Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NAB 2019 Reflections: Adorama's John Kaloukian and Chris Dunne Emphasize a Client-Centric Approach

18/04/2019

NAB 2019 Reflections: Adorama's John Kaloukian and Chris Dunne Emphasize a Client-Centric Approach The company's revamped strategy focuses on vertical, including sports By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor

Thursday, April 18, 2019 - 10:36 am

Print This Story

Story Highlights

For more than 35 years, Adorama Business Solutions has been serving the sports community with a wide array of products, services, consultation, and much more. As a corporation that specializes in multiple facets, the company is in an advantageous situation to have a long-lasting impact on the industry. At NAB 2019, John Kaloukian, SVP, sales, Adorama, and Chris Dunne, senior marketing manager, Adorama, offered SVG a look into the redesign of the company's business priorities, recent partnerships that are educating the next wave of live-event-production professionals, and how it is differentiating itself from a typical consumer-electronics provider.

How has your business model transformed to better align with the goals that Adorama wants to accomplish in the sports market?

JK: We are in year two of our three-year strategy that we put together. Adorama had a division for many years without an identity and purpose that did well at serving customers transactionally. [To solve this,] I brought my experience from working with Sony and the ability to focus on verticals. We started to develop our verticals, and one of them was sports. That allows us to focus on traditional markets that we serve pretty well while also diversifying ourselves.

One of the key aspects of our value proposition is consultative sales by managing one-on-one relationships. So, after putting a strategy together, we started hiring focused sales people that would develop relationships with clients. In the past, Adorama did specials every day with these email lists being created by a really good marketing group. [The lists] were being blasted to everyone and anyone who did business with the company. [After some time], we decided that we didn't want someone in sports to hear about something that had no relevance to him.

[Adorama owner/CEO Mendel Mendlowits] suppressed the B2B managed relationships that we have from that master machine. Chris was instrumental in developing relevant messaging. Now I have dedicated account managers involved in sports that are reaching out to clients, so, when the appropriate and relevant product comes along, we make sure it'll be a one-to-one message going out to them.

Are there any recent relationships that Adorama has recently benefited from?

JK: Madison Technical College is an educational customer that came to us with a need. They wanted to build a studio and didn't know where to begin. As part of the buildout of our organization, I hired someone that focuses on technical services and comes from the industry. He was able to understand what the customer was trying to accomplish and design a solution for them. We also installed it for them. We became a turnkey solution for [the school].

CD: They knew roughly what they wanted to accomplish, but they didn't know how to get there within their budget and their product ideas. We're able to go to the manufacturers and test out kits for customers, [which] saves time when [the product] gets onsite. When it arrives onsite, we're there to make sure everything that was designed - the lighting, the cameras - is as it should be. We also did some customized training courses for some of the instructors that weren't technical. We offer [classes] for every client. They can be large or small clients, and we can train them on a specific camera or an entire system. We were able to teach [the instructors] in order to teach the students

How is Adorama leveraging NAB 2019 to cultivate business relationships?

CD: With the sales and marketing approach at the booth, we're highlighting content more than products because we have well-known [clients] in the industry that are talking about subjects that they're experts in. That's added value for customers because they're coming here to learn. What they're going to go on and purchase is immaterial to us.

JK: [We're] taking that value proposition and what we're doing with our clients and translating it to [our booth on] the show floor. The intention of our booth is to make it more welcoming and a place where people can come visit to discuss or consult their needs with us in order to provide solutions. From a value-added reseller, we carry over 2,200 brands. We don't want to be a transactional company. We used to be based solely on a price-first [approach], but, instead of focusing on the product, we're concentrated on the client. That's the biggest takeaway.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/04/18/nab-2019-reflections-adoramas-j...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

16/06/2026

Thomson launches new learning App

Thomson's highly regarded expert-led online learning courses are now easier to access on the go via our new App. Available now on Google Play Store, the J...

16/06/2026

Neumann MT 48 Receives Major Firmware 2.0 Update

Neumann.Berlin has released firmware version 2.0 for the MT 48 audio interface, adding plugin compatibility, expanded Dante networking options, broadcast encode...

16/06/2026

TVNewsCheck Opens Nominations for 2027 Women in Technology Awards

TVNewsCheck has announced that nominations are now open for its 2027 Women in Technology Awards, to be presented at NAB Show 2027 on Tuesday, April 6 in the Med...

16/06/2026

Clear-Com Introduces Avalon IP Intercom Platform

Clear-Com has announced Avalon, a 1RU IP intercom platform for broadcast, live events, and production environments. Designed for IP-only workflows, Avalon suppo...

16/06/2026

SNS EVO Enables Remote and Distributed Video Editing Workflows

SNS has published a guide to remote video editing workflows using its EVO shared storage platform and companion tools, covering use cases ranging from home edit...

16/06/2026

Richmond Flying Squirrels Deploy Grass Valley LDX 110 Cameras at CarMax Park

Grass Valley has announced that the Richmond Flying Squirrels, a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, have deployed five Grass Valley LD...

16/06/2026

AIMS Launches Free Official IPMX Training Series Online

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced the launch of the Official IPMX Training Series, a free online program covering the design, configurati...

16/06/2026

Swerve Womens Sports Announces Distribution Deals with Fubo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV, and Anoki AI

Swerve TV has announced distribution agreements with Fubo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV,...

16/06/2026

ATP and TikTok Expand Global Content Partnership

ATP and TikTok have announced an expansion of their global content partnership, extending the ATP's TikTok hub powered by TikTok GamePlan to cover all nine ...

16/06/2026

FOX Sports Turns Los Angeles Pico Lot Into Its FIFA World Cup Production Nerve Center

Network's LA facility serves as the heart of a sprawling operation built to ...

16/06/2026

300+ Records a Day, 150 TB Daily, and a Relentless Content Avalanche: Inside FOX Sports' World Cup Media Engine

At Pico, the network's media-management team is supporting a flood of HBS fe...

16/06/2026

NHL Games Leaving CBC in Canada as Sublicense With Rogers Sportsnet Ends

The NHL will no longer air on CBC after the pulic broadcasters and national rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet were unable to come to agreement. After a successfu...

16/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Virtual Eye's Ben Taylor on Making Live Sports More Valuable and Entertaining Through Data-Driven Graphics

As live sports broadcasters continue to seek new ways to make complex action mor...

16/06/2026

Thats BRISK, Baby! FOX Sports' Broadcast Remote IP Studio Kits Bring World Cup Fan Energy Back to Pico

Built with the 2026 FIFA World Cup in mind, these small but mighty IP-based tran...

16/06/2026

Rumble three-band soft synth by UVI

Boasts individual synths for each band UVI's latest synth takes an interesting approach to synthesis, offering a trio of synth engines that each operate...

16/06/2026

PSP Levelizer: auto level adjustment plug-in from PSPaudioware

New intelligent auto-fader plug-in unveiled PSPaudioware's latest release offers automatic level adjustment and provides more detailed control than many...

16/06/2026

The Crow Hill Company launch Crystal Pads

New performance-focused library announced Crystal Pads is the latest addition to The Crow Hill Company's ever-growing product range, and according to th...

16/06/2026

GForce launch official Prophet-5 soft synth

Developed in partnership with Sequential In recent years, GForce Software have branched into official emulations of classic hardware synths, delivering a ha...

16/06/2026

DT 30 IE: New in-ears from beyerdynamic

Designed specifically for live performance monitoring beyerdynamic's latest announcement sees the company introduce an affordable in-ear monitoring syst...

16/06/2026

Cherry Audio recreate the Ensoniq ESQ-1

Official emulation celebrates iconic synth's 40th anniversary Cherry Audio have just introduced Ensoniq ESQ-1, an official recreation of the 1986 polyph...

16/06/2026

Australians place growing trust in SBS News

Australians place growing trust in SBS News 16 June, 2026 Media releases SBS has been recognised as one of Australia's most trusted news providers, ran...

16/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz achieves highest number of GCF validated 3GPP NR NTN test cases for RF, RRM and PCT domains

Rohde & Schwarz achieves highest number of GCF validated 3GPP NR NTN test cases ...

16/06/2026

Hitachi and PESA Announce Strategic Partnership to Drive Growth in Poland's Rail Market

Bydgoszcz to Become a Local Centre of Excellence for Advanced Rail Technologies....

16/06/2026

Chyron Unveils Chyron Weather 2.4

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/06/2026

Historic Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Test Mission Captured with URSA Cine Immersive

Historic Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Test Mission Captured with URSA Cine Immersive Brie Clayton June 16, 2026 0 Comments Apple Immersive Video puts view...

16/06/2026

SMPTE Plans ST 2110 Education Summer Programs

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/06/2026

Rise Awards Returns for 2026 to Celebrate Excellence in B...

Rise WIB, the award-winning advocacy group championing gender diversity and career progression across the broadcast and media technology industry, today announc...

16/06/2026

Limecraft Expands its Media Production Platform with Team...

Limecraft today announced the availability of Limecraft 2026.4, the fourth of eight planned platform releases this year. The update introduces Team-Based Access...

16/06/2026

Perry Sook: Big Tech Poses 'Very Urgent Threat to Broadcast Stations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/06/2026

FIFA World Cup Delivers Record Ratings on Fox

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/06/2026

AIMS Launches the Official IPMX Training Series Online

Free Program Supports IPMX Education from Foundational Concepts Through System and Network Design The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced t...

16/06/2026

Share your views on Screen Australia and the future of the industry

Share your views on Screen Australia and the future of the industry 15 June 2026 Your feedback matters. Following the instrumental insights provided in 2025,...

16/06/2026

Techtel Supports T-Motion RCCP-2A Controller Upgrade for Major Australian Broadcaster

Techtel Supports T-Motion RCCP-2A Controller Upgrade for Major Australian Broadc...

16/06/2026

Record audiences tune in for opening weekend of ICC Womens T20 World Cup 2026 on Sky Sports

Tuesday 16 June 2026 Record audiences tune in for opening weekend of ICC Women&...

16/06/2026

Fastest, Largest, Strongest: NVIDIA Blackwell Sweeps MLPerf Training 6.0

Every breakthrough AI model starts the same way: with a training run. The infrastructure running those training jobs shapes everything: how fast teams can itera...

15/06/2026

University of South Carolina's Valerie Gerfin on Gamecock Productions' Growth, Upgrades at Williams-Brice Stadium

One of the more exciting internal video production divisions within a college at...

15/06/2026

Fox Corp. To Acquire Roku, Pairs Live Sports Powerhouse With Major CTV Platform

The deal valued at $22 Billion is expected to close in the first half of 2027...

15/06/2026

Golf Channel Mobile to Live Stream 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup Beginning July 13th

Golf Channel and the Arnold Palmer Cup have announced a partnership to livestream the 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup on Golf Channel Mobile and GolfChannel.com. The tou...

15/06/2026

TikTok and Panini Launch Digital Collectible Card Experience for FIFA World Cup 2026

TikTok and Panini have announced a partnership to bring a digital collectible ca...

15/06/2026

Cosm and Monster Energy Launch First Full-Dome Immersive Advertisement in Shared Reality Venues

Cosm and Monster Energy have announced the debut of the first full-dome immersiv...

15/06/2026

Fox Nation and Real American Freestyle Sign International Media Rights Deal

Real American Freestyle (RAF) and Fox Nation have announced an exclusive streaming agreement for three RAF international events, beginning with RAF Georgia on J...

15/06/2026

FanConnect and Extreme Networks Announce IPTV Integration for Large Venue Deployments

FanConnect has announced a partnership with Extreme Networks integrating FanConn...

15/06/2026

2026 Sundance Institute Ignite x Adobe Fellows Named

Ten Emerging Filmmakers Ages 18 to 25 Will Start Fellowship Year at Ignite Lab from June 14-19 LOS ANGELES, CA, June 15, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institut...

15/06/2026

Rumble from UVI

Innovative three-band soft synth introduced UVI's latest synth takes an interesting approach to synthesis, offering a trio of synth engines that each op...

15/06/2026

Oram Awards 2026: Open call announcement

Applications now open for 2026 The Oram Awards have returned for 2026 to celebrate the unusual, unique and unfiltered creative worlds of women and gender-di...