Networking Fundamentals Every Integrator Should Know

  CEDIA’s newest Recommended Practice, RP-1, introduces a more consistent, engineering-focused way to understand and compare loudspeaker specifications. For integrators, designers, and audio professionals, the shift is significant: moving beyond incomplete spec sheets, ambiguous wattage claims, and marketing-driven performance numbers toward objective data that can be used to predict whether a loudspeaker is suitable for a given system, room, and performance target.

This launch session will provide an accessible but technically grounded overview of RP-1 and its most important takeaways for the residential integration community. Attendees will learn how the recommended practice organizes loudspeaker Performance Facts across passive and active products, why voltage-based data, SPL capability, impedance, sensitivity, directivity, bandwidth, distortion, and environmental specifications matter in real-world design, and how these measurements connect to better product selection, amplifier matching, and system engineering. The session will also show how RP-1 supports the broader CEDIA standards ecosystem, including its relationship to RP-22 and the push toward more predictable immersive audio outcomes.

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Explain the purpose of RP-1 and why standardized loudspeaker Performance Facts matter for residential system design.

• Interpret core RP-1 data categories, including sound level capability, voltage-based specifications, impedance, sensitivity, directivity, bandwidth, and environmental factors.

• Distinguish meaningful SPL and electrical performance data from legacy ratings or marketing claims.

• Apply RP-1 takeaways when evaluating loudspeakers, matching products to project requirements, and communicating performance expectations with clients and project teams.

Tired of reaching for the aspirin when staff, a prospect or client asks you to explain any of the ever-changing alphabet soup of mysterious letter combinations that populate our industry? To effectively communicate what you bid on, specify and provision you need to keep with the descriptors for the lexicon of video, audio, displays, and connectivity that seem to pop up almost every day. Whether you are new to the residential technology field or a long-time practitioner, if you can’t easily define or explain the likes of QD-OLED, SBTM vs SSTM, FWA, PD, UST, FALD, DCI vs DCP, VRR today, it is only going to get worse going forward. This fast-paced course, updated for Expo 2026, from CEDIA Fellow and long-time presenter Michael Heiss, will help you wade through the alphabet soup of acronyms and abbreviations to understand and demystify the descriptors you need to understand determine, compare and evaluate what is right for a given installation function.