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www.wifihifi.ca | September 2014
PM42710013
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CONTENTS | September 2014
PUBLISHER’S NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8
SHORT BITS
Highlighting some of the latest and coolest gear available, and coming soon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
RETAIL BIZ
Creating Value: The Role of Distribution in the CE Industry
Today’s CE distributors are much more than middlemen. Without their efforts, the industry
would likely grind to a halt.
By Gordon Brockhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
14
MOBILE WORLD
Head-to-Heads: 3 Rounds of Competition in Wireless
A glimpse into three key areas of competition in wireless: new carriers vs. incumbents; “traditional” mobile
TV providers and over-the-top services; and wireless retail vs. new channels.
By Christine Persaud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AUTOMATION
Home Automation Goes Mainstream
Light bulbs, door locks, thermostats and surveillance cameras are joining the Internet of Things.
Custom vendors welcome this trend, because it boosts awareness of home automation.
22
By Gordon Brockhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Riding the Wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
30
FWD THINKING
A Game-Changer in CI?
CIs find themselves dealing with networking, and ensuring security and ease of configuration
are two prime concerns. Does this router from a Canadian company solve both?
By Wally Hucker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
CROWDFUNDING
Closing the Business Gap
It takes a lot to turn a successful crowdfunded campaign into a viable business. But as these examples
show, there can be significant advantages for distributors and retailers that get on board.
38
By Frank Lenk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
TALKING SHOP
Are online services like Kijiji and Canuck Audio Mart worthwhile for selling gear? Plus, a spate of new
store openings and partnerships in CE retail.
By Wally Hucker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
BEST LUGGAGE FOR A 3-DAY BIZ TRIP
Do you travel a lot for business? Check out our picks of great luggage options for those
short jaunts by plane, train, or automobile.
By Vawn Himmelsbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?: John Henderson
50
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As told to Wally Hucker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
moments
performance
content
smart
people
Connected Receivers
SO MUCH MORE THAN A BLACK BOX
RX-V77 Series receivers are attracting a lot of attention
Find out why at ca.yamaha.com
Dealer inquiries [email protected]
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
PUBLISHER / EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
John Thomson
Cell: 416-726-3667
[email protected]
@john__thomson (that’s 2 underscores)
PUBLISHER’S
NOTE
The start of the new calendar year is, of course, months away. As this issue appears, I am celebrating the beginning
of the business year; and for me, that has always been the start of September. The lazy days of summer are behind us,
the kids are back to school and in their routine, the humidity of August is replaced by the crisp days of September,
sandals are put away, blazers come back, and there is an energy in the air that tells us the days of kicking back are
over. Once again, it’s time to get back to business.
September is a great kickoff month for our industry. We move straight into high gear with the IFA, CEDIA and CITA
tradeshows. We look forward to seeing new products, meeting colleagues and mapping the direction where our
industry is heading.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Christine Persaud
[email protected]
@ChristineTechCA
For our September issue, Gordon Brockhouse addresses the importance of distribution, and how the role of
distributors has evolved in recent years. Increasingly, distributors have to add more value for both customers and
suppliers. With retailers moving to just-in-time inventory, rapid fulfillment is a must. So is operational efficiency,
given the extreme competition in our industry.
EDITOR-AT-LARGE
Gordon Brockhouse
[email protected]
One sign of a great distributor is its knack for finding new products to represent. While tradeshows have historically
played a leading role in learning about new companies, as Frank Lenk outlines in his story on page 38, crowdfunding
sites such as Kickstarter are becoming a great hunting ground for the next big thing.
RETAIL EDITOR
Wally Hucker
[email protected]
One candidate for the next big thing is home automation, which is the subject of Gordon’s second feature. This has
traditionally been the realm of custom integrators; but now we’re seeing a host of over-the-counter, do-it-yourself
products. Service providers like Rogers are also entering the field. Interestingly, vendors targeting the custom
sector welcome this new competition, because it boosts awareness of home automation.
CONTRIBUTORS
Vawn Himmelsbach, Frank Lenk
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL CONTENT
James Campbell
[email protected]
DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL EVENTS
Cathy Thomson
[email protected]
Melsa Media Inc.
194 Robinson Street
Oakville, Ontario
L6J 1G3
Website: www.wifihifi.ca / www.wifihifi.com
Twitter: twitter.com/wifihifimag
Facebook: facebook.com/wifihifimag
All advertising inquiries:
John Thomson
[email protected]
Copyright 2014. WiFi Hifi is a registered brand of Melsa Media Inc. and
is published ten times each year. All rights reserved. The contents of
this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the
written consent of the publisher. The views expressed by advertisers
are not necessarily those held by the publisher.
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Is there an industry on the planet as fiercely competitive as telecommunications? Probably not, judging by the
verbal fireworks that occur every year at the Canadian Telecom Summit. On page 22, Christine Persaud goes deep
inside the wireless industry, describing the sparring between wireless providers at this year’s Summit, analyzing
the competition between carrier and over-the-top mobile video services, and looking at the growing number
of retailers offering wireless accessories. As Christine observes, supermarkets and drugstores are fighting with
wireless and electronics retailers for smartphone accessory sales.
We round off this issue with six pages of retail news from our man on the ground, Wally Hucker. Wally was very
pleased to report that store openings and expansions have trumped closings and contractions this month. That’s
something that we have not seen in a while; and it’s terrific news.
September isn’t just the time when kids get back to school, and business gets back to work. It’s also the time when
consumers get back into stores. In his lead item for Talking Shop, Wally talks to retailers who are using services
like eBay, Kijiji, Craigslist and Canuck Audio Mart to build traffic. They have some interesting perspectives on what
works, and what doesn’t.
Hopefully, traffic and sales will keep building in Canadian technology stores right through the holiday season, so
that we have lots to celebrate at the official year-end.
Thanks for reading!
John Thomson
[email protected]
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SHORT BITS
The newest products from the business of digital.
I Can See Clearly Now: Belkin’s NetCam HD+ Wi-Fi camera lets you see your
No Purer Listening: Want a super-pure listening
experience with your high-end headphones? Check
out the McIntosh MHA100 headphone amplifier,
which uses the company’s technologies, like
Autoformer and Headphone Crossfeed Director
(HXD), to enhance the audio. Using the four digital
inputs, the amp can decode music at up to 32 bits
and 192 kHz; it also has a pair of analog inputs. Sit
back and enjoy some tunes while you work at the
computer, or use the 50 watt stereo speaker outputs
for connecting to your speakers for shared listening.
But this purist listening experience will come at a
hefty price, to the tune of $4,500. Mcintoshlabs.com
home in 720p resolution on a smartphone, tablet, or PC, from wherever you are.
The camera uses a wide-angle glass lens, and offers night vision, secure Wi-Fi
streaming, cloud storage, easy setup and push to talk (scold the pets for sitting on the
furniture, or the kids for coming home late from school). It works with WeMo: users
can access their camera via the WeMo app and set up rules and triggers with other
installed WeMo devices, like the WeMo Insight Switch, for things like motion detection.
Grab a monthly or yearly package that allows you to store HD video to the cloud, or
even download clips to your computer for local storing and sharing. $150 Belkin.com
OK Google, Wear my G Watch: LG’s G Watch is one of the
first devices to be powered by Android Wear, a Google operating
system that extends Android to the wearable platform. Worn around
the wrist, it has a touch interface, and allows the wearer to view
notifications from the screen, and seamlessly connect with other
Android devices running Android 4.3 and above. It can accept
audible commands for doing things like searching information
or dictating a text message: just begin with “OK, Google.” Use the
matching wristband, or any standard 22 mm watchstrap. $250 Lg.ca
Electric Cool on Two Wheels: The Italianmade Energica EGO is an electric superbike
made by CRP that’s equipped with a synchronous
electric motor with permanent magnets, oil
cooled, has 100Kw of power and torque of
195Nm from 0-4,700 rpm. The top speed is 240
km/hr., and it can go from 0-100 km/hr. in under
three seconds. The 110-220V on-board battery
charger with a cable interface allows for an
85% charge in just 30 minutes. While range will
depend on use, you’ll get about 150 km with an
average speed of 80 km/h, and 200 km with an
average speed of 60 km/h (street circuit). Get one
in matte pearl white or black for a cool $28K or so.
But not until 2015. Energicasuperbike.com
Charger, or Speaker?: Why pick one or the other? Veho’s Pebble Aria
combines a portable charger and speaker in one. The cylindrical-shaped device
houses a 3,500 mAh charger that can provide up to two full charges for most
smartphones. It also has a 2-watt speaker for playing music from a connected
mobile device. It isn’t Bluetooth; instead you connect the Pebble to your phone
via 3.5 mm jack. And you can rest your phone comfortably against the unit
while songs are playing to control playback. $50 Nvu.ca
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Super-Connected Micro System:
The Pioneer X-CM32BT micro system is packed
full of connectivity options. It has a CD receiver,
and can connect to music sources via Bluetooth
or USB. BT Auto Connect will automatically
remember previously-connected Bluetooth
devices for easy reconnection; and when BT
Standby mode is enabled, you can power up the
speaker directly from a Bluetooth device. It comes
with a matching stand for iPod/iPhone/iPad,
FM/AM-tuner that stores up to 45 radio stations,
and is compatible with the free Pioneer Wireless
Streaming App. $280 Pioneerelectronics.ca
SHORT BITS
No Purse/Toolkit Needed: We’ve seen plenty of cool smartphone
cases over the years, but none like the myTask URBAN for the iPhone 5/5S,
which has hidden inside all of the essential mini tools one could possibly
need. For a woman, there’s a mirror, tweezers, nail file, and scissors; plus
a pen, stylus, USB drive and mini-LED light. Want something a little more
rugged? Try the TASKONE, which has 22 different tools housed within it,
Swiss Army-style. Need a bottle opener, knife, or wire cutters? This one has
you covered. $80-$100 Thetasklab.com
Amazon Adds New Perspective: Amazon’s first smartphone, the Fire,
uses a sensor system to respond to the way you hold, view, and move the phone.
It will, for example, instantly recognize things like Website and e-mail addresses,
phone numbers, QR and bar codes on a poster or business card, for example, to let
you make a call, send an e-mail, save the contact, or go to the Website. It can even
identify movies, songs, and products. Cool! US$200-US$300 Amazon.com
Vizio M-Series Doubles LED Zones:
The new M-Series full-array LED backlit LCD
HDTV collection (32-80”) from Vizio boasts up to
36 active LED zones, more than double that of the
2013 collection. As smart TVs, they will also come
with access to Vizio’s Internet Apps Plus platform,
smart remote, Active Pixel Tuning, and 240Hz
refresh rate. The TVs are also 20% slimmer than
last year’s models, with bezels that measure just
8mm. US$330-US$3,200 Vizio.com
eXact Measurements: Gitzo’s Mountaineer tripods employ
Carbon eXact, a fibre composite that’s optimized for each tube size.
High Modulus carbon fibre is used in the narrower tubes to make
them stiffer. Other improvements include added rigidity to the top
spider and column lock, redesigned leg locks to improve ergonomic
resistance, new G-lock Ultra construction that makes it easier to set
leg height, a redesigned Ground Level Set mechanism that makes
it easier to remove and invert the centre column for ground-level
shots, and an unlocking ring under the column’s upper disc that
frees the column while keeping the upper disc in place. Pricing from
$650-$1,300. Gentec-intl.com
Single Cup Beer?: The single-cup craze is
Feeling the Fibe: Bell’s Home Hub for Fibe TV and Internet is a Wi-Fi router
and modem in one, operating on the 802.11ac wireless standard and the 5 GHz
spectrum for delivering über-fast speeds. What also sets it apart are the tools
for managing Internet usage across all of your connected devices. Log in online
and you can see a detailed list of connected devices and details about their
usage patterns, including what devices account for what percentage of use
(are you eating up most of your allowance watching Netflix through the Apple
TV? Or surfing on your phone?) Parents will especially love the ability to set rules
for specific devices: limit Billy’s daily online game play to an hour, or shut off
Wi-Fi on the kids’ phones during dinner. $200 Bell.ca/bestwifi
on fire, with coffee, hot chocolate, even iced
tea and lemonade. But beer? Yep, if Synek has
anything to do with it. The developer, a former
stock market analyst, wants to offer the machine
to craft brewers as a method for dispensing beer
from cartridges similar to coffee K cups. The
cartridges, which can hold about 11 12-ounce
beers, can be filled using an adapter, and the
dispenser is pressurized and self-refrigerated,
thus offering extended shelf life. A Kickstarter
campaign has been launched in hopes of raising
the quarter-million bucks necessary to make this
happen. This is the type of packaging innovation
we can all drink a toast to! Syneksystem.com
September 2014
|9
SHORT BITS
Smart Phone Home: Really, who has a home phone anymore?
Panasonic hopes to change that with its new DECT series of cordless
phones, some of which can connect to a smartphone via an iOS or
Android app to use the wireless device as an additional handset. Calls
can even be transferred to mobile devices, as long as they are within
range of the wireless router and connected to Wi-Fi. Once a call has
been transferred to mobile, the main landline can still be used to make
and accept other calls. The Link2Cell models don’t require a landline
subscription at all, but give you that home phone feel; and baby
monitor features in each. $170-$250 Panasonic.ca
Tekoia SureMote: It’s a universal remote
app that can control smart media streaming
and legacy devices that use Wi-Fi or infrared
(IR) capability from a single interface. The
app uses proprietary technology developed
by Tekoia, which hails from Ramat Gan in
Israel, and will run on Android devices, with
compatibility for a version of the OS coming
later this year. It is a standards-based solution
supporting UPnP as the main communication
protocol, OIPF command set, and a secure
encryption layer. Tekoia.com
Connect in a Flash: SanDisk’s Connect Wireless
Flash and Media Drives can wirelessly connect to your
smartphone without the need for an Internet connection
(they act as their own hotspots) for easily transferring
content, like photos and videos, to your computer, or for
storing then streaming files to play back on the phone.
The idea is to help you free up valuable storage space
on your mobile device. They can connect to multiple
devices at a time, and even stream to up to three devices
simultaneously. The Media Drive adds an SDHC/SDXC slot
for quick transfer and/or added storage. Capacities range
from 16-64 GB, and pricing from $50-$120. Sandisk.ca
After All, You’re My WaterWall: The WaterWall
technology in Samsung’s DW80H9970 dishwasher
uses a linear mechanism that moves along the bottom
of the dishwasher tub to provide consistent high water
pressure. This replaces the traditional rotary wash
systems, and creates a more powerful wall of water
that offers fuller cleaning coverage. The Controllable
Intensive Washing function (Zone Booster) offers two
cleaning zones: high pressure and temperature wash
for heavily soiled pots and normal wash with a lighter
stream for plates and glasses. $1,900 Samsung.ca
Onkyo Goes Dolby Atmos: Among three new home
Savant Gets Smarter: Savant Systems has expanded its Smart Series of smart home
technology with a new unified media server and amplifier that allows users to automatically
save and control their music mixes. Users can do things like create a new Pandora Internet Radio
station (note Pandora is not yet available in Canada),
or create custom playlists from streaming services
like Spotify, then access and control the audio
through Savant’s app. Packages start at US$1,600
Evolutionhomecorp.com
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theatre systems from Onkyo is the HT-S7700, which has HDMI
2.0 inputs with support for 4K video pass-through at up to 60fps,
Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and Zone 2 line-level audio
output. Built around a 7.2-channel network AV receiver, it also
includes a two-way centre-channel speaker, full-range surrounds
and 10” powered sub. Housed in the front speaker enclosures
are upward-firing drivers for producing overhead effects, such as
aircraft and rainfall, in Dolby Atmos soundtracks. It supports the
HDCP 2.2 copy protection scheme that may be used to encrypt
future 4K streaming and broadcast services, phono preamp, and
Marvell Qdeo upscaling to 4K or 1080p. $1,000 Onkyo.ca
So SMART… It’s BRILLIANT
SHORT BITS
Hear the Motion: There are three new loudspeakers
in MartinLogan’s Motion Series: the XT (“Extreme”)
Motion 60XT floor-stander, Motion 50XT centre-channel
and Motion 35XT shelf speaker. All three employ a new
version of the company’s Folded Motion tweeter, with
a radiating surface 40% larger than the tweeters on
other Motion Series speakers. The tweeter is matched to
long-excursion aluminum-cone woofers with rear-firing
low-turbulence bass ports. All models are available in
piano black and gloss cherry finishes. $1,000-$3,500/pr.
Martinlogan.com
The 420 on the E-NJoint: Move over e-cigarette. Dutch company E-Njoint has developed an
electronic way of smoking marijuana, which is, by the way, fully legal in the Netherlands, along
with several U.S. states. Fear not, Canadians, as there’s a version that doesn’t contain any
THC, tobacco, or nicotine, and thus can be puffed anywhere to enjoy one of six fruity
flavours. When you take a haul, the image of a green cannabis leaf lights up on
the end. For those who reside (or are visiting) locations where marijuana
consumption is legal and wish to indulge, the E-Njoint Rechargeable
can be filled with your own cannabis liquid content, and the E-Njoint
Vaporizer can be used to smoke dry herbs. E-njoint.com
Power in the Bank: TP-LINK Canada’s
TL-PB10400 Power Bank portable charger
has dual USB ports for simultaneously
charging up to two mobile devices. It has
a high-capacity 10,400 mAh battery, and
2A and 1A USB ports that are compatible
with most 5V input USB-charged devices,
with voltage automatically adjusted based
on the device plugged in. It can charge a
typical smartphone three to five times, and
with more than 500 recharge cycles over
its life. Four LED lights show battery level,
but can also double as a built-in emergency
flashlight. Safety features include built-in
short circuit, over-voltage, over-current,
over-charge, over-discharge, and
overheating protection. $60 Tp-link.com
Folding Studio: Need to take high-quality product shots and only have
a smartphone on hand? It can be done! The Foldio is a super-neat portable,
foldable studio made by OrangeMonkie of South Korea and Los Angeles.
It folds down like an envelope that can be easily slotted into a backpack
or briefcase. Then, pop up the durable plastic material, origami-style, and
use the built-in magnets to arrange it like a box. There are two embedded
LED strips (9V battery required) for ensuring proper lighting, even in dark
environments. The box is white, but the backdrops can be easily changed;
black, gray, and white sheets included. $70 Nvu.ca
Rolling Screen: LG hopes to make
Ready, Camera, Action!: Use Wi-Fi to connect Sony’s HDRAS20 Action
portable screens on-the-go a reality with
its 18” roll-able OLED screen (1,280 x 810
resolution) that uses a high-tech plastic
film made of polyimide that allows it to be
rolled up to just over an inch in diameter.
LG hopes to see the technology reach
screens as large as 60” by 2017. Movie,
anyone? Sure, let me just grab that 60”
screen out of my briefcase… Lg.ca
Cam to the wearable, waterproof Live View Remote accessory, which lets you
view and control up to five cameras. It has a wide-angle ZEISS Tessar lens with
a 170° field of view (120° with SteadyShot on), back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS
sensor, stereo mic, and a handy flip function that automatically inverts the
image if you’re shooting with the camera bolted upside down. Record up to
130 minutes (150 with Wi-Fi off), then edit your vids and share them via social
media using Sony’s free PlayMemories Home app for the computer. Want to
add some cool effects? Use New Video Merge to create split-screen composites
of up to four simultaneous views captured by different cameras. $250 Sony.ca
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SHORT BITS
The New Millenia: The Millenia LP2 and LP XL from Paradigm
are both ultra-slim designs, only 1.75” deep, and suitable for
shelf- or wall-mounting, and two-channel or surround sound
applications. Both come with tabletop stands and wall brackets,
and can be placed horizontally or vertically. Newly designed
woofers and tweeters see a phase ring hidden in the protective
screen in front of the satin-anodized aluminum (S-PAL) dome
tweeter that “improves high-frequency response.” The new
aluminum cone woofer has lower distortion than polypropylene
units, because the cone’s resonant frequency is beyond the driver’s
passband. They look cool, too, with gloss black finish, one-piece
baffle, and perforated tweeter screen. $560-$770 Paradigm.ca
Rotate & Record: VSN Mobil’s V.360° has a 16 MP sensor that can
record 360-degree video at 1,080 x 6,480; comparable to three 1,080p
images laid out side by side. It can shoot forwards and backwards,
with a complete 360-degree video at all times. Captured video can be
viewed through an iOS or Android app, where users can manipulate
the video or image to see every angle, or lay it flat for a detailed
panoramic view. The rugged camera can withstand dust, drops, and
even water submersion (up to one metre for up to 30 minutes.) It
is compatible with the standard mount used by GoPro and other
cameras, so it can be attached to helmet mounts, tripods and a variety
of other accessories. Take video and stills at the same time, and even
include location information. Pricing “under $500” Vsnmobil.com
Steer Me, D-Link: D-Link’s wireless
AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Router (DIR-880L)
offers band steering, which lets users perform
simple Internet activities on the 2.4 GHz band,
and more demanding ones on the cleaner,
interference-free 5 GHz band. It also uses the
QoS engine for smart traffic prioritization and
smarter bandwidth allocation. Advanced AC
SmartBeam technology tracks connected
devices and focuses signals toward them for
faster throughput and greater range. It has four
Gigabit Ethernet ports, and two USB ports with
mydlink SharePort (USB 3.0 and USB 2.0) for
sharing and streaming content from up to two
connected USB drives. Use the Quick Router
Setup app to get going immediately from a
mobile device. $190 Dlink.ca
TV, Made Simple: Simple.TV provides over-the-air HD television to connected devices, and it’s now available in
Canada following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Rather than sign up for cable, customers can watch their favourite
shows from various devices, and even download HD content to a Mac or PC for offline viewing and syncing with mobile
devices. The PVR has dual tuners, allowing it to record two shows at once,
or stream up to five shows simultaneously. $230, plus higher-priced
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September 2014
| 13
CREATING VALUE: The Role of
Distribution in the CE Industry
Rather than place consumer shipments in a large box, D&H
Canada uses a special machine that wraps them in a corrugated
material. This reduces dimensional weight and minimizes
shipping costs.
BY GORDON BROCKHOUSE
GREG TOBIN HAS A PRETTY DRAMATIC VIEW OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN if distributors stopped
working: entire industries would grind to a halt. Tobin is General Manager of Brampton, ON-based D&H Canada,
whose parent company happens to be the oldest distribution company in North America; so his exalted view
of the importance of distribution might seem self-serving.
But if you think about it for a few minutes, you realize that Tobin is right. The products we consume are
produced all over the world. But for the most part we buy them locally – from stores that carry products from
scores of different brands. Distribution is what enables local retailers to offer a broad product mix to their
customers. “We support hundreds of vendors and thousands of customers,” Tobin says. “Can you imagine
if those thousands of customers had to go to hundreds of manufacturers?”
Distributors play an equally important role for both retailers and vendors. “While retailers focus on selling
product, distributors can support them with efficiencies in logistics, added services like direct-to-consumer
shipping, marketing and brand-building, and providing display solutions,” says Wayne Mayall, Director, Multimedia
Division for Erikson Consumer in Baie d’Urfe, QC. “Distributors also bear some of the risk burden for the retailer by
holding inventory, managing warranty processes and generally working towards making a brand successful.”
Adds Jason Lau, Marketing Manager for Cesium Telecom Inc. in Mont-Royal, QC: “Manufacturers mostly
prefer working with a distribution model, as this allows them to focus on their core competencies. They
generally do not have the relationships and networks to sell to many retail locations.”
14 |
www.wifihifi.ca
The Story
In Canada, the consumer electronics industry is
served by scores of distributors, some of them
broad-based; others specializing in specific
sectors like wireless or custom integration.
For small brands, a distribution arrangement
often represents the only path to the Canadian
consumer. But some large brands are opting
for a distribution model in order to manage
costs more effectively.
Distributors add value for dealers by carrying
inventory for them, and through programs like
training, in-store P.O.P., and special events.
Distributors add value for vendors through
their relationships with Canadian dealers, by
building brand awareness, and managing
repairs and service.
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RETAIL BIZ
Gentec International operates from a 100,000-square-foot fully
computerized warehouse and distribution centre in Markham, ON.
“We run two shifts, starting at 7:30 a.m. and closing at midnight,”
says President and CEO Joel Seigel. “We have full B2B capabilities
with over 500 customers.”
JUST IN TIME
To a casual observer, distribution might seem like
a simple business: a distributor buys products from
different vendors, stores them in a warehouse, sells
them to retailers and ships them out on demand.
But look behind the scenes, and you see it’s much
more complex.
Distributors have to source products that
dealers will be able to sell, and keep up with a rapidly
changing competitive and technological landscape.
They have to add value for both vendors and
customers. Perhaps most important, they have to get
product to dealers quickly and accurately. Especially
in Canada, with cross-border shopping opportunities
just a mouse-click away, they have to do all this while
adding as little cost to the product as possible.
D&H Canada is a case in point. Earlier this year,
the company moved into a 100,000-square-foot fully
automated warehouse with RF technology. From this
facility, D&H sends shipments to dealers across the
country – and to dealers’ customers. While shipments
to dealers account for most of D&H’s revenue, direct-toconsumer shipments account for most its transactions.
“If a customer orders online from an e-tailer by
5:30 p.m., the order is automatically sent to us by EDI,
and is guaranteed to ship that day,” Tobin says. “It’s
made to look like it left the e-tailer’s warehouse. Our
value is our ability to service our customer’s customer.”
Instead of loading products into boxes, D&H uses
special machinery to wrap shipments to consumers
in a corrugated material. This minimizes dimensional
16 |
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weight and shipping costs. But Tobin acknowledges
that the competitive advantage D&H gains from
this slick technology will be fleeting. “The cruelty of
distribution is that when you come up with a new
efficiency, someone else will as well, and margins
keep getting compressed.”
Talk to just about most distributors, and they’ll
tell you how challenging their role has become. “The
marketplace is much more competitive,” says Joel
Seigel, President and CEO of Gentec International in
Markham, ON. “The dollar fluctuates quite regularly
and usually goes the wrong way. It’s more challenging
to carry the inventories, because our customers have
implemented just-in-time. We have to carry larger
inventories without having the forecast or insight as
to what might be coming down the road.”
Adds Mike O’Connor, Executive Vice President
for Concord, ON-based Gem-Sen Holdings Corp.:
“More investment has had to be made to support
higher inventory levels, more staff infrastructure, and
of course, the increasing costs of supporting buying
groups, as well as national programs.”
SOURCING
These challenges notwithstanding, many distributors
say the opportunities are greater today than ever. “In
recent years we have seen manufacturers transition to
distribution,” comments Grant Daoust, Vice President
of Trends Electronics International Inc., a Burnaby,
BC-based distributor that targets the custom integrator
market. “We anticipate that this will continue to be a
growing trend. Many manufacturers are struggling to
show a profit in the Canadian market with a subsidiary
model. We create a fixed cost of distribution, unlike the
variable cost of a subsidiary or selling direct.”
Moreover, there are many brands that are
looking for Canadian representation. But that poses
“ We are always trying to do the
absolute best job with the lines we
currently carry, before looking at
brand expansion.”
Mike O’Connor
Executive Vice President,
Gem-Sen Holdings Corp.
its own challenges, Daoust observes. “The challenge
is to sift through the brands and find quality products
that the Canadian market will embrace. A big part of
our job is to anticipate what the market will demand
in years to come. We also need to be completely sure
that any brand we represent is in alignment with our
company philosophy.”
Distributors put their reputation on the line
when they add a new brand, notes Steven Freytag,
General Manager of the Consumer Division of Dorval,
QC-based SF Marketing Inc. “It’s very easy to find
brands,” says Freytag, whose division focuses on
audio and home theatre in both the retail and custom
sectors. “What is difficult is finding brands that
dealers/integrators want. If we become the distributor
for a given brand, we are effectively giving it our
stamp of approval.”
“ The cruelty of distribution is
that when you come up with
a new efficiency, someone else
will as well, and margins keep
getting compressed.”
Greg Tobin
General Manager, D&H Canada
Distributors also have to make sure new lines
will remain viable beyond the short term. “There are
always brands available, but it’s harder and harder to
find relevant brands that are innovating and on their
way up,” comments Troy Fargey, President of Hitfar
Concepts, a Burnaby, BC-based distributor of mobile
accessories. “The wireless industry is maturing quickly.
While there is still a handful of enterprising companies
doing new things, there is an overabundance of
me-too brands.”
Gem-Sen, which focuses on the 12V market,
is cautious when it comes to adding new lines,
O’Connor says. “We are always trying to do the
absolute best job with the lines we currently carry,
before looking at brand expansion. We are not
looking to take on lines for one to two years, then
discard them and move on to the next line.”
Pretty well all distributors say they’re regularly
presented with new brand opportunities. “There
RETAIL BIZ
seem to be more and more tier two and three
brands knocking at our door every day,” says Kyle
Duszynski, Vice President, Brand Management at Curve
Distribution Services Inc., a Calgary-based distributor of
portable and mobile products. “But finding someone
who is differentiated and has an organizational vision
that aligns with ours is a lot more rare.”
Dealer requests can be an important source of
new brands and lines. Comments Freytag: “We like
to speak with our dealers and integrators, as well
as our sales agents and reps, and learn what new
technologies we should be looking at or what brands
we should be targeting.”
“ Exclusivity allows for better
management of a brand by
controlling pricing policies, regular
inventory fulfillment and focused
marketing efforts.”
Wayne Mayall
Director, Multimedia Division,
Erikson Consumer
Distributors in other countries can also provide
leads. “It is not unusual for us to get a call from an
overseas distributor of one of our brands, to discuss
what is going on in their markets,” says O’Connor.
“A lot of opportunities come to light through
ongoing dialogue with like-minded companies
around the globe.”
Major tradeshows like CES are another source
of new lines, as are tradeshows with a tighter
focus like CEDIA for the custom integrator market,
InfoComm for the commercial market and CTIA for
the wireless market. “The odd time you come up with
a little nugget,” Seigel says. “We got into the digital
picture frame business that way. We came across the
opportunity at an out-of-the-box tradeshow. We rode
the wave while it lasted.”
It’s important for distributors and dealers to look
at new categories that connect with their current
business direction. “We are always educating ourselves
in new categories, and understanding how the lines
between categories continue to get blurred,” Daoust
elaborates. “As a distributor, it is our responsibility to
bring new categories to our dealers, and understand
18 |
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how to grow opportunities in these categories.
Education is a big part of the challenge. Many new
categories have a culture all unto their own.”
Crowdfunding sites have become a fertile
source of new brands for some distributors. Daoust,
Fargey and Mayall all report that Kickstarter is a
good source of leads. But Duszynski has a different
take. “Crowdfunded organizations tend to be built
from the ground up to follow a direct-to-consumer
model, which rarely leaves room for a retailer or
distributor. Most crowdfunded companies we have
spoken to simply aren’t ready to handle large-scale
retail distribution.”
Sometimes distributors target specific brands.
Gentec landed three key lines that way: Klipsch audio
products, Alpine car audio and Manfrotto tripods
and photo accessories. “We pursued Manfrotto for 10
years,” Seigel elaborates. “We had a relationship with
Klipsch because of their acquisition of API. [Audio
Products International manufactured speakers under
the Energy and Mirage brands, and Gentec sold
Energy AV cables under license from API.] That gave
us an entrée. We’ve been in the car audio accessory
business for 10 years. We were looking to add to the
portfolio, so we approached Alpine.”
EXCLUSIVITY
Because of the close identification of distributors
and their brands, exclusivity is important, Seigel says.
“Typically we don’t like to carry competing brands. We
represent ourselves as Alpine of Canada, as Klipsch of
Canada, Sigma of Canada, Manfrotto of Canada. We
have to be focused on their categories.
“Exclusivity is not a 100% must-have, depending
on how we cut up the market,” Seigel continues.
“When you look at a marketplace of 35 million
people, the physical size of our market, the logistical
“ Manufacturers mostly prefer
working with a distribution
model, as this allows them to
focus on their core competencies.
They generally do not have the
relationships and networks to
sell to many retail locations.”
Jason Lau
Marketing Manager,
Cesium Telecom Inc.
A key value-add that Evolution Home Entertainment Corp. provides
for its customers is the Savant Experience Centre in downtown
Toronto. Last year, Evolution hosted 200 visits to the centre, where
customers got to experience a full Savant Smart Home System
installed in a luxury condo.
challenges, you can’t be battling with somebody
else going into the same account. All you’re doing is
whittling down your own position. It has worked in
certain cases, like SanDisk and Bushnell, where we’ve
split up the market and it’s been really clean and
worked well for years.”
Many distributors insist on exclusivity because of
the time and money they invest in building a brand,
and because they want to make sure that marketing
messages are consistent. “For us, exclusivity is almost
always a deal-breaker,” Duszynski states. “We invest
so much into launching our brands that we need all
35 million Canadians buying them to see a return.
For dealers and vendors, it’s important that there’s a
consistent marketing message and pricing strategy
across the country. Otherwise you could have one
distributor that wants to position the brand as a
clearance item while the other is trying to maintain a
MAP strategy. Nobody wins when that happens.”
Exclusivity is especially important in Canada,
says Mayall of Erikson Consumer. “While the country
is physically large, our population is less than the
state of California,” he observes. “Exclusivity allows for
better management of a brand by controlling pricing
policies, regular inventory fulfillment and focused
marketing efforts.”
But Jon Zabel, Director of North American
Sales for AVAD, says exclusivity arrangements are
becoming less common; and distributors have to
adapt. “Years ago, a distributor was able to satisfy the
business needs of the vendor for a given territory.
Today, the demand for share is forcing vendors
to look for multiple outlets inside of territories.
Competition from other distributors exists with
RETAIL BIZ
all lines, in all territories. It’s just the nature of the
business. We work hard to be a solution destination
for our dealers. We differentiate ourselves with
programs and services that help the dealer make
more money.”
Similarly D&H Canada prides itself on being able
to service small retailers. “Our number-one value-add
for customers is that we are flexible, and adapt our
programs to their needs,” Tobin states. “Our numbertwo is speed to market. It’s not the big that beat the
small; it’s the fast that beat the slow.
ADDING VALUE
There are many ways that distributors differentiate
themselves. The basics – processing and shipping
orders accurately and quickly – are demanding
enough; and CE distributors use impressive
technology and processes to make sure that happens.
But in a sense, this is table stakes. There are many
other ways that distributors add value for customers.
For AVAD Canada, a key value-add is the ability to
accommodate CIs who need product for the coming
week’s projects. “We stock everything we sell,” Zabel
says. “We offer a will-call solution for dealers who
need only one of something. We basically act like their
warehouse. Most of our dealers come into the branch
locations weekly to pick up products they need for
specific jobs.”
“ Vendors have told us that our
service team was able to conduct
repairs on their equipment more
accurately than they could, and
in many times, faster as well.”
Steven Freytag
General Manager, Consumer Division,
SF Marketing Inc.
“Regardless of size, every customer receives
a dedicated rep,” he continues. “If you’re a small
storefront in Wawa, ON, and you need to order a
camera, notebook and cable, we’ll gladly take care of
that. We help the independent retailer get product
with minimum order sizes that make sense.”
Daoust of Trends says personalized service from a
capable sales team, transparency and quick response
are all critical value-adds. “Supply chain management
has become more and more relevant in the last few
years. Many dealers have moved towards a just-intime strategy. We have made significant investments
in our organization, in terms of systems, warehousing,
logistics and personnel to support supply chain. We
believe this is paramount to our business partners.
“We also invest in our sales team across the
country,” Daoust continues. “This has been part
of our strategy since day one. We recognize that a
Web-based ordering portal is important, but having
in-field sales representatives to service our accounts
is ultimately important. We are very proud of our
sales team and the relationships they have with our
business partners.”
If a distributor wants to sell into a retailer, it has to
help sell through, Seigel maintains. “We partner with
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RETAIL BIZ
our customers when we sell in; and that means we
have to partner in selling out. If it doesn’t work, we’re
going to be there to insure they’re not on the hook.
That’s a key value-added. We provide the tools for our
retailers to sell. That could be training, in-store P.O.P.,
and retail ad support.”
Road and training shows are another important
service, especially in the CI sector, where factory
experts can show integrators how their products
should be implemented in the field. SF Marketing and
Trends are both active in this arena.
“ Some vendors don’t realize just
how important Canada is until we
get their products in front of
big-name retailers and they see
the sales potential.”
Kyle Duszynski
Vice President, Brand Management,
Curve Distribution Services Inc.
Another CI-oriented distributor, Concord, ON-based
Evolution Home Entertainment Corp., has a unique
value-add; the Savant Experience Centre in downtown
Toronto. Installed in a luxury condo in the heart of the
entertainment district is a full Savant automation system.
In addition to lighting, climate, entertainment and
security, the system is used in a simulated boardroom
so that visitors can see the business applications. CIs can
bring prospective clients to the centre.
Last year, Evolution hosted 200 visitors, says
Brad Middleton, Savant Canadian Brand Manager.
“We believe strongly in creating opportunity for
our dealers, rather than thinking of them as the
opportunity,” Middleton comments. “We invest
heavily in making our products successful for our
dealers, through training, designer and architect
events, and targeted marketing.”
VALUE FOR VENDORS
Distributors add as much value for vendors as they
do for retailers. Canada can be an important first step
for brands that are venturing outside of their home
markets. “Although our neighbours south of the
border often overshadow us, the Canadian market
is not negligible,” observes Cesium Telecom’s Lau.
20 |
www.wifihifi.ca
“Many brands are looking to grow outside of the U.S.,
and Canada is perfect for that.”
It starts with understanding what your vendors
want to accomplish, says Tobin of D&H. “They might
be looking for volume or revenue. They may want
to diversify their customer base so they’re not so
exposed. A vendor may use us for a specific channel
like education or government, then have us look at
their mass-merchant program.”
One immediate benefit is the distributor’s
relationships with existing customers. “What we offer
is our expansive customer base and our solid personal
relationships with those retailers,” comments Fargey
of Hitar. “To get a customer to try a new brand, there
is no replacement for relationships based upon trust
and respect.”
Adds Curve’s Duszynski: “For many of our brands,
we are their largest international distributor. Some
vendors don’t realize just how important Canada
is until we get their products in front of big-name
retailers and they see the sales potential.”
Moreover, a Canadian distributor can help
overseas vendors prepare their products for our
market, and create local demand. “We work with
every one of our brands to develop packaging
that is suitable to Canadian bilingual packaging
law,” Duszynski says. “We also have partnered with
several vendors to create products that are specific
to Canada. Beyond that, we develop and implement
channel marketing strategies, pricing strategies and
advertising programs.”
Marketing can extend far beyond providing co-op
dollars for dealers. “With most of our distribution
contracts, there’s a mandatory commitment for
promotion and brand-building,” Seigel says. “With
Klipsch, we’re a global partner with Maple Leaf Sports
and Entertainment, and also with Live Nation. That’s a
major commitment that goes beyond co-op.”
Vendors often look to distributors for insight into
the Canadian market, not just for marketing, but for
product development. Seigel says Gentec’s vendors
will sometimes provide product samples, and ask
how they should be tweaked for the Canadian
market. “We have specialists who manage each of
our divisions,” he elaborates. “We’re seeing a lot
more Asian vendors who are reaching out as they’re
developing product.”
Sometimes vendors have to be educated on the
intricacies of the Canadian market. “It is sometimes
a challenge for some U.S. suppliers to understand
that the Canadian market is different than their
home market,” Daoust comments. “Strategies that
work in the U.S. often do not translate with the same
success in the Canadian market. Canada is a very
large country in terms of geography, but has a small
population. Shipping costs, organizing training events
and transactional costs are higher in Canada as a
result. We have to convey these challenges to our
suppliers, especially those who are entering Canada
for the first time.”
Even so, vendors’ experience in other markets can
help their Canadian distributors, Lau maintains. Both
parties benefit if this dialog flows in two directions.
“Our vendors rely on us to grow their presence in the
Canadian market, so we become their eyes and ears
simply because we are closer to the consumer,” he
explains. “However, due to the similarities between
the Canadian and the American markets, we also ask
vendors who are active in the U.S. to share their data
on the American market.”
One of SF Marketing’s value-adds for its dealers is annual roadshows,
where vendors like Brad Tabor from OmniMount present seminars
and training for SFM’s customers in the CI sector.
Another important value-add provided by fullservice distributors is warranty and repairs. “We try
to offer our vendor partners a full-service turnkey
solution,” says Freytag of SF Marketing. “Vendors have
told us that our service team was able to conduct
repairs on their equipment more accurately than they
could, and in many times, faster as well.”
As in many areas of human endeavour, the
essentials of distribution can be distilled to a simple
recipe: make life easier for your customers and
suppliers. But like other aspects of life, there’s more to
executing a simple recipe than first meets the eye.
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HEAD-TO-HEADS: 3 Rounds
of Competition in Wireless
BY CHRISTINE PERSAUD
HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPETITION IS A TYPICAL, HEALTHY PART OF ANY INDUSTRY. And it’s certainly
the case in the telecommunications business.
On the provider level, the incumbent carriers have been openly duking it out for ages. But since the
Wireless Spectrum Auction of 2008, the competition has gotten even more intense, with two distinct sides:
Bell, Rogers, and Telus on one, and the new carriers on the other. Do we need a fourth national carrier?
On a content level, there’s an interesting conundrum with video, as the incumbent carriers must support
over-the-top video offerings by allowing access to competing services through their mobile pipelines. How do
you effectively compete with services that you must also support?
Third, on a retail level, the wireless accessories market is expanding into new territories, making it a
particularly attractive category for every type of retailer, from the grocer to the high-end apparel shop.
For the independent wireless retailer, it means considering everywhere from Henry’s to Holt Renfrew as
a direct competitor for the high-margin accessory sale.
In this article, I’ll delve a little deeper into each of these three key areas of competition in wireless.
22 |
www.wifihifi.ca
The Story
The debate continues on the state of the
wireless market in Canada, the need for
a fourth national carrier, and the right
approach for fostering change.
Mobile video viewing is on the rise, and
service and content providers like Bell and
Rogers find themselves in competition with
over-the-top streaming services like Netflix.
Mobile phone accessories are found
everywhere from clothing to grocery
and camera stores nowadays, which
puts dedicated wireless retailers in direct
competition with even more shops than
ever before.
MOBILE WORLD
ROUND ONE:
Big Three Carriers vs. Change
“Look to your left. Look to your right. In five years,
only one of us will be here,” said Alek Krstajic, formerly
president of Public Mobile, during a panel at the
Canadian Telecom Summit five years ago, shortly
after services were launched. He was talking to
representatives from Mobilicity and WIND, which also
launched services following the spectrum auction
of 2008. And he was right on the money. This year,
Telus acquired Public Mobile, while Mobilicity’s future
remains in limbo as the Canadian Government rejected
Telus’ bids to acquire the struggling company.
“ Yes, a fourth national carrier is
desirable, but it’s not going to
happen. The government has dug
itself into a deep hole.”
Leonard Waverman
Dean, DeGroote School of Business,
McMaster University
While still standing, WIND hasn’t quite found its
place, nor the spectrum and financing it needs to fully
move forward. Vidéotron President & CEO Pierre Dion is
hinting strongly at the Quebec-based carrier’s hope of
becoming the country’s fourth national wireless carrier.
The Canadian government continues looking
for a way to foster a better competitive landscape
in Canada, but the back and forth between carriers
makes it difficult to determine what would be the
right move.
Some believe what’s needed is a fourth national
carrier. Would that benefit Canada in the long
term? The overwhelming sentiment in a panel on
the Competition in Telecom at this year’s Canadian
Telecom Summit in Toronto was that having a fourth
carrier may not be the answer.
Roger Ware, Professor of Economics at Queen’s
University, opined that while it might help lower
pricing in the short run, it would not necessarily have
long-run value to society. “All oligopolies possess
market power,” he said. “That’s just their nature.
And the possession of market power is not illegal.”
24 |
www.wifihifi.ca
“Yes, a fourth national carrier is desirable,” said
Leonard Waverman, Dean, DeGroote School of
Business, McMaster University, “but it’s not going
to happen. The government has dug itself into a
deep hole.”
At the Summit, Tony Lacavera, Chairman of
WIND, noted that the carrier currently has more than
735,000 subscribers, and reported “record” sales in
April and May. WIND’s Chief Regulatory Officer Simon
Lockie pointed out that Rogers and Bell lost 75,000
subscribers in the same quarter.
“Over the past 18 months, we have seen our
primary investor Vimpelcom apply for control of
WIND Mobile and, after a protracted dialog with
Canadian government, subsequently withdraw its
application as it was not approved,” noted Lacavera.
“This control and ownership uncertainty has adversely
affected funding and investment in WIND over the
past two years.”
WIND has plans to add an improved Canadian
roaming offer and worldwide roaming rates; upgrade
antenna sites to dual-carrier HSPA+; fill in coverage
gaps and black spots by adding sites and expanding
its footprint; and add new markets, including one of
the latest, Brantford, ON.
But to rollout LTE services, Lacavera says,
WIND must acquire additional spectrum, especially
since the company did not secure financing for
that critical 700 MHz auction. There’s potential, he
adds, with the upcoming 2,500 MHz, AWS-3, and
600 MHz auctions.
Industry Minister James Moore
has promised that the upcoming
AWS-3 band auction will boast a simple
and streamlined process that includes
set-asides for new carriers.
“The challenge we face,” explains Lacavera, “is
securing any one of these sources of spectrum at
terms and value levels that the business of WIND can
support, and within the timeframe that the spectrum
is needed to meet LTE demand.”
Lacavera says a partnership with Mobilicity
could help.
“[The incumbents] are very dismissive of WIND’s
place in the market,” adds Lockie. “We’re relying
very heavily on the CRTC, and are hopeful given the
circumstances that they’ll act.”
“ The challenge we face is securing…
spectrum at terms and value levels
that the business of WIND can
support, and within the timeframe
that the spectrum is needed to
meet LTE demand.”
Tony Lacavera
Chairman, WIND Mobile
Vidéotron, meanwhile, is also lobbying for
that fourth carrier job. And the company has a
leg up on WIND, having spent $233 million in the
700 MHz auction, bringing its total spectrum and
network spend up to $1.6 billion, with licenses for
cellular frequencies in Ontario, Alberta, BC, and
Quebec. Dion noted in his keynote speech at the
Summit that Vidéotron is “ready, willing and able to
become Canada’s fourth wireless competitor,” but
only “under the right conditions.” Dion mentions
the possibility of consolidating with one or two
of the “undercapitalized new wireless entrants. If
completed,” he said, “this would allow us to almost
triple our customer base.”
While we wait to see who takes the next punch,
the CRTC is hoping its Wireless Code, which become
effective this year, will help kick-start change, with
requirements like clearer contracts and the ability for
customers to cancel without penalty after two years.
But the Code, while helping in some ways, has hurt in
others. The cost of basic wireless service plan pricing
has apparently gone up.
A study recently conducted by Wall Report
and commissioned by the Canadian government,
found that the average price for basic service is
now $35.70 compared to $30.71 last year, and
$32.73 six years ago. Even medium-volume plans
have increased from $44.86 to $45.26. These have,
however, dropped drastically from the exorbitant
price of $60.81 in 2008. Most of the positive results
MOBILE WORLD
have been realized with high-volume users, where
monthly pricing has fallen to $79.69 from $93.59 last
year, and $112.34 in 2008.
Industry Minister James Moore has promised
that the upcoming AWS-3 band auction will employ
a simple and streamlined process, with 30 MHz of the
available 50 MHz of spectrum set aside solely for small
entrants that are already operating in the region in
question to bid on. As with the 2008 auction, there
will be rules on spectrum transfer. But we’ve heard it
all before.
Skepticism abounds. While the rules will allow
the smaller players to boost their offerings, there’s
still a long way to go. And the result could backfire.
As the incumbents argue, it could limit their abilities
to improve networks in these regions, and give them
ample ammunition to justify why.
While all three incumbents agree that fair
competition is a good thing, they have their qualms
about what exactly is considered “fair.”
“I agree with the government’s focus about
looking at the interest of consumers,” says Rogers
Communications Senior Vice President of Regulatory
Ken Engelhart. “Competition is the best way to
organize an economy and connect consumers.
[But] the role of government is to remove barriers
to competition, not help individual competitors.
Incentives matter. There’s no free lunch.”
“ …the role of government is to
remove barriers to competition,
not help individual competitors.
Incentives matter. There’s no
free lunch.”
Ken Engelhart
Senior Vice President of Regulatory,
Rogers Communications
Ted Woodhead, Senior Vice President, Federal
Government & Regulatory Affairs, Telus adds: “We’re
at the top because we incentivize. Eighty-two per
cent of Canadians have access to LTE, and we’re
getting close to 90 per cent. We are incented to
invest and that’s why we can do that. If you take
away incentives to invest, you’ll see degradation
in networks. Regulation is a last resort. You should
Netflix poses stiff competition for traditional TV providers with a
robust video content offering and smartphone apps that make the
“TV anywhere” experience seamless.
favour markets over regulation. If we don’t, I’m afraid
we’re in for a perilous few years.”
“There’s a fair amount of intrusive regulation and
it’s having an impact,” says Johnathan Daniels, Vice
President, Regulatory Law, Bell, who asks: “How do you
strike a balance? With price, we can do comparisons,
and look at how much things cost in different
countries. But we can also look at quality. How much
investment is being made in next-generation services,
the most important measure of our success in Canada?
I maintain that it’s actually usage that suggests we’re
getting the balance between quality and price. And in
that regard, Canada is a world leader.”
Chris Tacit, Partner at Tacit Law, disagrees. “The
problem is [that] in the telecom industry, facilities
[that] incumbents own are under their sole control.
To get that competition and to remove those barriers
to competition and create incentives for competition,
access is necessary or that competition will die
stillborn. To get there, we need wholesale access or
these real innovations will cease to exist.”
Canadians may just have to cross our fingers and
hope for the best.
The AWS-3 spectrum auction will take place some
time early next year, and an auction for the 2,500 MHz
spectrum in April 2015.
ROUND TWO: OTT Video vs.
‘Traditional’ Mobile TV
Having reliable coverage and networks is especially
important when you consider that high data users are
taking full advantage of ultra-fast network speeds,
with video consumption on the top of that list.
According to Ericsson Canada, 62% of mobile
users watch video on their devices at least weekly,
and a quarter do so outside of the house. Even more
staggering is that the company expects to see 13-fold
growth in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019,
with half of that coming from video by 2019.
The trend toward mobile video is encouraging
consumers to cut the cord from their traditional TV
services and shift to new ways of viewing video, and
new devices on which to view it.
While carriers like Bell and Rogers have extended
their traditional TV services to include mobile
“TV anywhere” options, they find themselves in
competition with new, over-the-top service providers
that they must also allow customers to access through
their devices. And these OTT providers aren’t going
away. Recent research by Strategy Analytics finds that
the North American market for OTT video will grow
21% this year to reach U$10.7 billion.
“ In some cases, we’ve been so stupid
as to sell [the library content] to
OTT services as if they were totally
separate. The more we do that, the
greater the risk.”
David Purdy
Senior Vice President of Content,
Rogers Communications
Netflix is the clear leader, and a particular thorn
in the side of traditional content providers. The
streaming service has a robust offering that’s not only
easily accessible through smartphone apps, but also
integrated into many smart TV platforms, gaming
consoles, and other media streaming devices, making
the “TV anywhere” experience seamless.
By contrast, alternatives from the likes of Bell
and Rogers are arguably not as elegant, nor do
they have as diverse a selection of content on the
mobile end. What’s more, Netflix has begun to
develop its own highly popular series too, like House
of Cards and Orange is the New Black, making the
head-to-head competition all the more frustrating
for the incumbents.
OTT services like Netflix appeal for a few reasons,
namely price and convenience. But also for an
September 2014
| 25
MOBILE WORLD
understanding of today’s customers’ needs. Bingewatching – being able to view an entire season of a
show in one sitting – is a growing trend. As is being
able to easily access programming from any device,
no matter where we are.
“We’re vertically integrated and 90 per cent
of what Canadians watch is owned by a major
distributor,” says Rogers Communications Senior
Vice President of Content David Purdy. “We need
to do a better job at TV anywhere, with all networks
represented, and full season stacking rights. We
should be able to get those rights and it’s taking too
long. We’re not providing binge viewing fast enough.
It’s nonsense. We should be making that happen.”
Mark Henderson, President & CEO,
Ericsson Canada, says the company
expects to see 13-fold growth
in mobile data traffic between 2013
and 2019, with half of that coming
from video by 2019.
Service providers like Bell (left) and Rogers (right) both have their
own mobile TV offerings, but must also support access to competing
over-the-top services like Netflix through their devices.
TwitchTV, a live streaming video platform for e-sports
and video gaming. Google has reportedly been in
talks to buy the firm.
“This is one of the most dynamic sectors of the
industry,” said Jeff Fan, Scotiabank’s Director of Cable
& Telecom Equity Research, who moderated a panel
discussion on the topic at the Summit, “and it’s driving
a lot of changes with the consumer and how they view
video. And it’s forcing the providers to adapt.”
available. I’ll buy my groceries, and might pick up a
new cell phone case or an extra charging cable while
I’m at it.
This can be challenging. The “specialty” wireless
stores must determine the correct selection of
accessories to meet the needs of customers. But
retailers in other spaces are finding niches. Can Henry’s
become known as the destination for smartphone
photography and videography gear? Will customers
look to their local fashion outlets for stylish smartphone
cases? Will customers grab their low-cost/high-margin
items like chargers and cables from the grocery store
or gas station?
This is forcing everyone in the chain to rethink
strategies. Dedicated wireless retailers need to
hone in on what their specific customers want,
and deliver that effectively by carrying the right
product assortment, and working on increasing the
attachment sale. Distributors need to work with
retailers to ensure that they can offer what isn’t
available at the local grocery shop, and deliver a level
of expertise that customers are looking for when they
decide to step foot in the store.
ROUND THREE:
Wireless Retail vs. New Retail
What’s more, even with a subscription to the
mobile version, customers can’t necessarily access
everything they subscribe to via cable or satellite
from their smartphones. Purdy jokingly calls this KISS:
Keep it Separate, Sucker. “You want this? You can get
it on the TV here. You want that? It’s mobile.
“In some cases,” says Purdy, “we’ve been so
stupid as to sell [the library content] to OTT services
as if they were totally separate. The more we do that,
the greater the risk.”
The one bright light for traditional TV services
is content that’s desirable for live viewing, like
sporting events, major awards ceremonies, local
news, and competition shows. Providers like Bell
and Rogers leverage this with their mobile options
through offerings like live access to hockey games, or
packages for major events like the Word Cup.
Mobile has the potential to influence a shift in the
TV market. Consider that the top 15% of Internet users
in Canada, says Sandvine President Dave Caputo, are
using at least 140 GB of data per month. That’s about
seven times the average. What’s popular among kids?
26 |
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One of the most intense head-to-heads in wireless
retail is the massive expansion of the accessories
category fueled, in part, by the shift in smartphones
as entertainment devices.
You can now buy your mobile accessories
everywhere from Henry’s Camera, to Winners,
gas station convenience stores, airport vending
machines, and even high-end shops like Holt Renfrew
and J. Crew. There’s seldom a designer clothing store
where you won’t see a stylish iPhone or iPad case
on display. The category has become just as widely
Dave Caputo, President, Sandvine,
says the top 15% of Internet users in
Canada are using at least 140 GB of
data per month, much of which can
be attributed to video.
But distributors can’t ignore reaping the benefits
of these other channels as well. If it makes you money
and makes your customers happy, sell it. And if it
doesn’t, figure out why. These days, the reason could
be that you’re competing head-to-head with the
grocery store down the street and didn’t even know it.
THE KNOCKOUT PUNCH
It’s no longer just about competing with tech retailers. J.Crew, as
one example, sells items like portable speakers, chargers, and even
cables under the Triple C for J.Crew line, all geared towards the
retailer’s tech-savvy and fashion-conscious customers.
Three separate rounds, three very distinct parts of the
industry. These aren’t the types of matchups where
we’ll see a K.O. But they point to some interesting,
ongoing battles up ahead. And I’m glad we have a
front row seat to watch.
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HOME AUTOMATION
GOES MAINSTREAM
BY GORDON BROCKHOUSE
NOT MANY EXECUTIVES ENJOY COMPETITORS’ TV ADS, but Paul Williams does. “Every time I see
an AT&T Digital Life ad, I love it,” says Williams, Vice President of Security and Communications Products for
Control4, a manufacturer of home theatre and home automation controllers based in Salt Lake City, UT.
Williams says his reaction would be just the same for Canadian services like Rogers Smart Home Monitoring,
which like AT&T, provide turnkey solutions for lighting and heating control and for home security. The reason
for William’s reaction: “They’re driving customers to the category.”
He has a similar reaction to the scores of do-it-yourself home control products that have come to market
over the last few years. Lighting companies have introduced smart LED bulbs and wall switches; networking
companies have introduced connected security cameras and motion sensors; lock companies have introduced
networked door locks; HVAC companies have introduced networked thermostats. A host of startups, many of
them launched on crowdfunding sites, has also entered this space.
“We continue to watch the DIY space very closely,” Williams says. “It’s been a really good thing for us,
because people realize you can do this stuff of the future today.” That gets them thinking about home
automation, which is typically followed by a Google search on the subject. “We spend a lot of time on searchengine optimization,” Williams states. “If they’re looking for home automation, they can’t help but find us.”
THE COST QUESTION
Williams acknowledges that custom solutions like Control4 are more expensive than DIY products and serviceprovider solutions, but correspondingly more powerful. And he believes that consumers often discover these
30 |
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URC’s Total Control system
m allows easy operation
of entertainment, security, climate and lighting from a handheld
remote, smartphone or tablet. It can provide a degree of
automation far beyond DIY systems, dimming the lights and
lowering the shades when a movie starts, or turning on a row
of lights when the garage door opens.
The Story
Products like LED light bulbs, door locks,
motion sensors, surveillance cameras and
entertainment systems are rapidly joining
the Internet of Things.
Do-it-yourself home automation products can
be controlled from smart devices, and offer
some of the benefits of custom solutions.
Currently, the DIY space is quite fragmented,
requiring users to hop from app to app to
control different functions. However, apps
that unite multiple products under a single
interface are now appearing.
Vendors that focus on the custom channel
appreciate the DIY phenomenon, because
it’s boosting awareness of home automation.
DIY vendors like Nest are looking to partner
with CIs.
Contact us to find out how you can
become a Nest Certified Professional.
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limitations when they start doing their research on
the Internet.
DIY products typically have a single function.
Williams views them as part of the Internet of Things
(IoT). Consumers can combine several of these
products to control lighting, entertainment, HVAC,
security and other functions. “What you end up
with is five or 10 apps controlling five or 10 things.
Automating a couple of lights or a thermostat
is simple, within the realm of the tech-savvy
consumer. But when you get into a fully automated
entertainment system, it gets hard really fast.”
“ We continue to watch the DIY
space very closely. It’s been a really
good thing for us, because people
realize you can do this stuff of the
future today.”
Paul Williams
Vice President, Security and
Communications Products,
Control4
As to the solutions offered by service providers
like Rogers and AT&T, Williams says, “They can’t offer
full automation, just security and a few lights and
thermostat. With service providers, the cost is hidden
in the monthly fees, so you have to look at the true cost
of ownership over 24 or 36 months, in addition to the
installation charge, which cover only a base system.
Additional sensors have additional charges. It’s not as
inexpensive as it seems at first, and people end up with
a canned experience, not a personalized experience.”
But DIY and carrier-based solutions help
consumers get over a psychological hurdle. “People
think home automation is so expensive, they couldn’t
afford it,” Williams explains. “The service-provider
and DIY offerings start sparking interest in the people
out there.” It’s still early days for the DIY segment, he
adds. “We’re cautious about how widely adopted DIY
is today. It may be in thousands of homes, or tens of
thousands, but certainly not millions.”
GETTING IN
But the DIY segment is growing rapidly, says Mathieu
Whelan, Regional Product Manager for Belkin/Linksys,
and is now approaching mainstream status. “A year-
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and-a-half ago, it was propeller-heads buying this
stuff,” Whelan says. “Today, based on the number of
retail partners, it’s more mainstream.”
Whelan has some numbers to back up his
statement. Belkin offers a networked light switch
and AC outlet under its WeMo sub-brand; and in
September is adding networked LED light bulbs.
WeMo devices can be controlled from a smartphone
or tablet running the WeMo app. In May 2013, there
had been 100,000 activations of WeMo devices
worldwide, Whelan says. A year later, that number
had grown to 400,000.
Besides turning devices on and off, users can
schedule power-up and power-down commands,
turning lights and fans on and off at pre-determined
times, for example. Belkin’s NetCam surveillance
cameras can now be operated from within the WeMo
app, as well as by Belkin’s NetCam app.
WeMo is being sold in many different channels,
Whelan says. “We’ve had equal success across
consumer electronics, dot-com and hardware
partners.” Sales are quite seasonal, he adds. There’s a
noticeable spike in the holiday season. Not only are
WeMo products being purchased as gifts, people are
buying WeMo switches to put their Christmas lights
on a schedule.
Philips launched its HUE smart lighting products
in Apple stores, then later expanded to wireless and
electronics retailers, and most recently to homegoods stores. George Yianni, Head of Technology,
Connected Lighting at Royal Philips NV, says HUE
appeals to a very broad audience. “It skews to people
who are open to new technology, who use their
smartphones for a lot of things other than telephony,”
he elaborates. “Beyond that, it’s very diverse, from
students to people in their 70s. It sells best in places
where people buy smartphones.”
“ For us, DIY is more about getting
people interested in home
automation. Consumers are
more into point devices, such as
thermostats and light switches.
The cost of entry is lower.”
Lou Reda
President, D-Link Networks
Control4’s Home Control system lets users control functions like
security, entertainment, heating and cooling, lighting and energy
usage from smartphones, tablets or touch panels, from inside or
outside the home. Users can start small, automating a home theatre
for $1,500, and scale up as their needs dictate.
People can use the HUE app to adjust brightness
and colour for single lights or group. “You can
decorate your home with light,” Yianni explains. They
can activate lights before entering a dark home, so
they feel safer. They can adjust lighting for different
activities, like waking up or studying.
The HUE system is open, allowing for third-party
apps. Yianni cites some interesting examples, such as
an app that adjusts colour to create light scripts for
shows on the SciFi channel.
Lou Reda, President of D-Link Networks, believes
that single-function products are what the market
wants at this stage. “For us, DIY is more about getting
people interested in home automation. Consumers
are more into point devices, such as thermostats and
light switches. The cost of entry is lower.”
Casual surveillance is another popular entry point
for DIY home automation, Reda adds; and surveillance
cameras constitute the bulk of D-Link’s offerings in
the category. It’s the number-one vendor globally
of monitoring cameras, Reda says. D-Link currently
has 16 cameras, including three baby cams. D-Link’s
Cloud cameras are compatible with mydlink, a service
that allows devices to be controlled and monitored
remotely through a personal portal. Coming later this
year is a moisture sensor and motion sensor; a light
switch will follow in early 2015.
Reda sees the motion sensor being useful in
applications where a camera would be too intrusive;
elder care, for example. The sensor could send an
alert when an elderly parent gets up in the morning,
letting the recipient know that all is well.
Unlike standalone moisture sensors, D-Link’s
forthcoming model has built-in Wi-Fi, so it can
HOME AUTOMATION
communicate with other devices. That could allow
it to send a text alert to the homeowner if humidity
passes a certain threshold, Reda says. And it could
communicate with other devices, such as a light
switch and camera. The camera could take a picture
and e-mail it to the homeowner, and communicate
with a networked AC outlet to turn on a dehumidifier.
PROGRAMMING
At it stands now, device-to-device communications
and interoperability are two related barriers to broad
“ Until now, DIY home automation
has been very fragmented. Early
adopters are big into DIY product,
but there’s a large base of the
population that isn’t comfortable
with the technology.”
Scott Trotter
President, Staub Electronics Ltd.
adoption of the technology. As Control4’s Williams
observes, using multiple apps to control different
devices can make home automation too complicated
for most people.
However, Whelan doesn’t think requiring
multiple apps for different products is a big deal.
“Having two apps is not the end of the world to be
sure. There might be a couple of functions where you
have to go out of the ecosystem.”
Moreover, there are services that let tech-savvy
users link different devices. Whelan points to an
Internet service called “If This, Then That” (IFTTT) that
lets users trigger one action when another occurs. I used
IFTTT to create a simple recipe that links a WeMo switch
to my iPhone’s current location, so that when I’m within
100 metres of my house, the hall light automatically
comes on. Comments Whelan: “There is an amazing
number of WeMo recipes on IFTTT. If we see a popular
recipe, we’ll look at integrating it into our app.”
Many homeowners don’t want this kind of
complexity, observes Scott Trotter, President of Staub
Electronics Ltd. in Richmond, BC, which distributes
the URC Total Control system. “Until now, DIY home
D-Link’s Cloud Cameras can be monitored on smart devices, inside
or outside the home, using the mydlink app.
automation has been very fragmented,” Trotter
comments. “Early adopters are big into DIY product,
but there’s a large base of the population that isn’t
comfortable with the technology.”
Adds Brad Middleton, Savant Canadian Brand
Manager at Concord, ON-based Evolution Home
Entertainment Corp.: “Jumping from app to app may
serve the DIYer well,” he says. “The feedback we hear
from our customers is that they don’t want to do that.
The DIYer is not the same person who would buy a
custom solution.”
HOME AUTOMATION
Custom solutions are becoming more affordable,
Middleton adds. Earlier this year, Savant Systems
began shipping the Smart Series. Aimed at the midtier integration market, the Smart Series is designed
around a proprietary Linux box, rather than an Apple
system. “With the Smart Series, we can do three rooms
at $1,000 per room,” Middleton says. Delivering similar
capability with an Apple-based Savant system would
cost about $10,000, he says. “Since Savant’s inception,
we’ve served the top one per cent of the market really
RIDING THE WAVE
Home Automation
Communications Protocols
STANDARDS ARE IMPORTANT for just about any
new technology, because they make it simpler for
products from different vendors to work together.
DIY home automation products rely on wireless
communications to enable remote control. But DIY
vendors are adopting different protocols, which poses
challenges for consumers, retailers and integrators.
D-Link’s cameras use Wi-Fi communications, so
require a connection to a power source. “What has not
emerged is a standard for low-power Wi-Fi,” says Lou
Reda, President of D-Link Networks. “Low power is
important, so you can have battery-operated devices.”
Currently, there are several different schemes for
low-power wireless, Reda notes, including ZigBee,
Z-Wave and Insteon. Reda says it’s not practical
for networking vendors to accommodate all these
systems in their home routers. “We can’t build a
router with six different radios,” he states. The IEEE is
developing a standard for low-power Wi-Fi – 802.11ah
– that Reda hopes will emerge as a standard. However,
ratification is not expected until early 2016.
In networked lighting, ZigBee is emerging as a
de facto standard. It’s in use in 100 million devices
worldwide, and has been standardized as IEEE
802.11.15.4. A consortium of lighting companies,
including GE, Philips, Samsung and Siemens, has
adopted ZigBee Light Link for use in their networked
lighting products. The WeMo Link included with Belkin’s
WeMo LED Starter Kit also uses ZigBee technology.
“With ZigBee Light Link, every device can
repeat the signal,” notes George Yianni, Head of
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well. This new product allows us to serve the top 10
per cent. The market opportunity is 70 per cent.”
Similarly, the delta for a Control4 system
compared to a carrier-based solution isn’t huge,
Williams notes. “You can get a Control4 home theatre
experience for $1,500,” he says. “We can integrate
smart TVs, and control them today.”
From that starting point, consumers can grow
their system in any direction they wish, and operate
everything from a single interface. “We offer a single
Technology, Connected Lighting, for Royal Philips
NV. “Every device can repeat the signal. But there are
other standards, and that causes confusion.”
Several companies are already offering
hardware products that support multiple wireless
communications standards. The Connected Home
Hub that works with Home Depot’s Wink home
automation system supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE,
Z-Wave, ZigBee, Lutron, ClearConnect and Kidde.
Currently available only in the U.S., the Revolv
Hub (US$299, with no monthly service fees) supports
Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and Insteon. ZigBee compatibility is
slated for this year; support for three other protocols
is pending. Honeywell, Nest and Trane thermostats;
Belkin, GE and Levitron switches and outlets; GE and
Philips lighting; Kwikset, Schlage and Yale door locks;
and Sonos music systems can all be controlled from
Android and iOS devices running the Revolv app.
SmartThings, which launched on Kickstarter, offers a
Z-Wave/ZigBee-compatible hub for US$99, plus
various kits for applications like security, moisture
detection and lighting control – all unified under a
single app.
Philips’ HUE smart lighting system uses ZigBee Light Link for
wireless communications. The ZigBee radio in each bulb consumes
only 300ma of current. Every device can repeat the signal, which
extends network reach and reliability. The starter kit includes
three 60-watt-equivalent LED bulbs and a ZigBee hub.
app, with full home control, camera and security
integration, and entertainment,” Williams says. “And
our system is scalable. We’re in 45,000-square-foot
homes. Other systems max out in the number of
devices they can control.”
A simple, easy interface is one of the most
important things people buy when they get a custom
solution, Trotter says. “The big difference is the price
delta with an integrated system that’s professionally
deigned, programmed, installed and serviced. DIY is
a stepping stone to a fully integrated system. People
dip in and find it lacks the features they need, then
look at the next level.”
MAKING IT SEAMLESS
However, many different players are working to
defragment the DIY space. Home Depot is about to
launch its Wink app and controller in Canada. The
Wink system will let homeowners control many
different devices, including Philips HUE lighting,
Honeywell smart thermostats, Schlage electronic door
locks, Kidde Interconnected smoke/carbon monoxide
alarms and Levitron light switches from Android and
iOS devices, using a single app.
“ A year-and-a-half ago, it was
propeller heads buying this stuff.
Today, based on the number of retail
partners, it’s more mainstream.”
Mathieu Whelan
Regional Product Manager,
Belkin/Linksys
The Iris system sold through Lowe’s in the U.S.
works with Schlage door locks, First Alert smoke/
carbon monoxide detectors, GE light switches, as well
as Iris motion sensors, cameras, keypads, thermostats
and wall plugs.
These umbrella apps may not control all
functions of the connected devices, Yianni notes, but
they’ll cover the basics. For detailed control, users
will likely switch to the product’s native app. “It is not
inconvenient to switch between apps,” he maintains.
“Our focus is building the best app for lighting, and
working with partners for whole-home integration.”
HOME AUTOMATION
At its Worldwide Developers Conference in
June, Apple announced HomeKit, a suite of tools for
controlling lighting, HVAC, security, door locks, smart
appliances and other home systems from Apple devices
running the forthcoming iOS 8 operating system.
Plug your coffee maker into a Belkin WeMo switch, and you can use
your smartphone to start your morning cuppa brewing when you
get out of bed. Or you can use the WeMo app to power up the coffee
maker at the same time every morning.
Work is also proceeding on interoperability,
so that devices can talk to each other. In July, Nest
Labs announced that it is working with six other
manufacturers, including Samsung, on a low-power
wireless mesh network protocol called “Thread”
that will allow home control devices from different
manufacturers to interoperate.
But an expanding DIY market doesn’t mean
that the custom channel is going to be squeezed
out of home automation – even when users are able
to control these products from single apps. Quite
the contrary: Through their programs, many DIY
home automation vendors are demonstrating how
important the custom channel is to them.
Along with AVAD and Positive Marketing, Staub
Electronics was recently appointed a distributor for
Nest products – with a very specific mandate: to
expand Nest’s reach into CIs. “We were tasked with
building out their certified professional network
in Canada,” Trotter elaborates. “Their current
network is primarily focused on HVAC. They haven’t
had as much success in the AV channel. Our
arrangement is that the product can only be sold
with installation. Our partners are not allowed to
sell over the counter.”
Moreover, custom home integration vendors
don’t seemed cowed by initiatives like Thread and
HomeKit. “We find HomeKit exciting,” says Williams
of Control4. “It doesn’t exclude us from participating.
As Internet of Things devices become HomeKitcompatible, we can integrate them with our system.
Now, it’s messy, in terms of UI and APIs.”
Adds Evolution’s Middleton: “We welcome HomeKit.
After that announcement, everybody was talking about
home automation. It brings validity to what we’ve been
talking about for the last eight years. I foresee Savant as
a control hub for all HomeKit devices.”
And of course, custom solutions offer far more
functionality than basic DIY and carrier solutions
can provide. With professional programming,
a custom system can automatically dim the lights
and lower the shades when a movie starts, or turn
on a row of lights and start some music when the
car enters the garage.
The fact is, not everyone is a DIYer. There are
lots of homeowners who enjoy weekend carpentry
and painting projects; but many more who’d rather
bring in a pro to do the job. The same is true of
home automation. Moreover, custom systems offer
a degree of personalization that DIY and carrier
systems can’t approach.
“ Jumping from app to app may
serve the DIYer well. The feedback
we hear from our customers is that
they don’t want to do that.”
Brad Middleton
Savant Canadian Brand Manager,
Evolution Home Entertainment Corp.
The fact that companies like Nest are looking to
partner with integrators illustrates the continuing
relevance of the custom channel. But thanks to the
DIY phenomenon, many more people are aware of
the possibilities.
DIY home automation is good news for mainstream
CE retailers too, because it gives them a multitude of
new products to sell, and a multitude of ways to add
value to them.
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THINKING
A GAME CHANGER IN CI?
BY WALLY HUCKER
“IT’S A GAME CHANGER,” say three custom
integration shops, referring to Rudy Kern and his
CIS-80WM router. “It solved three issues for us,” says
Chris Forbes, co-owner of McKays Electronic Experts,
“two we didn’t realize existed.”
George Siopkas, System Design & Project Manager at
Canadian Sound, says that with this router, the job is “done
right, and efficiently, and I’m not blindly quoting prices.”
Drew Galvin and Kevin Smith of Pure Image have
also begun installing and retrofitting Kern’s router into
their jobs.
WHAT IS IT? “It’s a black box,” Kern says of
the CIS-80WM manufactured by his company,
Custom Integration Services. Kern uses off-the-shelf
components (motherboard, antennas, etc.) to build it,
and has received CSA certification for the device. Staub
Electronics started distributing the product in Q1, but
prior to that, just enough were made to cover Kern’s
own jobs, plus those sold directly to other integrators.
“We’re buying them 10 at a time,” says Galvin.
Ensuring network security and time to configure
routers are prime issues for integrators.
Port forwarding is the most common way of
accessing and regulating a network from the outside,
and for many devices, it is the default connection.
Unfortunately, PF is inherently insecure, and easily
hacked. Homeowners can view the inside of their
houses through its cameras, and change security
settings. But so can most hackers.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) is acknowledged
as vastly more secure, allowing secure and remote
communication from computers or smartphones, as
if connected to an isolated private network. But VPNs
can be very time consuming to configure. Kern’s new
router takes configuring out of installation equations.
The CIS-80WM uses a generic high speed CPU with
128MB of RAM, and 10 LAN ports: five Gigabit, and five
Fast Ethernet. It has a 1000mW dual chain 2.4 GHz
802.11bgn wireless access point.
The L2TP/IPsec VPN protocol is employed.
36 |
www.wifihifi.ca
“Everything works with it,” he says, “Windows, Macs,
iOS, and Android devices.”
Kern doesn’t dwell on tech specs. The big difference,
he feels, between his router and others, is CIS’s
preconfigured VPN. “Once the Internet is running at a
job, a secure connection is a matter of a brief toll-free
phone call.” The software is CIS’s intellectual property;
when you log in, you’ll see the CIS name and logo.
“Many routers,” says Scott Trotter, President of
Staub, “can support VPN. “The problem is learning to
set them up. Rudy does all that, with only two or three
pieces of info and a few minutes.”
Kern’s router saved much time and money on an
out-of-town job, recalls Siopkas. A remote cottage
only had satellite Internet, bandwidth from a major
carrier by a local ISP. Switching to VPN from PF was
complicated by incorrect information from that ISP.
“Rudy had it up and running with a 32-minute
phone call. We would have been there up to two days
getting it running, if we couldn’t find the problem. We
were done in one, including the five-hour round trip.”
Siopkas also likes VPN’s capability to remotely
see inside the homeowner’s network. With more
entertainment, automation, security, and HVAC devices
all connected and remotely accessible and adjustable
via IP, it becomes increasingly important. Remote
programming is far easier with VPN. “I can see problems,
fix and bill for them, without travelling,” says Siopkas.
“Our head office Internet access is now secure,” says
Forbes. “We now have dedicated networks: for the store,
for head office, clients, and for our tenant. Streaming
content within the store now works flawlessly.”
Kern says PF protocol, widely recommended by
vendors, puts CI people in awkward positions. “We had
no idea,” says Forbes, “how vulnerable our network
was to the outside world.” Now McKays also offers
shoppers free Wi-Fi in the store, securely segregated
from the company’s networks.
METHOD & MOTIVE “I’m not an IT guy,” says
Kern, a lifelong resident of Gibsons, BC. “I’m just a CI
guy with enthusiasm.”
Kern started in his family’s CE store at 12, and has
almost 40 years in the industry. He began transitioning
Kerns Audio Video & Furniture from retail CE into CI
11 years ago.
“Networking was a significant challenge for me, so
I read about it, took classes, and paid IT professionals
for tutorials.”
Kern learned many irrelevant procedures before
finding what he needed to know, and what he didn’t.
“We were frustrated with the networking area of our
business,” he concedes, “hiring IT professionals to help
create stability in an area that we were unfamiliar with.
“Ultimately, I realized a router which was stable,
fast and efficient for my team to install, is a system’s
backbone. I wanted security for my clients, and remote
visibility so we didn’t waste time travelling.
“At seminars, I say, ‘You’re not IT guys.’ And custom
integrators shouldn’t have to be. IT is a different business.
“CI people needn’t know VPN configuration of
routers, just end-user devices. Just plug them to our black
box router, and call us. They can save time and money.”
Kern suggests that integrators charge clients
“under $1,000” for the CIS-80WM, including a halfhour set-up call. Homeowners thereafter can securely
access their networks from any encoded computer
or portable device. The only additional charge to the
user is $44.99 annually if they want a dynamic DNS.
CIs pay $99 per service call thereafter (which can be
billed to the client), though Kern says in the approx. 2.5
years the devices have been used, and with hundreds
of them now spec’d into jobs, CIS has yet to receive a
follow-up service call.
Staub is the primary distributor, and Eecol Electric
Corp. sells the router to Canadian electrical contractors.
U.S. distribution was pending just before CEDIA.
Kern predicts that production, which will continue
at CIS in Gibsons, could soon reach 200 monthly.
“Job opportunities are limited in our small
community. It’s important to create economic
opportunities locally, not offshore.”
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Misfit Shine Activity Tracker
Amount Asked: $100K Amount Raised: Almost $847K
Standout: Last year, it became available in Apple stores, and
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Misfitwearables.com
CROWDFUNDING:
Closing the Business Gap
BY FRANK LENK
‘CROWDFUNDING’ IS A NEW WORD FOR A VERY OLD PHENOMENON. The idea of pre-selling a business
project by “subscription” dates back at least several hundred years. But it’s gained unique new life on the Internet.
Can crowdfunding build viable businesses? Can dream projects be reconciled with retail reality?
There have been some famous success stories. The Pebble smartwatch went on to consumer success after
raising over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowdfunding site. Or the Oculus Rift, which raised almost $2.5 million
on Kickstarter, then sold to Facebook for a cool $2 billion.
More recently, Neil Young’s Pono Music digital player has drawn a lot of attention, raising over $6 million
on Kickstarter. It’s made a promising start, but mass-market success is still far from guaranteed.
Is there a place for basement startups in today’s retail marketplace? After speaking with a number of individuals
in the business, it’s clear there are some really exciting possibilities for crowdfunded ventures.
THE OPPORTUNITY
There are numerous crowdfunding sites, and it seems that more are appearing every day. The two most significant,
especially when it comes to spawning high-tech consumer hardware, are Kickstarter Inc., based in Brooklyn, NY,
and San Francisco, CA-based Indiegogo Inc.
They work similarly, but with some interesting differences. Both allow just about anyone to start a project by
specifying a financial goal and a timeframe. And both use a “reward-based” approach. Backers get specific rewards
for different levels of contribution: tickets to an event, a physical product, a signed T-shirt or even dinner with the
project’s organizers.
38 |
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The Story
The Internet has taken the concept of
crowdfunding to a whole new level, giving
basement startups (and established firms)
a platform to gain consumer support and
(hopefully) retail shelf space.
Successful crowdfunding doesn’t always
translate to a successful business; many
startups aren’t fully prepared for challenges
relating to packaging, logistics, pricing,
distribution, and marketing before moving
on to retail.
With the right preparation and partners,
crowdfunded projects can give smaller
retailers a leg up on the competition, with
unique products that have healthy margins
and visibility with consumers.
CROWDFUNDING
Pebble Smartwatch
Amount Asked: $100K Amount Raised: Over $10M
Standout: Is one of the most (if not the most) successful
crowdfunding campaigns.
Amount Asked: $250K Amount Raised: Over $2.5M
Standout: Sold to Facebook for $2B
Oculusvr.com
Getpebble.com
Pledges of $10,000 or more do happen, and may
bring such perks as a signed version of the product and
a night on the town with the developers.
Kickstarter, like many other sites, uses an “all or
nothing” system. Backers’ credit cards are charged
for the amount of their donations only if the project’s
pre-set goal is reached. Otherwise, no money changes
hands. Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds collected by
successful projects.
Indiegogo has two funding models, either of
which can be chosen before a campaign is launched.
Fixed Funding works like Kickstarter: pledged funds are
collected only if the goal is reached, with Indiegogo
taking a 4% fee. Flexible Funding collects funds whether
the goal is reached or not, but Indiegogo takes 9%.
Ethan Mollick, Professor at the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania, has done a detailed
study of “The Dynamics of Crowdfunding.” He says that
some sites also require projects aimed at funding a
physical product to provide a manufacturing plan and
a delivery date for rewards.
Mollick studied close to 50,000 projects on
Kickstarter, spanning the period from the site’s
inception in 2009 through July 2012. He observed
some interesting patterns. For example, a longer
campaign duration actually decreases its chances of
success. This may be why Kickstarter has reduced its
limit on campaigns from 90 to 60 days, and strongly
encourages a 30-day duration.
Each site boasts of having hosted hundreds of
thousands of projects. Justin Kazmark, spokesperson for
Kickstarter, mentions that the site has raised a total of
Oculus Rift
about $1.2 billion. He notes that about 44% of projects
have succeeded in reaching their funding goal.
However, it’s important to note that many
projects are purely creative. Music is the single largest
project category on Kickstarter, he says, followed by
film and video, art, theatrical productions, books,
and even comics.
Indiegogo’s campaigns, according to Steve Tam,
Community Marketing Manager, are about evenly split
between three categories: “technology and hardware,”
creative projects in video or other arts, and “cause and
charity” projects.
Filtering all “technology” projects on Kickstarter,
in mid-August, gave 6,309 results. Among the “mostfunded” were the Pono Music player, several different
3D printers, a “mobile personal theater” built into a
visor-like device, several types of flying drones, and
a 3D infrared scanning attachment for the iPad.
Are these the hot new consumer gadgets of next
year? That’s likely to depend more on the creators’
business acumen than on the cleverness of their products.
Tam cites several of Indiegogo’s biggest success
stories. There’s the Muse headband, which in 2012
raised almost $290,000 on a $150,000 goal. Tam notes
that the project’s creator, Toronto-based Interaxon Inc.,
went on to raise $6 million in series A financing, and
has now become a successful business.
The Misfit Shine is a wearable wireless device that
tracks physical activity. It overshot its 2013 Indiegogo
goal of $100,000 to reach close to $847,000 in funding.
In 2013, it became available in Apple stores around
the world. San Francisco-based Misfit Wearables Corp.
Pono Music Digital Player
has now added support for the night-time Beddit
sleep-monitoring devices.
Knix Wear, a Toronto startup, used Indiegogo
to crowdfund a line of women’s underwear in 2013,
raising over $60,000. The line of moisture-absorbent
garments has since been picked up by Hudson’s Bay.
Founder Joanna Griffiths told the Globe & Mail in an
interview that the company was able to use customer
feedback from the crowdfunding campaign to add
the high-rise brief style, now the top seller, as well
as plus sizes.
Simple.tv found similar use out of crowdfunding.
The company, which offers broadcast TV (or ClearQAM
cable) with full PVR features (learn more in Short Bits,
Pg. 11), used the different reward levels, and customer
feedback, from Kickstarter to help it gauge what
features customers cared about. Two years down the
road, Simple.tv still maintains a list of beta-test users,
many of whom started with the Kickstarter campaign.
“We already had built up a team, built up a
prototype, before we did our Kickstarter campaign,”
says Mark Ely, CEO. “We went into Kickstarter more as a
way to better understand the market. It’s a great way to
measure audience reaction, to build a community.”
Tam feels that these successes are becoming
more common, as crowdfunders get cannier, and
retailers become more familiar with the crowdfunding
paradigm. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.
THE CHALLENGE
“Among the unanswered questions about the
crowdfunding model,” says Mollick, “is whether
Muse Headband
Amount Asked: $800K Amount Raised: Over $6M
Standout: Started by musician Neil Young, who has also
taken on the CEO role.
Amount Asked: $150K Amount Raised: Almost $290K
Standout: Toronto-based creator Interaxon Inc. went
on to raise $6M in series A financing.
Ponomusic.com
Choosemuse.com
September 2014
| 39
CROWDFUNDING
Kreyos Meteor Smartwatch
LIFX LED Lightbulb
Amount Asked: $100K Amount Raised: Over $1.5M
Standout: Looks promising, but has dealt with manufacturing
delays, only now sending rewards, a year after the campaign closed.
Amount Asked: $100K Amount Raised: $1.3M
Standout: Raised the money in just six days.
Lifx.co
successful crowdfunding leads to the successful
development of goods and services, and, potentially,
viable ongoing ventures.”
So far, Todd Taylor, owner of brand representation and
marketing company Dream Team Canada, has observed
decidedly mixed results for crowdfunding ventures.
It’s easy enough to put up a professional video
presentation on Indiegogo or Kickstarter, and attract a
large number of backers, Taylor points out. But fulfilling
the campaign’s rewards can be a challenge. Going on
to success as a business is still more difficult.
“These brands do need to get some idea about
packaging and logistics, to get some help at the
factory level,” says Taylor. There’s pricing to set,
distribution to line up. There needs to be funding for
point-of-sale advertising.
A knowledgeable company can help with those
issues, but it needs a major commitment. Dream
Team has worked with products such as the LIFX
smartphone-controllable LED lightbulb, which raised
$1.3 million in six days on Kickstarter. And with Martian
voice-capable watches.
NVU Electronics Inc. is another distributor that’s
made an effort to handle crowdfunded products. “We
have worked with quite a few Kickstarter projects, to bring
them to retail,” says Bobby Revai, President. “Some have
been successful, some not. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster.”
Revai notes that campaigns can become victims
of their own success. “Some people are in way over
their heads,” he says. For example, he notes that it’s
not uncommon for shipment of reward items to be
delayed long past the promised date.
kreyos.com
Mollick confirms this. In his sample of Kickstarter
projects, he found that only 25% delivered rewards to
backers on time, and a majority were months late. A
third of those he looked at had not yet delivered at all,
within the timeframe of the study.
These delays were worse for both complex projects
and highly popular ones. Projects that were overfunded
were particularly prone to long delays in delivery.
Mollick cites interviews conducted by CNNMoney,
which attributed delays to “a range of problems
associated with unexpected success: manufacturing
problems, the complexity of shipping, changes in scale,
changes in scope and unanticipated certification issues.”
Crowdfunding projects represent great ideas and
good intentions. But the majority show weakness
when it comes to business basics.
Revai cites the example of the Kreyos Meteor, a
smartwatch with gesture control (keen-eyed readers
will recall that we covered the device in our feature
on wearables in the February “CES” issue.) The project
zoomed past its modest $100,000 goal to ultimately
raise over $1.5 million on Indiegogo. But reward
products only started shipping this August, almost a
year after the campaign closed.
On its project page, Kreyos talks at length about
manufacturing delays due to a typhoon in China, and
the subsequent challenges of shipping product via
Singapore. Kreyos seems to have surmounted these
difficulties. “I actually think they have a stellar product,”
comments Revai. “I think they will be successful.”
Many crowdfunders have little preparation for
dealing with the business realities. NVU encountered
the creators of the Poppy 3D attachment at CES,
and agreed to distribute the product. “They had
leftover units from Kickstarter, but no idea what
retailers would require to get a product on the
shelves,” says Revai.
The first batch of devices were shipped in plain,
white boxes, notes Ethan Lowry, who together with
partner Joe Heitzeberg invented the Poppy 3D,
building the prototype in Lowry’s garage. “You can’t
put that on a retail shelf.”
NVU helped create packaging for the Poppy, and
to arrange details such as a UPC code. “The Poppy
was a big hit at the Henry’s imaging show,” says Revai.
But there was still plenty of work to do in getting the
product to be truly retail-ready.
“The tide is in favour of the little guy retaining
ownership,” says Lowry. “But it masks the second half
of the problem.” Marketing and sales, he says, are their
“own little world.
“We had a credible plan for turning a profit on
the Kickstarter run,” says Lowry. “But we didn’t spend
any time thinking about the next step: distribution
channels or the marketing approach.”
Today, Poppy is one of the success stories. Lowry
reports that in addition to selling direct in the U.S., and
through NVU in Canada, it now has distributors lined
up in the U.K. and Australia.
Another crowdfunded product that NVU is
working with is the Foldio foldable studio, for which it’s
acting as exclusive Canadian distributor. (See more in
Short Bits, Pg. 10.) It raised over $170,000 on Kickstarter,
based on a mere $10,000 goal. NVU announced
Martian Voice-Capable
Watches
Amount Asked: $200K Amount Raised: $221K
Standout: Came to market with a plan, says distributor Dream
Team Canada. Recently partnered with GUESS Watches to create
a line of smart wearables by early 2015.
Martianwatches.com
40 |
www.wifihifi.ca
Simple.tv Over-the-Air
Streaming HD PVR
Amount Asked: $125K Amount Raised: Over $225K
Standout: Mark Ely, CEO: “Funding wasn’t the main intent. We had some seed
funding. We went into Kickstarter more as a way to better understand the market.”
Simple.tv
CROWDFUNDING
Canadian availability in August, at retailers including
Henry’s, Futureshop.ca, and Canada Computers.
Distributors like NVU and Dream Team can get
crowdfunded products to retail, but it requires a
significant investment of time and resources. “We do
get involved at an early level,” says Taylor. He notes
that not all distributors will have the ability to do this.
“Many will wait until later in the game.”
It helps to have certain kinds of resources within
the organization. For example, Taylor notes that Dream
Team in the U.S. has creative capabilities, and is able to
help with packaging and other collateral materials.
Taylor notes that Martian Watches “had a plan,” and
has been able to get to retail, and secure the additional
funding to become a going concern. The company came
to market with more than one model, even if they were
just variants of the same basic design.
Others aren’t so astute. “Some companies that get
some great success from Kickstarter go through a big
learning curve,” says Taylor. “They’re not even ready for
the success they have.”
Timing is an important factor. “People who seek
crowdfunding are typically not businesses,” says Revai.
“Once the campaign is over, the momentum dies. They
need to have a business plan before they even start.”
Revai emphasizes that the campaign is a great way
of capturing the attention not just of consumers, but of
other businesses. These would include venture capital
investors, or distributors like NVU, who can become
partners in getting the product to market.
But too often, the creators are thinking no
further than making a few thousand units for their
crowdfunding backers. “They’re not thinking of a longterm strategy,” says Revai.
THE TOOLS
The key to success in crowdfunding is preparation. It’s not
easy. For example, project creators are required to come
up with cost estimates right at the start, and these may
often prove unrealistic by the time the project is funded.
Lowry says that getting the Poppy 3D built was
tricky. “Manufacturers want to see volumes in the tens
of thousands. You need to find factories that are willing
to work with smaller quantities.”
Getting the Poppy made in China cut costs 10-fold,
but there were tradeoffs. “There are huge advantages
to manufacturing locally,” says Lowry. He found the
time difference a problem, on top of the immense
cultural gulf. But there was no choice. “Some aspects of
the product we couldn’t have done here.”
Kickstarter recently launched a new Creator’s
Handbook, with tips on pre-launch preparation, ideas
for the campaigns and thoughts on post-funding steps.
There’s also a team of about 90 people experienced in
various creative disciplines, including photography,
film, music and comic book art. However, the main focus
of these efforts is very much on helping campaigns
succeed, more than on ensuring that campaigns go on
to become successful businesses.
Indiegogo also offers a lot of back-end information,
including PDFs on the basics, and a 24/7 support team.
There are also online tools. Tam notes that the
Indiegogo dashboard provides “a ton of information,”
about where funding is coming from, who’s sharing
links, and so on. Crowdfunders can use surveys and
questionnaires to get closer to their followers.
Perhaps the most important thing Indiegogo does
is work with accelerators and incubators, as well as
university programs. Its Toronto office is located in the
Makeworks incubator space, and Indiegogo Marketing
and Community Manager Ayah Norris is listed among
Makeworks’ mentors.
“We want to see companies sustain themselves
as strong businesses,” says Tam. That means even
beyond the cash. For example, Tam reports that larger
companies are starting to use the service, to ‘beta test’
products they aren’t yet ready to release officially.
“Crowdfunding lets you market to an audience
of eager early adopters,” says Lowry. But, he cautions,
“it’s super dangerous. Kickstarter offers a short-term
Foldio Foldable Studio
Amount Asked: $10K Amount Raised: Over $170K
Standout: Now sells in Canada through retailers like Henry’s,
Future Shop, and Canada Computers via distributor NVU Electronics.
Foldio.ca
window, which creates urgency and gives the press a
reason to write about your project, and people a reason
to notice it. Then it’s just another product.” It’s important
to reach “escape velocity” within that initial window.
“Kickstarter is a great tool,” adds Simple.tv’s Ely,
“but it’s important you know how to use it effectively.”
THE RETAIL REALITY
There are certainly challenges in working with
crowdfunded products. But there are also significant
benefits. One is visibility with consumers. NVU has
actually been putting stickers on crowdfunded
products it handles, drawing attention to their origin
on Kickstarter.
Innovation and uniqueness are also strong factors.
“Our resellers look to us for products they’re not going
to have to fight Future Shop for, and not going to get
beaten down on price,” says Revai.
He notes that the photography market is
particularly eager for new gadgets and accessories.
Computer stores are similarly on the hunt for new
types of products, as they start to look beyond the PC.
Crowdfunded gadgets are a good fit for smaller
stores. “You need the independent retailer to properly
present the product,” says Revai. “They can explain the
story behind it.”
Margins are generally good, too, notes Revai.
Crowdfunded startup companies are eager to get
into the market, and aware of the need to generate
interest at retail.
Taylor has advice for retailers. “It would be naïve
of any retailer to ignore a successful crowdfunding
campaign. It can educate the retailer as to what the
customer is interested in.”
Overall, the future looks bright for crowdfunding. It’s
adding some real excitement to consumer electronics,
and spawning specialized products that the established
manufacturers might overlook. As time goes on,
crowdfunding can only become more efficient, and even
more significant in the retail space.
Poppy 3D Camera Attachment
Amount Asked: $40K Amount Raised: Over $190K
Standout: Has secured distribution in Canada, the U.S., U.K., and Australia;
inventors Ethan Lowry (seen here) and Joe Heitzeberg also founded the
Urbanspoon restaurant review app.
Poppy3d.com
September 2014
| 41
TALKING SHOP
BY WALLY HUCKER
CAVEAT VENDITOR (SELLER BEWARE)
Several Canadian CE retailers opened up to share
some of the features, benefits, and pitfalls, of selling
used and overstock gear through Internet sites like
eBay and Kijiji.
First, it’s worth noting that there are two types of
sites: transactional sites, and what may be called trafficbuilding sites. eBay is transactional. Goods are sold
there, and retailers pay a fee, or more likely multiple
fees. Kijiji, Craigslist, and many others, are traffic
builders. Potential buyers are linked to the retailer’s
Website or store by phone number and/or address.
The first rule of selling through these sites is:
don’t get greedy. Limit yourself to one or perhaps
two sites. Just because some of them are free, doesn’t
mean they are cheap.
There are learning curves, some steeper than
other. “They are,” cautions James Heaver, Director of
Retail Operations for Vistek, “a whole other business,
which could easily require a full-time staff of its own.”
After choosing sites, retailers must be equally
careful choosing what they sell. Tech Source Canada’s
seven stores in and around Toronto have been selling
both new and refurb electronics through eBay for
about four or five years and Kijiji for two or three.
While online sales have doubled this year alone,
Founder Habib Khan notes that they only account for
about 10% of the total. The Kijiji ads serve more to get
traffic into the stores. “People are still old-school. They
like to buy in stores.”
Building traffic is a big factor for Andrew Austin.
As Manager of Audio Excellence in Vaughan, ON, he
takes in a lot of high-end audio gear on consignment.
The used gear market is booming, he feels, “because
people buy the best reviewed amp and the best
reviewed speakers, but the pieces may not be
compatible.” Pricier consignment items considered
sturdy enough for international shipping are listed on
Canuckaudiomart.ca and Audiogon.com. Local buyers
visit the store for a look, too.
Angie Lisi of American Sound and Angie’s
Audio Corner in Richmond Hill, ON also uses
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Canuckaudiomart, but only to sell used gear. CAM
prohibits advertising new gear at regular prices.
Vistek also only lists on Kijiji items for in-store sale,
and only used or clearance items. It avoids offering
popular, low margin new gear.
Every posting, notes Heaver, draws phone calls
requesting favours like COD shipping, partially
deferred payment, shipping to a third party, etc. “It
can be very time consuming,” he says.
“We don’t do Kijiji,” comments Austin. “We always
get lowball offers.”
As a rule, Vistek lists items for local sale on Kijiji
that are typically heavier and bigger, and thus costly
to ship, like a printer. “Vistek has a history of having
esoteric items, and although a rare large-format
lens board may not be in demand locally,” observes
Heaver, “somebody in the world wants it. Those we
list on eBay. People are always looking.”
That increased visibility and ultimately more store
traffic recur as reasons our CE retailers list on these
sites. Is it worth the effort? According to our retailers,
it can be if you don’t get in too deep.
Time and labour mount for determining price
points, plus the goods must be selected, collected, and
photographed. “You need numerous photos, plus write
a detailed ‘love story’ to describe the stuff,” says Heaver.
Hard costs? eBay’s site has page after page of terms
and fees. Merchants must open an e-Bay ‘store’ and
pay monthly or annual fees. Basic stores cost $19.95
per month, or retailers can get a Premium ($59.95) or
Anchor ($199.95) subscription with additional benefits,
and 10-20% cheaper annual rates. Some ads require
an Insertion Fee, and all CE and photo ads are charged
Andrew Austin
Manager, Audio Excellence,
Vaughan, ON:
The used gear market is
booming because “people
buy the best reviewed amp
and the best reviewed
speakers, but the pieces
may not be compatible.”
a 6% Final Value Fee, based on selling prices whether
sold via eBay auction or instant sale.
There are also restrictions on where retailers can
sell, and how many items they can list according to
the dealer’s ‘tier.’ Items also have to be exclusive to
eBay. Complicated is an understatement.
Canuckaudiomart requires dealers to have an
account. Whitby Audio, says owner Michael Huber,
pays a $125 annual fee to insert classified ads to sell
gear. Lisi, however, pays about $1,200 a year to run
feature ads, mostly with classifieds directing traffic to
her own Website.
James Heaver
Director of Retail Operations
for Vistek:
“…although a rare large-format
lens board may not be in
demand locally, somebody in
the world wants it…”
Depending on size, feature ad services on CAM
can cost up to $5,000 yearly. As well, CAM restricts
sales to gear in Canada shipped within Canada.
Audiogon’s fees are as involved as eBay’s. Dealers
may choose to open a ‘store’ and pay extra for a
shopping cart. Each basic ad for sale or auction entails
a US$4 listing fee. Premium ads cost US$25 to US$150
extra. There is a 2% seller fee, maxed at US$195.
Shawn McIntyre, Community Relations Manager
at Kijiji, points out that there are upgrade features that
can help enhance the performance of an ad. They “start
as low as $3 up to $200, depending on the number of
enhancement features you choose,” he says.
But listing costs, even if free as with Kijiji’s
basic service, “can rapidly become astronomical,”
notes Heaver.
Austin concurs. PayPal is the payment medium
most prevalent on these sites, and that security costs.
“With the PayPal fee of almost 3%, plus a credit card
fee of 3%, plus shipping on top of the site fees,” he
calculates, “it can be hard to make money on an item.”
So are these sites worth it? Canuckaudiomart
itself claims over 20,000 visitors per day, and millions
of page views per month.
“They are,” concludes Heaver, “good tools, if
they work for you.”
TALKING SHOP
ANGIE’S AUDIO CORNER ADDS ANNEX
Canadian audio retailing icon Angie Lisi has opened
an addition to her high-end specialty shop, Angie’s
Audio Corner, specifically for used gear. The Annex, as
she calls it, is an integral part of the property her shop
occupies at the corner of Yonge St. and Stouffville Rd.
in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto.
The Annex occupies about 1,000 square feet
on two floors in the coach house of the 99-yearold country mansion. In addition to used gear and
clearance items available for purchase, patrons
can also present equipment to be considered
for outright purchase by The Annex, or arrange
a consignment sale.
Upstairs is a growing selection of music vinyl
and CDs. Headphone/turntable listening stations
are available for shoppers wishing to audition discs
prior to purchase. “Just like the good old days that
I remember so fondly,” says Lisi.
“Sales of headphones and headphone amps
have soared in the past two years,” she says, “so we
have an assortment available for sale.” Grado and
Ferrari ‘phones are stocked, along with headphone
The new Annex area of Angie’s Audio Corner is for selling used gear, with music vinyl, CDs, and headphone/turntable
listening stations on the top floor.
THIS ONE TIME…
The closure of La Boutique Éléctronique in Montreal
(see the full story at WiFiHiFi.ca) won’t curtail the
great stories amassed by cofounders Scott Phelan and
Chris Porteous during their decades in the business.
And as they’ll still be in the business as consultants,
the pair will likely continue to collect anecdotes
worthy of sharing. Here’s but one of those stories.
“We had a policy at La Boutique Éléctronique,”
states Porteous, “of never, ever, e-mailing quotes.
We figure,” he explains, “that if the client won’t take
10 minutes to sit with us and go over the design that
we’ve spent many hours on, then he’s not really a client,
he’s just using us to knock down some other supplier.”
Porteous supports the rationale with the
following example. “One of our custom guys spent
many hours and two home visits doing a complete
design for a new home. Then, he made the fatal error
of e-mailing the quote to the woman.” Some time
passed, and not only did the woman not commit to
the project, but she no longer returned phone calls.
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While they’ve closed their shop La Boutique Electronique
in Montreal, Chris Porteous (left) and Scott Phelan will
continue in the industry acting as consultants, and, of
course, sharing their many entertaining tales.
amps by companies like Bellari, Pathos, and Pro-Ject.
Customers are welcome to audition using their own
‘phones. Additional lines of headphones, such as AKG
and Grado, are available in Angie’s Audio Corner.
The Annex unofficially opened for business on
August 1, with an intimate BBQ and festive balloons
as the only celebratory markers. The official opening
is on August 28, which also celebrates the second
anniversary of Angie’s Audio Corner.
The HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY and LORD
& TAYLOR will be deploying the Swirl in-store
beacon marketing platform to deliver digital
experiences to shoppers’ smartphones in both
Canada and the U.S. Using beacons installed
in merchandising areas, customers who opt
in will get branded content and personalized
offers through company-owned and third-party
mobile apps. The technology leverages both
Bluetooth Smart and Apple’s iBeacon, able to
identify a shopper’s specific location in the
store, as well as his behaviours.
“A few weeks later,” he continues, “our guy got
an angry phone call from one of our competitors. The
competitor told us that she had walked in the door
and said that she didn’t like our sales guy.” She asked
the competitor if they wanted to fill her order. “It was,
I think, around $50,000,” Porteous recalls.
“So they looked at all this equipment, and this
juicy $50,000 total, and said, ‘Sure.’ They would match
our price, and they took her deposit.”
They did the deal and were stuck with it even
after, they realized, they were losing over $5,000 on it.
How so? “She had taken our quote,
Photoshopped all our prices, and shaved money off
every single item.
“What she didn’t know,” he gleefully adds, “is
that we don’t take nearly as much profit as she was
thinking, and she shaved off so much that it was
well under cost.
“But,” he adds, our competitor was so desperate
to get the deal that they didn’t take the time to check.”
The lessons here, according to Porteous are: “First,
assume nothing; and second, never e-mail a quote!”
TALKING SHOP
NEW SPECIALIST IN FAST GROWING
ONTARIO TOWN
Brothers and industry vets Dan and Matt Tinsley
have opened their own AV specialty shop in
downtown Bowmanville, ON. Clarington Audio
Video has a 1,500-square-foot showroom on the
main street of the largest town in the Regional
Municipality of Clarington.
“Our shop is on King St. in the historic downtown
area,” says Dan Tinsley. “We are a few kilometres from
the main big box centre, and positioned amongst
mid to upper-end independent boutique clothing
shops, cafes, and restaurants. There’s a lot of walking
traffic.” Tinsley describes the community as one of
the fastest growing in the province, “with lots of new
home development, as well a large empty-nest and
retirement demographic.”
One side of the shop is dedicated to single-item
pieces, custom, and distributed audio systems; and
the other “serves as more of a conceptual area,”
says Tinsley, “with TV/audio vignettes, plus a home
theatre listening area with a two-projector setup on
adjacent walls.
“We sell mid to upper-end televisions, projectors,
speakers, electronics, furniture, headphones, and
accessories. We see a fairly even split between twochannel and surround sound equipment.” Major
brands offered include: Yamaha, Denon, Samsung,
Sharp, Epson, JVC, Sonos, Heos, Wharfedale, Klipsch,
PSB, Bell’O, Sanus, and Ultralink.
The Tinsley brothers have a long history in
retailing audio and video, particularly on the custom
side. Prior to opening their own shop, both worked
many years at another AV specialty shop. Matt
Tinsley has CEDIA training, and the shop offers
third-party ISF calibration.
Good news for the AV specialty business,
as brothers Dan (left) and Matt Tinsley
have opened up their new 1,500-squarefoot shop in Bowmanville, ON.
HENRY’S, the Toronto-based photo and video
specialty chain, laid off 19 of its personnel this
summer. They were not sales staff interacting
with customers, Henry’s COO Ian Landy tells
WiFi HiFi. “It’s important not to disturb the
front line.” Affected staff was mostly middle
management. Because sales in the photo
industry are down, it is important for retailers
to be what he calls “right-sized.”
CANEX, the retail division of the Canadian
Forces Morale & Welfare Services (CFMWS), has
joined with POWER AUDIO VIDEO GROUP.
Through 40 stores on Canadian military bases,
CANEX (Canadian Forces Exchange System)
serves members and their families with goods
and services at competitive prices. Consumer
electronics and appliances are sold at 20 of
these stores.
The big CHAPTERS store in downtown
Montreal is going tits up, or is that tits upscale,
or tits upsized? Set to close on October 4, the
big book store at Rue Stanley and Ste-Catherine
W. will be converted into the world’s secondlargest Victoria’s Secret. Having another, though
smaller, Indigo store just three blocks away in
Place Montréal Trust, Chapters has found that
much real estate in the heart of Montreal is
unsustainable. The lease on the Chapters store
was allowed to expire.
TARGET’S Q2 numbers were due to be released on August 20, but two weeks before that, the
retailer gave a heads-up that its earnings would be lower than forecast. In Canada, where sales
are going to be “softer,” Target Canada has introduced price matching for groceries and also
online retailers like Bestbuy.ca, Futureshop.ca, Walmart.ca, Sears.ca, Amazon.ca, CanadianTire.ca,
and BabiesRUs.ca. In order to adapt to new, slimmer margins, Target Canada has reportedly
asked suppliers for a 2% discount off the top. This has aroused some strong feelings from
vendors, especially those with already thin margins, like the electronics and grocery industries.
In other news, Target Canada opened three new stores (Erin Mills Town Centre and Park Place
in Mississauga and Barrie, ON, respectively, and Carrefour Candiac in Candiac, QC), bringing its
total count in the country up to 130. Three more stores are scheduled to open later this fall.
September 2014
| 45
TALKING SHOP
LASTMAN’S BAD BOY TO OCCUPY HONEST ED’S, TEMPORARILY
The buildings that formerly housed the iconic
Honest Ed’s discount department store will have
a new tenant. Lastman’s Bad Boy will move into
between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet on the lower
level this fall.
This will be the first city centre store for
Lastman’s Bad Boy, which operates nine stores plus
a distribution centre in southern Ontario, selling
appliances, furniture, and electronics.
The late Honest Ed Mirvish’s family has leased
back the property it sold to luxury real estate
developer Westbank Corp. until 2016. Currently,
the space on the edge of downtown Toronto is
occupied by Sonic Boom, a music software shop.
Sonic Boom is moving from this corner at Bloor W.
and Bathurst streets to Spadina Ave.
Bad Boy CEO Blayne Lastman says that the
Honest Ed’s location will be strictly for power buys.
“It will be the best-of-the-best of Bad Boy…the best
prices.” He feels the area is “up and coming,” with
household incomes averaging $100,000, and homes
worth over $1 million. “And,” he adds, the people
down here haven’t had a furniture store in many,
many years.”
Depending on the closure date of the deal,
according to Lastman, the store in Honest Ed’s digs
should have a run of between two and four years. It
is unlikely that the new owners will want to extend
the lease once they get development approval for
this prime city centre real estate.
Lastman’s Bad Boy is a member of both Mega
Group and Power Audio Video Group.
ISTORE, best known for airport kiosks, has
opened its first digital-life concept store. Located
in Montreal’s Rockland Centre, the 3,000-squarefoot location will carry products for photography,
cooking, music, health and fitness, children’s toys,
and connected home accessories. Represented
manufacturers include Apple, Beats, Bose, Jawbone
and Fitbit. iPhones and iPads are also available
through Telus, iStore’s exclusive carrier partner.
FUTURE SHOP is partnering with GEEK SQUAD,
its sister retailer Best Buy’s service team. Future
Shop has been operating its own installation
team under the ConnectPro brand, but this move
will see the two retailers share a team of 1,400
installers and technicians under the Geek Squad
banner. Existing ConnectPro agents will shift
over to the signature orange and black gear, and
serve customers of both brands.
From l-r: Superintendent Frank Bergen, Unit Commander 14 Division Toronto Police Service; Blayne Lastman, CEO
Lastman’s Bad Boy; David Mirvish, Head of Mirvish Productions & co-owner of Honest Ed’s; Mel Lastman, Honorary
Chairman of the Board Lastman’s Bad Boy, former Mayor of Toronto, and founder of original Bad Boy; and Russell Lazar,
General Manager, Honest Ed’s.
TELETIME SUPERSTORE opened a new location in Markham, ON in mid-June. This, the fourth store for
the Brampton, ON-based chain, is located at 9909 Markham Rd., south of Major Mackenzie Drive. The
3,700-square-foot store is almost entirely showroom, and an open concept without auditioning rooms.
Manager is Hasan Syed, with four other staff members. Owner Paul Dass founded Teletime in 1993.
Two of the other stores are in Brampton, and the third in Etobicoke, ON.
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Four Ontario indies have joined 2001 AUDIO
VIDEO’S GROUP SELECT: Clarington Audio
Video, Whitby Audio, and McCaskie TV Stereo
in Bancroft all joined as of July 1; and Electronic
Depot in Niagara Falls effective August 1.
There are now 31 members of the group.
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS and GLENTEL
have extended their multi-year agreement
to offer Rogers products and services in
Glentel’s 485 retail locations across Canada,
such as WIRELESSWAVE, Tbooth wireless,
WIRELESS etc., and Target Mobile.
EXPLAINING CES TO SOMEONE WHO HASN’T
ATTENDED IS LIKE EXPLAINING PARTICLE PHYSICS
TO A HOUSECAT.
In other words, you really can’t. What you can do is make sure you don’t
miss what promises to be our most innovative and rewarding show ever.
That and maybe take some pictures for the unfortunate cats left behind.
Register at CESweb.org.
JAN. 6-9, 2015
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
CESWEB.ORG
#CES2015
TALKING SHOP
The GROUPE SÉLECT DIVISION OF CENTRE HI-FI has added four stores. Domo Prestige (using the abbreviation of domotique, the French term for home
automation) in St-Basile le Grand, QC is a new concept for Jean-François Pelchat, Patrice Robidoux, and Jonathan Robillard, as a 3,000-square-foot shop specializing
in home automation and custom integration. In Coaticook, in the extreme southeast corner of Quebec, Marco Gauthier and Mario Boivin tripled the size of a Bell
Cellular boutique they had bought by leasing the neighbouring unit. While business continued during renos, the new 900-square-foot shop, Centre Hi-Fi Groupe
Sélect Coaticook, fully opened in August. The two others, both in downtown Montreal, are owned by Eric Dadoun: Davidson Éléctronique, at 1152 Boulevard
St-Laurent, and Mix Audio, a boutique in the Centre Eaton that specializes in headphones and portable devices.
WHO’S DOING WHAT?
Erikson Consumer has confirmed several new exclusive distribution
partnerships. The first is with Finnish manufacturer Golla, for its accessories
division that includes iPhone and iPad cases, laptop, tablet and camera bags.
The second is with TAVIK accessories, a fashion apparel brand inspired by
Modern Beach Culture. And the third is with NEAR outdoor audio products.
NEAR Speakers
Golla Accessories
TAVIK Accessories
Hitfar Concepts Ltd. is now the exclusive Canadian distributor
for Urban Armor Gear (UAG), which makes protective, military-grade
cases for smartphones and tablets. Hitfar will be carrying UAG’s
composite cases for all leading smartphones and tablets, as well as
the folio cases for the iPad Air and iPad Mini with retina. Hitfar will
be selling UAG products to all retailers across Canada.
Google Inc. has purchased Songza. Terms of the deal were not announced.
The music streaming service offers themes for different activities, such as
waking up or exercising, and playlists
curated by musical experts, for moods and
times of the day. Users can vote songs up
and down, and the service will remember
their preferences. Songza launched in
Canada in August 2012.
Microsoft has joined the AllSeen Alliance, an open-source project for the
Internet of Things that aims to create a unified standard on which connected
devices can communicate with one another. This brings the Alliance’s total
member count to 51, including other Premier members like Haier, LG,
Panasonic, Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., Sharp, Silicon Image,
Technicolor and TP-Link.
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Staub Electronics will
distribute Nest products to
dealer integrators across
Canada. The line, now owned
by Google, includes the popular
learning thermostat, as well as
smoke and CO alarms.
After working with distributor Plurison for the past two decades, MartinLogan
has decided to move to a dealer-direct business model for the Canadian market
to mimic the business model in the U.S. The electrostatic speaker manufacturer
has hired Justin Brown to serve as Canadian Sales Manager, and will announce
a new team of rep firms that will handle all sales, training, and support
starting September 1. All service issues will be handled from the U.S. facility,
and all Canadian dealer shipments will be dispatched from the MartinLogan
manufacturing and warehouse facility in Mississauga, ON.
Rdio has partnered with Shazam for an update that will
allow users to get full song playback, powered by Rdio. With
the current version, Rdio subscribers will see a redesigned
play button that allows them to listen to the full track after
Shazaming a song. They will also be able to access a new
automatic playlist feature that creates a list within Rdio of all
the tracks a user has Shazamed, and an Add to Playlist button
that allows users to choose additional Rdio playlists into
which they can put the songs they Shazam.
Sonos devices now support SoundCloud, a Berlin,
Germany-based online audio distribution platform whereby
users can upload, record, promote and share their own
creations. Owners of Sonos music systems can stream
SoundCloud content through the speakers, and access the
content library. Use Universal Search on the new Sonos
controller to find artists on SoundCloud as well. Customers
can try SoundCloud for free, in beta mode, by visiting
‘Add Music Services’ in the new Sonos app.
TALKING SHOP
WHO WENT WHERE?
Michael Medline (left) will become Canadian Tire’s President and
CEO, effective December 1, 2014. He has served in the president role
since November 2013. Stephen Wetmore, current CEO, will be moving
into a new, non-executive position on the Board of Directors, as Deputy
Chairman. Medline has been a senior executive of Canadian Tire for
more than 13 years. Wetmore joined Canadian Tire’s Board of Directors
in 2003 and was appointed CEO in 2008.
Susan L. Wagner, founding partner and Director of asset
management company BlackRock, has been elected to
Apple’s board of directors. Bill Campbell, the board’s
longest-serving member, is retiring after 17 years of service.
Wagner will continue to serve on the boards of BlackRock
and DSP BlackRock (India), as well as Swiss Re, Wellesley
College and Hackley School.
In June, Scot Kerek became Vice
President of Sales for Automated
Interiors Inc., a CI specialist in
Vaughan, immediately north of
Toronto. Kerek was previously
Canadian manager at AVAD Canada.
Music streaming service Rdio has appointed Michael Orrbrooke
as its new General Manager for Canada. Orrbrooke will report
to Scott Bagby, President of International at Rdio. He previously
served as president and CEO of Bark & Fitz Inc. Prior to that, he
held brand management and strategic sponsorship roles with
a variety of telecommunications and technology companies.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. president Vicente Trius has departed, while Shoppers
Drug Mart President Domenic Pilla is scheduled to leave by the end of this year.
Galen G. Weston (pictured), Executive Chairman, will be taking on the title of President
of Loblaw. Mike Motz, currently Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising
Officer at Loblaw, will become Pilla’s successor. Richard Dufresne, will assume the role
of CFO of Loblaw, while Sarah Davis, previously CFO, will become Chief Administrative
Officer. Grant Froese, previously Chief Administrative Officer, becomes COO.
Facebook Canada has expanded its team with five new hires. Erin Elofson
has been appointed Client Partner in the Financial Services vertical. She
joins Facebook from Microsoft Canada where she held several senior
positions over 12 years, most recently working on the brand’s national
enterprise partnership with HP Canada. New Client Solutions Managers
include Amal Gayed, Nik Djukic, Ian Lopez and Nimalan Bala.
MONERIS has partnered with Ingenico Group to
deploy PAYD PRO, a mobile EMV, Chip and PIN and
contactless payment system. The service will allow
merchants to use smartphones and tablets to accept
both Interac debit and credit card payments via
EMV Chip & PIN, swipe and contactless acceptance
technology. The payment system is available on iOS,
and will be available on Android in the fall.
THIEL Audio has, as part of a brand revitalization plan
that includes relocating the headquarters to Nashville,
TN and new ownership, appointed John Wittman
its new CEO. Paul Fisher is also the new Senior Vice
President of Sales and Marketing, along with new hires
in engineering, marketing, purchasing and operations,
with more staffing to follow.
Core Brands, a Nortek company, has appointed Scott Ashbaugh
as its new Director of CI Distribution Sales, covering both the
U.S. and Canadian markets. Ashbaugh’s principal responsibility
will be to build channel sales for the Niles, Panamax, and Xantech
brands. He will report to Core Brands Senior Vice President of Sales
Dave Keller. He previously worked with Ingram Micro Consumer
Electronics and OmniMount, Inc./Ergotron, Inc.
After 23 years in Montreal’s West Island,
LA BOUTIQUE ÉLÉCTRONIQUE is closing up.
The building, owned by founders Scott Phelan
and Chris Porteous, will be sold once liquidation
is complete. But these staples of the Montreal
AV scene will keep their hand in the industry,
becoming consultants for Résonance AV, a custom
house founded by two ex-employees. For more
details, see the full story on WiFiHiFi.ca.
September 2014
| 49
BEST LUGGAGE FOR A 3-DAY BIZ TRIP
BY VAWN HIMMELSBACH
Delsey Chatelet Carry-on Trolley Case
Golla Weekender
US$460; Delsey.com
$270; Golla.com (distributed by Erikson Consumer in Canada)
THE LOOK: The French brand Delsey is known for its avant-garde designs, and
this is no exception – it’s luggage you want to be seen with. And it’s durable,
made from lightweight and scratch-resistant Makrolon polycarbonate.
THE LOOK: From the Finnish lifestyle fashion brand, the wax-coated canvas
material with faux leather accents is meant to have a worn look, which means it
can easily hide scuffs or stains. A front slot can hold a laptop or tablet (up to 16”),
there’s a large zippered pocket on the back, and three organizing pockets inside
that are great for holding your passport, smartphone or favourite novel. Remove
the shoulder strap if you prefer to carry the bag by its sturdy handles. The only
downside for airplane travelers is that this one doesn’t have wheels.
STANDOUT FEATURES: The Zip SecuriTech is more resilient than a conventional
zipper (a nice feature if you often stuff your bag to capacity and struggle to zip
it up). The brake system is activated with a knob under the telescoping handle
to lock the two front wheels and prevent the bag from drifting away (I’ve had
problems with previous four-wheel spinners rolling
around on a train or subway.)
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: Get this: it has a
built-in overweight indicator. Lift the bag and a
red mark signals when it exceeds the standard
50 lb. weight restriction enforced by most airlines.
No more surprise overweight baggage fees,
or the need to layer on an extra sweater (or two!)
from the bag to avoid the charges.
WHO IT’S FOR: Don’t bother me about petty
generalizations. I’m sitting here in a café, enjoying
a cigarette and my latte while reading Le Monde.
And why yes, this is a fabulous bag!
50 |
www.wifihifi.ca
STANDOUT FEATURES: There’s a mesh zippered compartment around the inside
perimeter, perfect for keeping papers, chargers, or unmentionables separate from
the main compartment.
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: It’s versatile, stylish, and functional. Take it on
a plane or train for your next work trip, or up to the cottage for the weekend
for work or play.
WHO IT’S FOR: Hipsters who
would never be caught dead
wheeling a bag like some puppy
dog. The only wheels for this
crowd are either on their Mini
convertible or their single-speed
Linus bicycle. A real bag has a
strap. Period.
Filson Outfitter Travel Bag
Samsonite Silhouette Sphere
US$440 ($480); Filson.com
$220-360; Samsonite.ca
THE LOOK: Stylish, rugged and manly – indeed,
the company caters to men, with gear for hunting,
fly-fishing and sport shooting. But the Outfitter Travel
Bag is one I’d buy for both its good looks and unique
features. It has a leather shoulder strap and handles,
and packs like a suitcase, but doesn’t have wheels
(so there may be better options for frequent fliers,
like the Wheeled Carry-on Bag).
THE LOOK: Several designs (both hard-side and
soft-side), made from tri-core nylon fabric to resist
stains from oil, dirt and water. Aside from its
standard carry-on designs, there’s a wheeled duffle.
The Spinner Boarding Bag has a removable organizer
that keeps smaller items securely contained and a
padded laptop compartment that accommodates
up to a 15.6” computer. A gel-infused locking handle
provides a comfortable grip. And with its tri-core
nylon fabric, the bags tend to wear well.
Tumi Tegra-Lite
US$595 ($650); Tumi.com
STANDOUT FEATURES: A shoe pocket in the
duffle lets you keep footwear separate from clothing
(if you like to work out when you travel, this is great
for throwing in sneakers and workout gear).
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: It’s all about the
wheel. This piece uses a new wheel design with
four spherical spinner wheels for better control
and turning ability.
STANDOUT FEATURES: Lots of pockets, including
a stow pocket and interior zipper pocket, though it’s
not really designed for a laptop.
WHO IT’S FOR: The traveler who values reliability
and no-nonsense performance above all else.
It’s not the most stylish, but like
a Honda, it’s guaranteed to get
you from Point A to Point B.
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: It’s made of
water-repellent fabric, and has a separate bottom
compartment lined with heavy-duty nylon for wet
items or boots (I’d use this to store wet bathing suits,
dirty laundry or muddy shoes).
WHO IT’S FOR: For the adventurous spirit who
wants a bag that can double as a business suitcase
and a weekender bag for his next outdoor adventure.
As soon as this business trip is over, I’m getting on
a seaplane and going fishing!
THE LOOK: Compact wheeled carry-on design,
with four 360-degree swivel wheels and the X-Brace
45 handle system, which adds structural rigidity to
the case. There are interior accessory pockets and
tie-down straps, TSA integrated locks, bottom-grab
handle and exterior bumpers. There isn’t, however,
an outside pocket.
STANDOUT FEATURES: It’s both impact-resistant
and lightweight, thanks to Tegris, a polypropylene
thermoplastic composite material created for use in
NASCAR racecars and protective gear for NFL players.
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: Just like the German
World Cup team, Tumi is German engineering and
efficiency at its best. It’s an investment piece, but
Tumi is well known for its craftsmanship, so you can
expect this bag to last a long, long time.
WHO IT’S FOR: Its compact size makes it ideal for
quick business trips, yet you’ll still be able to cram
in everything you need.
Rimowa Salsa Air
$475; Rimowa.com
THE LOOK: It’s lightweight, durable, and fun with bright colour options like lime green, ice blue and ultra violet.
STANDOUT FEATURES: It’s made of polycarbonate, the same material used in aircraft and vehicle construction. It’s resistant to
heat and cold (from +125°C to -100°C,) and can even withstand exposure to UV radiation.
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: The shell yields to pressure, but then returns to its original form (a great feature for luggage that
gets banged around in airplanes or on baggage carousels).
WHO IT’S FOR: For those who travel from, say, northern Alberta in the dead of winter to a more tropical clime, the heat and cold
resistant features of polycarbonate are a huge bonus for protecting the contents. If you aspire to travel by private jet instead of
domestic, this is the bag that says I spend as much time in Paris, London, and New York as I do at home.
September 2014
| 51
Heys International SmartLuggage
Victorinox Lexicon
$329-$499; Heys.ca
US$319-$599; Swissarmy.com
THE LOOK: Made of polycarbonate, it provides
flexibility and high-impact resistance. The hard-side
luggage features a front-access system designed to
make it easier to pack (as opposed to packing two
halves of traditional hard-side luggage). It comes in
traditional black, plus some other fun colours.
THE LOOK: Hailing from the makers of the Swiss
Army Knife, the Lexicon cases are sort of like the
Swiss Army Knife of luggage. This one is a carry-on
upright with padded protection for a laptop or
tablet in the front pocket, and a removable suiter
with foam bolsters that can be used with or
without the bag.
STANDOUT FEATURES: If you often need extra
packing space on the way home (you’ve picked up
swag on the tradeshow floor or souvenirs for the
family), the extendable packing area (it expands an
additional 5-6 cm) is a huge bonus. And top and side
retractable handles lay flay for easy sliding in and out
of an overhead compartment.
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: The Swiss Tracker
Bag Tracking Program will reunite you with your
bag anywhere in the world – for free!
STANDOUT FEATURES: A four-wheel spinner system
that spreads weight evenly and a zippered expansion
system that allows for up to 20% more packing capacity
(while still fitting in the overhead compartment).
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL: It can also be divided,
organized and packed from the middle using the
centre access zipper, making it easy to get to your
belongings while the bag is in an upright position
—handy for, say, pulling out a plastic bag of 100 mL
toiletries while going through security.
WHO IT’S FOR: The business traveler who likes
to stay organized, loves vibrant colours, and is on
a relatively tight budget.
WHO IT’S FOR: Creative types on a budget who
still want to express their personality and show the
world, “I’m different!”
Travelpro Crew 10
US$99-$349; Travelpro.com
THE LOOK: Travelpro bags were originally designed
by a pilot, and who better to know what frequent
flyers want? There are eight carry-on models in
the line, each accented with a leather side and top
carry handles.
STANDOUT FEATURES: 360-degree dual-wheel
spinner system with MagnaTrac wheel technology:
self-aligning magnetic wheels roll straight in all
directions. I’ve found this useful for squeezing down
the aisle of an airplane, and it also helps to reduce
shoulder and arm strain (think of the “drifting”
associated with pushing spinner luggage).
WHY IT’S ESPECIALLY COOL:
For paranoid travelers, an RFID
blocking interior pocket is designed
to protect your passport and credit
cards against identify theft.
WHO IT’S FOR:
Road warriors, because
it can handle bumps and
bangs, and has a tapered
expansion for packing
flexibility, shear-resistant
zipper heads and a suiter
for wrinkle-free packing.
SPLURGE-WORTHY
Have a few extra bucks to fork over for a statement piece? Check out the Louis Vuitton Pégase 55, a cabin-sized business
case from the iconic French designer. It rolls oh so smoothly, and is crafted of durable Taiga leather with natural cowhide
leather trim and polyamide lining. Two-level telescopic handle? Check. Exterior padded pocket for laptop? Check. Plus two
clothing protection flaps, garment cover and hanger, and a removable pouch with a protective sleeve. You’ll need to save
up for this beauty, to the tune of about US$5K. But boy, will you ever look good wheeling it around!
52 |
www.wifihifi.ca
SAVE THE DATE FOR CANADIAN INDUSTRY NIGHT
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015
Mark your calendar for the night the Canadian industry gets together at CES in Las Vegas.
We look forward to seeing you!
To be a sponsor of this fantastic industry event,
please contact John Thomson at [email protected] or call 416-726-3667.
Don’t miss out! Join the growing list of companies who have already signed on as proud sponsors for 2015.
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
John Henderson Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Hisense Canada
AS TOLD TO WALLY HUCKER
“In high school, I played hockey for
St. Mike’s in Toronto, dragging my
goalie equipment on a Mississauga
Transit bus and two Toronto subways
after school, three days a week.”
“Going back for my MBA in 2010 was
a terrific, all-consuming, 18-month
experience, which I could not have
done without a very understanding
family and an incredibly supportive
team at Ingram Micro.”
SCHOOL
Dunrankin Drive Public School, Darcel Senior Public School,
Westwood Secondary School, Mississauga, ON
Humber College, Toronto, ON - Radio Broadcasting Diploma
University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business, MBA
JOBS
1982 -1983 | Go Vacations, Lot Attendant (Summer Job)
1984 | CFNY 102.1 Radio Station, Assistant
rsity of Western
n shot at Unive
ife),
Ivey Graduatio
John, Tracy (w
,
L-r: Phil (son)
Ontario (2011).
r).
Laura (daughte
“With the trust and confidence The
Brick showed in me at age 23, I was
determined to not let them down.”
“…I was responsible for an infamous
event at an LG dealer show in Niagara
Falls. I hired comedian Ron James to
perform, but his Canadiana shtick was
not going over well, and he stormed off
stage in mid-joke. To this day, dealers
talk to me about that LG show!”
“Seeing plans go from a blank piece
of paper to 10 SKUs on a retailer’s
floor in less than a year is something
I will always be proud of.”
1984 -1988 | The Brick, Customer Returns & Pick-ups,
Customer Service Rep (Part-time)
1988 -1995 | The Brick, Sales Rep, Customer Service
Supervisor & Service Manager
1995 -2003 | LG Electronics, National Service Manager, Marketing Manager,
National Sales Manager, Director of Sales & Marketing
2003 -2012 | Ingram Micro (Director of Consumer Electronics,
Director of Purchasing)
2012 - Present | Hisense Canada, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
PASSIONS & POINTS
“I’ve traveled to China for meetings nine times in my first 14 months at
Hisense, so besides becoming an expert in Chinese culture, duty free shopping
has afforded me a fantastic single malt (Scotch whisky) collection.”
“Booze” Cruise photo taken
with wife Tracy Henderson
during their Jamaica
honeymoon (1989).
“I am an avid Bruce Springsteen fan. I’ve seen
him 25 times across North America.”
“I stay active playing hockey, golf, and hiking on the Bruce Trail with my son.”
During a family vacation
to the Grand Canyon
in 2011.
LIFE LESSONS
“It’s more productive playing the cards I’ve been dealt, with insight and creativity,
than wasting time convincing myself it can’t be done. As my Hisense colleague
Gordon Wong says, ‘Sometimes you have to get Blackjack the hard way.’”
54 |
www.wifihifi.ca
Malton Colt 45 Metro Toronto
Senior Baseball League during
college (circa 1986).
“I interned at the ‘All News Radio’
station CKO. I have great memories of
writing sports broadcasts during the
1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.”
“[While studying the potential for
marketing turkey to 1.4 billion Chinese,]
I crashed a Segway on the Olympic
track, bruising my ribs, and then lost
a contact lens in Hong Kong, and was
drugged in a Shanghai bar. Good thing
there were three doctors in my class!”
“I tried changing the station’s format
by listing phony requests. Failed. Black
Sabbath never made their playlist.”
“My ‘interview’ was in a hockey
dressing room, with Joe Iannelli, a
warehouse supervisor at The Brick,
which had just opened in Ontario. He
asked me to join a men’s league team
he coached, but I was in school and
couldn’t afford the fee. Joe pulled out
a job application form and told me to
fill it out and come work at The Brick’s
Rexdale distribution centre on Monday.
My career in CE had begun.”
“Procuring $3 billion of inventory
annually helped refine my finance
acumen, and planted the seed for me
to return to school for an MBA.”
Technology for the Ages
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HDTC710XL3A1CA
A road warrior for the
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Get up and go in a
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ICONIA B1 Tablet
B1730HD17A4CA
Wrap their mobile
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