The convergence of residential and commercial technology, coined “resimercial,” has provided an opportunity for crossover between manufacturers, integrators, and many other business facets. Resimercial has accelerated the adoption of technology integrations in nearly every industry and application, including home/hybrid offices, flex spaces, and commercial spaces, specifically office, retail, and mixed-use facilities. As a result, professional AV manufacturers are designing and manufacturing solutions that can be utilized in both commercial and residential applications.
The inaugural Commercial Integrator Expo (CIX) 2023, co-located with CEDIA Expo 2023, created a home for systems integrators, designers, distributors, architects, home builders, and contractors tackling the resimercial and commercial markets. The event included technologies, educational sessions, and opportunities centered around the industry’s hottest trends, including unified communications, audiovisual networking, and digital signage.
Unified Communications
Unified communications and collaboration technologies have emerged as hybrid and remote work have become normal. As a result, most people understand a great deal about video conferencing platforms and technology, and business professionals and students are leveraging collaboration technologies — which were once reserved for corporate offices — for their home offices and flexible workspaces.
At CIX 2023, the Interactive Multimedia and Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA) hosted leading industry experts in unified communications in engaging conference track sessions that discussed the latest trends and solutions opportunities for systems integrators’ and technology managers’ businesses. To support the overlapping skillset, IMCCA’s educational programming covered the key aspects for residential integrators to become trusted experts in unified communications and collaboration technologies. Additionally, IMCCA’s educational sessions, combined with many exhibitors on the CEDIA Expo and CIX 2023 show floor, showcased enterprise video collaboration and unified communications technology solutions that can be utilized in home offices, flex spaces, and mixed-use facilities.
Audiovisual Networking
There’s a growing commercial market filled with boutique hotels, co-working coffee shops, and other niche projects that require solutions more reliable than standard networking solutions, but maybe not as robust as traditional corporate boardrooms. A plethora of networking equipment was introduced at CIX 2023, all aimed at providing reliable connections to address the growing challenges of hybrid and remote work, such as video distribution in light commercial and mixed-use spaces, high-performance networking for hybrid and remote offices, and connectivity for boutique, niche environments, like flexible, mixed-use spaces.
Luxul, a brand of Legrand | AV, introduced a refreshed line of managed PoE+ AV gigabit switches, which are designed to provide AV-over-IP in small offices, conference rooms, home theaters or other light commercial applications. Meanwhile, Netgear showcased the PR60X, a professional-grade router offering up to 16 Gbps bi-direction WAN-LAN throughput performance. The PR60X is designed for power users who depend on reliable, fast communications from their small businesses or home offices.
Digital Signage
At CIX 2023, the Digital Signage Federation’s Digital Signage Day enabled attendees to take advantage of relevant and informative educational opportunities to drive digital signage opportunities for their businesses forward. The programming during Digital Signage Day complemented the new technologies on the show floor.
Attendees could take their knowledge to the show floor as they discovered emerging trends in digital signage, including new advancements in OLED and microLED. LG introduced OLED M, available in 77-inch, 83-inch, and 97-inch diagonal measures, which allows integrators to install the display without the wires behind the screen. Additionally, LG showcased 2K and 4K microLED displays, designed in two panels that snap together for simplified installation.
Planar featured the DirectLight Ultra Series, a lineup of fine-pitch MicroLED video wall displays that deliver high-contrast, high brightness for exceptional video performance. The displays are ready for HDR content, maximizing the image quality of each pixel for brighter whites, darker blacks and more true-to-life colors in various uses, such as corporate boardrooms and theater-like environments.
Final Thoughts
Commercial Integrator Expo was established to provide a resource to support the overlap between education, technology, and resources to expand opportunities for channel professionals, IT integrators, and tech managers. From AI, audio, control, video, digital signage, security, energy management, lighting, and unified communications, exhibitors provided attendees with a well-rounded offering of the latest technologies centered around the industry’s hottest trends.
If you missed Commercial Integrator Expo 2023, check out a recap at https://www.youtube.com/@CommIntExpo.
Commercial Integrator Expo 2024 and CEDIA Expo 2024 will take place September 4–7, 2024, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo.
To learn more about Commercial Integrator Expo, visit expo.commercialintegrator.com.
