So you wanna be in Home Theaters…?

I received a lot of feedback from my column last week on CEDIA, the home theater and home automation trade show. Most of the feedback was asking how they could learn more about the home theater and home automation markets.

Well, first, I would highly recommend you become a member of CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (www.cedia.org). CEDIA is an international trade association of companies. These companies specialize in planning and installing electronic systems for the home - typically media rooms, single or multi-room entertainment systems, home automation and communication systems, and integrated whole-house subsystems providing control of lighting, security and HVAC systems. The association was founded in September 1989 and has a total membership of approximately 2,000 member companies.

In addition to being a trade show association with an annual event (see last week's column), CEDIA actually publishes a home theater manual that's actually a blueprint to designing and installing home theaters. In addition, they publish what they call an ICON SET that is designed for and available to all members for the purpose of standardizing on one set of residential and commercial low voltage demarcation. The intent is for these icons to be located on Blueprints, and any other documents that identify low voltage wiring and fixture locations. You can read about both the Home Theater guide and the ICON SET at http://www.cedia.org/resources/resource_info.html.

Finally, I would also recommend that you subscribe to the following print publications:

· Home Theater Magazine - http://www.hometheatermag.com/
· Electronic House - http://www.electronichouse.com/
· The Perfect Vision - http://www.theperfectvision.com/
· Stereophile Guide to Home Theater - http://www.guidetohometheater.com/
· Audio Video Interiors - http://www.mcmullenargus.com/mag/avi.html
· Home Systems Magazine - http://www.gohomesystems.com/
· Residential Systems Magazine - http://www.resmagonline.com/features/ressub.htm

Good Luck and maybe I'll see you at CEDIA!

Gary Kayye is Chief Visionary of Kayye Consulting - a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com.