HARMAN Luxury Update

Dave Tovissi
Vice President and General Manager, HARMAN Luxury Audio

Luxury is a difficult term to define. It’s often like art, in the eye of the beholder. But luxury can certainly be defined as owning a rare commodity that provides great satisfaction to the owner and a commodity that said owner loves to show off to his/her pals. Pride of ownership is just one facet of what luxury represents.

Case in point, the new JBL Conceal series of invisible speakers. Our investment in this technology and our bringing to market a luxury audio experience that only JBL can provide – backed by our formidable engineering and design capabilities and one of the most recognized audio brands – will open up new selling and relationship opportunities for those dealers invested in the design-build community. And that’s because this is a custom installation product targeted directly at design-build influencers and homeowners who want it all – beauty and performance.

This month’s Dealer Profile showcases First Priority Audio based in south Florida, who has spent over 20 years catering to the design-build industry. I had the chance to speak with Joel Hernandez about how his company engages and educates the design industry. As a CEDIA Outreach Instructor, Joel has not only developed a skill set to engage with interior designers but also facilitates a course for CEDIA to teach others to do so, as well. I asked him about the increased relevance of invisible speakers and specifically about our Conceal products. “Invisible speakers remove friction with our design forward clients and have allowed us to get music into more areas of the home than we would have been able to with traditional in-ceiling speakers," Joel stated. His company has been leveraging the JBL Conceal Dealer Kit to educate his clients. We have made these kits available for all of our dealers to help open the eyes and ears of interior designers who for years have been limiting where we should be installing speakers.

The JBL Conceal series hits a sweet spot in any luxury system integration company – rock solid performance and the grandeur of state-of-the-art sound technology. It is an immersive experience, as well as a product and concept, which delivers a significant return on investment to homeowners over many years and also highlights the luxury that Conceal speakers embody.

We’ve already gained some great press on the new JBL Conceal series. Technology Designer Magazine, which is mailed directly to 15K+ qualified design-build professionals, has a feature on invisible speakers in their current issue. Please take a few minutes to read this important piece – custom installation and systems integration is growing significantly and separating ourselves in an ever-crowded marketplace with products like Conceal are great opportunities to gain market share.

To learn more about Conceal Speakers and how their many applications can add more revenue to your design projects, we encourage you to take the short e-learning module we have created and hosted on our industry-best HARMAN Luxury University.