The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) has released preliminary findings from CEDIA's annual market research report, Size and Scope of the Residential Electronic Systems Market ©. The report is a part of CEDIA's research offerings, which are designed to provide CEDIA members, industry businesses, and other key stakeholders with market data that will enable them to make better business decisions.

The report features data on the characteristics of companies working within the residential electronics systems industry in the U.S. and Canada, revealing the current number of installation companies in the industry, the size of the workforce, trends, forecasts, and the economic state of the industry.

"This report continues the great data we have been seeing all year on integrator performance in 2013 and expected performance in 2014," said Erica Shonkwiler, CEDIA Research Consultant. "Revenue, project numbers, and project sizes are all continuing to trend up," she added. 

The full report will be available in October; however, preliminary findings reveal the following:

• Systems integration / AV installation companies ended 2013 with a 15 percent increase in gross revenue and expect 2014 to end with a 20 percent increase over 2013. 
   
• More Systems integration / AV installation companies are noticing a shift from hardware sales to service/labor sales caused by cloud-based content management — 38 percent indicate a moderate increase in service/labor sales (up from 29  percent in 2013) and 23 percent indicate a moderate decline in hardware sales (up from 18 percent in 2013) from cloud based content management.

• In 2013, systems integration / AV installation companies report that 56 percent of the flat panels they worked with as a part of a project were sold to the customer as a part of the project, 22 percent were already in the clients home, and 22 percent that were purchased by the client through retail for the project. When the client purchased the flat panel through retail, 78 percent of time the integrator impacted the purchase by suggesting the brand to choose.
   
• In 2013, respondents only expected 11 percent of their TV sales in the next 12 months to come from Ultra-HD/4K sets. This jumped substantially, to 25 percent in the 2014 study. They also estimated that 29 percent of those sales will include sales of Ultra HD/4K player or media server.
   
• Distributed audio installations including internet connected wireless speakers increased from 16 percent in 2012 to an expected 26 percent in 2014. This was coupled with an increase in the number of respondents that believe these products will help their business from direct consumer demand.

"Installation company owners are still unsure of how the entry of big players in the home control and management market will impact the businesses," said Shonkwiler. "However, previous year's uncertainty around 4K, internet connected wireless audio systems, and cloud based content management seems to be lifting. They are adjusting and adapting to these tech trends in ways that makes them positive changes for their companies."

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 United States and Canada. 

Research updates, project details, and report availability will be posted at www.cedia.net/research.