Adam Pelz

  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.

Looking for tips to improve your communication skills between employees, business owners and clients? This isn’t that class. It is, however, a practical introduction aimed at improving your critical audio listening skills through an understanding of the physical propagation of sound, active listening, psychoacoustics, and more. Suitable for anyone who runs demonstrations, evaluates products, or calibrates audio systems this class is a mixture of science, and practical listening sessions.

CEDIA’s latest Recommended Practice RP-32 outlines objective, repeatable methods for measuring and verifying audio system performance. It provides a structured process to ensure that completed systems meet the intended design goals and client expectations. Importantly, RP-32 incorporates verification against the performance parameters defined in CEDIA RP-22: Immersive Audio System Design, allowing integrators to demonstrate whether a system achieves the targeted RP-22 performance level. This hands-on workshop introduces the recommended procedures of RP-32 and gives participants practical experience using a range of measurement tools and software. Attendees will learn how to gather reliable data, interpret results, and document system performance in a consistent and professional manner. The course is suitable for both residential and commercial applications, and is designed to support newer practitioners as well as experienced professionals who want to adopt a Recommended Practice-based approach to system verification. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: • Describe and apply the RP-32 methodology. • Perform objective, repeatable system measurements. • Verify performance against RP-22 parameters. • Document and communicate results clearly.

In real-world system design, perfection lasts approximately three minutes. This fast-paced 90-minute live session takes the RP22 recommended practice out of the abstract and into the messy, fascinating reality of actual room design. Together, we will build a room from scratch in real time, applying RP22 principles as we go and balancing engineering with the real world realities of actual rooms, interior designers and awkward client requests. Then comes the fun part. Throughout the session, the audience, that's you, will throw “curve balls” into the design process: impossible budgets, heritage restrictions, unrealistic seating requests, and all the other challenges that turn straightforward design into engineering compromise. Working live, we will explore how experienced designers navigate these competing demands while still delivering systems that perform predictably and measurably within RP22 guidance. This session is equal parts engineering, problem-solving, and design psychology — a practical demonstration that great system design is not about avoiding compromise, but understanding which compromises matter most. Expect live modelling, discussion, audience interaction, and a healthy respect for the stubborn realities of rooms.

CEDIA is launching a restructured and expanded Professional Development Council, creating new opportunities for members to help shape the future of education, certification, advocacy, and emerging technology deployment across the industry. In this exclusive rollout session, attendees will hear directly from PDC leaders about how the Council and its subcommittees will guide CEDIA’s professional development strategy in 2027 and beyond. More than an update, this session is an invitation: a chance for members to understand where CEDIA education is headed, how industry needs are being translated into learning priorities, and how they can take an active role in building the programs, standards, and resources that will support the next generation of smart home professionals. Whether you are passionate about workforce development, technical excellence, business growth, certification, or the responsible adoption of new technologies, this session will show how your voice and expertise can help move the association—and the industry—forward. The future of CEDIA education starts here.