Strategy in TECH...
CEDIA 2016, like every trade show, for us is like trying to get a sip of water from a fire hose. There is just so much going on. And since all stories interest us – we have to go into a kind of marketing triage, quickly sorting those stories that we feel are the most compelling.
So, in this post, we want to share with you some of the more interesting things – and people – we saw and chatted with on the show floor.
Security & Thermostats are Top Smart Home PrioritiesBeing the marketers that we are, when we heard that Houzz was going to present the results of their first ever Smart Home Trends Study at CEDIA 2016, well we put that on our schedule. At the appointed hour, we listened closely as Liza Hausman, Houzz’s Vice President of Industry Marketing and Dave Pedigo from CEDIA patiently went through and explained the results – and while the results were unremarkable, they were interesting nonetheless. And, there were a couple of surprises.
As is their normal practice, CEDIA released selected results from their 2016 Size and Scope of the Residential Electronic Systems Market survey in their booth during CEDIA 2016. The presentation this year, like last year, was made by Dave Pedigo. However, unlike last year, this year Pedigo has been put in charge of market research, a post that has been open since Erica Shonkweiler left some time ago.
Last year, we reported on the some of the surprising results from the survey. Some of those results were so surprising, they were unbelievable – and even Pedigo agreed with us that some didn’t appear proper. This year? Some of the results, if accurate, could be troubling.
This week, CEDIA released their attendance figures for CEDIA 2016 (formerly the CEDIA Expo) which closed last week in Dallas. The total number of attendees was said to be 18,750 or flat with the 18,700 that attended last year.
Crestron Embraces Sonos, Amazon, & OthersAt CEDIA 2016, one of the top themes we identified was companies seeking more and better integrations with other companies’ technologies. In most cases, this expressed itself with companies seeking to have their product lines properly interface with the major control companies. But at CEDIA this year, Crestron took that concept to new heights and in a new direction with their enthusiastic embrace of newcomers to the CI channel…Sonos and Amazon Alexa.
With CEDIA 2016 now over, those of us in the media are left to try and uncover the underlying themes in order to help our readers wrap their heads around just what this particular CEDIA (formerly referred to as the Expo) was all about. But this show is big enough that no one member of the media can possibly visit all booths, talk to all exhibitor executives, and experience all new models. So each of us have our own version of the themes of the show.
Copious numbers of jet planes have made, and are still making their way to Dallas, each carrying within their fully-loaded bellies, hoards of passengers on their annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of technology – the event formerly known as Expo, now known simply as CEDIA 2016.
This morning, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) announced that CEDIA EMEA and CEDIA headquarters in the U.S. has been completely “integrated” and is now one entity in whole. The news will be a huge surprise to some, and a point of confusion for others, as not many people understood the relationship between the two organizations. CEDIA EMEA, formerly CEDIA UK, is in fact an independent organization that licenses the rights to use the CEDIA name in Europe.
Now, things have changed.
Despite Crestron’s announcement earlier this year that they will exit the CEDIA show, Strata-gee has confirmed with CEDIA that Crestron Electronics, Inc. will in fact be exhibiting at this year’s CEDIA 2016 next week in Dallas, TX. Crestron will be exhibiting in booth 2510, a booth that they are sharing with Amazon Alexa.
Sonos surprised the industry this week with several announcements, some of which were directly targeted at the custom integration market just two weeks before the launch of the CEDIA 2016 show. But one announcement didn’t surprise us – we first told you about it a month ago when we revealed that we had learned that after announcing they were pulling out of the show, Crestron was back…in partnership with none other than Sonos.
