Take a look at some new Pro AV hires, promotions, and big company partnerships and announcements you may have missed last week.
[SCN 2024 Stellar Service Awards Open for Entries]
People News
Planar Promotes Tani Klein to SVP of North America Sales
Planar promoted Tani Klein to SVP of North America Sales. Transitioning from his recent role as VP of sales, Northeast, Klein will now oversee all of the company’s geographic territories and vertical market teams across the United States and Canada.
Klein’s promotion follows years of demonstrated sales leadership and involvement in key milestones for the company. This includes helping execute new sales strategies as well as expand Planar’s customer base in the metro New York and Philadelphia regions. He joined Planar in 2014, first serving as a regional account manager before being promoted to director of sales, senior director of sales and vice president of sales for the Northeast territory.
Klein’s background is strengthened by nearly six years at Primeview, where he covered responsibilities ranging from technical to sales and operations. He opened the company’s first U.S. office, significantly contributing to the growth of the organization’s sales force and revenue.
Mersive Technologies Appoints Theresa Benson as VP of Marketing and Product Management
Mersive Technologies has appointed Theresa Benson to the role of VP, marketing and product management. She will play a critical role in developing Mersive’s go-to-market strategy and a thoughtful roadmap of forward-thinking products grounded in the market’s ever-evolving collaboration needs. Benson will lead a global team to transform the way the world understands and experiences Mersive in 2024 and beyond. She has been a consultant for Mersive for nearly a year, working closely with the executive leadership, marketing, and engineering teams.
Benson's prior experience developing InRule Technology’s combined messaging and go-to-market strategies after acquisitions in machine learning and process automation positions her well for her new role at Mersive, where she will lead the integration of advanced features into its platform roadmap.
NSCA Recognizes Ingolf de Jong with the 2024 Per Haugen Lifetime Achievement Award
NSCA presented Ingolf de Jong with the 2024 Per Haugen Lifetime Achievement Award at the 26th annual Business & Leadership Conference (BLC), held Feb. 27-29, 2024, in Irving, TX.
de Jong has worked in the industry for more than 40 years and is the former CEO and owner of General Communications (GENCOMM) and Communa Technologies. He has served on various boards throughout his career, including time as PSNI VP, ISE board member, and NSCA president. Today, he serves on the NSCA Education Foundation Board. Outside the industry, he serves on the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors and was the co-chair of the Small Business Committee. He also holds two U.S. patents: the first for an acoustic panel and the second for a Bluetooth Technology Conferencing Interface Device.
Haugen, who the award is named after, was instrumental in the launch of the NSCA Education Foundation and helped expand the influence of NSCA’s mission. In his honor, the Per Haugen Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual who exhibits dedication to philanthropy and social responsibility; is an active leader in the financial well-being of the industry, NSCA, and his or her company; demonstrates high ethics, values, integrity, and honesty in all business practices; and holds strong values in every aspect of life.
Company News
Samsung New Channel Partnership Empowers SMB Owners With Digital Signage
Samsung Electronics America is partnering with Quest Technology Management to introduce a managed service offering innovative digital signage solutions for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) exclusively through Telarus technology advisors. The all-in-one managed service package enables SMB owners to modernize their business environments with simplified content and device management and state-of-the-art displays to amplify brand impact.
The new service harnesses the power of Samsung’s market-leading digital signage technology and VXT Content Management System, a cloud-native solution for digital signage that transforms content creation, management and remote device operation. Through the service, Quest and Telarus offer SMB owners access to Samsung Display’s extensive portfolio of solutions, including best-in-class monitors, self-service kiosks, indoor and outdoor LED signage, as well as EV charging stations.
Samsung VXT CMS represents a leap forward in digital signage solutions, offering unparalleled ease in settings configuration, feature updates and remote installation from the cloud. The CMS allows for intuitive content creation on any mobile device, elevating business displays to new heights of creativity and efficiency. With a combination of cloud-native structure, intuitive UX design and smart business operations, VXT aims to transform digital signage management.
Key Digital Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Key Digital Systems is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024. In 1999, Key Digital’s first product was a video distribution amplifier custom-designed for retailer Best Buy’s display televisions. That modest beginning was hardly indicative of the depth of knowledge and experience of Key Digital founder Mike Tsinberg, whose work in HD and digital video began along with the infancy of the technologies in the 1980s. Working with Thomson-CSF, Philips, and Toshiba, Tsinberg pioneered ideas that played a major role in the development and refinement of digital television – both broadcast and streaming, digital video recording and the DVD (for which the Toshiba team he was on received an Emmy Award). His portfolio now includes more than 40 patents.
Tsinberg’s philosophy of innovation has propelled Key Digital forward. “My ambition was always to create technology from scratch,” he said, which gives Key Digital enormous latitude for creativity. For his Key Digital engineering team, it’s not sufficient to merely deliver the core capabilities expected in a product category. Instead, built-in to their designs are elegant and transparent solutions for a host of connectivity issues that plague many AV installs, such as addressing the alphabet soup of inter-device communications (HDCP, EDID, CEC, etc.). Each product in the growing and evolving Key Digital product line is designed for value with no compromise in performance or quality and feature sets that redefine customer expectations. Signal extension in Key Digital’s product line is accompanied by control, beginning with bidirectional IR repeaters, and extending to IP and Open API control.
The 21st Century Key Digital offers an extensive product line spanning applications from restaurants and clubs to government, houses of worship, education, retail and residential. The product line ranges from extenders to switchers, matrix switchers, multi-view and video wall matrix processors, presentation switchers (including multi-format wall plate models) with extension transmission built-in, wireless extension and BYOD collaboration solutions, scalable AV over IP systems and the Compass Control Pro integrated iOS-based control system that which can extend unified iPad control to include a host of Compass Alliance partner systems beyond AV including lighting, HVAC, power and security.
“We are proud of what we’ve accomplished in our first 25 years,” concluded Tsinberg. “We can’t begin to thank our customers enough for believing in our vision. All corporations are made of people, and we have the best and thank them as well for all they do. We are also excited about the explosion of technological advancements that will shape our products and progress for the next 25 years"
ClearOne Appoints of Bormann Marketing
ClearOne partners in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana will now receive a higher level of sales and service support with the appointment of Bormann Marketing as the new sales representative firm for the rapidly growing sales region, according to ClearOne’s VP of sales for the Americas, Jim Mergens.
Bormann Marketing is a Professional Manufacturers Representative for the commercial and residential audiovisual industry covering the 13 Central states of the United States including Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Bormann Marketing’s main office is in Hopkins, MN with satellite offices in Austin, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, and St Louis.
The company’s goal is to serve its customers beyond their expectations, to work together to build their business and in so doing, build Bormann Marketing. They work to provide friendly, prompt and accurate service and information and pay close attention to the details. In order to keep pace with expected future sales growth, the company now has a staff of 17 people to best serve customers. They invest in the latest technology to maintain an up-to-date database of customers, manufacturers and the products they sell.
PK Sound Welcomed Colorado’s Valkyrie Productions to Its Partner Network
PK Sound, the robotic line array company, has welcomed Colorado’s Valkyrie Productions to its partner network with the company’s investment in a T8 robotic line source system. Featuring PK’s patented multi-axis robotic technology, the T8 system offers precise control of vertical and horizontal dispersion, allowing the Valkyrie team to optimize acoustic coverage in virtually any environment. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of PK Sound in North America.
Valkyrie’s initial investment includes twelve T8 robotic line source modules and ten T18 intelligent subwoofers along with a PK Cell modular touring rack, which combines power, signal and data distribution in a globally standardized package. The company wasted little time putting the system to work in a myriad of deployments, from corporate and trade events to regional music festivals, including as a monitoring solution for Slander’s sold-out engagement at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Humly Strengthens Bond with Exertis Brand
Humly continues to aggressively build out its global channel partner network to bring its brand of workplace solutions to more countries worldwide. Now, dedicated Exertis businesses will exclusively represent Humly for distribution services in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, effective immediately.
The announcement comes several months following Exertis Pro AV Canada’s announcement that it would exclusively distribute Humly workplace solutions throughout Canada. Exertis Pro AV Italy, Exertis Pro AV Portugal, and Exertis Pro AV Spain will provide sales, marketing, business development and customer support services in their respective countries for Humly’s premium hardware and software solutions.
The entire range of Humly Workplace Solutions (Humly Room Display, Humly Booking Device, Humly Wayfinding, Humly Reservations, Humly Visitor, and Humly Floor Plan), and the associated Humly Control Panel for centralized management and monitoring, are ideal complements to existing AV solutions offered through each Exertis Pro AV business’s extensive brand portfolio. That includes two new recent accessories for the Humly Booking Device introduced earlier this month at ISE 2024 that support automatic desk height adjustments, occupancy sensing, and PoE powering.
Vizrt Names ComLine Latest European Distributor
Vizrt has named ComLine, a German based, AV and IT (Information Technology) focused distributor, has joined the company’s growing list of channel partners.
With the convergence of the Pro AV and broadcast sectors, more media companies, organizations, and creatives are looking for tools that will sharpen and expand their video content creation abilities, in an affordable way.
ComLine provides technology, expertise, and support to resellers, enterprises and entrepreneurs looking to stay relevant, future-proof their workflows, and grow in the ever-evolving digital world.
