Add together CEDIA, Martin Stanford (the technology journalist from Sky), a group of industry experts and a topic like The Future of Home Technology, and what do you get?
Nearly 200 happy conference-goers...
“This first ever CEDIA Conference has proved a tremendous success,” says CEDIA Chair, Gary Lewis. “All the speakers provided delegates with useful food for thought on the future of home technology and the opportunities for CI businesses. They were by turns revealing, inspiring and provocative. I would like to thank everyone involved. The Future of Home Technology was an exceptional two days for CI businesses.”
Video content showing the presentations from the conference are available to view at the CEDIA education website. They are free to delegates who attended the event whilst for those who did not attend the conference, they are priced at £14.99 (inc VAT) per session to CEDIA members and £19.99 (inc VAT) per session to non-members.
Are these videos worthwhile? You be the judge after listening to some of the delegates talk about The Future of Home Technology. Hey, did we mention ECI was a proud media sponsor of this event?
Voices from the conference floor:
It's easy to sit in my office all year and keep doing the same things. The CEDIA Conference gives me a chance to take a step back and look at things at a strategic level, it really is like a shot of adrenaline. I have come away re-enthused with new ideas and clear vision of where Audio7 needs to be going, not just to survive but to grow and prosper. This year's CEDIA Conference has planted seeds of potential, it's given me those light bulb moments when I sat and thought "I know this, why haven't I acted on it?" as well as eureka moments when you think "Wow, I hadn't thought of that".
It's a "must attend" event for 2013.
Alex Josling, Audio 7
The standout session for me was "What Next for TV?" We rarely sit back and look at the bigger picture of the commercial and global drivers that shape the development roadmaps of the major manufacturers we work with. It was fascinating to look at the different priorities in the major markets and how the American requirement for big and cheap may prove a substantial barrier to entry for players, like Apple.
Iain Shaw, Brilliant Living
James Bellini's Horizon 2020 presentation on what we can expect from the ever quickening development in science and technology was as much fantastical as indeed thought provoking. Whilst we must all accept that everything in our world will become smaller, smarter and connected, we will be challenged on finding the correct balance between individual interactions with technology and immersive, shared family experiences in the connected home. A very well constructed event from the CEDIA team – great marketing, an impressive venue and an engaging line up of speakers.
Seymour Forsyth, Detail Audio Visual
It was great to attend a CEDIA session that focused solely on the future of the industry and the broad range of speakers certainly highlighted a range of future challenges and opportunities. The stand out speaker for me was Dr Graham McAllister from Player Research. As a company, we have never installed an interface that has not been thoroughly soak tested within our homes. However the problem with this approach is that it is very subjective. Graham’s thorough explanation of how they set about testing a game’s user interface gave me incredible clarity on how we could objectively test our user interfaces.
Chris Jones, Sound Ideas
I had a really good two days. One conference highlight for me was “The IP Connected Home: Ignore it at your peril” which covered the almost unimaginable scale of the IPv6 infrastructure where there are no boundaries and limitations on expansion. Imagine what technology can do in the future? Where the road never ends?
Miguel Soto, Director, Diamond Technology
“The inaugural CEDIA conference was a bold step from CEDIA.....and it paid off. It felt like “the old days” where forward thinking company owners took time out from the daily grind to learn about the wider industry and share business ideas together. The difference is, instead of being in a hotel, it was in a central London conference centre which provided an added air of professionalism too. A great platform that I look forward to being repeated.”
Stuart Tickle, Managing Director, AWE Europe
I would like to congratulate CEDIA on their inaugural industry conference, I thought the range of subjects discussed was excellent and it was a great start at trying to look outside of our little bubble to see where technology is taking us. I was worried about a venue right in the heart of the City but I shouldn’t have been. The staff at the Inmarsat were very helpful and the venue had good access. The only downside for me was the number of attendees. I would like to see at least 5 times more Integrators at the event and we will be happy to play our part to encourage people to attend next year.
Jonathan Pengilley, Managing Director, Habitech Limited
“I thought the CEDIA Conference was an excellent event. The content of the programme was first-class, just the kind of forward-looking presentations and expert opinion that is important to inform the future direction of our industry. As a sponsor of the Conference, we found it very useful to meet with so many high quality installers during the event. Our Stealth Acoustics promotion proved particularly popular and has resulted in 15 dealers taking up our offer to have invisible speakers fitted in their demo facilities. We were delighted!”
Neil Davidson, Genesis Technologi
The Speakers and presentations you will find:
Futurologist James Bellini began the event with a talk entitled, ‘Horizon 2020: Beam Me Up”, taking a visionary look at the technologies and lifestyle changes heading our way.
Carl Hibbert from research organisation Futuresource, then helped explore the current trend in second screen viewing and the impact that connected services and OTT platforms will have in the years ahead.
Paul Gray, Director of European TV Research at DisplaySearch, meanwhile, shifted the focus to screen makers and looked at manufacturing changes in the pipeline, asking the challenging question: “What Next for TV?”.
Dr Graham McCallister of Player Research took delegates on a different journey with an inspirational look at the lessons CI could learn from the video games industry where attention centres on the user experience.
Jim Read from consulting firm, Arup, closed the day with a talk which looked at lessons from commercial buildings and how these could be applied to home technology in the future.
Day two opened with a session from Lord Inglewood, Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications which explained the Government’s strategy, thinking and likely way ahead on the roll-out of superfast broadband.
CEDIA’s own Dave Pedigo next challenged integrators to look to the future and embrace the intuitive home with his presentation, which fed into a talk from Duncan Maiden of Europe’s CISCO Academy examining the hugely significant role of IP in the integrated home.
Chris Adams from OFCOM followed with an explanation of 4G and how this new platform would co-exist with other services in the home.
Finally, the conference ended on a positive note as Tom Kerber from research company, Parks Associates presented research findings commissioned by CEDIA on the future outlook for the custom installation sector.
Over the course of the two days, delegates were able to check out an array of new products and network with event sponsors in a special showcase area of the conference. Sponsors included Aldous Systems, Amina Technologies, Autonomic Controls, AWE, Control4, CYP, Genesis Technologies, Habitech, JVC, Kaleidescape, Luxul, Marata Vision, Opus Technologies, Power Ethernet, Rako Controls, and RTI.
