CEDIA's Important Role

We just returned from CEDIA Expo last week, and as you saw in our Sept. 6 edition, and this issue, there was plenty to see, discuss and digest in the many product introductions and strategy sessions in downtown Indianapolis.

For some it seems impossible to remember when there wasn't a CEDIA Expo to attend. Around a dozen years ago, when the show began, some industry types threw up their hands and said, “What? Another show!” But many of them were relieved when they heard the show was really for “the high-end business.”

Well, it seems that the entire industry — vendors and retailers alike — are now all in the “high-end business” in some form or another, thanks to digital technology, the predatory pricing demands of some national chains that have prematurely created more commodity product categories, and the changing taste of consumers.

More traditional specialty A/V dealers, heck, even a lot of electronics/appliance retailers of all stripes, have either gotten involved or given lip-service to the phrase “custom installation.” While their version of custom installation probably isn't the same as traditional installers, the rest of the industry is providing more service and garnering higher sales and better margins on HDTV, home theater and home networking installations.

As Mike Fidler, senior VP of the Sony Home Products Division, said during his company's CEDIA press conference, “For more than a decade, CEDIA has been the place to see the high end of home entertainment before other parts of the industry.”

CEDIA Expo has become a precursor to International CES over the past few years. Manufacturers tease us with new technology or hint at what they may be introduce during CES in January, or what they might introduce the following year.

Ray Lepper, the new president of CEDIA, noted the role of the custom installation business during informal remarks at the Panasonic press conference at the show. “Custom installation enables companies that develop technology to recoup their R&D costs. They are able to charge premium prices, make a profit and invest in new technology. Without CEDIA it would be very tough for manufacturers to invest in new technology. We like our role.”

Vendors like CEDIA's role too, as well as the retailers and installers who attend the show every year.

I booked a crack-of-dawn flight back to New York and LaGuardia Airport from CEDIA and Indianapolis this year. It was a small plane, seating three-across, and I had a window seat. It was a picture-perfect late summer day to fly. My seat was at the proper angle so Staten Island, if you can believe it, never looked so good. Then we were over the harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

It was Saturday, September 11, 2004, at around 9:00 am. It was the same kind of picture-perfect day exactly that time three years ago when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. As I flew over lower Manhattan my thoughts automatically went back to that horrific day, remembering how many of us in New York saw the events unfold right out our windows.

While the lives of most Americans have gone back to a pre-9/11 routine, we should never forget the sacrifices of those who died that day. We should also never forget, whatever you may think of the war, those in our armed forces who continue to fight and die for us today, and their families.