
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...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
NBCU brings together News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo for a 50+ camera live pr...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
02/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...
02/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland backs Unacceptable for a second series on TL...
02/07/2026
Thursday 2 July 2026
Tea with Judi Dench returns to Sky Arts with legendary guest, Sir Ian McKellen
Sky today confirms Tea with Judi Dench will return this su...
02/07/2026
Summer is heating up - and GeForce NOW is taking players along for the ride.
Start the month with Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains, bringing a galaxy fa...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...