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20 Dec 2004
Audiovisual (AV) distributor Steljes has taken on a new product tailored to the home market, which is proving to be fertile ground for resellers.
According to Jonathan Pengilley, commercial director of Steljes Group, the home market for audiovisual products is unusual in that users still prefer to buy their products through value-added resellers.
"Steljes Trade is a trade organisation, but some of the products we've taken on recently, such as universal remote control, are products you would expect home-users to go for, as well as businesses. But we've found that a very high proportion of end-users still want to buy from resellers," Pengilley said.
Further reading
Steljes's latest product, the MX3000, illustrates the unusual buying behaviour of the AV consumer, he added.
The product is a universal remote control device manufactured by Universal Remote Controls (URC), which controls several audiovisual products from one point. Despite the apparent simplicity of this technology concept, users prefer to buy an MX3000 from a skilled reseller rather than save a few pounds by buying it directly, claimed Pengilley.
Ken Groves, vice-president of international sales for URC, said: "The problem for many homes and businesses is not so much the number of devices they have but the complexity involved in fine-tuning them all.
"A reseller can custom install and configure these so that anyone can get the right set up they want by tapping on a few icons."
This is a product the market has been waiting a long time for, Pengilley claimed.
"Most offices and homes have several AV devices. An office is likely to have a projector, a plasma screen and a DVD, at least. All of these come with separate controllers. People waste endless time fiddling around with machines because the controllers are too complicated," he said.
Although there are systems on the market that can simplify the control of AV systems, such as those from Crestron and AMX, prices are out of reach for most business users, let alone home-users, Pengilley claimed. The market is ripe for an affordable alternative, he added.
"This will be an easy sale for resellers. Margins are being squeezed on all other devices, but this creates a new area of opportunity," he claimed.
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