Waiting for Darwin

Spotlight: Multiroom Audio’s Identity Crisis

We ask the manufacturers what they call it, the challenges the category faces, and how you can sell it better.

Elan Home Systems
www.elanhomesystems.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to convey the simplicity and high quality of sound throughout the home through one simple phrase? I’m not sure that any of these tag lines do it justice. Why not “sound systems for the home”? All of us relate to the “sound system” in our car. Why not “home sound system”? There’s no reason we can’t move from “Pimp My Ride” to “Pimp My Home” (or “Crib” if you prefer).

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

We live in a video culture. Music popularity is on the rise with mp3, iTunes, Rhapsody, et cetera. CD and downloaded collections collide. More forms of broadcast radio exist now than ever before—AM/FM radio, internet radio, HD Radio, XM and Sirius. Delivering simple systems that help users master their content of choice is our challenge. Making them available to more than the rich and famous is our opportunity. The category is real fun for the user, yet we seem to be stuck in techno-ville. Even the category name doesn’t get anyone off the couch.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

In the end, it’s all about meeting the client’s needs—connecting their personal music collection with where and when they want to listen to it. It’s not necessarily the product they are interested in. It’s the experience of having music for quiet time, parties, singalongs and rocking the house. Painting the picture of living with a system is the ultimate skill set required to get more clients living with more sound systems. It’s more concept than product.

The Olé Film Interactive Touchpad “combines all the speed, graphics and response of an LCD touchpanel with the simplicity and pricing of a keypad, creating a completely new interface product category,” says Elan.

Niles Audio

www.nilesaudio.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

Multiroom audio is the term that appears to be becoming adopted in the trade. I don’t like anything with the word “home,” as more and more of these products are finding their way into bars, restaurants, et cetera. Distributed audio is well-known in the trade, but is more obscure to consumers.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

The rapidly changing technology related to the storage and delivery of content and the ever-increasing number of sources. Our ICS system addresses these issues through its modular architecture. As new sources like HD Radio are developed, we can provide a new source card module. This enables the system to grow and evolve without becoming obsolete. Future challenges will involve handling web-based content. Systems with [more] rigid architectures will have to be completely redesigned as technology evolves.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

When they have the ability to deliver systems customized to their clients’ tastes and lifestyles. For example, clients who enjoy satellite radio in their vehicles should be able to enjoy the same programming at home. Likewise, iPod owners should be able to access and control their iTunes libraries from any room in the house. While this has theoretically been possible for some time, the custom programming required made these systems affordable to only the wealthiest clients. [Systems like ICS] make it possible to deliver this flexibility and customization without the high cost of programming, thereby making this advanced technology accessible to a much larger audience and enabling custom installers to expand their markets.

Russound
www.russound.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

The current label is “multiroom audio/video,” [which is] a clear, concise description of what the category has to offer. Music, video entertainment, photos and more are accessible in any room that’s part of the system, period. Besides, it’s doubtful that any consumer will opt for true “whole-house” coverage, that is, literally every room in the home.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Consumer understanding of multiroom audio/video is the biggest challenge bar none, though the onslaught of personal listening devices runs a close second. Personal players isolate the listener by design, whereas multiroom audio/video systems make entertainment a communal experience. We recognize that the only way to reach today’s consumers is to help them adapt their music to our systems, no matter how their music is stored. That’s why we recently introduced the iBridge Dock and iBridge Bay, two products that respectively integrate iPods and iTunes with a Russound RNET system.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Installers need to leverage the technologies that may not be related to multiroom audio/video as much as they are to the bigger home networking category. For example, if a client is interested in lighting controls to manage mood and environment, then it’s a natural progression to add access to music that best fits the environment. Similarly, if the primary attraction is home theater, then it makes sense to extend the reach of that investment into other parts of the house by integrating a surround home theater system with a multiroom audio/video system.

NuVo Technologies
www.nuvotechnologies.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

“Multi-room audio” is the agreed-upon terminology for the category by manufacturers in our niche. A survey by CEA TechHome also identifies “whole home audio” as “consumer understood”. “Distributed audio” makes for a long conversation with a consumer on just what the heck it is.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

At a projected 16 to 17 percent growth rate in 2007, with a very weak production home market, it is hard to say we are challenged. The biggest opportunity lies with emerging technologies requiring “less wire.” Control and audio signal distribution via powerline and/or wireless control are vital to the retrofit marketplace, and our industry will be responding very soon with great solutions. Unfortunately, speakers (drivers, or think “sound engines”) require a power connection for performance, thus ruling out a true wireless solution under our current power technology limitations.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Just offer the solution of high-quality music throughout the home. Studies have shown that consumers want music in their lifestyles and are generally unaware that you can “choose my music” in any room at an affordable price. Architectural music is not background music anymore. Many fine manufacturers in our industry deliver robust amplification to very efficient in-wall or in-ceiling speakers for a high-fidelity experience. Explain how you can set the mood for a dining experience, relaxation while sunning on the deck, listening to your favorite tunes while showering in the morning. They get it.

NuVo’s Grand Concerto Suite combines a 160GB Music Server, a NuVoDock for iPod and a dual AM/FM/XM tuner in one complete plug-and-play solution.

NetStreams
www.netstreams.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

It depends upon who you’re talking to. End consumers that are not at all familiar with the technology understand the term “whole house audio.” “Multi-room audio” is a more accurate description for the end consumer and more technically correct, so one can move the conversation from “whole house audio” to “multi-room audio” as the education process continues for the consumer. We find the term “distributed audio” works better for the commercial integrators because of the varied applications; a commercial installation may be one large room with multiple zones of audio (for example, an airport), so the term “distributed audio” gives the commercial integrator more latitude.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Although the category has been the second-fastest-growing category of consumer electronics (second to the iPod), I believe the biggest challenge is overcoming the perception that distributed audio is expensive. The product offerings on the market have expanded to accommodate a variety of price points and features, offering more choice for the consumer than ever before. I think a lot of consumers also get intimidated into thinking that everything has to be installed at once, and that affects the price point perception. We as an industry need to do a better job of telling consumers they can start with just a couple of rooms, prewire for all and expand to other rooms over time.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Take a more consultative approach to selling the consumer. Focus more on the consumer’s lifestyle at home. Ask questions like, “What music do you listen to and when do you usually listen to it?” “Do you have a lot of music stored on your PC that you’d like to listen to in other rooms?” “How many iPods does the house have?” “Do you have a lot of dinner parties?” “Do you spend time on your deck or patio?” “Do you watch movies?” Such questions can also lead to add-on sales opportunities—for example, adding multi-room video capability or lighting control. Installers are the expert for the end consumer, and the end consumer is much more likely to show off their system and refer the installer to their circle of friends if the system matches their lifestyle.

Control4
www.control4.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

I tend to use all of these terms, and even add “multi-zone, multi-source” when speaking with industry insiders. But I prefer “whole house audio” when speaking to consumers, as I believe it is the simplest description of what the products do.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Right now a shift is happening towards downloaded music. Much of this content is protected by DRM (digital rights management) software. This technology makes it very difficult to back up or transfer your collection to other devices. Sometimes this results in the consumer needing to buy the content again.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

My approach to selling whole house audio has changed since mass adoption of the iPod started. I now lead with a discussion of “liberating” your music from the iPod, so you can share the listening experience with your friends and family.

Proficient Audio
www.proficientaudio.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

All three names suck pretty bad, are totally unimaginative and have like zero sizzle. But does it really matter? I doubt it. Maybe CustomRetailer should hold a contest to come up with a new category name. It might just help if we added some sizzle to the category. With all of the marketing mavens at the custom-install brands, you would have thought someone would have dreamed something up by now. Maybe someone, some day will come up with a really hot, creative, silver bullet name for the category. Not totally necessary but, hey, why not? Wouldn’t hurt.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

It’s us, the manufacturers. We’re the problem. It’s not the state of disarray the new home market is in. We, as brand managers, have done a crummy job of capturing the interest, attention and imagination of our dealers and their new-home buyers. We could be doing a much, much better job of making it a whole lot easier for our dealers to be selling distributed audio. We think “product” and then it all stops right there. Here’s an example: To get stuff done yesterday, we use stock architectural shots we buy off the ’net in our literature now. Whatever happened to setting up product in a new home and doing location shooting so the new home buyer can visualize our stuff in its setting? The new home construction business has been so good that we weren’t pushed to reach and do great marketing for our dealers. Dealers are making more margin dollars from a distributed audio system than any other category they sell. We should be figuring out ways of helping them sell more systems.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Better marketing, better merchandising, better displays, better demos. Is this category even getting demoed? I would like to see CustomRetailer set up an A/B test with a group of dealers who don’t demo whole-house audio against those dealers who do. Let’s see which dealer sells more, and who makes more gross profit dollars. While we’re at it, dealers should demand that their brand managers help them market distributed audio. Everyone would win, including the homeowner. Homeowners are watching TV and video in their home theaters. They should be listening to music in their new crib with a kickin’ distributed audio system.

Proficient’s M4 is a four-room audio controller that includes four IR keypads.

Sonos
www.sonos.com

Kostas Reissis, Director, Distribution Channels

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

We have done a tremendous amount of research on this topic, and by far and away the adjective that consumers identify with is multi-room music. This is how we position our product both directly to the consumer and to the channel.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Awareness. Before digital music and wireless multi-room products, the multi-room market was geared towards the top one percent of homes. Most homeowners didn’t even consider multi-room audio because of the large entry cost. Music going digital eliminated both the need for hard media and for running wires everywhere in the home. Wireless technologies provide the consumer and the channel a more reasonable entry point into this market, opening up the market to many more households. Due to new technologies, such as the Sonos Digital Music System, more than ever people are looking to move music around the home and awareness is beginning to increase—but it is far from mainstream.

Sonos says it offers the first wireless multi-room digital music system.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

By demonstrating the system to as many potential customers as they can. This will increase the overall awareness. Our most successful dealers are the ones who show Sonos to every customer they meet. Because our system is so different than any other product available, the customer has to experience the system to truly understand the benefits. The channel also needs to consider the benefits of wireless music systems. Although we don’t have the grossly high margins other products do, Sonos customers are very, very happy. And if you have happy customers, at the end of the day, you are going to create more business.

Vantage/Legrand
www.vantagecontrols.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

Our product is a “distributed audio” amplifier. The distinguishing characteristic is multiple zones. “Whole-house/home” is typically used to denote one source available to listen to at any given time throughout the house, typically with individual room volume control; there is no zoning. “Multi-room audio” is nondescript; it could apply to either zoned or non-zoned systems and so we avoid using the term for our product.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

I see two equally important challenges, both of which relate to usability. First, there is a need to improve homeowner control interfaces, to give them affordable-yet-intuitive and information-rich controls that are also attractive. Second, there is a growing need to handle an increasing number of music sources and to provide source equipment and controllers that can meet the needs and desires of every member of the household, including the elimination of shared source conflicts, where two users in two zones want to listen to different selections from the same source.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Offering multi-purpose control interfaces, such as touchscreens, that integrate control of music with other home system functions is one of the keys to successful sales of distributed audio. Well-conceived selection of sources that meet the needs and desires of the homeowner, along with well-designed user data/control interfaces, make for happy customers and repeat business.

SpeakerCraft
www.speakercraft.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

All three mean the same exact thing to me so I have no preference.

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Public awareness. There are not enough qualified installers to get the message into the marketplace. If you asked 100 consumers what they thought about distributed audio, 98 percent of them wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Very few people understand the benefits of whole-house music, let alone that the category even exists.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Over the past 100 days, I’ve visited over 100 dealers. Very few of them have implemented any marketing activities. If more dealers started advertising their services, I’m sure they would double their sales. This process could start with a very basic marketing campaign, such as advertising. Dealers simply need to develop a strategy that would enable them to spread the word about whole-house music. No longer can integrators rely on other people to get the word out. It’s simply time they took an active role in growing the category.

On-Q/Legrand
www.onqlegrand.com

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

At On-Q, we strive to create innovative home systems technology. Our lifestyle solutions aim not only to address a need in a single room or area of the home, but instead to encompass the entire home, providing a full home experience. For this reason, we prefer the term “whole home audio.”

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

The biggest challenges are improving the selling process to better convey the value, simplifying the product to make it easier to use and understand, and making these products more “built-into the home” for a cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing installation.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

By simplifying their offering, creating lifestyle collateral materials to help sell the offering, and by highlighting the lifestyle benefits when selling.

Audio Design Associates (ADA)
www.ada.net

“Distributed audio,” “whole-house/home audio” or “multiroom audio”?

Thirty-years ago, Peter McKean coined the term “multiroom music” when he and Albert Langella co-founded ADA. If Peter were with us today, he would dismiss these other terms as being too sterile or complex. And Peter would be right. Our industry focuses more on buttons than fidelity and perhaps this is why so many homes sound like “distributed audio” instead of “multiroom music.”

Audioaccess
www.audioaccess.com
Chris Robinson, Director of Sales

What’s the biggest challenge facing this product segment?

Not long ago, whole-house music systems were primarily only for the more affluent, but in recent years manufacturers have been able to produce systems and speakers at lower cost and offer them to a much wider homeowner segment. This is the good news. The long-term challenge comes in assuring the multi-room system experience is a high-quality one in all applications, including systems in mid-priced homes. Inexpensive speakers that look like a bargain at first can have a negative impact on the long-term growth and appeal of this segment if a lot of owners become dissatisfied or aren’t able to enjoy their investment. Installations at all price points tend to sell the control experience over the musical one, as some homeowners may believe that because “it’s just background music,” the audio quality of a system will be acceptable regardless of the equipment used. Inexpensive electronics, especially when combined with cheap speakers, are the ingredients for a system that sounds bad and is then never used, thus creating a dissatisfied whole-house audio customer. Stepping up all customers, whether by offering better-quality speakers with more modest installations or by stepping up high-end customers with better audio equipment all around, is a challenge for most installers, but it’s a challenge that must be addressed for whole-house systems in any price range to be accepted as offering high value and real benefits.

How can custom installers better sell this category?

Sell the overall experience in addition to the ease-of-control aspect. It is more common to sell the keypads’ and other control devices’ ease of use and functionality, and the touchscreens, remotes and other control aspects that are typically of primary interest to the whole-house audio customer. Dealers could better sell the category with demonstrations that show how improved products impact the overall experience for the better—not just the control functionality, but the musical experience as well. Whole-house systems should be actively installed in custom installers’ offices and showplaces, and installers should pay as much attention to demonstrating high-quality multi-room sound as they would for a home theater demonstration room. These systems should be ready to demonstrate at all times, with speakers of good, better and best quality available to audition in different areas, thus showing the customer how even a modest step-up investment in speakers can improve their overall experience and long-term satisfaction. CR

In many ways, a marketplace is like a population of living organisms. With pressure, it evolves, and behavior changes. We've seen advances in communication technologies combine with a dynamic economy to alter consumer expectations. Services like on-demand, just-in-time and digital printing evolved to fill the niche provided by consumers' new-found need for speed. Players in the book space have been slow to adopt Internet print procurement solutions, but e-commerce companies are hopeful that the climate will change.

E-procurement, in short, involves securing print services over the Internet via auction or other Web-enabled methodology. Companies like 58k.com focus almost exclusively on online auctioning. Others, such as Noosh, printCafe.com, Impresse, Colla-bria and httprint.com are more diversified. They offer collaboration and project management services in addition to e-procurement. They believe their interfaces can handle, describe and track all aspects of a print job from start to finish, allowing all participants to communicate completely online.

In the last few years there has been a lot of hype about e-procurement. Tremendous investment capital poured in from Wall Street; the new business models would transform the face of print commerce. The mere existence of the technology would lead to its adoption. Well, it's been a few years and the book industry doesn't look much different.

Realistic expectations?

Both book manufacturers and e-commerce executives agree that initial e-procurement expectations were unrealistic for these fledgling companies. According to Robin Michalisko, former director of marketing for Printbid.com, "There was no historical data. When most industries spring up, you can plot your future based on similar businesses. We all found out that spending in the marketplace doesn't necessarily drive activity and adoption. You can certainly create a buzz and drive your stock up, but there has been way too much value put on companies that haven't proven themselves." Printbid.com closed its doors earlier this year.

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