Hi-Fi Centre is Vancouver’s premier audio video dealer for high end brands such as B&W, Linn, Rotel, Naim, McIntosh, Wilson Audio, Classé and Sooloos, delivering the highest quality high performance audio, home cinema, lighting control, home automation and surround system products available, as well as custom design, engineering and Installation services.

Hi-Fi Centre’s Needs

Their retail store in downtown Vancouver is one of the most stunning audio showrooms in Canada. When you first step into Hi-Fi Centre you’re welcomed by a grand loudspeaker called the B&W Nautilus, setting the tone for what awaits the senses. Moving through the store you’ll find dozens of soundproof rooms set up with different audio/video configurations and ambiance settings… a true feast for the eyes and ears. The showrooms upper level is furnished with a cappuccino bar and golf putting green to enhance the experience while auditioning some of the finest loudspeakers and electronic components in the world.

While Hi-Fi Centre arguably has one of the finest showrooms in their marketspace, their website was far less than inspiring. The site was built using outdated frames, confusing navigation and without any page layout consistency. Hi-Fi Centre contracted Falcon-Software to design and develop a new website that reflected the same style and creativity their store provided to customers, while also providing a content management system as a solid foundation that can accomondate future development such as ecommerce, mobile and social media applications.
 

Key Challenges

1. With no consistent structure or any thought towards usability the website needed an entire redesign.
2. The site had to have an element of entertainment, providing the visitor with a memorable experience.
3. With new products continually being released, Hi-Fi Centre needed a way of updating the site easily and cost effectively.

The Results

For the Web CMS solution, Falcon-Software selected Kentico, a flexible, cost effective all-in-one .NET solution. Kentico CMS provided a powerful content editing interface, allowing users to edit content, preview before publishing, organize site structure and manage extending modules with a built-in WYSIWYG editor fully integrated into the system. Yet easy to use, enabling Hi-Fi Centre to edit content as if they were using Microsoft Word. Also, the ease of uploading images and Flash movies was a must for the client and Kentico provided this feature seamlessly.

The end result is a robust website that not only better reflects Hifi Centre’s high-end products and retail showroom, but they now have a content management solution so easy to use, their site is always current and ready for future modules such as an ecommerce store that can be installed with a click of the mouse.

Hi-Fi Centre Testimonial

Since Falcon-Software designed our new website with a Kentico CMS system in early 2010 we have seen nothing but tremendous results.  All of our vendor partners and customers have been blown away by the creative.  However, the best part is that we have actually seen measurable improvements over our previous website.  Traffic is up substantially with customers spending more time on the site and online inquiries have more than tripled in just 3-months.  One of the criteria we had set out when choosing a CMS platform was ease of use, and with Kentico we are able to easily edit our website without the expense of hiring a .NET programmer or learning how to write code.  This gives us the freedom to make changes when we need to and not when the web design firm can “fit us into their busy schedule.”  The result is that we can now make timely changes, add new products or launch marketing campaigns on our schedule, which has had a direct result in our bottom line. Falcon-Software and Kentico CMS is a powerful combination we highly recommend to anyone looking to take control over their website and online business strategy.

Igor Kivritsky, General Manager
Hifi Centre

• Visit the Hi-Fi Centre Website: www.hificentre.com