What CUMULUS enables for access management

As CUMULUS expands into door environments, Abloy states access points can now be managed remotely through a single system.

Battery-powered operation enables a real-time clock and advanced smart features in the locking devices. Access events, device status, and environmental data are securely recorded in the system.

This, according to Abloy, enhances traceability, helps protect access rights from unauthorized modification or misuse and allows a step into a more connected world.

The cylinder solution is meant to serve as an extension of the CUMULUS platform, supporting flexible management through ASSA ABLOY Access or partner software, while also enabling retrofit upgrades that make use of existing ABLOY locking systems.

According to Abloy, the new cylinder range is especially suited to demanding outdoor applications, where reliability, security, and manageability of access are key requirements.

Why integrators should take note

Digital access management is becoming increasingly popular even outside of commercial settings, with solutions like DoorBird becoming quite the common fixture in many residential security systems. However, simply securing the front gate is rarely enough. These systems need to be digitally secure with the information they store while also being convenient to use by the people that are supposed to have access.

The CUMULUS platform combines secure credential technology, a mobile application and battery-powered devices in a single solution, bringing keyless access capabilities to physical door hardware. For integrators looking to create a seamless access management interaction with their clients, keyless offers plenty of opportunity.

The post Abloy’s CUMULUS Keyless Entry System Expands into Doors appeared first on CEPRO.

• Ring announced its first smart lock, which it says can be recharged by hand with a built-in power dial if the battery dies.
• According to Ring, the lock offers fingerprint, keypad, app, and Alexa entry, connects over Amazon Sidewalk, and arrives in the U.S. in early 2027.
• Ring also announced four Retinal Vision 4K cameras, including a PoE option and its first indoor 4K model, plus a Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K.

Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company, early next year is launching the Ring Smart Lock, its first smart lock that includes a hand-operated power dial that can recharge its battery if it runs down.

Ring also announced five new cameras: four models in its Retinal Vision 4K line, with power options the company says range from battery to Power over Ethernet (PoE), and a Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K.

Hand-Powered Backup Dial

Ring says a common drawback of smart locks is that they stop working when the battery dies. The company describes the lock’s built-in power dial as a first-of-its-kind feature. According to Ring, turning the dial several times restores power, removing the need for a backup key or spare battery.

“Almost everything in our lives today is digital, yet we still carry around little pieces of metal in our pockets,” says Jamie Siminoff, Ring founder and chief inventor. “That’s because of smart lock anxiety. A lock has to work every time, and until now, a dead battery could leave you locked out of your own home.”

According to Ring, the lock supports four keyless entry methods: a fingerprint reader, a backlit touchscreen keypad, the Ring app, and Alexa voice control.

Scheduled Access and Sidewalk Connectivity

Ring says users will be able to check and lock the door remotely through the Ring app, and set rules for who can enter, by which method, and when access expires. The company’s example is a dog walker permitted to enter every Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m.

According to Ring, the lock connects via Amazon Sidewalk, a shared network powered by nearby Amazon devices, rather than home Wi-Fi. Ring states that remote locking, status updates, and PIN syncing run over Sidewalk, while unlocking is handled on the device itself. Ring’s disclosures note that Sidewalk coverage varies by location and is subject to change.

Ring and Alexa Integration

Ring says the lock will work with its doorbells, cameras, and alarm systems, and that lock activity will appear in the Ring app’s activity feed. The company also lists voice control through Echo devices and Alexa.

According to Ring, the lock fits a standard single-cylinder deadbolt and requires no additional wiring.

Ring says the lock will be available in the U.S. in early 2027 in black, silver, and brass finishes. Pricing was not announced. Ring’s disclosures state that the lock has not yet been authorized by the FCC and cannot be offered for sale or lease until it is.

Retinal Vision 4K Lineup

Ring introduced Retinal Vision 4K last year and is now extending it to four cameras. According to Ring, each has a wide-angle view and what the company calls true-color low-light performance. The lineup includes a PoE option and Ring’s first indoor 4K camera.

Ring says the Outdoor, Spotlight, and Floodlight Cam 4K Plus models are available for preorder in the U.S. as of Oct. 8, and the Indoor Cam 4K is available to purchase in the U.S. now.

Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K

Ring’s new Pan-Tilt camera can be mounted to a surface or placed on a table or counter. Image/Ring

Ring says the Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K is designed to address a limitation of fixed cameras: subjects moving out of frame. According to the company, it pans 360 degrees and tilts 175 degrees, following motion automatically.

Ring lists 2K video, computer vision–based motion detection, and a physical privacy shutter that the company says disables both the camera and microphone when closed. The camera is available to purchase in the U.S. now, according to Ring.

International Availability

According to Ring, all five cameras are also open for preorder in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Belgium. Additional markets vary by model: Sweden for the Outdoor, Spotlight, and Floodlight models; Japan for the Outdoor Cam 4K Plus; and Australia and New Zealand for the Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K. Ring directs customers to their local Amazon site for regional pricing.

The post Ring Unveils Hand-Rechargeable Smart Lock, Expands 4K Camera Lineup appeared first on CEPRO.

Redfin report focuses on top three most important housing amenities

This report is based on a survey conducted by Ipsos in May 2026, fielded to 4,000 U.S. residents. This report focuses on the roughly 1,000 respondents who are planning to move within the next 12 months.

The report focuses on the question: When thinking about the next home you live in, what are the top 3 most important housing amenities you’re looking for? Respondents could select 3 from 22 options.

36% of homebuyers looking for ‘high-end’ water and air filtration

Security systems pulled the top spot at being the most sought-after amenity with 38% of respondents putting it in their top three. Closing right behind it at 36%, however, were high-end air and water filtration systems, though, statistically, they are both equally weighted in this report (meaning they both rank as the number one most sought after feature, according to Redfin).

In fact, clean homes and security systems outrank every other feature by a longshot.  Views come in with one-quarter (25%) of prospective buyers saying they’re a top priority, followed by smart-home technology/automation (20%).

Backup power generation–such as solar panels or generators–round out the top five, with 19% of house hunters ranking it as a top-three priority among 22 housing amenities.

If you take a peak right below that, however, a house with a good layout for entertaining comes in at 17% alongside a covered outdoor patio, two areas of a home integrators are well equipped to, well, equip.

Wildfire smoke puts spotlight on air quality in new homes

Unsurprisingly—and unfortunately—a big reason as to why homebuyers are eyeballing better filtration systems is due to the prevalent wildfires across the US. It’s not just relegated to the Western U.S. anymore, either. As of this year, many of the biggest homebuying markets for integrators are suffering from wildfire smoke.

Smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires blanketed much of the eastern half of the U.S. last week, while more than 100 million people across eighteen states and Washington, D.C. were under air quality alerts as of July 17. Parts of Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan recording the worst air quality in the nation. New York and much of New England are also experiencing unhealthy air.

“As wildfire smoke becomes more common, filtered indoor air is becoming a must-have rather than a nice-to-have,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “Homebuyers are already looking for homes that can protect their families during smoke events. And I expect that in the near future, buyers searching for single-family homes will also be looking for larger homes with versatile indoor space, where they can entertain themselves when smoke forces them inside. House hunters looking for condos may prioritize indoor amenity spaces, like gyms or event rooms.”

Younger generations more interested in future-forward tech

Younger generations in general—the likes of whom will begin to increasingly make up the bulk of homebuyers—are more focused on high-tech upgrades that can offer resiliency and protection in the wake of increasingly uncertain environmental and economic conditions.

Nearly two in five (37%) millennial house hunters say a clean home, i.e. one with water or air filtration systems, is a top-three priority for their next home, putting it at number one (tied with security systems). Backup power generation (20%) and climate-resilient upgrades (15%) are also in the top 10 for millennials.

An even higher share of Gen Zers, 40%, rank clean homes as a top priority. It’s topped only by security systems (42%).

Clean homes are also important for Gen Xers, with 25% saying it’s a top priority, ranking after security systems (32%).

For baby boomers, views are at the top of the list (47% rank them as a top priority)–but clean homes do come in third (35%), after security systems (40%).

Why integrators should take note

One trend CE Pro has been keeping its eye on has been that of increasing natural disasters and their subsequent fallout for integrators and their clients. For years, wildfires have consistently been making headlines due to the damage and smoke put out by these catastrophes, and the American public have become increasingly aware of the dangers that the smoke alone can pose.

Considering that wildfire smoke has become an annual fixture across much of the U.S., it is likely that demand for home air filtration systems will only continue to rise as time goes on, giving integrators offering these types of solutions an opportunity to further upsell systems.

Additionally, the fact that of the top 10 most sought-after housing amenities, seven consist of solutions that integrators can provide today continues the trend of home technology being the more valued amenity among homebuyers.

The post Wildfires Push House Hunters Towards Whole-Home Air Filtration, Per Redfin Report appeared first on CEPRO.

Manny Marroquin and I met when we were young second engineers coming up in the Los Angeles recording-studio scene. Manny was at Enterprise Studios, I was at Encore Studios both in Burbank, CA. , and neither of us could have predicted where our careers would eventually take us.

We were both learning our craft in an era of large commercial studios, SSL consoles and sessions that could run around the clock. You learned quickly that signal flow mattered, reliability mattered, and when a room was full of people and the clock was running, the equipment simply had to work.

Manny stayed behind the console and went on to have the kind of career very few engineers ever achieve. His work has touched nearly 250 million albums worldwide, with more than 40 No. 1 albums, 100 Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 and 18 Grammy Awards.

My path went in a different direction. I spent about 12 years working professionally with major artists in recording studios before my career began to evolve beyond the control room. During those years and as large format studios were starting to diminish, I saw a need among many of the artists and producers I worked with for car audio systems that could deliver something closer to the listening experience they were accustomed to in the studio.

That led me into designing and building studio-grade automotive audio systems for music-industry clients. In many ways, it was my first step into systems integration: taking what I understood about critical listening, signal flow and professional audio and applying it in an entirely different environment.

From there, my work eventually expanded into residential technology and the broader world of systems integration. Over time, CW Technologies grew into the company it is today, designing and integrating AV, automation, networking, lighting, security and control systems.

More than three decades after Manny and I first met, those two paths came back together at Larrabee Studios which he now owned.

And I’ve learned that working for a friend—especially a friend with extremely high standards—brings its own set of challenges.

Friendship Doesn’t Replace the Job

There are obvious advantages to working with someone you’ve known for decades. There’s trust. There’s history. Communication can be much more direct because neither person has to spend months figuring out how the other thinks.

But friendship doesn’t eliminate the responsibilities that come with a commercial project. If anything, I think it raises them.

You still have budgets. You still have deadlines. You still have architects, designers, manufacturers, subcontractors and other trades. Decisions have consequences, and somebody ultimately has to be responsible for making the technology work. When you’re the integrator, that’s our job.

Working with a friend also means knowing when to separate the friendship from the project. There are times when you have to say, “I don’t think we should do it that way,” or explain why something that sounds simple has much larger implications once you consider networking, control, signal flow, serviceability or reliability.

The benefit of a long relationship is that those conversations can happen honestly. Manny knows that I’m going to tell him what I think. And I know that when it comes to sound, I’m working with someone who has spent his entire adult life listening critically at an extraordinarily high level.

That makes for an interesting client-integrator relationship.

We Still Speak the Same Language

One of the things that makes these projects unusual is that Manny and I still share the language of sound and the recording studio.

I don’t have to explain why signal flow matters. I don’t have to convince him that the last few percent of performance can matter. And neither of us believes that a piece of equipment is automatically right for a project because it has impressive specifications or a great reputation.

Eventually, you have to listen to it. That philosophy has stayed with me throughout my integration career.

At CW Technologies, we don’t select every loudspeaker from the same manufacturer simply because it’s a brand we like. We look at the application, the room and what we’re trying to accomplish. Then we listen. The current Larrabee expansion is a good example.

The project adds three independent long-term artist recording suites, bringing Larrabee to nine studios. The same building also incorporates a new Private Dining Room serving Verse LA, while Mensano, Manny’s new European-inspired restaurant and wine bar, is located between Larrabee Studios and Verse.

These spaces are physically and creatively connected, but they don’t all need the same technology. That’s where the integration work gets interesting.

Designing for the Person in the Room

The three new Larrabee artist suites are intended for long-term occupancy. An artist or production team might live with these rooms for an extended period of time. That influenced one of our biggest control decisions.

We deliberately chose Crestron Home for the artist suites. Could we have built a fully custom Crestron system? Absolutely. But that wasn’t necessarily the right answer for the people who would actually be using these spaces.

I wanted an artist to be able to walk into a suite, understand the interface immediately and make normal adjustments to audio and lighting scenes without calling an engineer or asking someone from the studio how the room works.

That’s something my recording background probably influences more than I realized earlier in my integration career.

Technology people naturally get excited about what a system can do. Users usually care about how easily they can make it do what they want. Those are two very different things.

Crestron TSW-1070 touchscreens provide the user interface in the suites, but there’s considerably more happening behind them.

Crestron DM NAX provides the backbone of the distributed audio system, with DM-NAX-8SZA streaming amplifiers and DM-NAX-4ZSP processors providing networked audio distribution. DM-NAX-XLR-IO interfaces give us professional balanced connections where the Crestron system needs to interact with professional audio equipment.

Sonance 70v architectural pendants provide distributed audio throughout the common areas.

The infrastructure is sophisticated. The experience isn’t supposed to be. To me, that’s good integration.

One Project Doesn’t Mean One Audio Solution

The Verse LA Private Dining Room is located in the same new building, but its requirements are different from the artist suites.

For the PDR, we integrated Focal Utopia loudspeakers with Crestron AV and lighting control. That means we’re using Sonance in the Larrabee common areas, Focal in the Verse PDR and Meyer Sound at Mensano.

I like that because it demonstrates something we believe pretty strongly at CW Technologies: there isn’t one speaker that’s right for every room. Selecting the loudspeaker is also only part of the job.

We routinely incorporate DSP and system tuning into our audio projects. A loudspeaker doesn’t operate on a specification sheet. It operates in a room, and the room gets a vote.

My recording career permanently shaped the way I think about that. Engineering matters. Specifications matter. Product design matters. But after everything is installed, processed and tuned, I still want to stand in the room, close my eyes and listen.

When Your Client Really Knows Audio

There is another side to working with Manny that probably isn’t typical of most commercial integration projects.

You aren’t going to bluff your way through an audio conversation with an 18-time Grammy-winning mix engineer. And for me, luckily I’ve never based any of my companies on being a salesman, but on actual real life performance. That’s actually something I enjoy about these projects.

We can have conversations about sound without getting caught up in marketing language. If something sounds good, it sounds good. If something isn’t right, we keep working on it and figure out the solution.

Manny also has a longstanding relationship with Meyer Sound, and that relationship has played an important role in his hospitality projects.

Verse LA is home to a rare restaurant installation of Meyer Sound’s Constellation acoustic system. Forbes highlighted Verse in its Best of 2023 coverage as an “L.A. Can’t-Miss Spot,” and sound is clearly part of the restaurant’s identity.

With Mensano, Manny again collaborated directly with Meyer Sound, which helped develop the Meyer loudspeaker solution for the venue.

That established a natural division of expertise on the project. Manny and Meyer brought their relationship and shared approach to the loudspeaker system, while CW Technologies focused on integrating that solution into the larger AV, control, DSP and network infrastructure.

Our responsibility was to make all of those technologies work together as one cohesive system. To me, that’s what integration really means.

Making Different Ecosystems Work Together

Mensano is a commercial restaurant, so we approached its control system differently from the Larrabee artist suites. Instead of Crestron Home, we designed Mensano around a Crestron CP4 processor with custom SIMPL programming.

Crestron DM NAX provides networked audio functionality, with a DM-NAX-4ZSP and DM-NAX-XLR-IO providing professional connectivity, including multiple dedicated DJ inputs.

The audio system combines Meyer Sound UP-4slim loudspeakers, MM-10XP subwoofers, MPS-488 power supplies and GALAXY 8/16 DSP processing with a Q-SYS Core 8 Flex for signal management.

That gave us Crestron, Q-SYS and Meyer Sound technologies that all needed to operate as one system.

Rather than trying to force everything into one manufacturer’s ecosystem, we used networked audio—including Dante, AES67 and AVB where appropriate—to bridge those environments.

That’s the part of integration the customer shouldn’t have to think about. Restaurant staff shouldn’t need to know which protocol is carrying audio across the network or which processor is handling a particular function. They should press the button they need on a keypad or touchpanel and have the right thing happen.

Again, sophisticated infrastructure and simple operation.

Lighting Is Part of the Experience, Too

Audio gets a lot of attention on a project involving Manny, and understandably so, but lighting has been equally important to these spaces.

We integrated DMF Artafex architectural lighting throughout the three new Larrabee studios and the Verse Private Dining Room, controlled through Crestron CLX-2DIMU8 universal dimming modules and Horizon 2 keypads.

At Mensano, we also integrated DMF architectural lighting with Crestron control, allowing scenes to change the character of the restaurant as it transitions from daytime into dinner and evening service.

I tend to think about lighting similarly to audio. When it’s done well, most people aren’t thinking about the technology. They’re responding to how the room feels.

For an artist spending long days or weeks in a studio, that matters. For someone having dinner at Mensano or attending a private dinner at Verse, it matters there too.

The Part Nobody Sees

Some of the most important work we’ve done across these projects will never be noticed by an artist or restaurant guest. And that’s probably a good thing.

CW Technologies designed and deployed the wired and wireless network infrastructure supporting both the Larrabee Suites building and Mensano. Today that network isn’t just providing Wi-Fi. It’s carrying or supporting AV, networked audio, control, security and other operational systems. DM NAX and AES67 depend on it, as do many of the connected devices throughout the properties.

We also deployed IP surveillance across the properties and a cloud-managed ProdataKey access-control system at Larrabee.

Security at a facility like Larrabee has requirements that go beyond a typical commercial space. High-profile artists will be working there, and unreleased recordings and other intellectual property will exist inside those rooms long before the public ever knows about them.

So networking, AV, control and security can’t really be treated as isolated scopes anymore. They’re layers of the same system. That’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen since my recording days.

What Working With a Friend Has Taught Me

I’ve worked with Manny on more than one project now, and I think the biggest lesson is that friendship can make a project better—but only if you still treat the work professionally. The history helps. The trust helps. Being able to communicate directly definitely helps, but your friend is still your client.

He has a business to operate, a budget to manage and expectations for what you’re delivering. You still have to document the system, coordinate with other trades, solve problems and stand behind the finished product.

Sometimes you have to disagree, but I actually think that’s where the trust becomes most valuable.

A good client relationship isn’t one where you say yes to everything. It’s one where both sides understand that everyone is trying to get to the best result.

Manny and I started our careers on the same side of an SSL console. He stayed there and reached a level in the recording industry that very few people ever will.

I eventually moved to a different side of technology, but I carried a lot of what I learned in those studios with me. Signal flow still matters. Reliability still matters. The experience of the person in the room still matters, but at the end of the day, you still have to listen.

More than three decades after we were young second engineers trying to build careers in Los Angeles recording studios, Manny and I are working together again—but in very different roles.

Today, one of those young engineers owns Larrabee Studios. The other is helping engineer the technology behind its next chapter.

Carlos Warlick is president and founder of CW Technologies, Inc., a Los Angeles-area technology integration firm specializing in high-performance residential and commercial AV, automation, networking, lighting and security systems.

The post When the Client Is a Friend: Building the Next Chapter at Larrabee Studios appeared first on CEPRO.

Home of the Year Project Profile

• Name & Location: Pinnacle 2, Park City, Utah
• Integrator: Nerve, Park City, Utah
• Award: 2026 Home of the Year, Best Whole House/Smart Home Over $1 Million

The most impressive technology is often the kind you never notice. Pinnacle 2, an 18,000-square-foot luxury residence by Park City, Utah-based Nerve, proves that thoughtful integration can elevate architecture, wellness, and everyday living without ever drawing attention to itself.

Automation responds to the motion of daily life at Pinnacle 2

More than 770 connected devices run through a unified Crestron platform that manages lighting, motorized shading, distributed audio and video, climate, security, networking, entertainment, and outdoor living. Yet the home rarely asks its owners to touch a screen. Instead, it responds automatically to daylight, occupancy, time of day, and homeowner preferences. Sensors, schedules, and automated scenes create a largely hands-free experience, with personalized interfaces available whenever manual control is desired.

Making so much technology virtually invisible was the project’s greatest challenge. Nerve worked alongside the architect, interior designer, lighting designer, structural engineers, builder, and specialty consultants from the earliest phases of construction, ensuring every system was built into the architecture rather than added after the fact. Rather than designing around products, the team let the homeowners’ lifestyle guide every decision.

Custom shade pockets accommodate trapezoidal window shapes

The windows alone presented a remarkable engineering feat. The home features 167 uniquely shaped openings, including curved, trapezoidal, and canted designs. Every motorized shade was individually engineered and concealed in custom recessed pockets built into the structure and tongue-and-groove ceiling details. The result is uninterrupted sightlines paired with precise daylight control, privacy, and energy efficiency.

The same discipline shows up throughout the home. Hidden infrastructure, trimless light fixtures, discreet loudspeakers, and sleek metal and glass keypad faceplates preserve the clean, modern aesthetic. Custom-engraved keypads and touchpanels feature highly personalized labeling that makes operation intuitive and reflects the owners’ personalities, including playful touches like a “Strike” button in the bowling alley.

Relaxation principles guide both wellness and entertainment systems

Wellness was a guiding principle. Circadian lighting in the primary suite automatically adjusts color temperature and intensity throughout the day to support healthier sleep and wake cycles, while daylight-responsive shading enhances comfort, preserves views, and reduces solar heat gain.

When it’s time to play, Pinnacle 2 delivers. Dynamic RGB lighting transforms the recreation wing, which includes the bowling alley and a golf simulator. The crown jewel is a reference-level private cinema calibrated to RP22 standards. Delivering it required close collaboration among specialty consultants to integrate commercial-grade projection, immersive audio, and advanced acoustic isolation without compromising the interior design.

This project is part of our coverage for the 2026 CE Pro Home of the Year Awards. Presented annually at CEDIA Expo alongside the BEST Product Awards, the Home of the Year Awards represent the best of the best smart home innovations within the CEDIA channel. Check to see when the next submission window is open in case you have a project you would like to submit and don’t want to miss your opportunity.

The post Pinnacle 2: Technology That Disappears into the Architecture appeared first on CEPRO.

Editor’s Note: This article explores an ongoing ADI investment in design and professional services for integrators. Interviews took place at the ADI AVIS event in Boston last month.

A few years ago, if you asked most people what an AV or security distributor does, they might have said, “Pick, pack and ship.” For today’s value-added distributors, however, the boxes are only the beginning.

Scott Normand, sales engineering senior director at ADI, runs a department built on exactly that premise.

For Normand, ADI’s real added value lies in the services that it layers on top of distribution. The company’s goal, he says, is to help simplify an integrator’s day-to-day work and make the integrator’s business more profitable.

Normand’s organization spans four groups: commercial sales engineering, residential sales engineering, design services and professional services. The last — a paid programming offering — arguably represents ADI’s most impactful integrator-enablement effort yet.

The case for ADI Professional Services

The case for ADI’s range of design and professional services is built on how unforgiving integration work can be.

“As I always say, the AV industry is one of the hardest industries to be in,” Normand acknowledges. “I mean, not just crawling through attics, but one little connector being pinned wrong can drive you crazy, can crash a job, all those things.”

The bigger problem, Normand says, is a lack of qualified, trained people. Industry analysis continues to point to the difficulty that integrators have finding knowledgeable, certified installers and field technicians. With very few college courses — let alone majors or minors — built for the AV industry, the labor pool remains uncomfortably constricted.

In building out its services offering, ADI has created an integrator-enablement resource to help fill that gap. It’s an antidote to the fact that there’s seemingly plenty of work out there, but perhaps not enough skilled people to do it.

Normand sees integrators using ADI’s design and professional services in one of two ways: Some use them to raise the quality of the jobs they already have. Others, meanwhile, treat them as the design department and programming department they never had to hire, thus freeing up their sales teams to go and win more projects.

ADI Professional Services can serve as a stopgap

What’s more, the services can serve as a stopgap: If an integrator happens to lose its lead programmer, ADI can cover the work for weeks or months while the company recruits a replacement.

Supporting that across the full breadth of ADI’s supplier partner network is no small feat, but Normand and his team make it happen. They train every Monday — 52 sessions a year — and Normand’s design manager catalogs every session and document, along with a master spreadsheet of contacts at supplier partners so that the team knows whom to call when a design requires outside expertise.

According to Normand, others in the industry have tried offering design help, often through portals that require integrators to fill out countless drop-down boxes and potentially eat up as much time as they’d otherwise conserve. ADI, he says, set out to do things differently.

Easy to engage

“Our founding principles were easy to engage and a fast turnaround,” Normand explains. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, look, I can’t have this even three days out. My customers tell me [that] I needed it yesterday.’ That’s how our industry works.”

For ADI’s complimentary design services, the process starts with an email to avdesigns@adiglobal.com. Integrators send whatever they know about a project. If the supplied information is enough, ADI’s design team aims to return a system design the same day. If details are missing, the team sets up a short call to talk through the scope in more detail.

Deeply Experienced Team Members

The result is a bill of materials (BOM) delivered as a quote for products that can easily be purchased on the ADI website. The service does not include advanced system line drawings, which are the next tier up, but the team will provide an initial sketch or explain the design by email, drawing from a full range of residential and commercial expertise. Indeed, the design team members are CTS-D certified, and their commercial designs run from complex meeting rooms to bars, restaurants and gyms. They are fully adept with advanced systems from QSC, Shure and other ADI-distributed brands, as well as ADI-exclusive brands like Control4.

On the residential side, it would be natural to assume that networking is the obvious driver of demand. Normand, however, says, “Actually, it’s lighting.”

Control4’s latest lighting control solutions support more advanced designs. And for projects like those, ADI’s designers can provide drawings with marked-up floor plans.

Buy the SKUs in the morning

ADI’s professional services take things a step further. ADI sells five professional-service offerings: certified system line drawings, control system programming, audio DSP programming, advanced GUI development and remote site support.

According to Normand, the push for professional services largely came from ADI’s supplier partners. “A lot of [them were] saying, ‘You guys need to do this. We have tons of pent-up business,’“ he recalls.

Reinforcing the industrywide appetite, ADI already has a significant number of projects completed in the last few months.

The typical entry point is engineer-signed line drawings; integrators can supply their own or simply have ADI produce them. Often, the design team specs the service SKUs directly into a design so that integrators can order programming hours the same way that they order hardware.

The ADI professional-services team can complete all its work remotely. For site support, a TeamViewer computer is set up at the jobsite, and ADI loads the code, tweaks the DSP and confirms that the system works. Normand reinforces the team’s deep subject-matter expertise, saying its members program Q-SYS, Control4, AMX, RTI and other platforms. Indeed, one ADI programmer has passed the highest Q-SYS certification available.

Speed and the absence of friction

Another key factor? Speed and the absence of friction. Normand strives to keep the process as simple as possible. He notes that integrators don’t have to request a custom quote or scope of work. Instead, they can buy the SKUs on ADI’s website, send in the purchase-order confirmation and programming can start that very day.

Describing what that looks like in practice, Normand says, “So, you can…literally buy the SKUs in the morning and have the code on your desk by the end of the day. [Then, you can] send a tech out to the jobsite the next day, and we’ll load it in the system.”

Improving the value proposition even further, ADI’s professional-services rates are competitive.

Asked about homeowners who give up on control systems in favor of phone apps after suffering through bad experiences, Normand says the quality of a system comes down to the programming. A client can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, but it really falls on one person to make everything work harmoniously.

ADI Professional Services: Complementary, not competitive

ADI takes pains to reassure its integrator partners that its suite of services is about integrator support and enablement — never about competition. And the education is ongoing as ADI further expands its offerings. The task now, Normand says, is to get integrators to try ADI’s design services and professional services and see that they are complementary to in-house capabilities.

“I’ve been in this industry too long to even think for a second that I want to be taking your jobs,” Normand declares. ADI, he affirms, has no desire to be in the integrator business. “We’re not touching ceiling tiles. We’re not touching racks. We’re not — and we never will.”

That clarity of mission should set integrators’ minds at ease, while reminding them that, at a time of labor-market tightness and technician shortages, value-added distributors like ADI can give integrators a helping hand. And that help goes well beyond pick, pack and ship.

The post Taking a Closer Look at ADI’s Design and Professional Services appeared first on CEPRO.

We analyzed complete equipment lists from 30 Home of the Year Award-winning projects, covering roughly 250 brands across video, audio, control, lighting, security, networking, power and infrastructure, and more. The mix spans 16 whole-home systems, dedicated theaters, media rooms and listening rooms, golf-simulator and bowling recreation spaces, partial lighting-and-shade scopes, landscape lighting jobs and a handful of non-residential builds. A brand counts once per project, no matter how many units were specified.

If you’re familiar with the CE Pro 100 Brand Analysis, which is essentially a similar ranking of the brands most used by the CE Pro 100, then you’ll see some similar trends.

The Backbone Nobody Sees: ADI

The single most consistent finding has nothing to do with the gear clients show off. ADI and legacy Snap One products appear in 24 of the 30 projects. WattBox power conditioners and IP-controlled outlets showed up in 21, Strong racks and mounts in 20, Araknis routers and switches in 17, Wirepath cable and structured wiring in 17, and Binary HDMI and signal cabling in 13.

That consistency holds whether the home runs Control4 (also an ADI brand) Crestron, ELAN or Savant. Integrators may argue about control platforms, but when it comes to the rack, the network and the power behind it, the award winners largely buy from the same catalog. WattBox’s remote reboot and OvrC monitoring appear to have become a baseline expectation for any system an integrator plans to support long term.

Control: Control4 Leads, Crestron Goes Big

Control4 was the most common platform, used in 13 projects, followed by Crestron in 7, Josh.ai in 6, Nice/ELAN in 3 and Savant in 1. The counts only tell half the story. Crestron Home tended to run the largest, most keypad-dense estates: one project specified 92 Horizon 2 keypads, another 68, and a third paired 77 Crestron CLX/CLT dimmer modules with its lighting design.

Voice is becoming a layer that sits on top of either platform. Josh.ai appeared in six projects, across both Control4 and Crestron homes. One whole-home system specified a Josh Core with nine Nanos set into Lutron Palladiom faceplates, four Josh remotes and six Josh touchscreens, effectively making voice and Josh’s own interface the primary way the family interacts with the house.

Lighting and Shades: Lutron’s Category

No category was more concentrated. Lutron appeared in 16 projects, and in the high-end jobs it was usually the full HomeWorks stack, specified in 12 projects, with Palladiom keypads in 8. Every Lutron project included motorized shades or drapery, mostly Sivoia QS and Triathlon. Newer Lutron lines are showing up too: Sunnata keypads were common, and individual projects added Ketra lightbars and lamps, Lumaris tunable-white tape light and Alisse keypads.

Crestron lighting appeared in five projects, and only where Crestron was also the control system. Control4 keypads and dimmers appeared in seven.

On the fixture side, two brands dominate the specifications. American Lighting’s Proluxe line of linear LED tape, extrusions, DMX decoders and drivers appeared in 8 projects, including one that ran roughly 430 feet of linear LED. DMF recessed downlights also appeared in 8. One project specified 216 DMF 2-inch modules and 245 square trims; others used 136 and 159 housings. Landscape lighting was the one lighting segment where Lutron and DMF did not dominate. There, WAC Lighting, ClaroLux, LumienPRO and Coastal Source did the heavy lifting.

Video: A Three-Way Tie, and the Direct-View LED Moment

Samsung and the Apple TV 4K (third generation, 128GB) each appeared in 14 projects, and Sony in 13. Apple TV remains the default streaming source. Sony won the living rooms and theaters with Bravia 8 and 9 sets, A95L OLEDs, 98-inch professional displays and laser projectors. Samsung won outside and on the wall: The Terrace outdoor TV appeared in seven projects, and The Frame was even more common, with one home specifying five Frames.

The bigger story is at the top end. Flagship rooms are moving from projection to direct-view LED. The lists included a Samsung The Wall 146-inch display, a 115-inch Samsung Micro RGB set, a custom 130-inch CinemaScope dvLED wall and 1.2mm-pitch LED walls from Quantum Media Systems. Projection still owns the reference theater, with Barco, Christie, Digital Projection, JVC and Sony projectors paired with Lumagen (3 projects) and madVR (2) video processors. However, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that video walls are making a major play for the home entertainment market when it comes to video. This year’s CEDIA Expo saw quite a few video walls, including a handful of new players.

Unsurprisingly, Kaleidescape appeared in 8 projects, as it’s becoming hard to find any home theater without a Kaleidescape player providing the source. AVPro Edge was the most common distribution brand at 17 projects, spanning MXnet AV-over-IP, 4×2 matrix switchers, HDBaseT kits and Bullet Train active-optical HDMI. Crestron DM NVX appeared in 6, mostly in Crestron homes.

Audio: The Most Open Field

Speakers remain the most competitive category, which suggests that sound is still where integrators express the most personal preference. This isn’t very surprising, as the field is flooded with impressive audio brands. Sonance was the most widely used brand at 14 projects, helped by the Invisible Series, VX in-ceilings and landscape systems. Sonos followed at 11 and Origin Acoustics at 9, then JL Audio (subwoofers) and James Loudspeaker at 6. Marantz and Sony ES receivers (5 projects each) were the most common theater electronics, from Marantz AV10/AMP10 separates to Sony’s STR-AZ series. Coastal Source bollards anchored the most ambitious outdoor audio systems.

Invisible and small-aperture speakers are clearly in demand. One project specified 87 pairs of Crestron Ultimate small-aperture speakers; two others used a combined 49 James SA63-7 3-inch small-aperture models. At the reference end, the lists read like a high-end show floor: Wisdom Audio planar-magnetic line sources, ASCENDO infrasonic subwoofers, Wilson Audio, Trinnov and StormAudio processing, and Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLab 18 and 19.

Networking: Ruckus Rules, Wi-Fi 7 Arrives

Wireless access points from Ruckus, sold either through Access Networks or directly, appeared in 13 projects. Paired with Araknis switching, that makes a Ruckus-based enterprise network the de facto standard for award-level homes. Ubiquiti UniFi is the challenger at 3 projects, and it delivered the only full Wi-Fi 7 build in the set: a home with 17 U7 access points and UniFi Protect AI cameras on a single platform. Fortinet firewalls and Starlink as a backup internet connection each appeared in two projects, and one home used a Sophos firewall.

Security: Luma Leads, Cloud Cameras Emerge

Luma was the most common surveillance brand at 8 projects, with up to 19 cameras on a single NVR, followed by IC Realtime. DSC PowerG sensors (7), Yale smart locks (6), Qolsys panels (5) and System Sensor detectors (4) round out the core security stack, while DoorBird and 2N covered IP intercoms. The outliers point toward enterprise and AI video: one estate specified 53 Verkada cloud cameras, and others used UniFi Protect AI cameras and a Camect analytics hub.

The Growth Potential Category: Energy

One whole-home project did integrate a standby generator into its control system. Otherwise, energy showed up only as power quality and uptime: WattBox and SurgeX conditioning, online and lithium-ion UPS units, and isolation transformers from Torus and 360 Power Quality. Climate integration was also light, limited to a few thermostats, HVAC bridges, garage and fan integrations, and one air-quality monitoring system.

That is either a blind spot or an opening. Integrators are already running the network, the rack and the control system, so they are well placed to add energy management. For now, the award-winning homes are leaving that work to someone else.

The Products That Keep Showing Up

Brand counts show who integrators trust, but model counts show what they actually reach for. A handful of specific products appeared again and again, across different integrators, regions and control platforms.

The Apple TV 4K (third generation, 128GB) is the single most repeated product in the set, specified in 14 of 30 projects. Next come the building blocks of a premium lighting system: the Lutron HomeWorks QSX processor (HQP7-2) in 10 projects and Lutron’s LQSE-4A5 LED+ dimming module in 8. Samsung’s lifestyle TVs are close behind, with The Frame in 8 projects and The Terrace outdoor TV in 7.

On the infrastructure side, the WattBox WB-800-IPVM-12 power conditioner and the Araknis AN-520-RT dual-WAN router are near-default choices, appearing in 8 and 7 projects respectively. Sonos also earns its place behind the wall: the Sonos Port appeared in 8 projects and the Sonos Amp in 6, often feeding architectural speakers instead of Sonos’ own. In control, the Control4 Halo remote (8 projects) and Crestron’s CP4 processor (7) and HR-310 remote (6) show up wherever their platforms do.

Most-Repeated Products

These products showed up the most across this year’s award winners.

* Apple TV 4K (3rd gen, 128GB), Video source (14)
* Lutron HomeWorks QSX processor (HQP7-2), Lighting control (10)
* Samsung The Frame, Display (8)
* Control4 Halo remote, Control (8)
* Sonos Port, Audio streaming (8)
* WattBox WB-800-IPVM-12 power conditioner, Power (8)
* Lutron LQSE-4A5 LED+ dimming module, Lighting control (8)
* Samsung The Terrace outdoor TV, Display (7)
* Araknis AN-520-RT router, Networking (7)
* Crestron CP4 / CP4-R processor, Control (7)
* Crestron HR-310 remote, Control (6)
* Sonos Amp, Audio (6)

Top 15 Brands

These are the brands that integrators leaned on to create these award-winning projects.

* WattBox (21)
* Strong (racks and mounts) (20)
* AVPro Edge (17)
* Araknis (17)
* Wirepath (17)
* Lutron (16)
* Samsung (14)
* Apple TV (14)
* Sonance (14)
* Sony (13)
* Control4 (13)
* Binary (13)
* Ruckus / Access Networks (13)
* Sonos (11)
* Middle Atlantic (11)

Category Leaders

* Control: Control4 (13), runner-up Crestron (7)
* Lighting & shades: Lutron (16), runner-up DMF and Proluxe (8 each)
* Video: Samsung and Apple TV (14 each), runner-up Sony (13)
* Audio: Sonance (14), runner-up Sonos (11)
* Networking: Araknis (17), runner-up Ruckus / Access Networks (13)
* Security: Luma (8), runner-up DSC (7)
* Power: WattBox (21), runner-up SurgeX (7)
* Racks & infrastructure: Strong (20), runner-up Wirepath (17)
* Movie servers: Kaleidescape (8)
* Video processors: Lumagen (3), runner-up madVR (2)
* Projectors: JVC (2), runner-up Barco, Christie, Digital Projection, Sony (1 each)
* Projection screens: Stewart Filmscreen (3), runner-up Seymour (2)
* Surround processors: Trinnov and StormAudio (2 each), runner-up JBL Synthesis, Anthem (1 each)
* Subwoofers: JL Audio (6), runner-up SVS (3)

Brand counts show how many projects specified a brand at least once. Product counts come from a manual pass through the lists and should be treated as approximate.

What It Means for Integrators

Honestly, we think this list is really indicative of the market and what we heard last month at CEDIA Expo 2026. The lists point to a few clear shifts in high-end integration. Lighting has become the centerpiece of the premium home rather than an add-on, built on panelized lighting control, architectural keypads, motorized shades and long runs of linear LED. Behind the walls, integrators are standardizing on a common infrastructure stack, and remote monitoring and management are now close to standard. Voice control is being added on top of every major control platform, and audio is disappearing into the architecture through invisible and small-aperture speakers. On the network, fiber backbones and the first Wi-Fi 7 build signal rising bandwidth demands, while security is moving toward cloud-managed and AI-driven video. Homes are also gaining dedicated recreation spaces instead of dedicated home tehaters, from golf simulators to bowling lanes. In the flagship rooms, direct-view LED displays are starting to replace projection.

For integrators who aspire to create award-winning projects, here’s where to start:

• Standardize the stack. The winners differ on control and speakers but converge on power, network and rack. Standardizing on one infrastructure platform keeps installs predictable and support remote.
• Lighting is the premium differentiator. Panelized HomeWorks QSX, linear LED and shades showed up in nearly every top whole-home project, and they account for many of the largest line-item quantities.
• Plan for direct-view LED. The flagship rooms are moving to dvLED and Micro RGB. That changes power, cooling, structural and calibration requirements, and those need to be planned at prewire.
• Make audio disappear. Invisible and small-aperture speakers are now standard in high-end work. Designers want great sound without visible grilles.

Methodology

This analysis draws on equipment lists, bills of materials, proposals and installer reports from 30 Home of the Year projects. Multiple documents covering the same home were merged into a single project. A brand counts once per project regardless of quantity. Distributor abbreviations were mapped to manufacturer names where they could be confirmed; unconfirmed codes were excluded. 

The post What the 2026 CE Pro Home of the Year Award-Winning Projects Reveal About Integrators’ Go-To Brands appeared first on CEPRO.

The initiative builds off the 100 Techs in 100 Days program the Foundation ran in 2025 with Chairperson David Weinstein stating the 2025 program “demonstrated what can happen when we make the path into this industry more accessible.”

More details on ‘Your Future, Fully Integrated’ custom integration scholarship

Selected applicants from the US, UK, India, Australia, and Canada will receive a grant covering the full cost of CEDIA’s Smart Home Fundamentals online learning pathway.

According to the CEDIA Foundation, the 20-hour, self-paced training aims to provide the foundational knowledge needed to begin working as a technician. Topics include audio, video, wire and cabling, termination and testing, construction methods and materials, project processes, equipment installation, retrofit installation techniques, safety practices, and building codes and standards.

After completing the online coursework, recipients in select US and UK markets will be invited to attend a hands-on CEDIA Residential Bootcamp, where they can apply their new skills and receive expert guidance from experienced industry professionals.

The hands-on training will take place at CEDIA’s US and UK headquarters as well as partner training facilities. Recipients will also receive a free career coaching consultation from Amplify People, a talent partner serving AV and integration professionals, to support their next steps in the industry.

Why integrators should take note

Despite the growth of custom integration (CI) over the years, workforce development remains a point of weakness within the industry. It should be noted, however, that skilled technicians are not the only positions in high demand currently, as CE Pro’s Wage & Salary study recently uncovered that sales personnel adept at intricacies of CI are just as, if not even more, in demand than technicians.

Still, technicians stand as the backbone of the industry, and until CI is able to develop robust talent pipelines akin to other building trades, initiatives like those run by the CEDIA Foundation stand as some of the few unified efforts to bring more awareness to this burgeoning channel.

“Programs like Your Future, Fully Integrated are only possible because of the generosity of our donors and the commitment of the smart home community to keep building the workforce of tomorrow,” said Tara Guertin, CEDIA Foundation Operations & Workforce Development Manager. “We encourage everyone in the channel to help spread the word. There may be someone in your network with the skills and passion to succeed in this industry who simply has not yet discovered this career path.”

Eligibility and where to apply

Your Future, Fully Integrated is accepting applications now through Nov. 13. Eligible applicants include individuals age 18 and older with transferable skills from adjacent trades such as construction, networking, and information technology, near or recent graduates, and people passionate about technology and its ability to positively impact people’s lives.

Applicants who meet CEDIA’s student membership eligibility requirements are also encouraged to take advantage of the free resource, which is available to individuals currently enrolled full time in an accredited school, college, university, or training program, as well as those who have graduated from a full-time program during the current calendar year.

Student members receive access to educational content, industry insights and trend reports, invitations to events, connections to a global professional network, and more.

For more information about Your Future, Fully Integrated, eligibility requirements, and available training locations, readers are instructed to visit https://cediafoundation.org/your-future-fully-integrated.

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“I look at the TVs,” Hansson, founder and CEO of Logic Integration in Lone Tree, Colo., says. “I look at the hanging wires. Maybe there’s a speaker out.”

Integrators who notice the same flaws should act on them, he says. “Why not say something?” Hansson asks rhetorically. “Ask for the manager.” His suggested pitch is disarmingly straightforward: “Do you want us to come in and make this look better? That’s what we do.”

That thinking captures the idea behind “From Homes to Main Street: Scaling to Light Commercial Projects,” a Smart Stage session held at CEDIA Expo last month. Hansson and Chapin Ruark, account manager at Sonos, explained to a packed audience of residential integrators that they can grow into doing light commercial work. But they also emphasized what to avoid and why partnership matters.

Dan Ferrisi, group director of content + editorial, industrial + tech, Forge, moderated the session.

Already Working With These Clients

Ruark defines “light commercial” as small mom-and-pop shops, restaurants, bars, gyms and salons, many of which are owned by the same people whose homes integrators already serve.

“This is a great opportunity for you guys to break into doing [those clients’] businesses, as well,” Ruark suggests.

Asked to make the case to residential specialists who may be skeptical about light commercial, Hansson points first to leveraging existing relationships. “Well, we’re already working with these clients,” he says, pointing to the white-glove service they’re accustomed to for their residential projects. “We’re in their homes. We have their contact information.”

Many homeowner clients work for large companies, Hansson notes, and he’s found that asking about their meeting spaces has won projects for his firm.

Ruark points to diversification as another key element — a pathway for reducing reliance on new home construction and facilitating recurring monthly revenue (RMR). “There’s a lot of RMR opportunities that are in commercial spaces, as well,” Ruark says.

Hansson layers in a cash-flow argument. A custom home can take many months — indeed, a year or more — to build. That leaves dips in revenue after the initial deposit. Quick-turn commercial jobs fill those gaps, smoothing what he calls “the shark-tooth effect” on integrators’ profit-and-loss statements.

Low-Hanging Fruit

So, where should a residential specialist start when tackling light commercial? Ruark suggests pivoting from home offices to the offices in which those homeowners work. After all, he says, they’ll want products they already know. “Also, boutique shops are really easy to get into…,” Ruark says.

Ruark singles out home builders as one of the ripest opportunities. “When [home builders are] building these neighborhoods, they typically have clubhouses,” he notes. “It’s an awesome opportunity to get a small commercial project, doing those clubhouses that are built into the neighborhoods.”

For Hansson, meeting rooms are an obvious entry point. “Small and medium meeting spaces, I think, are very, very low-hanging fruit,” he says, noting that many CEDIA Expo exhibitors now sell meeting-space-in-a-box kits that take very little training to deploy.

Asked which verticals are less-opportune entry points, Hansson cites government, pointing to bonding, insurance and other paperwork and regulatory hurdles. “It’s a very, very difficult and long process to get into that system in order to bid on the work,” he acknowledges. “Oftentimes, [government agencies] go with the low bidder, or you’re just being used as a bidder placeholder. … Because they may already have a relationship.”

Not the Person Writing the Check

Commercial work also means new stakeholders. For IT managers and facilities teams, Ruark says, dependability is the top priority. “I think the key there is reliability, scalability [and having] redundancies that are set in place,” he says, “making sure that whatever the solution is that you’re giving to them is going to work all the time.”

Hansson’s team strives to identify the actual buyer early because, he says, the person who submitted the lead form might not be the decision-maker. An IT manager, for instance, might be the client insofar as that’s the person dealing with the meeting spaces. “But that’s not the person writing the check,” Hansson says. “You might have a CFO involved who just wants the lowest dollar amount to fix the problem.”

Code-related issues can surprise residential firms, too. In a house of worship, Hansson explains, “If the music’s playing in the main sanctuary, and there’s a fire, that music must shut off. You can’t have the band playing and 95 decibels of audio going [with] the fire alarms going off, and no one knows.”

He also challenges how residential firms define “done” in their project work. “In residential, when a job is complete, is it substantially complete or is it actually complete?” he asks. “In commercial, it has to be complete.”

Take the Lift Off Your Team

When does partnering with a commercial specialist make more sense than building expertise in-house? Hansson offers two answers. The first one centers on manufacturer support. On projects using Sonos’ new PoE speakers, for example, Logic Integration is relying on Sonos for zone layout and heat mapping. “A lot of manufacturers here will help you do the layout and all the calculations and take the lift off your team,” he says.

The second one involves larger integrators. Hansson’s team provided labor as a subcontractor on a $3.5 million AV contract that it probably couldn’t have won alone; meanwhile, a national firm handled engineering, commissioning and programming. “So, if you’re not sure about a project, bring in a manufacturer,” he suggests, “or maybe talk to another larger integrator in your area.”

Ruark outlines Sonos’ own push into light commercial. “Sonos actually has an entire commercial team now that’s based on planning these projects and helping our commercial integrators,” he says. The company pairs commercially licensed music through Sonos Pro with hardware such as the Era 100 Pro PoE speaker.

Hansson prompts Ruark on a common mistake that clients can make: streaming a personal music account in a business setting. Ruark cites the danger of being fined — or worse — for doing so. “It’s a great way to have your business shut down very quickly,” he warns. Enforcement is improving as technology advances, Hansson adds, so clients need a licensed-music subscription, whether through Sonos or from elsewhere.

It’s the kind of strategic guidance that makes integrators indispensable to their clients.

Making Every Room the Same

On deployment simplicity, Hansson returns to the topic of meeting rooms, where a mix of Zoom, Teams and Webex platforms can confuse end users. His team’s answer when designing and deploying light commercial projects is to standardize. In short, that means making every room the same, with meetings as close to one touch as possible.

Ruark agrees, and he ties consistency to familiarity. “I think standardization is extremely important,” he declares. “That way, it doesn’t matter what room [users] walk into. They know how to work it.” Continuing, Ruark notes that many smaller businesses want something that’s rather homelike. “If Sonos is what’s in their home, and then they go to their work and Sonos is at their business, they easily understand how it works immediately,” he explains.

Standardization pays off in service, too. Why? It enables integrators to potentially support hundreds of sites, all while profiting from predictable monthly plans.

Asked for integrators that successfully balance residential and commercial, Hansson names CE Pro 100 firms Fusion Audio Video and Maxicon. But he admits that striking a balance is an ongoing challenge.

“It is hard to market and message to both markets…,” he concedes candidly. “It’s hard to train for both. And we really try not to mix as much as possible. If we’re short on labor or we need resources, we do mix, but it is really challenging to do both.”

But Hansson hastens to present the other side of the coin. “I’m also grateful that I do both because when one’s down, usually the other is up,” he says. “And, once again, I want nice, smooth financials.”

Creating Sticky Clients

Service and support are expected in commercial work, Hansson says, and his firm pitches them from the first meeting. “[They create] sticky clients,” he observes. “You’re regularly talking. You’re checking in.”

Regular visits turn up the next room that a client wants done, and staff turnover means new contacts to meet, Hansson says.

So, what should integrators ultimately weigh before deciding whether to broaden into light commercial? “Whenever we take on a new vertical, or even a new product line, we always want to ask why,” Hansson advises. Diversifying because residential is down might be a good reason, but the work still must be done well. “If we try to take on something new, I want to do it with excellence,” he declares. “I don’t want to half-ass it.”

Ruark’s advice is to lean on vendors. “I think the big thing is to not be afraid to lean into your manufacturers,” he states, “and they will always try to help you.”

A Quick Horror Story

Hansson, who admits that he loves sharing deployment horror stories, backs up that advice by sharing one. He recalls his firm installing eight-inch SpeakerCraft commercial speakers years ago. “We hung them all in the ceiling tiles, but we didn’t put in the tile bridges, and we didn’t do hangers. So, after about two or three months, the ceiling tiles started to sag more and more and more,” he recounts. “What if those speakers hit people in the head?” It’s the perfect case-in-point showing where manufacturer engagement would have made a difference.

Ruark says that Sonos wants its products to be installed correctly (a prerequisite, after all, for meeting client needs). “Whenever you install [our products] right, and it looks good, it looks really good for us,” Ruark states. Accordingly, Sonos provides training (e.g., Sonos Academy, webinars), while also having account managers who can connect integrators with the right internal resources.

Hansson closes by asking the CEDIA Expo audience how many have heard someone say they hate complicated AV. Many in the packed audience raised their hands.

His diagnosis? “It probably was not designed or installed correctly,” Hansson says. “So, for the sake of our industry, get it done right. Have somebody help you.”

And that advice holds true whether you’re outfitting a multi-million-dollar custom home or the fleet of meeting rooms at the homeowner’s offices.

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Home of the Year Project Profile

• Name & Location: El Maro, Scottsdale, Arizona
• Integrator: USA Integration, Scottsdale, Arizona
• Award: 2026 Home of the Year, Best Whole-House/Smart Home Over $1 Million, Gold

El Maro is a 20,000 sq ft new construction estate in Paradise Valley, Arizona, built and designed by American First Builders on a commanding site overlooking Camelback Mountain. Scottsdale, Arizona-based USA Integration was engaged during pre-construction, before architectural drawings were finalized, to engineer a complete smart home ecosystem as fundamental to the estate as its structure.

That early start made all the difference. Before framing began, USA Integration delivered a complete photometric lighting plan and panel schedule to the electrician, mapped every alarm zone, specified every shade pocket dimension, and coordinated equipment room locations with American First Builders. The result is technology designed into the architecture rather than retrofitted into it.

El Maro: One platform across five structures

A Crestron Home OS platform integrates 15 subsystems across five structures, including more than 48 audio zones, 12 video distribution zones, 224 lighting dimmer channels controlling over 400 architectural fixtures, more than 120 motorized shades and drapery tracks, over 100 alarm zones, and 27 security cameras. Enterprise networking, Josh.ai voice control, pool, irrigation, and gate entry complete the picture. The installation represents roughly 12% of the estate’s $12–14M build cost, reflecting a client and builder who treated technology as an equal partner to architecture from day one.

The estate’s intelligence shines in its security logic. Custom IF/THEN Crestron programming pushes live camera feeds to the nearest TV the moment an alarm trips, because a phone notification wasn’t fast enough. Leak detection sends zone-specific text alerts, and Vacation Mode randomizes lighting and shade schedules to simulate occupancy. Every subsystem works together in a unified behavioral architecture.

A theater designed around the view

The home theater runs a 20,000-lumen Digital Projection RGB laser projector because the client refused to close the doors and give up the view of Camelback Mountain. The backyard features 17 Ambisonic LSR60 planar ribbon loudspeakers because standard landscape speakers weren’t good enough. Even the Harley garage has an in-ceiling subwoofer and full DM-NVX video distribution, because it’s part of the estate, and the estate has a standard.

Air quality integrated into the control system

Wellness received the same attention. When the client’s vision outgrew an off-the-shelf solution, USA Integration replaced the originally planned Delos platform with a custom air quality system using Intellipure purifiers and Kaiterra sensors, tied into Crestron through a custom BACnet integration. That change was one of three major mid-project expansions, along with the backyard audio upgrade and an 85″ Samsung Terrace on a Future Automation motorized drop mount in the wash bay. All three were absorbed without disrupting the timeline.

This project is part of our coverage for the 2026 CE Pro Home of the Year Awards. Presented annually at CEDIA Expo alongside the BEST Product Awards, the Home of the Year Awards represent the best of the best smart home innovations within the CEDIA channel. Check to see when the next submission window is open in case you have a project you would like to submit and don’t want to miss your opportunity.

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