It was right before InfoComm 2014 when the industry learned that Harman acquired AMX for $365 million from the Duchossois Group.
AMX had a good showing at the June 18-20 tradeshow in Las Vegas, but everybody was wondering the same thing: How will Harman change AMX?
VP of global marketing Joe Andrulis has been a Harman employee for a few months now and he talks to CI editor Tom LeBlanc about how things have changed at AMX’s Richardson, Texas, headquarters, among other things.
It’s been about six months since AMX was acquired by Harman. How have things changed strategically?
Andrulis: Actually, it’s changed relatively little strategically. AMX had gone into this integration primarily pursuing a solutions orientation to AV installations, trying to provide a complete experience for our various end-user communities.
We obviously had an extensive portfolio on our own to pursue that mission, but by joining up with Harman we’ve added in a tremendous additional breadth of products that have really enhanced our ability to pursue that strategy. So it’s not per se a change in strategy but an acceleration and expansion of our ability to pursue it effectively.
Watch the video or read on below for the extended Q&A.
What are your thoughts on more integrators doing more repeatable system designs?
Andrulis: I don’t see the interest in standardized solutions as a move away from the custom solutions but really just recognition that audio-video technology is a capability that really needs to be part of almost all space types and venues.
It’s become such an important way in which we communicate these days that people don’t want to make it exclusive to just the high-end spaces.
So the high-end spaces and the special venues where you want a really unique experience are going to continue to be served by the custom AV deployments that have really been the hallmark of the industry through much of its history. But going forward what we’re going to see is an expansion of people using AV technology in highly standardized day-in, day-out, run-of-the-mill type environments.
