Michael de Nigris, founding member and former CEO of Autonomic, acquires the music streaming and multiroom audio system maker from SnapAV. The financial details of the deal are not available.

Post-acquisition Autonomic will run as an independent company, with de Nigris as CEO alongside a core group of original employees. SnapAV will continue selling Autonomic audio solutions through both website and local branches, and promises to continue supporting Autonomic products. In the meantime Autonomic will also directly sell such products and offer related support.

“We are increasing our brand focus to provide dealers with the products needed to deploy an advanced listening experience on today’s most popular control systems,” de Nigris says. “By leveraging our current technology with a dedicated group of original employees, we can provide significant innovation that will empower dealers to do their best work ever.”

CEDIA announces multiple changes to key events and timelines-- including the CEDIA Awards and Leadership Conferences-- the result of continued global disruption brought about by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The deadline for CEDIA Awards entries has been moved to 1 June 2020, including entries for both installers and manufacturers/trade suppliers. The organisation is still to finalise the location and date for the 2020 CEDIA EMEA Awards Celebration. The awards were originally set to take place in London in autumn 2020.

IFA Berlin should still happen in 2020, but following German legislation banning all events with over 5000 participants until 24 October it will involve what organisers gfu and Messe Berlin describe as an "innovative new concept."

The organisers say they have been discussing the development, not to mention a range of alternative concepts, for the past few weeks. They fail to actually detail what such concepts entail, but say IFA 2020 will still deliver a global showcase for technology innovation, as well as a meeting place for brands, manufacturers, retailers and the media.

According to GfK, the current lockdowns have lead to consumers buying of all manner of CE, from PCs and notebooks to TVs and gaming consoles, as Europeans look for means to both work and play during the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic.

However, one has to keep in mind many stores are closed, and online sales cannot fully offset the "significant" losses in the big 5 European markets-- Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. That said, GfK points out consumers are looking for means to cope with life during this "new normal," and retailers and manufacturers need to understand what purchases are preponed and postponed in order to secure the relevant and essential assortment.

In terms of "extraordinary" sales spikes, working from home has driven up sales of monitor (120% Y-o-Y), printers (68% Y-o-Y), notebooks (62% Y-o-Y) and keyboards (61% Y-o-Y) in the 5 major European markets during the 4 weeks starting from 7 March to 5 April 2020 (weeks 11 to 14 of the pandemic). Webcams see the biggest sales growth at 297% Y-o-Y. Meanwhile the stockpiling of groceries has lead to more purchases of freezers and refrigerators. In Great Britain, freezer sales are up by 317% Y-o-Y, and in Germany such sales are up by 185% Y-o-Y. France also sees freezer sales growth of 44% Y-o-Y.