Everything you need to know from CEDIA

Grab your headset for a special bonus edition of the Internet of Things Podcast from the CEDIA show floor in San Diego. Last week I attended the show, which is aimed at the professional AV installer market to understand what’s hot, what’s not and how the business of home automation will evolve. I saw some beautiful televisions and more light switches than I even knew existed, while I walked away despairing of ever getting the smart home experience right. This OLED screen is actually two OLED screens mounted back-to-back in a sheet of glass. It costs $20,000 and is designed for high-end retail. I spoke with Julie Jacobson, the founding editor of CEPro to find out what she thought was cool, met with Tim McInery of Savant to talk about the benefits consumer tech has on the installer business and asked Richard Gunther of the Digital Media Zone to explain the changes in business models. I also interviewed the CEO of Josh.ai to understand why the smart home industry has progressed so slowly, and talked to Ragan Mena, the president of Audio Zeal, a custom installer to see what toys he was excited about. He did like the Josh Micro, which enables voice access for older custom systems. This entire episode was sponsored by Ring, which is offering discounts on bundles of home security items to both consumers and pro installers. Visit www.ring.com/stacey to learn more. Stacey’s highlights and news (0:45) Julie Jacobson of CEPro on trends and cool stuff (10:25) Tim McInerney of Savant on the benefit consumer tech has for installers (14:40) Richard Gunther of The Digital Media Zone discussing the custom installer business model (16:20) Ragan Mena, president of Audio Zeal explain how he decides what consumer tech to use (22:00) Alex Capecelatro, of Josh.ai on why Crestron, Control4 and others have a hard time competing against consumer tech (25:10) The post Everything you need to know from CEDIA appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.