SMART STAGE

The Smart Stage is your place to get the latest on industry hot topics and hear from thought leaders.

View the 2023 Smart Stage recordings on-demand below. Check back often as more recordings are being added!

Smart Stage | Day 1

Day 1 Opening and Welcome

State of the Industry

Join Arlen Schweiger and the Smart Stage Lead Sponsor, Nice North America, in kicking off the Smart Stage sessions!

Arlen Schweiger of CE Pro joins a powerhouse panel of industry elite from CEDIA to the leaders of the buying groups to share insights on the State of the Industry, identifying business opportunities, pitfalls, and what custom integrators need to be doing to continue to thrive.

How to Win Builder Business with Nice

The Future Of Work: Designing for Hybrid and Return To Office

Learn about the #1 Smart Home Program for Builders from Nice and hear the integrator’s perspective on leveraging these services to work directly with builders, gain business, and increase revenues.

Company executives generally want their employees back in the office as soon as it’s safe. Knowledge workers, newly empowered by the flexible working arrangements that got us through the pandemic, have begun to demand that the flexibility continue so that they can work from home on a regular basis. What are the result of this dynamic?

There are quite a few: newly designed offices, additional perks, the ‘great resignation and quiet quitting’, increased flexibility, and a whole lot more. In addition, different age groups in the workforce may want significantly different things. In this session, led by the IMCCA, experts and end-users from all segments of industry will discuss these changes and provide a guide map for success that organizations can follow.

Smart Technology Products To Help People Live In Place

Living In Place is not just about seniors. On the contrary, life changing issues can happen anytime in life. An infant is born with a physical or cognitive challenge. This will probably follow them throughout their life. Or the youngster, teenager or adult that tries something they shouldn’t on their skis, mountain bike, etc.

Now they have a temporary physical challenge that their home now is a challenge for them. It also can be permanent change from an or medical condition that can happen anytime that affects their overall abilities. And of course, it also includes seniors, who have a myriad of challenges. In essence, Living In Place is for everyone

Service, Support, and Driving an Improved Customer Experience

As an industry there is an opportunity to improve how manufacturers and integrators deliver on the experiences end customers desire, as well as develop a service model focused on exceeding those expectations.

Improving the customer experience can lead to an increased likelihood of demand, customer referrals, and upsell opportunities, while ensuring that smart living systems provide peace of mind, convenience, and enjoyment over the lifetime of the products.

Unlocking the Future: A Journey from Mechanical to Smart Locks

“Unlocking the Future: A Journey from Mechanical to Smart Locks” is a presentation that discusses the evolution of locks and the rise of smart locks. The speaker explains why previous locks marketed as “smart” were not truly smart, and how the new breed of locks differ.

The presentation covers what makes these new locks smart, and what this means for all stakeholders, including consumers and professionals in the industry.

The Future of Digital Signage: What You Need to Know to Stay Ahead of the Curve

This broad approach allows us to talk about trends, pain points, key themes etc. that would be important for the Commercial / Rezimercial Integrator to lean in on.

Cracking the MDU Code: Successful Approaches to the Luxury Multi-Unit Residential Integration Business

MDUs (or Multi-Unit Residential developments) have long been the holy grail of the luxury residential technology integrator. With the potential to unlock $1 million of revenue in a single deal, MDUs are a great place to focus your business development efforts. But is it really that easy? Nope.

With “smartwashing” being prevalent in real estate marketing, risk-averse developers, and constant downward pressure on margins, MDUs are not a guaranteed win. But there are proven techniques and product mixes that appeal to developers, real estate agents, and post-closing buyers that can keep margins rich enough to make this a profitable pipeline for your business.

CE Pro BEST Product Awards & CE Pro Home of the Year Awards Presentation

The 2023 CE Pro Best Electronics Systems Technologies (BEST) Awards and the 2023 CE Pro Home of the Year Awards will recognize leading products and installations in the custom electronics industry.The awards will be presented by staff of Bluesalve Partners, a leading business consultant to the custom integration industry.

Smart Stage | Day 2

Day 2 Opening and Welcome

Lighting & Networking Trends 2023: Designing to Reach Your Project’s Full Potential

Join Arlen Schweiger and the Smart Stage Leading Sponsor, Nice North America in kicking off the second day of the Smart Stage sessions.

Establishing the perfect networking system and lighting atmosphere in your clients’ homes or businesses is an essential foundation to any successful integrated smart system. A custom design transforms how spaces function, look, and feel ¬– making them more inviting and, of course, more useful.

While networking and lighting design trends are rapidly evolving, you can achieve a custom solution in any project! This conversation brings together networking, lighting, and integration experts to discuss a collection of the latest networking and lighting trends for 2023 and how integrators can easily bring this cutting-edge inspiration into their own projects.

Understanding the Content Perspective

Join Industry experts from IMAX. Sphere Entertainment Company, and Pixar as they discuss the various ways 8K technology is elevating the creative experience from content production to distribution.

Welcome Home To Wellness

As industry experts, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to design homes so that they help enhance rather than deplete the health, energy, sleep, performance, and overall well-being of residents. Join our session to learn more about the Healthy Home revolution and Delos’ newest studies and initiatives that can help you promote wellness and drive sales for your business.

Bringing the SDGs to the AV Industry

From climate change and environmental degradation to poverty and inequality, the challenges we face are profound, diverse – and getting worse. We must address them as nations, as individuals, and as businesses.

An independent, 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Sustainability in AV (SAVe) is the first industrywide U.S.-based organization to bring stakeholders in the AV field together to take concerted action to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Learn ways your organization can advance sustainability by joining us for this educational session!

How Integrators Can Play a Vital Role in School Safety

What better purpose could there be for your integration company’s expertise than to enhance school safety? Many AV-centric integration companies choose not to play a role in school safety, leaving that to security integrators. Doing so, however, misses the point that school safety requires an ecosystem of school administrators and emergency officials as well as security, communication, and AV technology professionals.

Integrators should be at the table playing a consultative role with K-12 customers to help with school safety strategies. In this session, learn how to use the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) guidelines to elevate your role in school safety.

Power Plays: The CI Channel’s Past, Present, & Watt Comes Next

Join Chad Russell, Director of Residential Sales for SurgeX for a dynamic tour through the past, present, and future trends that have shaped the custom electronics integration industry. This high-energy session will explore the trends integrators got right the first time around, as well as the ones the industry slightly missed the mark on.

This session will conclude with a powerful discussion of the ample opportunities facing dealers and integrators, delve into why the installations to come will require solutions that protect and connect in any environment, and how proper implementation of these solutions can make integrators more profitable.

How Integrators Can Use Innovation to Build Relationships with Specifiers

In this discussion, we’ll explore the fundamentals of building relationships with specifiers, specifically, lighting designers and interior designers, and how innovative products can open up the dialogue. You’ll hear directly from them on what it takes to form lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships that will satisfy their most discerning shared clients.

Don’t Diss Digital Signage. It’s One of the Fastest Growing Commercial Integration Vertical Markets

Panel discussion with industry veterans discussing the value of developing a digital signage practice. Integrators will learn how a digital signage practice will grow recurring revenue, improve margins, and increase business valuations. The panel will focus on: where to uncover opportunities; the importance of content; process and project management; and pitfalls to avoid in rolling out a digital signage offering or project.

State-Of-The-Art Room Correction in the Custom Install Market: Today and Into the Future

Custom Installers are often asked to do the impossible, to incorporate cutting-edge, high-performing technology into a room without, in any way, disrupting its aesthetics. Never is this more true than in the home theater, where clients demand premium audio quality from a system all-but hidden from sight.

While previously a tall order, room correction software is increasingly being leveraged by Custom Installers to deliver on this demand – while optimizing the full potential of home theater audio performance. In this CEDIA Smart Stage panel discussion, CE Pro Editor-in-Chief Arlen Schweiger sits down with Dallas Dingle, founder of US-based integration firm Supercalibrations; Terry Ellis, founder of UK-based integration firm Pursuit Perfect System; and Dr. Mathias Johannson, founder and Chief Product Officer of Dirac Research for a wide ranging conversation on the current state and future of room correction technology.

Building the Bridge to Make Our Client Happy: Integrators and Designers Working Together for the Common Good

Connected Design’s panel will discuss how a manufacturer of Smart home products, an integrator, and an interior designer can all work together in a symphony for the come good. To make our client happy. So how do we do this? Come to this session to find out.

2023 Smart Stage Lead Sponsor