My second day at ISE 2025 was fairly similar to my first, but unlike Tuesday when I largely met with audio companies, my second day featured a true mix of custom home technology disciplines and showcased some of the best names and products in control, automation, audio, lighting, video, home theater and more.

Here’s a little bit of what I saw at my second day at the show.

A Few Home Theater Demos

My day started off with an absolute bang, checking out the Reference Home Theater demo in Hall 2 featuring technology from Barco, Storm Audio, madVR, and Wisdom Audio. The content was largely previews of newer films, and it looked and sounded incredible thanks to those manufacturers.

The visuals were provided by a Barco Nerthus, the company’s flagship home theater projector, which was also being proudly displayed in a window at the company’s booth. It featured a red backlight that highlighted its internal components. As Chris Deutsch, business development manager for Barco residential put it, “If someone has a projector like this, they may also have a Ferrari in their garage, but they don’t hide that.”

Thanks to Barco and madVR’s processor, the images were crystal clear, bright and vivid. The audio also packed a forceful punch thanks to the combination of Storm Audio’s processors and an impressive configuration of Wisdom Audio speakers and subwoofers.

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If you’re still at ISE and read this in time, please go check out that demo. Outside the booth, you can also check out the individual products featured in the demo.

As Well as Some Audio Showcases

Speaking of impressive, Sonance provided a great demonstration of its variety of speaker solutions and how expertly crafted audio and invisible speakers can change the vibes of a room based on where the audio is coming from. The demo room featured speakers installed around the room in the walls and in the ceilings, as well as in-wall subwoofers.

In what is becoming one of my favorite tradeshow demos, Theory Audio provided a thorough overview of what its line of versatile but impressive speakers and subwoofers can do. A selection of music tracks were played on ceiling pendant speakers, speaker towers, subwoofers and a truly incredible sounding soundbar.

However, what was most impressive to me were the system’s capabilities in a home theater demo. The company demoed the system with a “John Wick” film, so of course it was an action scene featuring gunshots that powerfully popped from the speakers and woofers. This is a demo you definitely want to see.

Control and Automation

If you thought we were going to recap ISE 2025 without talking about control and automation, think again. It should go without saying that this technology is the core of this industry and really gives these beautiful custom home projects their foundation.

To that end, Crestron has been truly pushing the boundaries of what high end smart systems can do with Crestron Home OS 4, and is constantly pushing out updates to further enhance the experience.

At the company’s booth, Crestron featured new integrations with a wider variety of third-party door locks, an updated KNX driver that adds another way to control KNX and a new Tesla driver that allows users to interact with their Tesla battery system and vehicle.

One of the more impressive things you’ll see at Crestron’s booth is the DGE1000, which can transform a touchscreen into a Crestron controller. Specifically, they had it integrated into a touchscreen mirror TV solution from Opale. This allowed users to control their Crestron-powered smart home on a mirror in their home, or watch their favorite content.

Italy-based control and automation provider Nice has also been aggressively innovating on its smart home platform, releasing tons of new products. The company’s booth features all of them, including a new video doorbell, a new line of toolless speakers, a new user interface, and of course the company’s new voice assistant that seemed to be pretty intuitive and featuring the latest natural language AI technology.

Nice’s newest touch panels also allow users to set up a personalization feature that will adjust the display to the user’s preferences when the embedded camera detects the homeowner. The thinking here is that people like to control their homes in different ways, so this allows users to interact with their smart home systems how they like.

More Aesthetically Impressive Audio Systems

My first day at ISE 2025 featured quite a few European audio companies that really put a premium on how their speakers look. It’s a given that any audio company at ISE, CEDIA, InfoComm and other trade shows are going to make speakers that sound amazing and pack a punch, but what really sets others apart from the crowd is how they look.

The Steinway-Lyngdorf booth featured some of the prettiest speakers and soundbars you’ll ever see. This booth included the company’s Model S Soundbar, FR-2 floor-standing speakers that are designed to sit against a wall, and other systems that truly look as good as they sound.

This was easily one of my favorite booth visits, and my first time seeing this company in person. I never knew speakers could look so beautiful. If your client places a premium on luxury and aesthetics, this is one brand to mention.

Continuing this trend, Italian audio company K-array continues to innovate with its Dolomite series of loudspeakers, which are essentially a compact system that integrates line arrays and subwoofers in a sleek and impressive form factor.

While not new, the company’s bendable Anakonda speaker is quite an impressive piece of technology that allows integrators to snake audio around a space or hide it amongst landscaping. Thanks to a new accessory, installers can now make an Anakonda speaker arrangement as long as about 200 feet.

And Some Beautiful Displays, Because of Course

Speaking of impressive projectors, check out Digital Projection’s new E-Vision RGB 4K+, which the company says represents a significant step forward in 1-chip projection technology. With 10,000 lumens of brightness, HDR support, and dynamic contrast ratios of up to 10,000:1, it’s a more-than-solid home theater projector.

While LG was largely focused on its commercial displays, the company did feature a handful of residential products, including the stunning and endlessly cool SIGNATURE OLED T transparent TV, the impressive MAGNIT microLED display, and its 136-inch AM microLED display tucked into a corner in the “VIP Lounge.” LG, as always, brings immersive visuals, bright colors, and the deepest blacks to its tradeshow presence.

Stay Tuned for More

Stay tuned for one more day of live ISE 2025 coverage, as well as more pieces in the days and weeks to come once I get back and sort through my notes, photos and videos.

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