Daniel J SaitJose Coelho, International Business Director at Origin Acoustics, continues his exclusive series for EI by examining the vital issue of heritage in the smart home sector.
AV and CI acquisitions happen often. Growth through acquisition, consolidation of brands into larger groups – it’s the story of our industry. Everyone talks about the brands and the price tags. Nobody talks about what actually makes those brands worth anything.
You can buy a product. You can buy a brand. You can buy a whole company. You cannot buy the three things that decide whether any of it works.
One: The Trust of the Channel
In this industry, channel trust is everything. Everything else is built on top of it. Years to earn. A moment to lose.
An installer doesn’t spec your product because of a datasheet. They spec it because they’ve installed it, lived with it and bet their reputation on it. That relationship doesn’t transfer with a purchase agreement. The dealer doesn’t suddenly trust the new owner because the letterhead changed.
I’ve seen it happen. A brand gets acquired, the team changes, the dealers get nervous and within two years the spec list shifts. Not because the product changed. Because the trust did.
Two: The Craft of Building the Experience
Maybe 30% of what we do is technology. The other 70% is engineering, delivery and interior design, right down to the joinery, plaster and paint.
A speaker isn’t a product. It’s an experience that lives inside someone’s home. The installer has to cut into a wall, route cable, manage the plasterer’s schedule, match the grille to the paint and make it all disappear. The product is a small part of that process. The craft is everything around it.
When a company gets acquired, the acquirer usually focuses on the product – the specs, the IP, the margin. They miss the craft. The way the bracket fits. The way the grille sits flush. The way the installer’s day gets easier because someone thought about them during the design, not just during the sales pitch.
Heritage means you’ve been thinking about the installer for 50 years. Not 50 months.
Three: The Culture
The tribe. The unwritten code. The way passionate people work to fulfil the mission they signed up for.
An acquisition is a cultural event before it’s a financial one. Most acquirers quietly destroy the very thing they paid for. They flatten diverse cultures into one house style and what was once a living, breathing brand becomes a catalogue entry.
The people who build, specify and work inside these brands – they’re the value. Not the product. The product is the output. The people are the engine.
When you buy a company, you don’t get the people. You get the option to keep them. And most acquirers don’t.
Why Heritage Matters in Smart Home
In the AV and CI channel, perception is reality. Heritage isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about proof.
A dealer looks at a brand and asks: Will this company be here in 10 years? Will they honour the warranty? Will they support me when something goes wrong? Will they still make parts for the system I’m installing today?
A brand that’s been around since 1976 has answered those questions every single year, with every product, every warranty claim, every dealer training session. That’s not a story. That’s a track record.
A brand that was acquired last quarter hasn’t answered anything yet. They’re still making promises. The heritage brands have already kept them.
So, to the people who build, specify or work inside these smart home brands: where does the value really sit? In the product? Or in the channel, the craft and the culture around it? I know where mine sits. It sits in the dealers who’ve been installing our speakers for decades. In the installers who trust the 222mm cutout because they’ve cut it a thousand times. In the culture of a company that was built to last, not built to sell.