This entry will be short and sweet, as I'm currently in Denver, CO attending the 2007 CEDIA EXPO, a trade show that caters to the custom integration market. Anyone into audio/video likely has some sort of "home theatre" at home, consisting of a flat-panel TV (or maybe even a projector and screen if your budget should accomodate such luxuries), speakers, and perhaps some other fancy-schmancy things, like home automation, music servers, and the like.
Anyone who has anything to do with custom A/V is at this show, learning, teaching, or just simply experiencing new products and technologies. These range from the high-end custom shops that cater to the rich and/or famous; to the traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers who have recently added "custom" to their regular floor sales offerings.
There's no question that custom is the direction the industry is moving as a whole. I think within the next 10 years, the whole idea of "custom" will be encompassed in the term "retail". Essentially, custom will swallow retail whole: if you aren't offering your customers some type of added value, whether it be to mount the flat-panel TV they just bought off your sales floor, or to connect that new media server to their Internet connection and music system, you might want to start looking in that direction.
Meanwhile, check out the Marketnews Website for some highlights of what's to come at the show, which officially begins tomorrow.
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