CE Pro: How did homeowner expectations or project demands shift in 2025?
Mark Corbin: Minimalist aesthetics are on the rise. Just look at Pantone’s 2026 color of the year: for the first time ever, it’s a shade of white. For CE pros, that means clean installation and invisible tech are paramount—while maintaining the immersive experiences your clients expect. In 2026, we anticipate the need to balance aesthetics and power with slim subwoofers and unobtrusive architectural speakers, and to keep rack rooms pristine with organized, clearly labelled cables. Every room in the home should radiate serenity, even if it’s packed floor to ceiling with cutting-edge technology.
CE Pro: Which categories surprised you in terms of growth or slowdown this year?
Corbin: I continue to be impressed with the growth potential in the hospitality vertical. Vanco has seen a striking uptick in projects for bar and restaurant clients looking to create next-level experiences with videowalls, display networks, and zoned audio. These projects hit a sweet spot for integrators that take on a mix of residential and light commercial projects. They require the same end-user-friendliness and personal touch as a residential project, while also benefiting from enterprise-grade solutions like AVoIP distribution.
CE Pro: What major product launches or acquisitions had the biggest impact in 2025?
Corbin: The launch of EVO-IP 2.0 has brought renewed attention to Vanco’s family of AVoIP solutions. We’re seeing integrators leveraging networked distribution in a much broader range of applications, including retail and hospitality projects that once primarily relied on HDBaseT matrices. As this category grows, there’s appetite for tiered solutions that will give integrators AVoIP options for projects ranging from simple to very complex.
CE Pro: What trend or technology failed to gain traction despite early interest?
Corbin: Wi-Fi video distribution remains a relatively niche area. Sometimes, wireless delivery is the only way to solve a design problem, and we offer solutions that allow integrators to do just that. Still, despite the overall trend toward minimalist aesthetics, there’s simply no beating the reliability, quality, and longevity of high-quality copper cabling.
CE Pro: How did collaboration with builders, designers, or architects change this year?
Corbin: Home and MDU designs are adapting to the realities of remote work and connected life. Builders are proactively planning structured wiring to support the proliferation of connected devices with high bandwidth demands. Thanks to the rising popularity of automated shading, low-power lighting, home theaters, and installed audio, the importance of technology to overall home design is better understood than ever by builders and designers. Custom integrators with strong allied trade relationships are getting the access they need to make sure rack location and cooling, electrical load, and cable conduit needs are considered in the early planning stages of a custom build.
CE Pro: What lessons from 2025 should the industry carry into 2026?
Corbin: The most important lesson is an old one: infrastructure is destiny. Investing in a robust wiring backbone with plenty of headroom will allow clients to achieve the minimalist aesthetic they want and the high-quality experience they demand. With HDMI 2.2 products hitting the market in 2026, it will be especially important to ensure your clients have a certified cable foundation they can build on for the next few years. Resolutions, frame rates, and bandwidth are going nowhere but up, and no system can ever be better than the cables that connect its components.
