An investigation by SmartHouse News has revealed that some integrators in Australia have been ordering from the USA as opposed to buying from LeisureTech in Australia.
The price difference between the US and Australia is huge with Australian consumers being asked to pay $4,000 for a 4 zone A-Bus kit with entry level speaker Vs $526 in the USA. Several web sites in the USA are selling the A-Bus control systems online for discount prices.
Frank Di Bartolo Managing Director of Pacific Hi Fi in Sydney an A-Bus installer said "We know that A-Bus in Australia is expensive. We have looked at buying from the USA as there appears to be no reason for the difference. One could almost jump on a plane and personally collect the system and still be in front" he said. Andrew Goldfinch the Managing Director of LeisureTech could not be contacted to comment on the price difference.
A Melbourne dealer who did not want to be named said" LeisureTech do nothing to support the Australia market. Their web site is shocking and they treat installers and dealers with contempt. It does not surprise me that they are asking Australians to fork out more for an Australian designed and developed product. I think it demonstrates the type of Company that LeisureTech is". Currently SmartHouseNews is investigating whether the Federal Government has awarded LeisureTech any export grants that allow them to sting Australian customers while using tax payer funded money to build up an export at the expense of Australians.
Late last year SmartHouse News reported that LeisureTech were spamming dealers in Australia with information and on at least two occasions they illegally distributed the full email address of recipients.
The A-Bus control system is set to come under pressure as new control Companies like Control4 take market share away from them. Other manufacturers grabbing share from A-Bus are the likes of Crestron who are spending millions on delivering new IP based low cost control systems along with the likes of AMX as well as several new audio control system Companies. During the past 10 years LeisureTech owners of A-Bus have built up market share in the all important US market at the expense of Australia. An arrogant Company they do little in Australia to promote A-Bus with all advertising and public relations being focused on the all important US market.
Llanor Alleyne writing for the USA Residential Systems Magazine said of A Bus, even though A-BUS eventually gained a firm footing in the US market, the concept behind the technology was not initially an easy sell to jaded integrators and manufacturers. "The biggest hurdle has been overcoming people's old habits," said Andrew Goldfinch, co-inventor of A-BUS and LeisureTech's founder. "Change is upsetting to a lot of folks, and they are hesitant to try something new."
LeisureTech had long sought a way to eliminate the long speaker runs and the subsequent power output and sound quality issues that were the bane of most distributed audio systems up until the mid-1990s. At that time, LeisureTech seized on the cabling opportunities afforded by the new cable Cat-5 standard and created A-BUS as a one-wire solution that side-stepped sound and output problems by placing the amplifier behind the wall-mounted room keypad.
As clever yet simple as A-BUS was, industry reluctance to recognise it as a viable multi-room distributed audio solution hampered its efforts to crack the U.S. market, initially. "It was an option then to jump on board and take the product to market," said Channel Vision's Darrel Hauk, who turned A-BUS down in its early years. "It was an opportunity, but we decided to stay with the traditional speaker wire, matrix-type product. I didn't have the vision then. Oscar Ciornei [former CEO of Russound] really saw how A-BUS could be taken to market with the structured wiring industry."
In 2000, Russound became A-BUS' first licensee in the U.S. Currently the company has several licensees in the U.S., including Channel Vision, Eaton, Phase Technology, Jamo, Suttle, Cambridge Audio, Honeywell, USTec, DSC, MTX, Harman Kardon, and Onkyo Integra.
