Few things leave as lasting an impression as good service — in fact, probably the closest thing to it is bad service. As residential integration business owners and installers, you know the value of going the extra mile for your customers.
Fortunately, the manufacturers and dealers that serve this market are aware of that, too, and offer a number of extraordinary service programs that can help you enhance your business, train your employees, and save you money.
Each year we shine a spotlight on these programs with the Stellar Service Awards, which are here to not only celebrate the winners, but to increase awareness of what is available to you.
So please take a look at this year’s stellar stable of nominees and show your support for their support by voting here.
Voting closes on February 10. This is the perfect time of year to investigate these programs and see how they can enhance — or continue to enhance — your business.
DISTRIBUTOR PROGRAMS
Customer Service/General Communications
BlackWire Designs
BlackWire’s goal is to redefine the role of the distributor. The company doesn’t just sell products to its customers; it strives to be their partner, working with them to deliver the ultimate integrated systems for their clients. A key element in achieving this goal is delivering unrivalled customer support. The first way BlackWire does this is through providing a variety of online resources to help educate its customers and make their installations quicker and easier, whether it’s step-by-step instruction guides, articles, configuration examples, or a massive two-way driver library. The second way is through its technical support, an area in which the company really excels. Not only does BlackWire reply to phone calls and support tickets, but it also offers a built-in chat system on its website — a feature unique to the distributors. And while other distributors limit their support to normal business hours, BlackWire is available after hours as needed to accommodate customers that may be working on projects late at night or on the weekends.
http://www.blackwiredesigns.com
PowerHouse Alliance
PowerHouse Alliance distributor members are a great resource for dealers across the country. Dealers are supported in their installation efforts with system design, technical support, best installation practices, and full stock of the newest security, network, audio/video, home control, and accessory products from a variety of popular tier one brands. The PowerHouse Alliance provides dealers with convenient warehouse locations reaching over 850,000 square feet across 54 locations.
Dealers can leverage one-on-one customer service from PowerHouse distributor members by visiting one of the many convenient warehouse locations. Staff are available for support and expertise when selecting products, for best installation practices, system design, and technical support/troubleshooting. Knowledgeable on-site staff members are available daily to provide information on the newest products and technologies in the industry. Members are happy to provide product knowledge and regular communication about upcoming events, demos days, and training programs on top brands, as well as special deals. Convenience is priority, so distributor members make ordering easy for dealers through 24-hour will-call, same day will-call/delivery, and on-site delivery options. All PowerHouse Alliance members send out regular updates on the latest products, and weekly specials for dealers to take advantage of.
http://www.powerhousealliance.com/
Sales/Marketing Support
PowerHouse Alliance
The PowerHouse Alliance is a national consortium of distributors spanning the continental U.S., with regional members that are well established in their territories with tight knit relationships with all of their dealers and vendors.
PowerHouse Alliance members recognize the importance of Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory for dealers and integrators. Each of the 54 warehouse locations across the country include 2500–5000 square feet of self-shop space, where dealers can come in and pick up everything they need for same day or next day installations. For convenience, all PowerHouse Alliance members offer same day and next day delivery because time is money, so the distributor group prioritizes efficiency and convenience. There are always trained experts on hand to help dealers with product suggestions, system design, and any technical or customer service inquiries. All locations also offer refreshments, snacks, and sometimes even a weekly lunch to help keep customers fueled without requiring an extra stop in their day. In today’s fast-paced business, the PowerHouse Alliance helps dealers and integrators be more efficient by providing them with everything they need from a wide range of products from system design, to technical and marketing support.
PowerHouse Alliance dealers and integrators also rely on their distributor for ongoing education to ensure they are comfortable selling and installing the latest products and technologies from residential AV to networking, security, and commercial AV. Each month PowerHouse Alliance publishes its training, education, and events schedule that spans the continental US and is open to all dealers.
The PowerHouse Alliance and its members run an active and responsive social media community for promoting new products, upcoming events, trainings, and the latest news across the group, as well as responding to inbound questions and potential leads.
http://www.powerhousealliance.com/
Training Programs
PowerHouse Alliance
All 13 PowerHouse Alliance distributor members offer extensive training and event schedules to dealers all year long. Dealers benefit from expertise and support to assist with their busy installation schedules. Monthly trainings from PowerHouse Alliance distributor members include manufacturer demos, updates, and education sessions at dozens of convenient locations across the country. To date, the PowerHouse Alliance members collectively represent 850,000 square feet of warehouse space across 54 locations, a number that continues to grow year after year.
In 2019, PowerHouse Alliance distributor members collectively hosted more than 150 trainings and trade show events. These events included new product and technology trainings, regional trade shows, and special events to celebrate dealers and vendors. Trainings provide dealers with updates on home control, networking, audio/video, security, and other installation best practices for vendors including Sonos, TechLogix, Samsung, Lutron, Yamaha, Hikvision, Luxul, URC, and more. On top of helpful product trainings that dealers and technicians can access at warehouse locations across the country, members often host special events designed to bring trainings and manufacturing demos to dealers with the added fun of special deals, rewards, refreshments, and giveaways. Dealers stay updated on upcoming trainings and events through social media, the PowerHouse Alliance website, and newsletters from the PowerHouse Alliance member in their area. Dealers benefit from the expertise and support provided by the distributor members. Knowledgeable staff are always ready to help with technical support and system design. Ordering is made easy with 24-hour will-call, same day will-call, and on-site delivery options from most locations. The PowerHouse Alliance provides dealers with everything they need to stay educated on the latest products and technologies, to help them better serve their customers and ultimately increase revenue.
http://www.powerhousealliance.com/
Web Portal/Online Tools
BlackWire Designs
BlackWire’s exceptional customer support starts at its website, which stands out from the pack with its unrivalled ease of use. While navigating most distributors’ sites is a chore — even if integrators know the exact product they’re looking for — BlackWire’s offers a clean, simple tool that allows its customers to find their solution quickly and easily, from HDMI distribution to water leak detection — and just about everything in between. In addition, a convenient driver marketplace offers an extensive range of software for deep integration with the Control4 and URC platforms, including the ability to remotely manage drivers and their systems.
But the site really shines when integrators don’t know what they’re looking for. With its built-in chat system, the BlackWire team is there to assist in finding the perfect product. If they need technical support, the website features a built-in ticketing system as well. And the company will respond to those tickets after hours and on weekends. If the technical support team really needs to get hands-on with the problem, they can even log into an integrator’s computer remotely. Finally, for its customers who are hungry for knowledge about different technologies, BlackWire also maintains an extensive database of informative articles and guides.
http://www.blackwiredesigns.com
MANUFACTURER PROGRAMS
Customer Service/General Communications
Crestron True Blue Support Services
At Crestron, we’re committed to all of our customers, and our specialists are always ready to assist. On Crestron.com, customers have access to our live support teams where they can chat with a member of our award-winning True Blue Support team and get the answers they need immediately. A variety of resources including technical guides, spec sheets, and manuals, are also available 24/7 free of charge.
The Crestron Residential Webinar Series is a program designed to provide the best training to integrators to help them succeed. Crestron is more committed than ever to the residential market and each webinar includes guest speakers to speak on various topics. Each webinar gives integrators the opportunity to submit questions to the presenters to receive immediate feedback or have the question be answered in more detail in future webinars.
https://www.crestron.com/en-US/Support
D-Tools Customer Success and Support
D-Tools Customer Success and Support Professionals are continuously expanding efforts in providing D-Tools users with access to support and training resources geared to help both new and long-time customers become more successful with D-Tools software.
https://d-tools.com/support_main/
Lutron
Lutron’s first principle is to take care of the customer. Lutron’s passion for outstanding service is an extension of that renowned Lutron quality. Enhancements to our service platform have provided us with a 360-degree view of our customers so that we can deliver proactive support to meet and exceed all customer expectations. As we focus on making it easy to do business with Lutron, our customer-facing teams resolve issues and provide innovative ideas to support all our customers so that their businesses can grow and develop, too.
Exceeding customer expectations also includes Lutron’s ability to support our products, which our service team delivers on. This team is comprised of individuals who care deeply about each customer and who ensure that every contact with Lutron Customer Service is an enjoyable one. Every day in Lutron Customer Service is a wonderful new opportunity to share the benefits of our amazing products and the knowledge of our dedicated staff.
http://Lutron.com
Dealer Programs
Control4 Certified Showroom Program
The Control4 Certified Showroom program provides dealers worldwide with an opportunity to demonstrate their products and services to homeowners, architects, builders, and designers in their local area. The program was developed in response to homeowner demand to be able to “try before they buy” so that they are able to understand how the Control4 technology can fit into and convenience their daily lives.
Control4 Certified Showroom Dealers are supported in advancing their showroom space with product, like the new Neeo Remote for Control4, that will help them in “wow-ing” their potential customers. These Certified Showroom Dealers have met a series of elevated standards and receive training on smart home demos curated to show top features including smart lighting, multi-room audio and video, comfort, voice control, home networking, and security.
The Control4 Certified Showroom program has been paired with the #C4Yourself Day event, held twice a year, which invites customers to attend a local showroom to converse with a dealer, demo smart home products, and begin designing systems for their home or their customers’ homes. Control4 Certified Showroom Dealers also benefit from marketing and sales support, including showroom design, branding guides, discounted demonstration products, regional advertising and much more.
Having a Control4 Certified Showroom enhances dealers’ ability to sell smart home to potential customers. With a growing ecosystem of nearly 14,000 interoperable devices, many homeowners
learn that there’s more they can do with a smart home when they can experience it firsthand under the guidance of a professional within a Certified Showroom.
https://www.control4.com/local/all/
Crestron Technical Institute
Available only for Crestron Authorized Dealers and Partners, Creston Technical Institute (CTI) provides exclusive training for Crestron products at our worldwide and regional offices and through online classes. Cultivate your installation, system design, and programming skills and excel as a professional in our comprehensive training program.
The Crestron Residential Webinar Series provides a dealer with the tools needed to capture and design a customer’s lifestyle and environment. During this hands-on course, integrators can learn installation requirements and how to tailor residential system’s to their customer’s desires. If an integrator is unable to attend a webinar, they can access a recording to receive any information they may have missed.
https://www.crestron.com/Training-Events/Training
Sales/Marketing Support
Crestron Electronics, Inc.
Welcoming more than 18,000 visitors from around the globe since its opening in 2011, the Crestron Design Showroom in New York City was Crestron’s first exhibit space designed to accommodate homeowners, decision makers, influencers, design-build professionals, and technology professionals alike. The showroom provides an ideal setting for guests to immerse themselves in Crestron technology solutions and experience first-hand how it can enhance their lives at home. While design-build professionals create the spaces in which people live, Crestron designs the technology that makes them feel like home. The showroom demonstrates how by replicating a NYC luxury apartment. The Crestron Design Showroom is a great tool for our residential dealers to not only put their clients at ease with smart home technology, but to also see how life-changing it can be. Crestron’s commitment extends to three other showrooms located in Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
Our Sales Support Services (SSS) Department is comprised of a team of experienced solution engineers and administrators, dedicated to delivering world-class service to our customers. Our team provides assistance with all technical, pricing, system design, and quotation-related inquiries; perform comparative analysis for competitive projects and quotes; provide sales tools, information, application drawings, design/best-practices guides, CAD/Visio-Blocks, Revit/BIM Files, and architectural and CSI format specifications.
https://crestron.com/
Legrand | AV
Working with Legrand | AV means integrators can do one-stop shopping with a trusted manufacturer. Partnering with the top CI integrators in the country, Legrand | AV offers a single source of contact, on-site project support, and access to industry-leading design services like Luxul’s Customer Assurance Program (CAP).
CAP offers free certified wired and wireless network designs that are guaranteed to meet end users’ reliability and performance requirements. To participate in CAP, dealers simply register their projects at www.luxul.com/assurance, where they provide project details and requirements. Based on this input, Luxul engineers will deliver a complete custom network design, including both required and optional equipment, along with educational materials meant to inform end users about the importance of a solid network, remote and internet content management, and more. Dealers simply install the network based on the supplied design and complete it with a remote management platform. The support team is available to dealers requiring assistance configuring their certified networks, while any product experiencing a failure will be promptly replaced. If the wired or wireless network doesn’t perform as expected, Luxul provides any additional equipment to meet customers’ expectations at no additional cost.
Additionally, the Legrand | AV Sales and Marketing support team offers:
- All of the tools dealers need to master individual Legrand | AV brands and bring them together to transform smart homes. These include brochures, white papers, videos, e-books, guides, configurators, etc.
- Design services: Programming, commissioning, and providing superior field technical support across multiple Legrand | AV brands
- Field support and in-person training when a dealer enters a new product category
- Builder demand generation, with a specialized team creating specifications and pull-through for installation partners
- Expert technical support across all product areas
- Local support in every U.S. territory
Vanco International
Vanco International has a 60 plus-year legacy in the residential and commercial AV industry, engineering, manufacturing, and selling premium audio/video products and electronic accessories. Vanco’s knowledgeable team of support representatives and technology experts deliver stand-out sales and marketing support to distributors and dealers. The technology experts and support staff at Vanco International offer integrators and dealers a combination of technical support, as well as assistance with orders, and expert advice on system design. Vanco’s support staff not only offer remote support, but they are also available on-site during vendor events including tradeshows, roadshows, counter days, and dealer appreciation events.
The team leads national training webinars that give distributors the continuous education they need to confidently recommend and install all Vanco, Evolution, Beale Street Audio, and PulseAudio products. The Vanco team is also happy to lead tailored training webinars on a number of topics by request from dealers and distributors in order to improve their day-to-day business.
Marketing support from Vanco International includes custom end-cap programs, custom distributor signage, giveaway items, POP displays, custom event and promotional flyers, and product demo displays for in-store use. To assist vendors as they expand their marketing efforts, Vanco provides product images, catalogs, sales sheets, and other product info packs to assist with project bids and presentations. Vanco is committed to providing products of the highest quality. One hundred percent of active products are tested at Vanco International headquarters in Illinois. A second round of testing ensures all products are functioning up-to-spec before shipping to distributors.
Vanco is dedicated to helping dealers produce high-quality customer experiences across home theater, premium audio, and commercial installations. Support representatives can be reached five days per week via phone or the live chat feature on the Vanco website. For 24-hour support, dealers can email support staff.
https://d-tools.com/support_main/
Click here to place your vote!
Shipping/Freight Policies
Crestron Electronics, Inc.
Crestron understands that success is based on a total commitment to delivering the highest quality product for our customers. It is this dedication to excellence that has set us apart as a leading product manufacturer for more than four decades. We’ve always taken quality control seriously, and it shows. Year after year, Crestron products consistently earn the reputation as the most reliable in our industry. But we’re still not satisfied.
Crestron’s manufacturing and shipping moved to a brand-new home in 2019. Our 90,000 square-foot facility in Orangeburg, NY, also features office space and a stunning employee cafe. The new facility exemplifies Crestron’s commitment to continuous evolution and growth. By relocating 16 departments and housing them under one roof, our teams can better work in synergy to design, build, test, package, and ship products faster and more efficiently than ever before.
https://crestron.com/
Vanco International
Vanco International offers free freight policies that are among the most competitive in the AV industry. When installers have immediate product needs, Vanco International is happy to offer expedited shipping on any of their 3000+ product SKUs. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of errors or delays in the shipping process, Vanco has implemented an innovative, state-of-the-art tracking process that improves efficiency and gives their customers peace of mind. Customers are given live shipping updates on all orders via Vanco’s thorough tracking system to ensure customer satisfaction. Vanco has recently implemented a new shipping system where orders are manually screened, and pickers scan each product to compare serialized products against the corresponding purchase order numbers to ensure accuracy and to eliminate any possibility that distributors may be selling to re-sellers who violate MAP pricing. Vanco values the rights of our distributors and protects them by not selling to any end users.
https://www.vanco1.com/
Training Programs
Crestron Technical Institute
Crestron is committed to educating and empowering industry professionals with our world-class online training program. Our training catalog is constantly evolving to match the ease of use of our growing product portfolio, ensuring technology professionals across the world are prepared for anything while out in the field. All of our online courses are available 24/7, in several different languages, allowing students to focus on targeted curriculums at their own pace.
Crestron Technical Institute (CTI) has created a wide range of courses and learning tracks specific to our customers’ areas of interest, including design, integration, networking, and programming. Our instructor-led courses provide students the foundation for earning a Crestron Certification, confirming their knowledge of Crestron software and solutions. For Crestron to succeed, we need our dealers to succeed. Throughout each course track, each student’s knowledge, skills, and performance will be put to the test.
Annually, Crestron Masters is the premier event for the AV industry’s top programmers. The Masters conference enables Crestron Certified Programmers, system designers, and sales engineers to stay on top of the latest Crestron technology and industry best practices through a wide array of training classes. In addition to learning tracks and courses, the Crestron Masters event includes the Partner Pavilion, where participants have the opportunity to network with experts from industry-leading technology partners sponsoring the event.
https://www.crestron.com/Training-Events/Training
D-Tools Professional Services Group
D-Tools’ Professional Services Group offers hands-on consultation, training, and implementation support to help overall success with the software. This team’s primary goal is ensuring that all aspects of training and implementation are consistent and effective.
https://d-tools.com/professional_services_packagespackages/
Just Add Power
The Just Add Power Training Days Program combines the skills of J+P’s experienced staff with a relaxed, bespoke, and integrator-centered experience. Led by education director and engineering & support team manager Eric Martin, the three-day training sessions stays true to the evolutionary product philosophy of the company — covering the entire chain of use including product tutorials, system design, installation scenarios, and troubleshooting. The course allows integrators (and their families) to enjoy a beautiful Florida beachside setting as well as giving them access to the expert staff at all levels of the company, including meeting with the president, Ed Qualls. Dinners with the team lets attendees witness first-hand the culture of J+P, valuing a deep product knowledge, teamwork, collaboration, and making the job fun.
In addition, J+P is now offering more training areas for its manufacturing partners. Recently, the company relocated its headquarters to a new 40,000-square-foot building in Seminole, FL. Unofficially nicknamed the TARDIS, the new facility is significantly larger than the company’s previous location. Taking advantage of the extra room, J+P has outfitted the facility with three training spaces, including a 24-seat classroom, a more intimate 12-seat classroom, and a large classroom/multi-purpose space that holds about 150 people. These spaces are available for free to any of the company’s manufacturing partners that want to use them.
http://justaddpower.com
Legrand | AV
One of the fundamentals differentiating Legrand | AV from the competition is its focus on education and training across all of its residential brands: Chief, Da-Lite, Luxul, QMotion, Nuvo, Middle Atlantic, On-Q, SANUS, and Vantage. Not only does the company have a hands-on sales team for whom training is part of the job, but it also has a dedicated training team to educate dealers about individual product brands and how different brands complement each other. Legrand | AV offers in-person trainings, webinars, online training, and certification events, while the Legrand | AV Sales App provides dealers with all the brands in one place to use as both a training and sales tool.
As an example, networking is an ever-evolving field, and Luxul in particular is dedicated to keeping its distribution partners and dealers up to date on the very latest technologies and practices. Training sessions are hosted monthly from the company’s corporate office, while scheduled onsite trainings are held at Luxul’s distributors nationwide. Offering dealers various ways to expand their IP networking knowledge and master the company’s products, Luxul aims to arm them with all the tools they need to design complete solutions that help win new business. From CEDIA-accredited educational sessions to webinars and industry events, Luxul is committed to education. Dealers continuously learn about networking and IP principles; wireless basics with proper access point deployment, including site surveys; remote monitoring and management services; internet filtering and scheduling by device; and more. Dealers also receive training on best practices for switches and PoE, deploying and troubleshooting networks, and solving other common issues. The quarterly webinar series, like “Luxul City Limits” and “Burning LAN,” include sessions inspired by legendary rock songs that are designed to help Luxul’s dealer fan base expand its IP networking knowledge and master the company’s products.
http://www.legrandav.com
Lutron
Lutron Electronics provides intensive, hands-on courses for our professionals — including dealers, contractors, specifiers, lighting designers, and more — to learn how to design, commission, and troubleshoot Lutron solutions. In addition to technical training programs, Lutron provides sales and business education to ensure our customers receive a high level of service from our professionals. Lutron harnesses the power of online, blended, and in-person courses to achieve a total learning solution that is reinforced over the course of a professional’s relationship with Lutron. In addition, each year Lutron hosts a National Residential Opportunities tour to showcase new products and technologies to our professionals as well as highlight updates to programs and services.
As part of Lutron’s continuous training improvement goals, this year we completely redesigned the Shade Essential training program to include rich multimedia content in a highly interactive format. The video content adds a personal touch to the training and features actual devices in the online instruction.
http://Lutron.com
RTI Training Program: RTIXCEL
The RTI RTIXCEL training program offers a range of options designed to give custom installers the resources needed to master Integration Designer APEX and gain a deeper knowledge of the technologies they use every day. RTIXCEL Online, RTI’s state-of-the-art learning management system, delivers a comprehensive curriculum, allowing dealers to learn effectively at their own pace. Online learning complements other RTIXCEL training programs, including TechTalk webinars, onsite training held around the world, and the RTIXCEL Experience, a three-day, hands-on training hosted at RTI headquarters in Minnesota. These are CEDIA and AVIXA accredited courses.
RTIXCEL Online’s curriculum teaches key industry concepts and specific knowledge for installing RTI systems. Covering a range of topics from system design to programming, RTIXCEL Online features structured courses, comprised of “bite-sized” modules. The curriculum is bolstered by additional resources, including virtual site walkthroughs, interactive installation guides, 3D product models, and more.
RTIXCEL training programs include TechTalk webinars that allow dealers to attend live, interactive trainings from the comfort of their home or office. These regularly scheduled, interactive webinars take an in-depth view at important topics — applications, system design best practices, the RTiQ Intelligent Monitoring System, and more.
RTIXCEL Live! is a series of instructor-driven, on-site training seminars designed to provide dealers with experience in the RTI ecosystem and the Integration Designer APEX programming environment. Held in convenient partner locations around the globe, these single-day training events make it easy for dealers to expand their RTI knowledge, increase their proficiency, and reap the rewards of faster installations and happier clients.
RTIXCEL Experience is a three-day certification event hosted at the RTI headquarters. This immersive program provides a full curriculum, using a combination of classroom learning and hands-on training that takes attendees through the process of programming a complex automation system using actual components.
http://www.rticorp.com
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Warranty/Return Policy/Tech Support
Crestron True Blue Support Services
Crestron provides advance replacement. Crestron offers a lifetime warranty for our residential lighting products. Crestron’s warranty policy extends to all of our other solutions as well, offering a standard three-year warranty.
Crestron has built a world-renowned support team, with the goal of providing the most complete and dedicated technical assistance in the industry. Online support articles and live help are a click or call away. The name “True Blue Support” clearly states our mission of putting our customers first while assuring their continued success deploying Crestron products for their clients.
Crestron offers Customer Support, Technical Support, and an Advanced Technical Support Group (ATSG). Our solutions engineers are standing by to assist you in planning and designing an integrated Crestron solution. We stand behind and validate our designs, so you know your system will work as intended.
For any issues with a Crestron product or order, our Customer and Technical Support work remotely to help our dealers and end users solve any problem. With support offered 24/7 and free of charge, Crestron will go as far as replicating the system that exists in your home so that a staff member can interact with it directly from a remote location to solve the problem. For any problem that can’t be resolved remotely, ATSG is always ready and we will put a member on the next flight out. It does not matter if the problem is big or small or how far the ATSG staff member must travel. This in-person support is also offered completely free of charge. Crestron will not leave the customer’s side until the problem is resolved and the customer is happy.
https://www.crestron.com/en-US/Support
Just Add Power
Just Add Power (J+P) offers a five-year warranty for all HDMI over IP transmitters and receivers in the company’s 2GΩ/3G and 3G families. The warranty covers parts and replacements for any 2GΩ/3G and 3G solution sold on or after March 1, 2019.
The 3G platform started shipping in September 2015. After analyzing its performance and durability in the field over the last four years, J+P was pleased to see practically zero failures after a system had been properly installed and running for an extended period. Given this real-world result, the company decided it made sense to increase its warranty to five years. While installers will almost certainly have no occasion to take advantage of the extended warranty, it provides them and their customers with peace of mind for years to come knowing they are covered in the unlikely event of a component failure.
http://justaddpower.com
Legrand | AV Residential – Luxul
Luxul’s solutions are backed by a three-year limited warranty, which is among the best in the industry, in addition to free lifetime tech support. An invaluable resource for issues in the field, Luxul’s techs are available via chat, email, and phone to assist with configuration and troubleshooting. Luxul values integrators’ time and that’s why tech support managers try to keep their hold time to under two minutes. The company’s warranty policy, customer service practices, and tech support provide significant value-adds for integrators when selecting a networking solution. To protect dealer margins, Luxul products are not available online; they are only sold through authorized distributors.
http://www.legrandav.com
RTI
RTI offers robust training to its dealers through its RTIXCEL training program. For RTI it’s not just about developing world-class control and automation solutions, but also delivering state-of-the-art service and support to its distribution and dealer partners.
As part of a renewed focus on service and support, RTI added a Dealer Experience team, which is integral to creating the ultimate experience for customers. The team includes a director of training with a focus on expanding the training curriculum with in-person and self-paced online courses using new knowledge-based assets and learning management systems. Additionally, RTI’s Dealer Experience team continues to grow with senior design and programming consultants around the world. They are responsible for pre-sale and dealer support, in addition to individual training and systems design consultation services. The goal is to offer dealers the best possible support and tools to make their working relationship with RTI as positive as possible.
In addition, demonstrating RTI’s commitment to product quality, reliability, and support, the company offers a three-year warranty on its portfolio of control and AV solutions, including wired and wireless controllers, processors, AV distribution systems, amplifiers, and accessories. In addition to demonstrating RTI’s rock-solid confidence in its products, it also inspires end-user confidence and provides another great selling point for dealers. To ensure its products are only sold and installed by RTI dealers, the warranty does not apply to products purchased from unauthorized sellers or internet sites.
http://www.rticorp.com
Vanco International
Vanco International is committed to being a helpful resource for the AV dealer and distributor communities in the home theater, premium audio, and commercial installation communities. In order to fulfill this commitment, the Vanco team offers stellar technical support via phone, a live chat feature on their website, and 24/7 email support.
A variety of training resources can be found on the Vanco website. These resources include training videos that breakdown the features of popular product features such as HDMI Distribution, Vanco’s patented Sonic Vortex technology, HDBaseT, etc. The training videos are led by Vanco’s highly experienced director of training and product knowledge. Videos feature products across Vanco’s unique brands, including Evolution, PulseAudio, and Beale Street Audio. Dealers and distributors can easily access information about products across all of Vanco’s brands by exploring the detailed product descriptions and product manuals that are available for download right off of the Vanco International website.
After over 60 years in the AV industry, Vanco continues to engineer, manufacture, and sell the top-tier audio/video products and electronic accessories that are 100 percent QC tested in Vanco International’s U.S. headquarters. The Vanco team works directly with dealers and distributors to provide flexible warranty and return policies, including a lifetime warranty on all Vanco cables.
https://www.vanco1.com/
Web Portal/Online Tools
Crestron.com
The new and improved Crestron.com allows dealers to create multiple project lists, save them in their personal library, and revisit them later. This new feature helps streamline the proposal process by allowing dealers to share their lists directly with our sales team and prepare official proposals from one location. Our website also features a support center available 24/7, that houses all of the documents associated with our products, contact information, and more. At Crestron.com, users can access brochures, technical resources, marketing resources, and guides and manuals.
https://crestron.com/
Legrand | AV
Legrand | AV Residential offers a variety of tools across its residential brands designed to save integrators time and help them deliver the most optimal design and solution to their customers. Among the most widely use are:
- Chief/SANUS — Mountfinder
- Da-Lite — Screen Designer
- Middle Atlantic — Online Configurator Design Tool
- SANUS — HeightFinder
MountFinder allows integrators to select the most compatible Chief and SANUS brand TV or projector mount for the job. Dealers simply type in the manufacturer and model number or select from a drop-down menu. An exclusive database of 30,000+ TVs ensures accurate results every time.
Da-Lite Screen Designer helps customize Da-Lite projection screens for every installation, step-by-step. Screen Designer also includes a dimension converter and aspect and foot lambert calculators to ensure a precise result.
The Middle Atlantic Online Design Configurator allows integrators to quickly and efficiently select the right products and accessories for any system. Built-in intelligence ensures that only the components that will fit can be selected and makes smart recommendations for ensuring reliable systems.
The SANUS HeightFinder allows integrators and end users to determine where to place the TV mount and where to drill holes for installation. The tool generates the perfect mount placement based off of the TV model, brand, size, TV model number, the SANUS mount, and mounting pattern.
Furthermore, The Legrand Residential AV Sales App places marketing and sales from all nine residential AV brands in one convenient spot. Dealers get quick access to product features, technical specifications, installation instructions, trainings, selection guide brochures, catalogs, and more. Available on iPhone or iPad, dealers can easily search and share a single file or group of files via email, and can present from the app by streaming a live feed onto anyone’s desktop or tablet.
http://www.legrandav.com
