At a press event on Friday, September 27, Erica Shonkwiler, CEDIA senior director of research, presented the preliminary findings from the organization’s annual market research report.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be reporting on some of the data points this year,” said Shonkwiler, who has been doing research for CEDIA since 2007. “This industry has had a really good 2013.”
While the full report will be available in December, preliminary findings reveal that systems integration and AV installation companies expect the year to end with a 16 percent increase in gross revenue, a 15.6 percent increase in the number of residential projects, and a 12.3 percent increase in the size of residential projects over 2012.
These numbers are “phenomenal,” said Shonkwiler.
This year’s report, which expanded to include Canada for the first time, will seek to fulfill five key objectives: Determine the number of installation companies in the industry, the total size of the workforce, the total economic value of the industry, each channel’s level of significance by product category, and report on general market conditions.
Another interesting data point released was that respondents only expect 11 percent of their TV sales in the next 12 months to come from Ultra-HD/4K sets, indicating the need for content to catch up in order for sales to increase.
“While enjoying the growth, installation company owners are still cautiously optimistic,” said Shonkwiler. “Their caution stems from the unknown impacts of trends in cloud-based content streaming and management, app-based control solutions, internet-connected wireless audio systems, and the continued entry of telecoms into the market. Company owners expect these trends will increase consumer awareness of the industry, but many are still unsure which trends will have a net positive impact on their company.”
In addition to working on this report, CEDIA recently released its annual Benchmarking Survey Reports, which evaluate the internal operations of home technology professional companies in the U.S. and Canada.
