Jun 15 Podcast #535: Cloudee, Watch It and CE Pro 100 Brand Analysis 2012
Podcast 
CEPro, the magazine for professional consumer electronics installers, puts out a survey every year to determine what brands dealers, integrators and resellers offer the most. It's an interesting list to take a look at. Typically a reseller will have a few different reasons for choosing a favorite brand than the rest of us, like profit margins or marketing support, but often the reasons are the same. They want products that please their customers and are reliable.
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- Netgear NeoTV Streaming Player (NTV200) $49.99
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- TV-online multitasking reaches 60% penetration
- D-Link Unveils New Media Player
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CE Pro 100 Brand Analysis 2012
CE Pro, the magazine for professional consumer electronics installers, puts out a survey every year to determine what brands dealers, integrators and resellers offer the most. It’s an interesting list to take a look at. Typically a reseller will have a few different reasons for choosing a favorite brand than the rest of us, like profit margins or marketing support, but often the reasons are the same. They want products that please their customers and are reliable.
Freestanding Speakers
The top three brands were unchanged from last year. B&W is in the top spot with 34%, followed by Klipsch at 23% and Paradigm at 21%. Rounding out the top five were Monitor Audio and Triad Speakers, both at 9%. KEF made the list with 7%. Of course you wouldn’t expect a brand like Aperion to make the list since they don’t sell through dealers, they sell direct.
A/V Receivers
Integra dominated this segment with a outrageous 60%. Number two on the list was Denon all the way down at 31% followed by Marantz at 23%. Pioneer made a strong showing with the stock Pioneer brand registering a 23% and the Pioneer Elite brand coming in at 20%. Sony was also pretty high up the list with 20%. Other notable HT Guys goto brands on the list were Yamaha with 15%, Onkyo at 11%, and Harman Kardon in the basement with a meager 1%.
Media Servers
The Media Server category was quite interesting. Despite the legal trouble, Kaleidescape crushed the competition with a whopping 50%. Number two on the list, falling all the way down to 16% was Apple. Of course this comes as no surprise to use. We’ve been talking about using a Mac Mini as a Video Server for half a decade. Rounding out the top five were ReQuest at 15%, Crestron at 14% and Autonomic with 8%. All brands we’ve heard of, but don’t have very much experience with.
Projectors
The consummate champion, Runco again led the pack in 2012 with 46%. But there are also a few brands on the list that the rest of us can afford. Number two, coming in with an excellent showing at 37% was Epson. Braden was quick to point out that he’s been trying to tell everyone what an amazing value these projectors are. At least the dealers are listening. Also on the list were Digital Projection at 34%, JVC at 34% and Sony at 33%. Panasonic made the list, but not very convincingly, with only 6%. CE Pro credits the shift from dedicated theaters to more cost-effective media/great room installations for Epson’s noticeable surge.
Flat-Panel TVs
Just like in the world we all live in, Samsung was the big dog in this year’s survey as well. Samsung with an almost jaw-dropping 88% increased its edge over second place contender Sony weighing in with a solid 54%. Rounding out the top five were Sharp (41%), Panasonic (36%) and LG (26%). CE Pro mentions the Elite brand as a reason why Sharp may have had the success they did. If they can continue to make TVs that look that good, and somehow bring the price down, they might be able to move up the list.
Bluray Players
Samsung with 63% and Sony with 54% took this category as well. LG placed third with 20%, followed by OPPO Digital at 17% and Integra at 16%. The magazine believes that Oppo’s emergence into the top of the category is due to custom installers who need Blu-ray disc players that provide a high level of performance without costing an arm and a leg. Other that the OPPO Digital player, the rest of them are basically the same. Blu-ray players have become somewhat commoditized these days. Who knows why dealers would choose one over the other? It could simply be ease of ordering. or maybe better discrete IR codes for universal remotes.
Mounts
If you need to mount a flat panel to the wall or a projector to the ceiling, these are the brands the pros use. Hopefully that means if you choose them, you won’t have too much stuff falling when you slam a door. Of course the quality of the installation could be a factor in that as well. The most offered brands by dealers in 2012 were Chief (67%), Sanus (42%), OmniMount (31%), SnapAV (20%) and Peerless (17%). Premier, Braden’s goto choice in the past, barely made the list with only 2% of the vote.
Computers
In the retail and corporate world, the Windows based PC is king. But in the custom installation world Apple dominates, hitting the number one spot with 39%. This is most likely due to how well the iPad functions as a home theater/home controlling device. The list also includes a few PC makers, though, like Dell (27%), HP (8%), and Lenovo (4%). Of course, since there’s only one Apple, the entire rest of the list is PC makers like Acer (2%), Sony (2%) and Toshiba (2%).
Reader Comments (4)
Hugo is an absolutely breathtaking looking bluray. It did win the Oscar
for cinematography. At least rent it at a Redbox to check it out.
Two quick comments:
1) A statement was made that OTA broadcasts look better than cable/satellite/fiber. To my knowledge that is not inherently the case. The question is whether or not the provider is further compressing the signal when it rebroadcasts in order to save bandwidth or spectrum. For example I have Verizon FiOS, and one of their claims to fame regarding TV is the fact they do not in fact compress the signal. They are sending the encode as one would receive via OTA.
2) I'm probably wrong on this, but you might want to double check the veracity of that article regarding Game of Thrones delay in Australia. Listening to recent AV Rant podcasts, Tom was complaining about how it's not on so of course it's being pirated. I may be reading into it, but it sounded like he meant the delay is more than just a single week.
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Here's an anecdote I thought you guys would like - and it's one of the clearest examples of why I love this show. I recently purchased a Sony BDP-S790 bluray player. Not owning a 3D TV, I decided to bring it over to my buddy's house for movie night so we could test out the 2D-3D conversion on his 82" Mitsubishi DLP. He also happens to have a plasma hanging up on his wall next to said RPTV.
I'm in the process of getting things configured and I seem to be having problems with the remote control. Initially I figure maybe Sony sent some crap batteries so I didn't really think much of it and just moved a bit closer to the player. Meanwhile my buddy also starts having some issues using the TV remote to switch to the proper mode. Seems weirdly coincidental ... but we move on. Now it's time to actually see if it's working. Mitsubishi 3D TV's use an IR-based transmitter for syncing with the active glasses. While we're testing we keep on losing sync ... and wondering what the heck is going on. How can seemingly all these devices have battery issues at the same time?
Then it dawns on me. I had just listened to your podcast asking questions about 'plasma proof' IR's the day before. We turn off the Plasma and boom ... the glasses all sync and our remotes start working :D
Keep up the great work!
As far as I know, GOT is Not aired her in Aus. The other reason us Aussies are keen to download is because the networks can't play a series straight. We get a mix of new with repeats every week and it's hard to tie down when a new episode is on. One station is particularly bad for it - WIN. We used to get Top gear on SBS and they would play a new season from start to finish ( one every week) at the same time. The whole country knew that Monday night 7:30 was top her or mythbusters. Now win have it and no one has a clue when a new episode is on. P2P is a saving grace here as it brings normality to what is a system of chaos introduced by the broadcasters
I kinda doubt game of thrones is not in australia at all, perhaps you don't know HBO is a premium channel?
the problem with the idea of a la carte, is that it doesn't work.
game of thrones is awesome because they went balls out. for that kind of risk you need the safety of a subscription, with that model people hand over a chunk of cash and just say deliver me some win, or atleast try. a la carte model delivers pg 13 type nonsense you see in the movie theatre, risk averse behavior because each thing is totally separate, and thus has to appeal to the widest possible audience without offense.