In the year-and-a-half that I’ve been on the CE Pro team, I’ve heard a lot from manufacturers, integrators and their customers about the demand for smart home and home entertainment solutions that don’t look like smart home and home entertainment solutions.

This, of course, is a difficult ask, and one that integrators often cite when submitting case studies or projects to the CE Pro Home of the Year Awards.

However, the industry appears ready to meet that demand with new, innovative solutions that are really designed to create an experience rather than achieve the typical “Wow” effect associated with huge video walls and oversized speakers. In the months and weeks leading up to CEDIA Expo 2024, CE Pro was bombarded with news of new products that aim to help integrators achieve that goal, and we took note when we saw these products in Denver.

CEDIA Expo 2024 was one of the prettiest smart home trade shows. Here are some of the products and technologies that we think will set the trend for design-forward products in the custom home installation market.

Samsung The Frame and Music Frame

Samsung’s the Frame has largely stood in its own class for a number of years. The lifestyle TV is really designed to blend into a home thanks to its glare-free screen and art mode that turns the TV into work of art. Samsung feels comfortably ahead of its new competition, but also welcomes the competition, as it drives the company to keep iterating, says Tim Waldoch, national product trainer for Samsung’s home entertainment division.

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“The advantage we have is this is our sixth iteration of The Frame,” Waldoch says. “We’ve learned how to make it better year after year, so think they still have some time before they get to this level.”

Samsung was also showing off its new Music Frame, which is essentially a framed smart speaker designed to look like a piece of part. Up to two speakers can be paired with The Frame or other TVs, or can standalone as a single speaker or paired with up to six other speakers.

TCL, Skyworth debut The Frame competitors

TCL and Skyworth debuted their versions of framed art TVs that directly compete with The Frame. TCL had the Nxtframe, while Skyworth had its C1 Canvas Art TV on display. Skyworth Sales Director Mike Gleason on the CEDIA Expo show floor hinted that this style of TV will be a growing trend.

“Samsung has created a vialbe market for this, but there’s room for a lot more players in the market,” Gleason says. “People are hungry for it, and not just a box that shows sports everyday. They’re hungry for art in their house and don’t want to spend whatever it costs to put the Mona Lisa in their house.”

While display manufacturers like Sony and LG don’thave their own direct competitor to The Frame, they do partner with third-party manufacturers on TV framing solutions. For example, Sony’s Bravia TVs featuring the Studio Frame from Leon Speakers were on display at both the Sony and Leon Speakers booth.

Leon Speakers makes other TV framing solutions for Sony, LG, others

Both Sony and Leon were showcasing the new Studio Frame for Sony Bravia 7, building on the success of Leon’s frame solution for the Sony Bravia XR. The updated version includes two new sizes and features, including an onboard IR receiver, updates to the Sony Art Gallery App, and cam-lock mitered corners for better stability.

JT Austin, product training and customer engagement manager at Sony, says the partnership with Leon brings what the company believes is a premium TV model to customers looking for a lifestyle TV with art mode capabilities to the market without sacrificing on viewing quality.

“With the partnership with Leon Speakers, we really deliver a high-quality product that we believe stands on its own,” Austin says.

Similar to Sony, LG isn’t making its own direct competitor to the Frame, but the company also cites Leon Speakers as a partner, as Leon also debuted its new Edge Flex Frame for any slim-profile TV.

Caitlin Stewart, Leon’s residential sales development manager, says the Edge Flex Frame will fit over 700 leading TV models.

“These  new QLEDs and OLEDs coming out are thinner art-forward displays,” Stewart says. “The issue is that there aren’t a lot of framing options for those displays.”

Integrators can differentiate themselves in the market by now offering a framing solution from Leon for any TV they install, Steward adds.

WALL-SMART’s custom mounting solutions

It’s not just TVs that integrators want to blend into a home’s design. Essentially everything else being mounted on a wall needs to blend in with the home, and that’s where WALL-SMART comes in.

The company has sleek flush mounting solutions for a huge range of smart home products, including Sonos Arc Soundbars, Ring devices, Josh.ai panels, and more. One highlight of CEDIA Expo 2024 for the company was a new mount for Apple’s newest 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro and iPad Air models.

The mounts feature an optional Ethernet adapter on both new and legacy iPad mounts for network connectivity, enabling integrators to incorporate iPads into home control ecosystems.

Crestron’s video wall solutions from Ventara Design

In the Crestron booth, the global smart home company showcased video wall solutions from Ventara Design. Michael Short explained that integrators can configure the Ventara video wall products in a choice of shapes to meet whatever client expectations they encounter, and the customized video walls can be combined with Blackdove Digital Art. Together these solutions he added can be integrated into a Crestron Home system. 

RTI Customizable Keypad Engraving

Keypads don’t have to be the same ol’, same ol’ boring white and off-white colors. RTI displayed how integrators can make a fun keypad with custom-engraved icons to represent room activities to control.

Using its RTI Laser Shark engraving, the controls company facilitates features like music, climate, lighting, shades, and other subsystems with easy-to-recognize graphics and colorfully backlit 2-, 4-, and 8-button keypads.

“You can design them however you want to design them. You can program them just like any other keypad,” notes RTI’s Neal Ellsworth. “You can simplify it for residential or commercial.”

LIghting and Controls from Coastal Source and Lutron

The folks at Coastal Source staged a compelling booth at Destination Outdoors again this year, where they highlighted the versatility of the new EVO lighting product.

The modularity, which includes custom design capabilities for the interchangeable hats, of the lighting assists dealers and designers to effectively elevate a home’s wow factor as one application.

Layers of light that can be created to spotlight design and safety elements include hanging lights, uplights, downlights, path lights, and accent lights.

An engaging demo illustrated how integrators can create a warm and elegant solution that illuminates full coverage outdoors and elevates the aesthetics at the front door, the steps, pergolas, flora, and more.

“It’s a conversation you have indoors, but it’s one we want you to have outdoors too,” Coastal Source’s Pete Sepesi says of outdoor lighting. “There’s a lot of customization, we’ve really added a lot of artistic elements to the EVO because the fixtures that you see we want them to be beautiful.”

Besides Wall-Smart, Lutron was the company that arguably showed the widest capability of blending in its on-wall control devices with their surroundings.

A prominent display in their booth showed Lutron’s vast options for finish styles and colors that make even the simplest of switch designs disappear on the wall – as well as new metal finishes such as brushed nickel and graphite for adding some aesthetic flair.

Smart locks from Level Home and Alfred

Several new smart lock companies were also showcasing sleek-looking devices on the show floor. This included Level Home, which made its CEDIA Expo debut with a new line of locks designed for the custom installation market.

These Installer Editions Lock, the Level Bolt and Level Lock+, includes Zigbee native configuration options to offer installers a choice of installer-friendly smart locks. However, what makes these smart locks stand out is that they aren’t big and bulky and really look like regular locks.

“We’re the most elegant, we’re the most discreet,” Level Home Vice President of Sales Eric Water says about the company’s locks. “We disappear into the door. It’s a perfect match for the homes this channel services.”

Meanwhile, another CEDIA Expo newcomer Alfred International was highlighting its DB2S with a built-in RFID card reader and Z-Wave Long Range (ZWLR). The locks come in Black Chrome or Satin Nickel bezel with an illuminated touch screen.

Audio systems from Sonos, Origin Acoustics, Bang & Olufsen, and Waterfall Audio get better looking

Some of the most unsightly pieces of home technology are audio systems, since the most robust loudspeakers have a tendency to be large black rectangular objects. However, the market is adjusting to make products that seamlessly blend into walls and other architectural elements.

In addition to showing off the Era 100 Pro speaker, Sonos displayed its line of Sonos Architectural speakers, which are now available in an 8-inch in-ceiling design. These speakers can be integrated with a whole-home Sonos system when paired with the Sonos Amp.

Origin Acoustics‘ booth was full of powerful audio, including its new BLENDS Invisible Speaker series that can be installed in walls or ceilings. The three speaker models include an 8” 3-way speaker, an 8” 2-way speaker, a 6” 2-way speaker with larger tapered edge panels that install direct-to-stud ready for prefilling, taping and filling.

For outdoor audio, Origin Acoustics highlighted its Ambisonic Systems brand’s new collection of  luxury honeycomb-shaped landscape speakers to complement its Hexagonal Bollards. If you happened to walk by the booth during a demo, these would surely impress you with their power while blending in with the booth’s landscape design. The company even had speakers built into functioning planters with LED lighting built in.

Speaking of sleek-looking audio systems, Included this year in the Origin Acoustics booth was Bang & Olufsen, which was showcasing its new Beolink Surround technology that is designed to allow thee company’s design-froward flexible living portfolio products to be integrated with the BeoSound Theater line of equally beautiful speakers. This will enable users to use the flexible living products as front, side, or surround speakers, creating a more immersive audio experience.

Talk about a design-friendly and showstopper of a loudspeaker. Waterfall Audio’s flagship Niagara XT1, XT2, and XT3 drew rave reviews at ISE 2024 in Europe and the French company is now targeting the North American custom integration market.

The stunningly designed floorstanding speakers are precision-crafted from top to bottom with a solid-constructed wood horn tweeter and oiled natural beech finish at the top, glass cabinet, and luxurious leather-wrapped base.

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