Companies that are selling products which don’t need a custom installer have dominated the press conferences at this year’s CEDIA Expo in the US. Sony rolled out new Bravia TV’s and high end Blu ray players that will primarily be sold via mass market retailers. LG unveiled its BD300 Blu-ray player that streams directly from Netflix. Others rolled out music players while the likes of NuVo and Russound launched new multi room audio systems that can be installed by an electrican in a day.

 Companies that are selling products which don’t need a custom installer have dominated the press conferences at this year’s CEDIA  Expo in the US. Sony rolled out new Bravia TV’s and high end Blu ray players that will primarily  be sold via mass market retailers. LG unveiled its BD300 Blu-ray player that streams directly from Netflix. Others rolled out music players while the likes of Nu Vo and Russound launched new multi room audio systems that can be installed by an electrican in a day.

US Magazine CE Pro said that 90 percent of the gathered press corps at these events are not trade press anyway. It’s mostly freelance consumer electronics writers and consumer magazine editors. In other news the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA)  claim that that 72 percent of residential electronic systems contractors increased revenues between the 2006 and 2007 fiscal year.

In a CEDIA survey conducted earlier this year  those companies that reported 1 – 14 percent profit margins had both the highest average revenue and the most CEDIA Certified employees.

CEDIA’s Benchmarking Survey also shows that while distributed audio and visual as well as home theaters and media rooms are the top revenue sources, those companies with larger annual revenue are seeing tremendous consumer demand in systems integration and lighting control.

“The wealth of data collected in the 2008 Benchmarking Survey suggests a wide variation in how electronic systems contractors businesses are managed,” said Ray Lepper, CEDIA’s industry best practices chair. “These findings are crucial to all CEDIA members businesses and CEDIA as an organization to establish best practices for running a solid business in the electronic systems integration industry.”

Of the survey respondents, 60 percent have a showroom and 89 percent of companies with 2 million or more in revenue have a showroom. Ninety-one (91) percent of companies with a showroom feel it establishes credibility with potential clients and over half believe a showroom is worth the investment.

While existing clients and home builders are the top two sources of referrals for survey respondents, those with the highest revenues and largest project sizes are putting greater focus on marketing and receiving more business from architects. The survey also reveals that 75 percent of referrals yield actual business.