Len Wallis a leader in the specialist AV market is restructuring in an effort to better engage with customers.
The Sydney based AV specialist is undertaking a major refit to better engage with his customers who spend up to a million dollars on AV and automation fitouts.
Len Wallis’ showroom at Sydney’s Lane Cove already has 10 sound-lounge/theatres, a virtual smart-house and an on-site service centre.
But in a time when bricks-and-mortar stores is in decline and facing economic uncertainty, why is Wallis developing his state of the art showroom even further?
The “substantial drop in price points of AV equipment” is driving traffic into his store, owner Len Wallis admits, but is also the result of “genuine increased interest in better quality by the consumer,” he says.
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Demonstrating the gear in the connected environment is also critical, says Wallis, as is a WiFi network.
Having an in-house wireless network is “absolute and we developed our system over time,” he says but “we’re pulling it out and have just installed a really stable network.”
“Its got to be done” he admits.
So what are the big in the AV business at the moment?
Security is a big issue for custom gear but from Len Wallis’ point of view, entertainment is the main one.
“The changes in Australia over six months are going to change everything as far as content provision goes ..the days of listening to music the way we used to are totally dead now.
“Entertainment is now about the sheer amount of content available and the ease of getting it as you can stream content straight to your system rather than messing around with iPods and downloads.”
This means content players of old may be in for a shock.
Traditional content providers including the likes of Pay TV giant Foxtel “is going to have to be very careful that a video version of Mogg suddenly appears on their doorstep and then they will have real problems.”
There are a few players working on delivery at the moment so, watch this space, he says.
The likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft are “perfectly positioned” to enter this market and Wallis reckons it’s where content is going to go.
“Foxtel is going to have to pick a side and partner up with someone,” if they are going to make it in the new content provision era of cloud, streaming and IPTV.
Quality of devices is also improving in general, with most now starting at 320Kbps instead of 128Kbps and there’s now an upgrade path available on audio files, but the sheer amount of content available is the big thing.
Quality of projectors has also jumped and customer feedback has been extremely positive, Wallis adds.
In the custom space, the AV guru says there is still traction in non-dedicated theatre systems which is going away from the general trend.
Sonos is still “enormous..it’s everywhere and people are still going to multiple boxes as its simply, cheaper and easier to handle.”
The issue of service provision is also on the horizon for Wallis but there’s an interesting twist on it.
“Some customers are looking to us as service companies to install and program devices they bought at somewhere cheaper like Bing Lee.
“They’re looking at us to do the service on it as they perceive someone else as cheaper.
“However, we’re not geared up as a service company of that nature just yet..but it’s certainly something we are going to look at”, he says.
So what about the TV market?
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Wallis cites Panasonic VT series 65″ Plasma TV which he says is “unbelievable..a stunning screen” models but availability is scant on the Australian market.
However, you “cannot get a Panasonic screen for love nor money in Oz at the moment,” he says.
This supply side issue is due to Pana’s local entity not ordering enough, despite the company saying otherwise.
“I would have sold 30-40 on orders [if the stock was there], which for us is a lot as we’re not a screen company. “
And is the demand for larger screens like 75″ or 80″ growing as prices fall and bigger OLED screens emerge?
“We don’t stock anything above 65″ in the shop, but we’re certainly looking at it,” Wallis says.
“We’re being very cautions of who were dealing with at the moment,” he tells ChannelNews.
“We’re selling screens but not making any money out of them in some cases,” resounding the battle cry on every retailers lips at present.
The old reliables of pricing and margin squeeze are still a big problem, and customers are still not sure about spending which is a “big issue,” Wallis says.
“But those customers who are spending are bringing their expectations down,” he notes.
