D-Tools

D-Tools Podcast: What’s the Buzz… about 2025 Market Outlook

The D-Tools podcast discussing the 2025 market outlook reveals that while the integration market experienced a mixed and somewhat slow first half of 2024, industry leaders at CEDIA Expo 2024 report a stronger second half with positive momentum into 2025, highlighting a robust high-end residential market, a struggling mid-market due to low housing starts and retail challenges, and a lagging commercial sector.

It’s autumn and the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn vibrant colors and blanket the ground. That means it’s time for the integration market to assess 2024 and start to look ahead to 2025. There is still uncertainty in the economic climate, but the consensus among several key industry leaders is a generally positive outlook for the year ahead.

In this month’s D-Tools What’s the Buzz podcast, we spoke with a handful of attendees at the recent CEDIA Expo 2024, which took place during the first week of September in Denver. For some, 2024 seems to have been a mixed bag, with the market ebbing and flowing up and down. Everyone sees the second half of 2024 as better than the first six months, with the momentum carrying into next year. Several interviewees mentioned that the high end of the market seems to be insulated with the mid-market experiencing a slowdown. Also, the commercial market appears to be lagging. Several of the attendees gave their opinions during an opening panel discussion on the Smart Stage at CEDIA Expo 2024.

“I am hearing from some of our members a softening a little bit, but they are still plenty busy. It is a robust environment and I think it is a growing environment,” said Daryl Friedman, global president & CEO of CEDIA.

Jon Robbins, executive director of the Home Technology Specialist of America (HTSA), noted that the buying group’s members had a “very concerning” first quarter of 2024, but that the market picked back up in July and that pipelines look full moving ahead.

Hank Alexander, director of the Oasys Residential Technology Group, echoed that sentiment.

“The first half of the year was a little rough. It’s gotten a little bit better. When we talk to our members, we hear that the pipeline is getting better,” he said.

Jim Pearse, president at ProSource, added, “The middle market is really struggling with low housing starts and retail. However, the CI space continues to explode at the high end, and is offsetting that tight business in the mid-market.”

Chris Kane, vice president of North American residential sales at AVPro Global is very optimistic heading into next year. He says integrators are consistently bringing in new projects and opportunities they are working on for the coming year.

“The big challenge is just finding enough people to work with them, which is a good sign because it shows there is a lot of business out there,” he added.

You can download the full audio version of the podcast on Apple, Spotify and many other podcast platforms, or watch the commentary on our YouTube channel.

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