CE Pro October 2023 - 4

From the Editor
by Arlen Schweiger
Can Commercial & Residential
Convergence Maintain Momentum?
" Everywhere
I went,
[attendees]
were talking
about how they
had forged
new alliances,
had gained
awareness
of previously
unfamiliar
brands and had
become excited
about putting
into practice
everything they'd
learned about
being a broadspectrum
tech
specialist. "
-Dan Ferrisi
WHEN I STARTED OUT in this industry
back in 2006, there was a distinct line in the
sand between the residential home theater
and automation sector and the commercial
pro AV and controls realm... and " never the
twain shall meet, " as the saying goes.
Well, a couple of years later, when the
new construction housing market went belly
up, the two distinct industries started to
cozy up together. Suddenly, custom integrators
who needed projects to stay afloat
began to branch out into light commercial
- or what we now refer to as " resimercial "
- work for clients such as multidwelling
units (MDUs), bars & restaurants, mom-andpop
retail shops, small offices, etc.
After all, the residential skills transferred
over well to those types of projects when it
came to infrastructure, distributed AV, lighting
controls, video surveillance, automation
systems, and user interfaces. CE Pro saw
the trend unfolding and it eventually led to
the launch of sister publication Commercial
Integrator a dozen years ago.
Fast-forward to today and CE Pro and CI
Arlen Schweiger is
Editor-in-Chief of
CE Pro. He can
be reached at
arlen.schweiger@
emeraldx.com and
@ArlenSchweiger
on LinkedIn.
parent company Emerald, owner of CEDIA
Expo, has replicated the spirit of the largest
integration industry event in the world,
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE). Last month
at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver,
Emerald for the first time convened the
residential and commercial crowds as CEDIA
Expo 2023 was accompanied by the inaugural
co-located Commercial Integrator Expo (CIX).
Now, I'm not saying CEDIA Expo and
CIX combined are equal to the massive ISE,
which now takes place in Barcelona annually
and is a joint production of the resi and
commercial industry's respective key associations,
CEDIA and AVIXA. That event marks
its 20th anniversary in 2024.
But CEDIA Expo's own history and growth
as the most prestigious custom residential
electronics tradeshow in the U.S. stretches
4 | CE Pro October 2023
back 30+ years. Last year's event in Dallas
felt more like a pre-pandemic Expo, and
with 41% first-time attendees, we know it's
not just the same ol', same ol' integrators
who made this year's trip to Denver (registered
attendance figures were not available
at press time).
Can that heritage and momentum translate
into a U.S. version of ISE as the residential
and commercial markets and applications
continue to converge? He may be biased, but
count Dan Ferrisi, group editor, commercial
and security, Emerald, among the optimists.
" The co-location of CEDIA Expo and
CIX23 proved a theory that we've advanced
for months: that residential installers and
commercial integrators occupy a rapidly converging
technology ecosystem. Everywhere
I went at the show, resi and commercial
specialists were talking about how they had
forged new alliances, had gained awareness
of previously unfamiliar brands and had
become excited about putting into practice
everything they'd learned about being a
broad-spectrum tech specialist, " he enthuses.
Many top residential-focused integrators
have already made the leap to light commercial/resimercial,
whether it was propelled by
the Great Recession almost 15 years ago now,
or through expansion of product portfolio and
trickle-down commercial tech such as Dante
and ultra-short-throw (UST) projection.
But can it be a two-way street, in which
CIX attendees are interested in perusing
much of the CEDIA Expo show floor? Ferrisi
asked pro dealers about it on a recent CI
VIP Peer-to-Peer Zoom call. " The most
important thing about embracing something
different than what you do is asking, number
one, if it's complementary to what you do.
And number two - and most important
- is whether you can get your team to buy
into it, " stated one pro integrator.
Let's keep the conversation going.
cepro.com
http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CE Pro October 2023
