ve been doing this for 40-plus years: I don’t believe I’ve seen anything as problematic as this," he said.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, rising income inequality and “intensifying climate and ecosystem decline,” Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer and Walmart Foundation president, said in her blog that the company hopes to “create value for business” by helping to transform societal systems for “more equitable and sustainable outcomes.”

Labs processing New York state-collected nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing must have a New York state clinical laboratory permit, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health emailed Wednesday, responding to our question on the inability of New Yorkers to order Amazon’s test kit (see Notebook, July 7 issue of this publication). A notification, in red lettering, next to the test kit at Amazon.com says “cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location” for customers identified as living in New York. The department spokesperson said that “the lab associated with this kit does not currently have a permit issued by the Department of Health. Other at-home collection kits are permitted and available.” Amazon is working to make its consumer COVID-19 at-home test collection kit available for purchase in New York as soon as possible, we’re told. It announced general availability Tuesday. Customers get results within 24 hours of the sample’s arrival at a lab in Hebron, Kentucky. Amazon didn’t respond to a question asking about other states.

Video platforms need to be able to seamlessly address the use of multiple device types, said a Wednesday Kaltura report, saying 70% of video watchers use two or three devices to view content, and 10% use more than six. TV was the most popular viewing source for 62% of respondents: Smart TVs were the top way to watch content for 38% of respondents vs. set-top boxes at 25%, it said.

CEDIA Expo owner Emerald is expecting a 20% falloff in exhibitor numbers from 2019 due to the pandemic and people’s “comfort levels for in-person events,” a spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The trade show company is hoping for about 300 exhibitors, she said. The event is Sept. 1-3 in Indianapolis. Last year’s expo, scheduled for Denver, was canceled.