In excess of 170 CI brands supported the 2010 CEDIA Home Technology Event, which took place in London earlier this month. With the middle day, in particular, said to have attracted “spectacular numbers”, CEDIA Region 1 chairman Robert Hallam said that the show demonstrated that the industry is now “back on track”. IE Residential and sister title Installation Europe were on the ground throughout CEDIA HTE, producing and distributing a daily e-mail newsletter. Extensive video footage and interviews with exhibitors and CEDIA principals are also ready for viewing.
In total, CEDIA HTE received 5,195 attendees over four days, with the Wednesday said to have been especially “spectacular”.
“We’re delighted that the industry turned out in force to support this year’s CEDIA Home Technology Event at our fresh ICC London ExCeL home,” said Robert Hallam, CEDIA chairman, Region 1. “Visitors took the opportunity to explore some really exciting innovations, especially as far as 3D and HDMI were concerned. They were also able to take advantage of high-quality training provided by CEDIA, trade suppliers and independent experts as well as meet and share ideas with the key exhibitors and their industry peers. Stand-outs for me included our 3D demo area, which played to packed houses each and every day of the show, and the Wired for Technology outreach conference, which attracted a sizeable audience of electrical contractors keen to find out what CI is all about.”
Many of the 170-plus participating companies brought with them major product launches: NuVo added new Music Port products to its range; Smart-e announced upgrades to its smartmix HDMI solution; Future Automation launched an inventive horizontal floor hinge product; Amina unveiled a Bass Enhancer sub; Extra Vegetables previewed a Control4 driver for the Linn DS range of high-performance digital stream players; Kaleidescape showed its next generation M300 and M500 movie players; and Naim added an iPhone app to its UnitiSystem wireless multi-room offer. And, in truth, that is only to scratch the surface of the innovation on display.
The phenomenal rise of 3D was also well represented, needless to say, and a special 3D feature – sponsored by AWE Europe, CSE Custom, Digital Projection and Pulse Marketing – highlighted the capabilities of this technology using content from Sky and Blu-ray 3D. The Lutron-sponsored Wired for Technology Conference drew more than 80 electrical contractors to see speakers including Guy Singleton (Imagine This) and Malcolm Heskins (Gold System), while TV presenter and designer Oliver Heath was among the high-profile figures to take to the stage in the Show Floor Seminar Theatre. CEDIA also ran three further outreach conferences at the event, attracting more than 100 additional visitors from mechanical and electrical, interior design and architectural backgrounds.
As the IE Residential CEDIA e-Daily discovered, exhibitor and visitor response to this year’s event was overwhelmingly positive. Stuart Tickle, managing director of AWE Europe, offered a representative comment: “CEDIA HTE 2010 was amazing. There was fresh interest on the show floor with solid visitor numbers spread across the three days, Wednesday being outstanding as always… We were delighted that there was a high proportion of business leaders in attendance. The dedicated CI nature of the show and relative size meant they also had time to hold in-depth discussions about multiple product lines.”
CEDIA has already confirmed that the Home Technology Event will return to ICC London ExCeL next year (training: 20-23 June 2010, exhibition 21-23 June 2011).
www.installationeurope.com/ier-cedia-daily
www.hometechnologyevent.co.uk
