1. The Case for a Home Integrator
Source: The Case for a Home Integration Professional
A while back, around the time current CEDIA CEO Daryl Friedman announced he would be retiring from the position in 2027, I had made note of how much momentum Friedman built for the channel to make CEDIA (and by extension the professionals associated with CEDIA) a household name. I wanted to return to that this week to clarify that it’s not just Friedman building momentum for the custom integration (CI) channel: the housing market is making its own case for a home integrator job title.
Technology has become a core part of the American home—you’ve heard the deal; the big takeaway is that rather than hitting a certain inflection point and then stopping, technology adoption, especially by the higher-mid-tier and luxury markets, has continued at a steady clip.
One area this can be seen the most clearly is the adoption of solar and, by consequence, solar batteries. This has been in direct response to the increasing pressure of utility bills across the U.S., which, as improvements to the overall energy infrastructure have lagged, have caused homeowners to take back control in whatever ways they can.
The interesting bit is that smart home services do seem to be dropping into lower tiers rather than being relegated exclusively to ultra-luxury, meaning that in addition to technology adoption broadening, the number of serviceable homes is too.
Why integrators should take notice
In recent years, CE Pro has seen the development of what’s being called a “do-it-for-me” market. In brief terms, it’s essentially a mid-to-high-end market where integrators seem to largely be selling the cost of ownership for developing, installing and servicing systems rather than selling the products (which could be classed as “DIY”).
I brought this up a while ago relating to blind listening tests and how the fact that some consumer-grade products come close to professional-grade reinforces the value of integrators there. The reality was that when it came to the performance of those products, knowledge and expertise in audio setups played a heavy role in how those systems ended up performing. A professionally assembled budget setup would thrash a novice’s build of all the top-rated gear.
While integrator-exclusive gear often sports a hefty price tag, there’s a reality behind the exclusivity that goes beyond preserving the luxury value: manufacturers do it to make sure that their product is performing optimally in the way that it was intended.
In trying to legitimize home integrators, technology integrators, whatever the official title ends up being, Friedman was asserting that all the technology systems in modern homes, from the TVs to the lights to the AC to the solar panels, needs someone to own them to make sure they run efficiently and seamlessly.
2. Bose Buys StreamUnlimited
There’s been a rash of consolidation across many of the audio brands over the years, and while the HARMAN purchase of the Sound United brands still sets fresh in my mind, Bose continues to be one of those companies that keeps popping up on my radar from time to time in ways that I never usually expect it to.
The company had sold off its professional division back in 2023, at which point, I thought that was the brand’s final exit from the CI channel. Then, in 2024, the company bough McIntosh Group, which included luxury audio brands like McIntosh and Sonus faber, two brands that are commonly associated with professional integration.
Now, the company has announced it will be acquiring StreamUnlimited: a developer of software solutions, hardware modules and engineering services for connected audio and IoT products.
It also happens to serve manufacturers across consumer electronics, smart home technology, high-performance audio and products sold through the custom integration channel.
Why integrators should take notice
Despite sending a clear message Bose wanted nothing to do anything with professional installation three years ago, the company can’t help but keep buying up manufacturers and developers that still, at least in some way, have ties to the custom integration channel. I think the devil is in those details.
Looking at the offerings Bose Professional had, the lion’s share of them mostly pertained to commercial AV. That’s not to say they couldn’t end up in homes at some point (there’s plenty of crossover between commercial and residential at the luxury level), but for the most part, the offerings from Bose Professional were distinctly Pro AV.
In hindsight, the move seems to be more like Bose wanted to get away from commercial to focus on home audio a lot more. And if the recent purchases are anything to go by, what it really wants to do is start focusing on the premium home audio market, something that Bose hasn’t historically been known for.
Does this mean it might start trying to kindle a new relationship with the custom integration channel? Hard to say. There are plenty of stories out there about established brands making inroads to CI just because of the profit potential they saw in the channel, and there’s nothing stopping Bose from coming to that realization themselves.
For now, it seems that Bose will at the very least remain tangentially connected to the channel.
The Week in Playback is CE Pro’s weekly recap segment providing extra opinions and analysis on major news stories from across the custom integration (CI) and smart home industries, focusing on recent and breaking stories ranked on importance and interest to the professional install channel. Any opinions expressed here do not reflect the opinions of other editors or that of CE Pro as a whole.
