Amber Technology Acquires Connected Media

Amber Technology has acquired Connected Media Australia (CMA), the Australian distributor of RTI and Bluesound Professional. The transaction is expected to be completed later in November 2021.

RTI is a top-tier manufacturer of control and media distribution products for the residential and commercial markets. The brand has a long and successful presence in Australia. RTI will add significantly to Amber’s ability to deliver a complete solution in both markets. 

Part of the Lenbrook family of brands, Bluesound Professional is the world’s first modern music distribution ecosystem for commercial spaces. It includes components from streaming sources to loudspeakers to facilitate easy design, installation, setup and use of complete music systems in installations from one zone to large multi-zone facilities. 

The friendly nature of the acquisition – the result of close co-operation between the CMA shareholders and Amber management – removes the need for any rushed changes or interruptions to customers of either company. CMA will continue to operate ‘business as usual’ through to the end of 2021, with plans underway for the CMA brands to be transacted through Amber systems from January 2022. 

FOLLOWUP RESPONSE FROM RTI

The recently announced acquisition of Connected Media Australia (CMA) by Amber Technology marks the start of an exciting new partnership between two big names in the Australian AV market. 

RTI has long held a well-earned position as one of the pre-eminent control system brands in the residential Custom Installation market – in Australia and around the world. Groundbreaking new products such as RTI Music and the RTI AV over IP platform, which both received multiple awards at the recent CEDIA Expo 2021, reinforce RTI’s position as an industry leader and innovator. 

The acquisition of CMA allows the specialist skills and knowledge of the CMA team to be combined with the broader national presence and deeper resources of Amber Technology to take RTI to a higher level of success in the Australian market. 

Amber’s long-standing leadership in the residential Custom Installation (CI) market – having been chosen by readers of Connected home+business magazine as ‘Most Popular residential distributor in Australia’ for six of the last seven years – presents an ideal platform to accelerate the growth of RTI as a technology of choice for connected homes across Australia. 

To complement the plans and opportunities in the residential market, Amber’s rapid ascent to the top tier of commercial AV distributors will allow RTI’s growing global presence in the commercial market to be reflected also in Australia. 

Joe Roberts, CEO of RTI, welcomes the development in Australia. “We are delighted by the support we’ve received in the Australian market from Connected Media Australia. The coming together of CMA’s skills and Amber’s greater resources can only accelerate our business in this important and tech-savvy market. Amber fully shares our commitment to custom integrators and their outstanding presence in both residential and commercial AV markets will allow us to introduce more dealers to the many benefits of RTI smart home and smart business control solutions. We look forward to the new journey together.” 

Amber’s Managing Director, Peter Amos, is similarly up-beat. “We’ve spent years refining our portfolio of leading international brands – but we’ve always had an important gap: control systems. Our new partnership with RTI takes our offering in both the residential and commercial AV markets to a whole new level. Recent announcements from RTI, combined with an exciting roadmap of future products, give us tremendous confidence of shared success in the market. We know that our residential and commercial integration partners will benefit from RTI products, and from the company’s commitment to ensuring that even complex control and media distribution projects can be rolled our quickly and cost- effectively.” 

In order to avoid any disruptions to business in the busy period prior to the Christmas/New Year break, there will be no immediate changes to the ordering and supply of RTI products. It’s ‘business as usual’ at Connected Media Australia through to the end of December. Amber plans to have the complete RTI portfolio available for ordering through the company’s on-line dealer portal and customer service team from January 2022.