Howdy folks, and welcome to the week in Playback. I got a question: when was the last time you woke up in a cold sweat thinking about DIY stealing your business? I feel like it’s a topic that garners a lot of different opinions from integrators.
You have the concerned members of the industry who say DIY products eat into professional revenues. Then there’s another set saying that the projects integrators work on are so advanced that there’s no chance DIY could ever disrupt them.
The reality, I am led to believe, is that both sides are right. Custom integration can sometimes function as a split industry. Looking at the projects we feature in our Home of the Year Awards, I don’t see those ever done by DIY; however, those represent a small portion of the projects this industry works on.
Consider this. Back when she used to write for the magazine, CE Pro founder Julie Jacobsen had a resonating take on why a client would even consider DIY in the first place.
It wasn’t because they thought they could do better. It wasn’t because they thought service at the time sucked. It was because the concept of having to interact with another party to get something they wanted sounded awful: a notion I’m sure most people share, though it’s probably focused at different industries.
Now, look at the trends in AI. What businesses are getting disrupted the most this year? Service providers. Middlemen. Positions that the public views as ‘gatekeepers’ in the way of what they want for reasons they don’t entirely understand.
I’m not saying custom integrators fit into this category, no more than builders or designers. What I am saying, though, is that the real threat of DIY might be whether prospective clients view them that way.
As always: food for thought. Now let’s see what the Playback has this week.
1. Behind the Scenes at the Triad Factory
Source: CE Pro
CE Pro Executive Editor Zachary Comeau took a tour around the Triad Speakers factory late last week to get readers a sneak peek behind the process that defines Triad’s products.
“It is a modern manufacturing facility, but it does not feel like a typical production line. The scale is modest, the team is small and the work feels deliberate. The entire operation reflects decades of experience building speakers for the custom integration market,” notes Comeau in his writeup.
“Rather than producing large volumes of inventory, the factory operates on a lean manufacturing model that follows incoming orders closely. Materials arrive several times a week from regional suppliers and production schedules are planned around the systems integrators are installing.”
As part of the tour, Comeau took a full look at all stages of the process, from initial production to the final installation in a home theater, capped off by an on-site demo room.
2. Lancaster Exits Caster
Source: CE Pro
Caster Communications announced a major shakeup in its leadership on Wednesday with Kimberly Lancaster, Founder and President of the company, announcing she would be handing off ownership to longtime business leaders Peter Girard and Alexandra (Alex) Crabb.
According to Lancaster, the transition was a move the team had been planning for a while at this point, citing the firm’s current strength as a signal that now was the right time to proceed with the leadership changes.
Effective immediately, Alexandra Crabb will assume the role of President of Caster with Peter Girard continuing as Senior Vice President.
Founder Kimberly Lancaster will remain actively involved with the firm through August 2026 to support an orderly transition of leadership, client relationships and operations. Following this transition period, Lancaster will leave Caster.
3. A Pro-Grade DIY Kit?
Source: CE Pro
Startup Bundl announced it was striking out with a very disruptive goal on Monday: taking what once required a custom integrator and thousands of dollars in labor and condensing into a DIY package installable by homeowners.
While Bundl’s kit offerings don’t go so far as to target whole-home projects for disruption, they do aim for another major component of an integrator’s business: media rooms.
According to a Bundl spokesperson, “We’re giving everyday consumers the ability to build the rooms they used to only see on YouTube tours and tech blogs. Your dream home theater, your content studio, your enterprise-level meeting room—these should be attainable, not aspirational.”
Specifics are sparse on how Bundl’s approach might capture that audience, especially as it relates to the home theater segment—as right now no explanation of process or product is available to the public on that specific category.
4. What’s Cooking in CEDIA Expo’s Kitchen
Source: CE Pro
Emerald’s Jason McGraw joined CE Pro Executive Editor Zachary Comeau and Commercial Integrator’s Dan Ferrisi for this week’s episode of the CE Pro podcast to talk about what him and the show team already have planned for CEDIA Expo and CIX 2026.
The show will be taking place September 1 – 4 in Denver, Colo. as it has in prior years, though McGraw noted that starting in 2027, the show will begin a rotating presence in various cities following feedback from attendees.
During the conversation, McGraw also gave a little bit more insight into the show’s interactive elements. These Skill Challenges, he said, will range from cable termination to rack installation intend to focus on creating more hands-on learning opportunities, which is a big focus of the show for this year.
Once again, AI is expected to be a dominant theme at the show, though conversations are likely to have shifted from a year prior as the market continues to reckon with the technology’s true impact.
