The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), Indianapolis, announced new additions and changes to this year’s CEDIA EXPO, to be held Sept. 5 to 8 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. The new offerings provide electronic systems contractors (ESCs) with access to the information they need to remain relevant in the rapidly diversifying industry, with a strong focus on both business and technical education, CEDIA said in a press release.

This year’s expo adds more opportunities for peer-to-peer business discussion with the introduction of two roundtable series. One roundtable series will be broken out into small and mid-size business owner discussions. These moderated sessions will give ESCs an opportunity to discuss common concerns in a non-competitive environment. The second roundtable series will offer six different topics that ESCs identified as “hot topics” such as HDMI, hiring sales staff, and retrofit technologies.

CEDIA also expanded technical education offerings centered around IP and networking. Three new advanced IP and networking courses were added to the roster. Lab space was expanded and a total of eight half-day courses will be available, each of which will be offered twice in addition to a full-day workshop.

In addition, CEDIA created a new Networking and IP credential. The CEDIA Residential Networking Specialist credential tests the technical body of knowledge expected for an individual with approximately two years of networking experience in the residential field. Additional information on this new credential can be found at www.cedia.org/RNScred.

The CEDIA EXPO 2012 will also feature a Future Technology Pavilion showcasing technology solutions that will be integrated to create the next generation of the smart home, the fully intuitive home, set to arrive in the next four years. This year’s Future Technology Pavilion will showcase four distinct areas representing health, work, eat and play. Savant, the overall sponsor of the Future Technology Pavilion, will bring a new level of integration, distributed AV, and energy management to the table.

SDM Magazine is sponsoring a Security Solutions Area at the Expo, designed to showcase the security products and solutions ESCs can add to their offerings.

Registration for CEDIA EXPO 2012 is open at www.cedia.org/expo. For more information, visit www.cedia.org/expo  or call (800) 669-5329.