New York
– The tribulations of the economic downturn continue to plague the custom A/V electronics
industry’s largest show, with word that two industry stalwarts will not be
among the ranks of “official exhibiters” this September.
Spokespeople for Planar, which owns high-end video display
resource Runco International,
and D&M Holdings, which owns a large stable of major mid-to-high-end A/V
brands, have elected not to participate as official exhibiters at this year’s Custom
Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo in Atlanta, Sept. 9-13.
Representatives for both companies said, however, they plan to
travel to Atlanta
to meet off-site during the event with dealers and prospective customers.
Planar owns a stable of high-end home-theater display brands,
including Runco International and Planar.
D&M Holdings owns a
number of prominent audio and video brands, including Denon, Marantz, McIntosh
Laboratory, Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics, Escient, Calrec Audio, Denon DJ,
Allen & Heath, D&M Professional and D&M Premium Sound Solutions.
“Planar will be there as the parent
brand of Runco. They will not be exhibiting. Runco is planning off-site events,
but locations and times have not been finalized,” a Planar representative
said in a reply to TWICE.
“D&M Holdings’ brands will
be taking a hiatus from the show this year, even though they do feel that it is
a very, very important show for them,” a spokesperson said. “They will
be meeting with customers at the show but will not be exhibiting. One of the
reasons is that most of the products that [traditionally] would be introduced
at this time, have already been introduced into the marketplace.”
D&M recently opted to launch a range of commercial-focused
products through its Denon Professional and Marantz Professional brands at the InfoComm
2009 show, which targeted commercial electronics professionals.
A CEDIA spokesperson said so far exhibiter attendance is
running about 20 percent under last year’s number, “as with many tradeshows and
“currently, we are experiencing a slight decrease in the number of exhibiter’s
booths.”
“However, we are seeing many exhibiters maintaining their
presence on the floor by sharing space instead of having a dedicated booth due
to limited budgets,” the spokesperson said.
As for attendee traffic, the organization said it is “very
optimistic.” The show has “diversified the education offerings to highlight
some key initiatives our members are focusing on such as getting into the green
and retrofit market, understanding LEED certification and the EPA Lead-based
paint certification,” a spokesperson said. “We are also offering high-level
industry panels focusing on 3D, HDMI, Green, etc. This year’s Expo will have an
element of diversification to it to help our members remain strong in these
challenging times.”
