Control4 is sponsor for the inaugural Design Connection tour series at CEDIA Expo Sept. 6-8 at the San Diego Convention Center. “Technology should support a home’s stylish design and atmosphere, rather than diminish it,” said Susan Cashen, Control4 vice president-marketing, underscoring the “essential connection” between a home’s design and technology. Architects, builders and developers have the same goal as technology integrators of finishing a project with satisfied clients, said Cashen. David VanWert, principal-VanWert Technology Design, and Joe Whitaker, president-Thoughtful Home Design and CEDIA board member, will lead the tours at CEDIA. They'll guide 10 to 15 certified designers to selected exhibitor booths for product overviews and Q&As with brand representatives.

Organizer Messe Berlin on Monday officially ruled out Foxconn CEO Terry Gou as an IFA 2018 keynoter despite his vow last year to appear. Gou pulled out as a 2017 IFA keynoter two weeks before the show, blaming his inability to appear on the “global investment project" in Wisconsin that "fully occupies the company's strategic management resources” (see 1708160025). Foxconn decided the 2018 show “will be the ideal time for the previously announced IFA keynote," Gou said then. IFA and Foxconn “had agreed to re-examine the possibility of an IFA keynote for 2018 soon after” Gou’s 2017 withdrawal, Messe Berlin spokeswoman Nicole von der Ropp emailed us Monday. “Unfortunately, our partner Foxconn will not be able to implement a keynote this year.” Foxconn didn’t comment. IFA opens Aug. 31 in Berlin for a six-day run.

Facebook will collaborate with Google, Microsoft and Twitter on finding ways for consumers to more easily transfer data among platforms, said Facebook Director-Privacy and Public Policy Steve Satterfield Friday. The Data Transfer Project will explore complications with transferring data between services that might have differing user-designated privacy controls and settings. “The Project is in its early stages, and we hope more organizations and experts will get involved,” said Satterfield.

April’s announcement that Amazon will partner with Best Buy to sell Insignia- and Toshiba-branded Fire TV Edition smart TVs in the U.S. and Canada (see 1804180002) “brought a new dimension to Amazon’s strategy” in the TV space through “an in-store presence,” blogged Futuresource Wednesday. The move was “significantly important given the overwhelming popularity of large screen sets being bought in bricks and mortar stores,” it said. Including the TV set in Amazon’s “hardware roster” performs the “important role” of widening its consumer reach, “increasing the use and accessibility of its services and ultimately helping to drive sales of other Amazon goods,” said Futuresource. Amazon “looks set to position itself within the larger and more competitive TV market going head-to-head with the likes of Samsung and LG” by expanding its Fire TV platform outside the U.S., it said. It should surprise no one that reports suggest Amazon is weighing the U.K. as its “next stage for TV deployment,” it said.

LED billboard company D3 LED agreed to pay a $40,000 fine and implement a compliance plan to resolve an FCC investigation into whether D3 marketed LED signs without the required labeling and user manual disclosures. The Enforcement Bureau has been clamping down on LED billboard companies for violations of RF rules (see 1805180068). The company didn’t comment.

Two more LED billboard companies agreed to pay fines and implement compliance plans to end FCC investigations into whether they marketed LED signs without the required labeling and user manual disclosures. Yaham LED USA agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty, Prismview, $14,000. Neither commented.

Comcast's major broadband outage earlier this month from a pair of fiber cuts on its backbone (see 1806290038) typifies "a network planner's worst nightmare" and points to the trouble many ISPs have in building in redundancy, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Saturday. In remote areas, finding a second secure route can be impossible, leaving a network or communities vulnerable to a fiber cut somewhere outside the area, CCG said. That potential problem is growing as functions move to the cloud, meaning even redundant fiber routing isn't always the same as a redundant connection to a key cloud server, he said. Companies shouldn't assume every function in the cloud is redundant even if they have redundant internet access, it said. Comcast didn't comment Monday.

Apple and 10 initial suppliers will invest close to $300 million over the next four years into the China Clean Energy Fund, said Apple, which announced this year its global facilities are powered by 100 percent clean energy. The fund will invest in and develop clean energy projects totaling more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy in China, equivalent to powering nearly 1 million homes, Apple said. The fund is designed to give participants more purchasing power and the ability to attain attractive and diverse clean energy solutions, in what can be a potentially complex transition, especially for smaller companies, said the tech company. The fund will be managed by DWS group, also an investor, which specializes in sustainable investments. Initial suppliers are Catcher Technology, Compal Electronics, Corning, Golden Arrow, Jabil, Luxshare-ICT, Pegatron, Solvay, Sunway Communication and Wistron.

The ProSource buying group added 14 dealers in Q2, representing $60 million in new revenue, and elevated two custom integrator members to the power membership level, it said Tuesday. New members are Audio Dimensions, Oklahoma City; Audio Video Innovations, McKinney, Texas; DC Home Systems, Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Safe & Sound, Chicopee, Massachusetts; Starr Systems Design, Baltimore; Carolina Custom Sound, Advance, North Carolina; BCG Concepts, North Hollywood, California; Connect Tek, Brentwood, California; Integrated Home, Van Nuys, California; IR Tech, Sherman Oaks, California; Multimedia Solutions Group, Farmers Branch, Texas; Quicksilver Audio, Kennewick, Washington; Refined Systems, Spring, Texas; Sterling Sound & Vision, Owings Mills, Maryland. The ProSource board approved the promotion of Artisan Systems, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Lewis Audio Video, Newberg, Oregon, to power-level status, requiring minimum annual revenue of $4 million, it said. Eight members have been elevated to power level this year.

Avad and the Home Technology Specialists of America announced an alliance Monday giving dealers the opportunity to “consolidate their distribution purchases with a single program." The agreement covers 20 markets where Avad has branch locations and warehouses, they said. The goal is giving dealers in those locations the ability to meet “rush inventory needs," said HTSA spokesman Ted Green. HTSA member David Young, president of The Sound Room, Chesterfield, Missouri, told us the Avad alliance won’t change how he does business because most of his vendor relationships are direct and there’s no Avad operation near his St. Louis location. Some members of the Azione buying group also have relationships with Avad; Azione President Richard Glikes told us the Avad alliance with HTSA won’t affect those ties. Jon Zabel, Avad vice president-sales and vendor management, said in a statement the alliance allows Avad to increase its dealer base and offer its “value-added service” to dealers. At HTSA’s spring meeting, Executive Director Jon Robbins downplayed his organization's role as a buying group, saying it wants to be known as a “trade consortium” because the group has “so much more to offer than just taking dues from people and distributing rebates. That is not what we are about.” Robbins wasn’t available to answer questions.