AVAD Canada Ltd. has announced that it is now offering a broad array of commercial-grade products through its three Canadian locations. The lineup includes Panasonic Pro and Samsung Pro displays, along with Bogen, Crown, dbx, JBL and Soundcraft pro audio products.

"When providers don't have a relationship with a commercial distributor, they may end up using consumer products," notes Scot Kerek, Canadian Manager of AVAD (shown in photo at top of story). "But a consumer amplifier is not built to be used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It's not built for harsh environments."

AVAD has been distributing commercial products in the U.S. since 2009. "It started with CEDIA four years ago," Kerek explains. "We asked dealers what percentage of their business was commercial, and it ranged from 20 per cent to as high as 70 per cent. Commercial is now our largest growth area year-over-year in the U.S."

According to AVAD, the commercial AV market is worth $30 billion annually in the U.S. and Canada. "About $7 billion of that is our bread-and-butter business," Kerek notes, "small offices, retail, dental offices, bars and restaurants. Owners of those businesses may be having a residential system installed. If the provider does a good job, he may be asked to do work related to a business. That is the space we're after."

Kerek says the skills involved in residential installation translate well to the commercial space. "You need to learn building codes, for example the need to use metal enclosures around speakers or plenum-graded cable," he says. "But fundamentally, the skill set is the same."

AVAD's value proposition in commercial goes beyond order fulfillment. The company runs Training Camps that cover products and installation. And it has a System Design Team to help providers quote on jobs. Dealers fill out a form, and AVAD creates a bill of materials that the dealer can tweak, along with CAD drawings for the dealer to follow during installation.

Explains Kerek: "We realized our dealers needed assistance in areas like sound area coverage: how many speakers are needed, where to put them, how much power they need. We have experts in our branches who can handle 90% of these questions, plus the System Design division within AVAD."

AVAD is now offering its commercial brands in its locations in Mississauga, Calgary and Vancouver, and online at http://www.avadcanada.ca

Article Tags:  AVAD, Canada, Kerek, commercial, installer, residential, Bogen, Panasonic, Samsung, JBL, Crown, dbx, Soundcraft, CEDIA