Andrea Harvey

The CEDIA Design Build Training Course is an exclusive opportunity for CEDIA members to position themselves as trusted educators and industry leaders within the design and build community. This course is designed to empower members to deliver continuing education to architects, interior designers, builders, and other design and construction professionals—helping to foster valuable business-to-business relationships while elevating the profile of the smart home industry. Upon completion, participants become CEDIA Smart Home Continuing Education Instructors, gaining access to a robust library of approved educational content. This enables them to host professional development sessions for their local design and build partners, driving awareness of CEDIA, its members, and the integrated technology solutions that define modern smart homes. This programme is exclusively available to CEDIA members, offering a unique platform to build credibility, enhance industry influence, and grow your business through strategic education and engagement.

Two established designer–integrator teams examine how their collaborations hold up under real project pressure—where aesthetics, infrastructure, budgets, and timelines don’t always align. Through side-by-side comparisons, the panel will unpack how each team navigates system visibility vs concealment, millwork coordination, lighting loads vs fixture intent, rack location compromises, network planning, and late-stage changes that affect both form and function. Beyond drawings and specifications, the conversation will address client management: who owns which conversations, how technical constraints are translated into design language, how disagreements are presented (or not) to the homeowner, and how unified communication protects trust. Designers, integrators, builders, and architects will gain insight into collaboration models that balance creative vision, system performance, and customer experience without eroding margins or relationships.

From intimate home cinemas to high-performance screening rooms and flexible media spaces, this course provides essential knowledge for integrating audiovisual excellence with design intent. The course will explore the functional distinctions between home cinemas and media rooms; space planning; acoustics and sound isolation fundamentals; sightline planning, screen placement, and optimal viewing geometry; the room itself as a performance component and common pitfalls. Whether you’re working on a luxury residence, a boutique development, or a multi-purpose media lounge, this course equips you to collaborate confidently with designers and architects to deliver exceptional user experiences.

  Older homes have character, history, and charm — but they weren't built with smart lighting, whole-home audio, or high-speed networking in mind. This panel explores the unique challenges and creative solutions that come with retrofitting legacy properties for modern technology, from working within existing architecture and avoiding costly structural changes to setting realistic client expectations and pricing retrofit projects profitably. Whether it's a mid-century modern in the hills or a historic estate, integrators who master the retrofit will never run out of work.