by Bob Archer | Jun 12, 2026 | Blog, D-Tools, KMB Communications
Maybe you could say we’re in the calm before the storm with a good portion of the technology integration market packing its bags to spend a week in Las Vegas for InfoComm 2026.
InfoComm should generate a lot of product announcements and other news before the market begins to gear up for the CEDIA Expo to end the summer in Denver this upcoming September. For the time being, however, the home audio market continues to produce news, and if you are an Apple fan, the Worldwide Developer’s Conference delivered some news.
With that as the backdrop for this week’s KMB Comm Tech Week in Review, we will look at items from Apple, Shure and Zoom, Denon, SVS, Spotify, and rock’s new star Anika Nilles. These news items come from LinkedIn, AVNirvana.com, eCoustics, AVNation, and YouTube.
KMB Comm Home Technology Week in Review
The first item in our weekly look back comes from AVNirvana. The website reports that SVS has officially introduced auto EQ (equalization) for its RIEvolution Series of subwoofers.
AVNirvana says in the post the feature is available in the SVS Subwoofer Control App, and through the option, users can fine-tune bass performance in home spaces without manual tuning or specialty calibration tools.
With the home audio market thriving through the renewed interest in physical media, eCoustics’ review of the Denon DP-500BT turntable comes at a perfect time.
According to the story, the DP-500BT is a best-of-both-worlds solution. The belt-driven, semi-automatic turntable is easy to setup; it produces high levels of sound quality given its price point, and it offers Bluetooth for modern listening flexibility.
MSRP for the Denon DP-500BT is $899.
Wrapping up the KMB Comm tour of home audio news this week is a post from LinkedIn that cites a Bloomberg story.
LinkedIn via Bloomberg says that Spotify is looking to expand the way it supports music fans. The story states that Spotify is investigating whether to offer live concert videos and early ticket access to shows.
Bloomberg and LinkedIn point out that Spotify wants leverage live events to diversify its revenues, while looking to challenge competitors such as YouTube for live show users.
Commercial AV and Global News
Shifting gears from the residential technology integration market and into the commercial AV industry, comes a story from AVNation.
The website posted a story on Shure and Zoom expanding their partnership with new IntelliMix Room Kits and IntelliMix Foundation System for Zoom Rooms solutions.
AVNation says the IntelliMix Foundation System is designed for settings such as lecture halls, boardrooms and hybrid classrooms. The preconfigured IntelliMix Room Kits, the story continues, were developed to simplify installation in meeting spaces of all sizes.
The story notes the systems are also designed to support the growing presence of human and AI technologies during conference calls.
Returning to the LinkedIn website, the social media service picked up another story from Bloomberg, this time focusing on Apple.
The post says that with Apple preparing to show its AI strategy at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, the company’s actions will be a test for Apple’s new leadership and updated Siri digital assistant.
LinkedIn and Bloomberg add that given how well Apple has performed on Wall Street and if it can fix its AI issues, its stock could perform even better.
Circling back to live music to close the KMB Comm Tech Week in Review out, the legendary band Rush, kicked off its “50-Something” tour on June 7 in Los Angeles with their new drummer Anika Nilles.
Nilles is filling big shoes taking the place of one of rock music’s greatest drummers—Neil Peart who passed back in 2020—but based on the positive reactions she has received from fans, rock music has a new star.
The tour which will have the hall-of-fame band on the road until 2027 includes American stops in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Other cities the band will hit include its hometown of Toronto, as well as Montreal, and international locations including Rio De Janeiro, Paris, Cologne, London, Milan, and Oslo.
To learn more about Anika Nilles, check out this recently released interview with the German drummer from the music educator Rick Beato that covers her background and current touring drumkit.
For KMB Communications client news, click this link, which includes brand new news from the top dealer software company D-Tools.
by Bob Archer | Jun 11, 2026 | D-Tools, News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Download image here
D‑Tools Cloud Debuts Inventory Asset Management with
Per-Unit Asset Tracking
New capabilities give every physical asset its own digital identity, helping integrators improve inventory control, project tracking, installation workflows, and service management.
RENO, Nevada — June 11, 2026 — D‑Tools, Inc., the Integration Business Platform for the technology integration industry, today announced the launch of Inventory Asset Management in D‑Tools Cloud. This new feature set gives integrators complete visibility into individual physical assets throughout the project lifecycle, from receiving and warehouse management through installation and ongoing service.
Inventory Asset Management moves D‑Tools Cloud from count‑based stock management to true per‑unit asset tracking, giving every physical item its own digital identity, including serial number, warehouse location, project assignment, actual unit cost, firmware version, MAC and IP addresses, and a complete asset history.
Where traditional inventory systems aggregate items into product totals, D‑Tools Cloud now tracks the exact unit. The feature is built for AV professionals who need to know exactly which unit is on which shelf, allocated to which room, installed at which customer’s home, and still under warranty on which P.O., unifying four previously fragmented workflows (warehouse intake, project allocation, field installation, and post‑install service) under a single per‑asset data model.
“Our customers have been asking for better visibility into the physical assets moving through their business,” says G Paul Hess, CEO of D-Tools. “Inventory Asset Management gives integrators the ability to track individual devices throughout their entire lifecycle inside the same D-Tools Cloud platform they already use every day. This improves accountability, simplifies service workflows, strengthens inventory control, and helps integrators make better operational decisions.”
Key Features
- Unit‑level asset tracking — Track every physical item individually with its own unique ID, serial number, warehouse location, project assignment, scheduled date, received date, unit cost, firmware version, MAC and IP fields, and full asset history.
- QR labels and serial number linking — Generate QR labels directly from D-Tools Cloud and associate assets with manufacturer serial numbers for accurate physical-to-digital tracking. Custom label fields, batch printing, and print history simplify asset management at scale.
- Barcode‑driven workflows — Use barcode scanning to receive inventory against purchase orders, move equipment between warehouse locations, allocate devices to projects, and quickly identify installed assets. Batch workflows allow teams to process multiple assets in seconds.
- True per‑unit cost capture — Capture actual cost at the time inventory is received, providing more accurate job costing, margin analysis, warranty tracking, and reporting throughout the asset lifecycle.
- Unit‑specific project allocation — Assign specific devices to individual rooms, systems, and customer locations instead of simply allocating quantities. Service teams can quickly identify the exact unit installed at a customer site.
- Complete asset audit trail — Every asset change is logged, including who made the change, when it occurred, and what information was updated. Immutable tracking identifiers preserve the full history of each asset over time.
- Asset-level notes and service history — Store detailed installation notes, firmware updates, repair history, calibration information, and customer-specific details directly within each asset record, giving technicians immediate access to important service information.
- Bulk asset management — Edit, move, allocate, and reprint labels for multiple assets simultaneously through streamlined grid-based workflows designed to improve warehouse efficiency.
Business Benefits for Integrators
Inventory Asset Management helps integration firms improve operational efficiency, reduce costly errors, and strengthen long-term service capabilities across the business:
- Faster warranty and RMA resolution — the exact unit, P.O., and install date are one click away.
- Precise service history — every device gets its own repair, firmware, calibration, and maintenance record, so service calls dispatch with the actual history of the unit on the wall.
- Accurate job costing — true per‑unit cost capture replaces catalog averages with the actual cost paid for each asset, improving COGS and margin tracking.
- Faster warehouse operations — barcode workflows compress receiving, allocation, and warehouse moves from minutes to seconds per item.
- Compliance and chain‑of‑custody — a complete audit trail satisfies regulatory, insurance, and audit requirements without bolting on a second system.
- Loss prevention and accountability — serialized tracking makes theft, swaps, and ghost inventory harder to hide, and integrators always know who has what.
- Smarter forecasting and upsell — visibility into installed components surface bad batches, high‑failure units, and future upgrade opportunities based on new product introductions.
Built for the Modern Integration Workflow
Inventory Asset Management extends the operational capabilities of D-Tools Cloud beyond quoting and project management into full asset lifecycle tracking.
The feature set is particularly valuable for integration firms managing:
- Warranty and RMA workflows by serial number
- Large-scale warehouse operations
- Service calls that need to identify the exact unit installed
- Compliance, audit, or chain‑of‑custody requirements
- Detailed project costing and profitability analysis
- Long-term customer asset management
Availability
Inventory Asset Management is now available in D-Tools Cloud. The feature entered beta with the May 14, 2026 release and is currently rolling out for general availability. QR labels launch with PDF output support, with direct Brother and Zebra printer integrations planned for future releases.
About D‑Tools, Inc.
D-Tools, Inc. is the Integration Business Platform for the technology integration industry. Its award-winning System Integrator (SI) and D-Tools Cloud solutions support sales, design, project management, and service operations for thousands of companies across 90-plus countries. For more than 27 years, D-Tools has helped integrators build more efficient, more profitable businesses. Follow D-Tools on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Media Contacts
Tim Bigoness, D‑Tools — (925) 270‑4102 — timb@d‑tools.com
Katye McGregor Bennett, KMB Communications — (406) 446‑1283 — katye@kmbcomm.com
All products, product names, trademarks, and registrations mentioned are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
by Bob Archer | Jun 8, 2026 | Blog
It’s one thing to see sales data from sources such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), but if anyone had any question about the revival of stereo, they need to attend events like AV Therapy’s seasonal marketing promotions.
Each year, the N.H.-based specialty retailer/custom integrator AV Therapy holds spring and fall marketing events to bring together local music fans while showcasing its products and services.
Kicking off its 2026 festivities, the technology integration company held its spring marketing event, shifting gears to a certain extent. For the spring event, John Rein, principal partner of AV Therapy, held an event that not only appealed to traditional audiophiles and music fans, but an event to reflect the latest trends in home AV.
“At AXPONA I saw a lot more young couples and single females, which is a demographic I never thought we would ever reach,” says Rein.
“We see turntables everywhere. I don’t see all-analog everywhere, we have people streaming, and high-end is exploding. High-end is taking over our business. I keep bringing in more expensive components to meet the demand. People with money are looking for more ways to spend money.”
AV Therapy Remains Loyal to Core Customers
With its location in Southern New Hampshire, roughly 50 miles north of Boston, Rein and the staff at AV Therapy know their clientele are primarily looking for high levels of performance and value. So, while increasingly catering to more of the luxury, high-end side of the home AV market, the integrator has not forgotten its long-time clientele.
“We didn’t go super high-end for this show,” comments Rein.
“We are doing a lot of mid-fi for this show. For this event we are showing brands like SVS and Advance Paris.”
Another trend beyond the increase in high-end product sales AV Therapy is experiencing, Rein points out is that Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) are returning to the hobby of music listening. Stepping up and rediscovering their love of music, he says these consumers are purchasing products from manufacturers like Linn and Luxman.
Circling back to some of the products and companies on display during the Spring 2026 event, Nick Brown, vice president of marketing for SVS, was on hand demonstrating the company’s Ultra Evolution Titan loudspeakers and the SB-3000 R/Evolution Subwoofer.
Using components from Luxman and Linn to round out the demo system, Brown explained the SVS product features and he answered questions from event attendees.
Following a similar approach as Brown, Joe Yerardi, director of strategic accounts for Advance Paris, demonstrated products like the A10 Classic Integrated Amplifier and the NOVA A-i190 Integrated Amplifier.
Reiterating the point on the revival of home audio, Rein emphasized the reception by AV Therapy clients for the spring event has been overwhelming with the event quickly filling its attendance quota.
“The first day we sent out the invitations, more than 140 people had responded,” adds Rein.
The latest episode of the AV Trade Talk Podcast focuses on the topic of stereo and the growing trend of analog rooms in the design community. To check out the discussion with Paul Bochner from AHT New York Metro and Joseph Cali from Gryphon Audio LA, click here.
by Bob Archer | Jun 5, 2026 | Blog, KMB Communications
Unlike the past few weeks, the first week of June 2026 was filled with noteworthy items worth coverage in KMB Comm’s weekly tech industry recap.
Included in the barrage of news from this week’s media cycle, we will shamelessly self-promote ourselves for a moment and point out that KMB started the week out with a blog that provides some helpful information on AVIXA’s move into the domestic residential technology event space.
Looking at this week’s news and the residential technology market, the KMB Comm technology review has items from The Listening Chair and Future Audiophile.
Expanding our coverage to a national level, Connected Design, LinkedIn, and Yahoo also had coverage of the global brands Samsung and Apple. Wrapping up our look at the week’s news will conclude with how the latest “Star Wars” movie is performing at the box office.
KMB Comm is Enthralled with the State of Home Audio
Stereo or 2-channel audio is back, and the home technology integration market is in a good position to offer homeowners a range of solutions that spans everything from entry level turntables to exotic audiophile loudspeakers.
With stereo’s revival in full swing let’s look back for a moment with The Listening Chair with its retro audio column. In a column written by the Md.-based dealer Just Audio, the website revisits the Onkyo M-510 amplifier.
In the column Just Audio says, the M-510 is, “a prime example of a vintage Japanese ‘monster’ component [that] is so legendary that it is often spoken about in the same breath as classic amps from high-end brands like Krell, Mark Levinson, and Accuphase.”
Just Audio also points out was sold between the years of 1984 to 1992 for $3,800 at launch, which is equivalent to about $10,000 today.
Staying in home audio, The Future Audiophile has an opinion column that focuses on the hotly debated topic of taking your time when making thoughtful decisions related to home audio.
The author, Jerry Del Colliano, offers some reasonable advice to anyone thinking about getting into the audiophile hobby or maybe reinvesting into an older system. He says first to take your time and limit the variables with any change to your home audio system. He says that each new upgrade could be impactful to the performance of a system. He continues by noting that if you have a component on loan from a dealer to take your time in evaluating the product and the changes in your system.
Del Colliano also underscores that price doesn’t always equate into performance, so he says don’t be swayed into a decision based on the price of a component.
The Week in National Technology News
The first global technology market item in this week’s KMB Comm Tech Week in Review comes from Connected Design.
In the story, Connected Design reports that less than a year after moving into a facility in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., the company is interested in moving its U.S. headquarters to Plano, Texas.
The story adds that currently there are about 1,000 employees in the N.J. location and most of that staff will be reassigned to the new location in Texas.
The next two stories come from LinkedIn.
The first LinkedIn story covers the release of the new Microsoft quantum chip that was developed with AI.
LinkedIn states the new Majorana 2 is said to offer higher levels of performance, including a 1,000-fold improvement in reliability.
Staying on the LinkedIn website, Apple is preparing to compete against Meta by release its version of smart glasses.
Picking up a report form Bloomberg, the LinkedIn post says that Apple plans to release the glasses in late 2027 with the goal of capturing a piece of the $200 billion eyewear market. The only issue the story continues, is that any delay could provide Meta the opportunity to larger foothold in the category.
Closing out the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review is some bad news for fans of Grogu.
Yahoo posted a story on the massive drop at the box office Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu” experienced this past weekend. According to Yahoo, the film’s box-office revenues dropped nearly 70% from its $81.6 million opening weekend to $25 million in its second weekend.
The story goes on to point out that going forward competition at the box office will only increase to make it more difficult for Disney with the movie to match previous levels of box office success like past titles from the movie franchise.
That competition by-the-way includes “Masters of the Universe,” “Disclosure Day,” and “Supergirl.”
For more content from KMB Communications, check out this blog on the innovative WOW!house 2026 exhibit in London. Included in the blog is a link for a podcast Katye McGregor Bennett did with Andrea Harvey that provides more detail on this exhibit’s combination of design and technology.
by Bob Archer | Jun 4, 2026 | Blog, KMB Communications
Design friends, AV friends, and everyone living somewhere in the wonderfully messy middle—WOW!house 2026 is officially on our radar, and it should be on yours, too.
Opening this week at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, WOW!house brings together extraordinary interiors, exceptional design talent, and full-sized rooms that show what happens when creativity, craft, collaboration, and vision are allowed to run wild—in the best possible way.
What has us especially excited? Technology is part of the story.
The Nucleus Immersive Room by Russell Sage Studio is a beautiful example of how expertly specified and thoughtfully integrated technology can enhance the way a space feels, functions, supports comfort, and creates a more immersive, intuitive experience. Not as an afterthought. Not as “the tech stuff.” As part of the design itself. Imagine that.
WOW!house Brings the Biggest Names in the Design Community Together
At KMB Communications, this is the kind of alignment we’ve been championing for years: A thoughtful way of bringing integrators, designers, architects, brands, media, and clients into more meaningful conversations earlier, more often, and with mutual respect for what each discipline brings to the home.
We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we do keep a close eye on where the important conversations are happening. And this is one of them.
The integration channel belongs in design-led rooms like these. The design community benefits when technology is represented well. And the best outcomes happen when both communities are invited to the same table—preferably before the walls are closed and someone says, “Wait… where are you putting that keypad?”
Bravo to WOW!house, Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, Russell Sage Studio, and integrators like Nucleus for showing what’s possible when technology and design are treated as partners in the experience.
The exhibit runs from June 2 to July 2, 2026, and exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information and tickets visit: WOW!house 2026: https://www.dcch.co.uk/wowhouse/
To learn more about WOW!house, check out the latest Connecting Tech + Design Podcast hosted by KMB Communications‘ Katye McGregor Bennett. In this episode, Andrea Harvey, director of Design and Build Outreach for CEDIA, discusses the role of technology in creating immersive design experiences. The new episode of the Connecting Tech + Design, is available here.
