The future is now at CEDIA Expo
By Stephen Paczkowski, Expert Warehouse
With the long days of summer beginning to recede into fond memories, we in the business of consumer electronics look to events like CEDIA Expo 2024, this week’s big residential tech show, to envision things to come in CE. It’s sort of like entering Willy Wonka’s warehouse for the first time every year!
Let’s preview this week’s show (Sept. 5-7 in Denver) by following the threads of trends that emerged since my last column.
Beginning with smart home integration, Vivint, Savant and ADI have each made major acquisitions to enter the smart home space. As previously noted here, these maneuvers underscore that the major players in whole-home control are gobbling up market share in any way possible. It seems likely that you will soon be able to control any mechanical device in your home through a central router and voice app: shades, humidifiers, doorbells, door locks, HVAC systems, shopping, indoor and outdoor lighting, pet monitoring and feeding systems, electrical systems and more.
Meet George Jetson
We are truly living in a golden age of Jetsons-esque virtual control of almost any system in your home. Robots will toast our bread and brew our coffee in the morning while preparing some sort of pot roast for dinner. But better remember to thank Alexa or Siri. Skynet is listening.
And speaking of Skynet, AI will be integrated into virtually every category of consumer tech this year. Microsoft’s Copilot entry is now built into Windows 11 PCs and there is a dedicated button on laptop keyboards. All major PC manufacturers will have a dedicated way to access this toolset. Regardless of your feelings about its safety and responsibility, all CE applications of AI, from smart speakers to smart watches, are here to stay.
Separately, sales of console gaming systems are expected to rise another 10% in 2024 after a 12% spike in 2023, per TechInsights. This means monitors, peripherals and accessories will also commensurately rise. Handheld and PC gaming remain huge parts of many people’s lives and leisure time. All of these shiny new games will require new hardware and software, and somewhere to sit while doing it. FTS’s new lift chair program sounds awfully tempting right about now!
OLED, Olé!
This year has also seen the rise of OLED displays across all TV brands. LG, Samsung and Sony will be primed to benefit strongly, due to pricing being lowered by natural price erosion, as the technology is now almost a decade old for large screen TVs. With Hisense and other second-tier manufacturers licensing LG’s technology, we will see OLED becoming more of a commodity.
The quality of OLED is still directly connected to the driving technology behind the panel, so sticking with the Big Three is still advised, until the quality of materials and other facets, like warranty support, match up with the high-end panel manufacturers.
Wearable tech is also on the rise. Smartwatches are made by everyone these days, but the craze doesn’t stop there. Google bought Fitbit, Apple’s smartwatch is ubiquitous and products like Humane’s Ai Pin show that there is plenty of innovation in this category. A wearable smartphone alternative sounds like science fiction, and there are hiccups in the implementation of this technology, but its usefulness will probably outweigh the problems once the initial kinks are ironed out. Some of those kinks, like battery life, heat, ChatGPT reliability and, honestly, appearance, are concerns. Other companies like TAP and Limitless have also joined the fray, so the category is likely here to stay.
And don’t forget smart glasses! They are back as well. Apple Vision Pro is only the next step, with every player vying for shelf space in both virtual reality and ultra-high resolution viewing.
I Get Around
Electric bikes and scooters are also going to be all over CEDIA this week and are everywhere now. The Hi Power Cycle’s Batman e-bike can hit 80 miles per hour, although at $30,000 you’d need Bruce Wayne’s bank account to own one. Expect battery life and safety improvements over the next wave of cycles. At least they won’t be as ostentatious as the BMW i Vision Dee color-changing car.
Clearly consumer tech is in the news of late, and leveraging Expert Warehouse and ProSource to continue leading the way for our dealer base is key.
Now, here’s what’s been entertaining us this summer at Expert Warehouse:
- “House of the Dragon,” Season 2 (HBO/MAX)
- “Fallout” (Amazon)
- Soul Coughing: Reuniting for a string of live shows, this danceable half electronic, half acoustic quartet had a major radio hit, “Super Bon Bon,” in the 2000s.
- “Ratatata,” my own personal song of the summer by Electric Callboy and Baby Metal. Impossible to categorize, but if you know, you know.
Stephen Paczkowski is an account manager at Expert Warehouse, AVB’s in-house consumer tech and home furnishings distributor.
