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Alex Nicholson, President, Nicholson's Hi-Fidelity
Center, Inc., Wins First Prize in Parks Associates’ Drawing
Parks Associates announced today
that installing dealer Alex Nicholson, President of Nicholson’s Hi-Fidelity
Center, Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee, has won the $500 sweepstakes held for
participants in the
most
recent survey of its
Installing Dealer ePanel.
The
survey, conducted in the first quarter of 2003, found that more than 40%
of dealers already install PC LANs for audio distribution and they expect to
connect a growing number of entertainment systems to the Internet in 2003.
“Internet-connected home entertainment networks are the
next wave in the connected home environment,” said
Tricia Parks,
President of Parks Associates. “Currently, the primary motivation for
homeowners to install a PC LAN is to share a broadband connection.
Accessing, storing, cataloging, and distributing audio and video content
will drive home networking for the rest of this decade. We are monitoring
these trends through research programs such as
Installing Dealer ePanel, which tracks adoption of innovative
technologies in the high-end residential market.”
“I support Parks Associates’ research of our industry,”
Alex Nicholson said. “I feel it helps promote our interests by giving us
another means to communicate our needs to vendors throughout the industry.”
Nicholson’s Hi-Fidelity Center, Inc. was founded in
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1946 by Alex’s father, Nick Nicholson, to sell and
repair radios and small appliances. Nicholson’s was the first dealer to
bring hi-fi audio to Nashville and has since evolved into a full-service,
one-stop shop for high-performance audio and video systems for the
residential market. “We have succeeded in expanding our business as the
industry has progressed,” Alex Nicholson said. “We added TVs to our original
audio systems, then surround sound to build home theaters, and once we were
into home theaters, we added lighting controls, acoustic treatments, and
seating.”
“Nicholson’s Hi-Fi is the type of dealer manufacturers
seek out,” said
Bill
Ablondi, ePanel Program Director. “They have expanded their
business around a core specialty, adding the capabilities to adopt new
technologies as the market evolves. This allows them to expand the scope of
their projects and maintain control of the customer account.”
Dealers on Parks Associates’
Installing Dealer ePanel were asked if home automation/home control
projects begin with home theater installations. The panel was split about
50-50, with 48% indicating that home theater projects lead to more general
home automation efforts. Dealers such as Nicholson’s are trying to make this
expansion happen. Approximately 80% of dealers actively seek to expand home
theater jobs into broader home automation and/or control projects. They
report that in nearly one-third of these cases, work is expanded based on
their efforts.
“Remote controls used to be thrown in for free, not
really being considered as part of the audio or video system,” Nicholson
said. “Now we are selling systems from $500 to $10,000 whose sole purpose is
to control various components in the house including security and HVAC
[heating, ventilating and air conditioning] systems as well as the
audio/video components.”
Parks Associates’
Installing Dealer ePanel is comprised of principals from installing
dealerships across the U.S. who have agreed to participate in periodic
surveys focusing on the products they are supporting, those they’re not, and
the rationale behind their decisions. In addition to product-related
research, Parks Associates profiles participating dealers with the goal of
understanding how their business models are changing.
For information about Parks Associates’
Installing Dealer ePanel, visit
www.parksassociates.com, e-mail
sales@parksassociates.com, or
call 972-490-1113.
About Nicholson’s Hi-Fidelity Center, Inc.:
Nicholson’s Hi-Fidelity Center, Inc., dba Nicholson’s Hi-Fi, serves
Nashville and Middle Tennessee as well as parts of Western Kentucky. The
firm is one of the few in the U.S. authorized to install home theater
designs by the renowned First Impressions Theme Theaters of Miami, FL.
Nicholson’s differentiates itself from competitors based on its half-century
of industry experience and its design and installation expertise, focused on
producing the best quality sound technology permits. Alex Nicholson began
his professional life in San Francisco as a corporate attorney after
graduating from Stanford Law School. In the mid-1980s he changed careers by
joining the family business and recently earned an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt
University. He has continued to focus his energies on maintaining
Nicholson’s Hi-Fi as the preeminent source for quality residential theater
systems in Nashville. In three of the last four years, Nicholson’s has been
named as a finalist for the CEDIA Lifestyle Award.
For more information about Nicholson’s Hi-Fidelity
Center, Inc., contact Alex Nicholson at 615-327-4312 or visit their Web site
at www.nhfci.com.
About Parks Associates: Parks Associates is an
internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing
in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks
Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to
small start-ups through market reports, primary studies, consumer research,
custom research, workshops, executive conferences, and annual service
subscriptions.
The company's expertise includes new media, digital
entertainment and gaming, home networks, Internet and television services,
digital health, mobile applications and services, consumer electronics, and home
control systems and security.
Each year, Parks Associates hosts executive thought
leadership conferences CONNECTIONS™, with support from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®), and CONNECTIONS™ Europe. In addition, Parks
Associates produces the online publication Industry Insights in
conjunction with the CONNECTIONS™ Conference series.
http://www.parksassociates.com |
http://www.connectionsconference.com |
http://www.connectionseurope.com
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http://www.connectionsindustryinsights.com
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