Brands and personnel move from distributor to distributor as each jostles for pole position.

The most recent departure now making news involves the widely respected, Michael Di Meglio, who until the end of this month works for Advance Audio Australia, one of the nation’s most important distributors.

Di Meglio had been with Advance Audio for nine years. Quite a stretch for anyone toiling in the brutal cut and thrust of the industry.

His departure was accompanied by a very positive endorsement from Advance Audio praising the work he did for them. A company spokesman said:

It is sad that all good things must come to an end and after many weeks of decision making, Michael has sadly resigned from Advance Audio Australia and decided to take on a new and exciting senior opportunity within the HiFi industry. His last day with Advance Audio Australia will be Friday, 27th of April.

Within hours of the announcement of Di Meglio’s resignation the industry gossip mill wrongly began to link Di Meglio with distribution changes with the KEF brand.

The wild speculation involved the parent company of KEF terminating the brand’s distributorship with Advance Audio and replacing it with direct representation.

The rumours are fed by the Bowers & Wilkins decision to end its long distributor arrangement with Convoy and set up operations in Australia last year.

These rumours are false.

StereoNET spoke exclusively with Michael Di Meglio earlier today, and he denied KEF is setting up Australian operations, to the best of his knowledge. He also quashed rumours he would be overseeing such a fictional plan.

StereoNET understands Di Meglio has already accepted a General Manager role within the audio industry for a company servicing the Australian and New Zealand audio markets; a move that is yet to be formally announced.

URC Is Now Part Of The Advance Audio Portfolio

Just as Di Meglio's news of his resignation broke, Advance Audio Australia announced it will now distribute URC products.

URC is a global leader in automation and control systems for residential and commercial applications.

URC started production in 1991. It is based in Harrison, New York and has been manufacturing third-party control devices for itself and other companies for decades.

Milestones include the Total Control 2.0 automation and control system launched in 2017. This upgrade to URC’s flagship automation and control system boosts the brand’s Complete Control and MX Home Control product lines.

Lars Grance URC Vice President, Product Development said:

URC is very pleased to have Advance Audio on board for the Australian market. We look forward to actively collaborating with Advance Audio and their custom integration customers to deliver best in class control and automation.

Advance Audio says it plans a full launch of the URC suite of current and future products to be showcased at the Integrate 2018 trade show in Sydney later this year.

For more information visit Advance Audio.