Last week’s CEDIA Tech and Business summit was a major success with 56 vendors and dozens of integrators attending the event at the London Design Centre.
Matt Nimmons, managing director of CEDIA, opened the show by speaking about the updates to the CEDIA Awards, with new categories to: “champion individuals within teams.” The closing date for categories such as Best Technician and Best Newcomer is June 1, 2024. Nimmons also spoke about the Immersive Audio Design Recommended Practice (RP22) and successful workshops staged to explore the recommended practice, the next of which are on May 13 and 14 (details are on the CEDIA website). Nimmons discussed the difficulty of hiring new staff and bringing a younger generation into the industry, while highlighting the work of the NextGen toolkit. Nimmons also teased a CEDIA app for members. The app will function like a social media app with threads and discussions along with key dates and updates from CEDIA. The community app is about to begin beta tasting.
There was a lot of chatter about the acquisition of Snap One by Resideo. Most of the talk was speculation as the industry will have to wait for 3 to 6 months for the acquisition to be fully cleared. Some commentators suggested that the move may help smaller integrators who are trying to expand their business. Integrators who work primarily in HVAC, that engage with Resideo currently, will have the potential to become a partner with Control 4 and move into the smart home market.
To close the day, Ben Goff from Cinema Lusso hosted a session titled Money Matters - Enhancing Business Profitability with Standards. He spoke about the importance and difference between standards and recommended practices. He wants to see CEDIA move towards recommended practices and issuing advice rather than stringent ways of doing things. He also discussed a video companion for RP22, which will feature the same four tier system. The video will be rated on viewing angles, pixel structure and colour depth.