Strategy in TECH...
The latest government data on sales of newly built residential homes in May showed a significant drop of 13.7% as compared with revised sales in April. This data is a sign of continuing struggles for the housing industry, which is grappling with material cost increases and hesitant buyers concerned about still-high mortgage rates and the future of the economy.
Yelp, the social media site that was started to help you find the best local Chinese takeout, but now covers a very wide range of interests, such as home improvement, has released a comprehensive report of the latest trends in site user interest. In a report titled 2025 Summer Home & Outdoor Trends, Yelp noted a recent surge in user interest in a wide variety of home remodeling projects, including a huge leap in those making project requests for “home theater installation,” up 562% as compared to 2024.
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) announced on Tuesday that it is launching its first-ever consumer advertising campaign – something members have been asking it to do for years. The campaign is a professionally conceived, created, produced, and now distributed advertisement that includes, amongst other things, a 60-second video that educates consumers on the “magic” of a well-designed smart home and the need for a professional installer.
Surprising news on Wednesday as we learn that the latest residential construction data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show that overall housing starts in May dropped a substantial 9.8% compared to the reading in April, and ranks below May 2024 starts by 4.6%. This is the slowest pace in housing starts in the last five years.
Crestron Electronics, one of the industry’s leading providers of control solutions and more for the smart home and home automation channels announced this week a significant update of its popular Crestron Home OS4 system. This impressive update includes more than 20 new features, as well as new important integrations that offer integrators a mind-expanding opportunity to better design solutions for clients…not to mention drive greater scalability for both residential and commercial installations.
Is this the beginning of a new trend? After a notable jump in September, which some suggested may have been a bit of a fluke, residential construction – known as housing starts – actually surprised some industry analysts by jumping again in October. And while the amount of increase was more modest, that there was another month of increase may indicate the beginning of a new trend. Yet other data calls into question just where residential construction is heading. Read on to see that data…
Yet another sign of the struggling housing industry as climbing mortgage rates and historically high home prices combine to drop new residential construction – known as housing starts – to their lowest level in three years. Both single-family housing starts and overall housing starts, which includes multi-family dwellings, saw significant declines in August.
Lenbrook Corporation, a Canadian company that holds a portfolio of premium specialty brands, announced this morning it has acquired the assets of MQA, ltd., the U.K.-based company behind the Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) high-resolution audio encoding system in a transaction it hopes will breathe new life into the technology that had fallen into a form of receivership upon the loss of its major financial backer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed as part of this announcement.
The only way to truly know the performance of a screen is through a detailed and rigorous testing routine. For that, you need a sophisticated testing laboratory space with specialized testing gear – known as an imaging lab. Not all screen companies have one, but Draper’s TecVision does and the company graciously treated me – and via this story, you – for a visit to the impressive TecVision Imaging Lab.
Crestron Electronics Corp. (Crestron), one of the largest and most popular custom integration control brands delivering literally thousands of products to both the commercial and residential smart home channels, announced today the launch of Crestron Home OS 4. This exciting new update brings much to the party, not only a more polished and graphically appealing look and feel but also a more intuitive end-user operability. Oh, and not to mention, some exciting new functionalities.
All of which, I got to see for myself in the company’s completely renovated residential-specific showroom. This company is on the move…
