
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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
11/06/2026
PTZOptics, and LayerJot today announced live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how prompt-based AI, robotic camera control, and high-performance computing...
11/06/2026
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, announces the release of GPIO-Button-10S, a dedicated control interface enabling straightforward press-to-a...
11/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/06/2026
Kiloview, a leading innovator in AV-over-IP video solutions, will return to InfoComm 2026 (Booth# N8327) with broadcast-grade AV-over-IP solutions designed for ...
11/06/2026
Australian Games Industry Glossary of Terms 10 June 2026
From DAU and EULA to COT and QADE, here's a list of game industry terms, industry jargon and their...
11/06/2026
Berklee's Tonya Butler Named Music Business Educator of the Year The Music Business Association honored Butler at its annual Bizzy Awards.
June 10, 2026
...
11/06/2026
Ann Mincieli to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee NYC Graduate Commencement The five-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer, known for her longstanding...
11/06/2026
The GeForce NOW summer sale kicked off today with limited-time savings of up to ...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
Today, Google DeepMind released DiffusionGemma - an experimental open model built for exceptionally fast text generation. NVIDIA has optimized DiffusionGemma to...
10/06/2026
A car pulls up to the curb. The app says, Your ride is here. No one's in the driver's seat. For people who live in one of the dozens of cities now hos...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...