07.23.2009 — The days of ostentatious home theaters have given way to affordable and practical multi-purpose media rooms that are used for TV, gaming, music and movies.

This has forced the CE pro industry to adapt. Installers across the country are reacting by turning to a practice that's commonplace in other industries: outsourcing.

Benefits of Outsourcing

Ashland, Mass.-based Home Theater by Design is one of the companies leading the effort to bring outside design practices to the custom market. The company has partnered with GenNEXT International, whose co-founder Bill Johnson says installers of all backgrounds should consider the advantages of an outsourced theater design.

Johnson says a CE pro of any size may have a wide variety of motivations:

• Controlling capital costs
• Increased efficiencies
• Reduced labor costs
• The ability to manage more projects at the same time
• Focus on core business competencies
• Risk reduction

Johnson says larger CE pro companies sometimes choose to do home theater design in-house, but "many of them figure out at some point that it's just a smarter business decision to outsource the theater room design."

Smaller companies, he says, "often just don't have the resources or bandwidth to take on these larger, rather ambitious theater room projects, but have a client who is looking to have a more serious dedicated theater and the [CE pro] does not wish to turn away this business if they don’t have to."

Outsourcing Gains Momentum

Johnson estimates that outsourced theater designs will be a relevant and growing part of the custom installation industry. He says the trend for outsourced designs coincides with the evolution from equipment-based to lifestyle-based designs.

"My guess is that we will see the metamorphosis of the A/V electronics dealer continue to move away from being focused on selling the hardware to being more solutions focused," he says. "This is really old news now in the CEDIA channel as we saw this happening with CEDIA dealer members as far back as the turn of the century, which corresponds with the reduction in dealer showrooms and the rise of distributors like AVAD."