For two decades, Connected magazine has been servicing the AV and custom installation channels. Sean Carroll takes a look at the past 20 years for integrators and where Connected fits.

In 2004, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won best picture, Sean Penn won best actor in Mystic River, construction began on the Burj Khalifa, the European Union welcomed ten new members, Greece won the UEFA Euros, Argentina beat the USA in Olympic men’s basketball (their first loss since 1988), John Howard was re-elected as the Australian Prime Minister and Connected magazine debuted its first edition. What a year!

What started as a great idea to keep a young, burgeoning industry together has now spent two decades giving integrators the latest industry news, trends, independent product reviews and in-depth feature pieces on the happenings of the custom installation world.

But how did it all start? In trying to determine how Connected magazine came to be, I’ve been running around like Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code trying to tie all the information together. The general consensus is that the magazine was the brainchild of the CEDIA Australia president at the time, Adam Merlino (now Snap One vice president and general manager in the Asia Pacific region).

“I won’t take all that glory, from memory, there was a group of us who all had the idea,” Adam says.

“Back in the day, we were having a chat with Jeff Patchell (former owner of Connection Magazines, now Lanella Media, for 30-plus years) about creating an industry publication and all the benefits it would give the industry. I believe a few of us including David Small and Stephen Miller and David Beauchamp spoke with Jeff and eventually, we ended on the idea of Connected magazine.”

CEDIA Australasia foundation president and Smart Home Solutions director, James Billington, can be found on the front cover of the very first magazine.

“I never did end up making the front cover of Rolling Stone, so this really is my claim to fame,” he says.

“I remember that first edition of Connected and I was involved right from the start because Jeremy Sweet and I were working on a TV series called Stunning Smart Homes and saw the value of an industry magazine right from the get-go.”

One of the first stories from edition one of Connected (Connected Home Solutions at the time) was a case study titled ‘Spinning out’ that takes readers through a very high-end smart home installation at a waterfront property just near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The article talks about the state-of-the-art installation consisting of 1,000 coloured stars made up of optic fibres.

“The lighting is linked to a structured cabling system that integrates music, video, telephone, computer, security, heating and cooling and other electronics,” the article reads.

“The occupants have full control of all these features from single points, such as wall-mounted keypads and a touch-panel remote.”

James adds that when the integrator industry was first taking off and technology was making its way into our homes, the industry had to temper expectations: “We spent a lot of time educating people that systems integration didn’t mean The Jetsons and it didn’t mean that you could press a button and a computer would open your fridge, put something in the oven, cook it then deliver it to you on the couch.”

Long-time Connected editor, Paul Skelton, says that he found many case studies interesting, and not just the ones that steal the headlines for the sheer money spent.

“When it came to case studies, there were some extreme examples like this one time where a guy in the United States automated his security solution so that if someone broke into his house, a gun would come down from the ceiling and he would be able to control it remotely,” he says.

Paul is now the CEDIA regional development independent consultant, Australia and New Zealand, and he has spent time on both sides of the relationship as Connected is proudly the official media partner of CEDIA in Australia and New Zealand. Paul adds that the relationship is very strong between the two.

“Connected has always run the CEDIA newsletter in the magazine and has always done a great job at promoting what CEDIA is doing, not just in Australia, but globally,” Paul explains.

“Being on the other side of the relationship now, it’s kind of funny to see how much of an impact the magazine has had on the industry because when I took over as editor in 2006, a lot of our time was spent on building the voice for the magazine and having integrators adopt it as their own. Even 20 years later, we’re still seeing that integrators are very protective of it.”

He adds that a lot in the industry still come to him to pitch story ideas and he has to remind them that he doesn’t work there anymore (story ideas can be pitched to [email protected]).

CEDIA senior vice president of membership and global development, Wendy Griffiths, says that the magazine has been a fantastic platform to get the association’s messaging out there.

“CEDIA have a lot to say and we develop a lot of content and host numerous events and Connected has always been a supportive portal to drive audiences, but also for us to share insight into our recommended practices and white papers.”

Highlights from two decades of technology

Adam Merlino says that the integrator industry has been through a lot in the past two decades and 20 years ago, smart homes were a lot more of a piecemeal scenario.

“In the early days, we spent a lot of time educating end users and most of our installations were based on AV. Back then, it wasn’t even over an IP network, it was a range of proprietary bus solutions from brands like AMX, Crestron and Dynalite who were always there,” he says.

“C-Bus and Dynalite were there as well and it’s great to say that there were some Australian companies involved from the very start – at the birth of the industry. Personally, I’m very proud of that fact.”

He adds that as time progressed, integrators realised that it was simplicity that was selling, and it wasn’t about installing as much gear as possible.

One of the biggest innovations across Connected’s lifetime was HDMI. Today, HDMI is everywhere, but at the time it was met with quite a rocky road.

“What a nightmare that was. Back in the day, we were calibrating three-lens CRT projectors and having to run 5 Core coax to get it to work. To be able to convert that all to one cable in HDMI, well it was a blessing and a curse,” Adam says.

The transition from analogue cables to HDMI was handled poorly, but a silver lining is that it potentially taught some in the industry how to properly introduce new products.

Today, the ubiquitous HDMI connection has become the backbone of modern AV devices, seamlessly transmitting high-quality audio and video signals. There have been nearly 12 billion HDMI-ready devices shipped since the first HDMI specification in December 2002 and its impact has been nothing short of extraordinary.

“The transition to HDMI caused a lot of angst out in the industry, people kind of gave up on it and tried to flee the ship. Unfortunately, a lot of people were worried about returning and it took a long time for them to come back on board because they had been burned,” Paul says.

Another game changer for the integrator industry was the invention of the iPad. As Paul describes it: “When the iPad was released, we saw two or three very high-profile control brands just shut down overnight. They saw that the writing was on the wall and just fell off. It was a massive issue at the time.”

A smart home panel used to cost north of $10,000 a pop. Change needed to happen on this side of the industry and Apple took a brave step in the consumer electronics market to do so.

In a 2010 article for Connected, Savant president Jim Carroll addressed the change that the iPad has made to the smart home industry: “We see the iPad becoming one of the primary user interfaces for our system. In a similar way to our iPhone and iTouch applications, we believe that through the iPad we can achieve the best level of control and media content feedback in the industry.”

At the time, Savant was an Apple Proprietary Solutions Provider and was the first company to adopt the iPad into its own product lineup.

“I truly believe these devices will prove to be a direct replacement for legacy systems. Based on the apps that we have for them, it looks like the iPad, from a service application perspective, could directly replace the very expensive in-wall and mobile devices that exist today,” Jim explained.

“I think there are massive changes coming. In order for these legacy companies to survive, their business models need to change.”

In the same article, Crestron marketing communications director Jeff Singer was tempered about the iPad’s impact: “Through all those years, we have always developed technology to provide full, remote Crestron control from PCs, laptops and mobile devices. The introduction of the iPad, while creating a lot of buzz in the market today and certainly being a cool product, doesn’t change anything for us.

“Installers will be able to use them whenever a client wants to use them. It all comes down to choices. Clients should have lots of choices and be able to use the right interface in the right environment for them.”

Hindsight is 20-20, as they say, but looking back is funny.

CEDIA’s Wendy Griffiths says that one of the biggest achievements in her eyes is getting CEDIA certification accredited in ISO in 2022: “This global recognition for our Cabling & Infrastructure Technician (CIT) & Integrated Systems Technician (IST) certification not only establishes us firmly as a profession, but it also gives people a way of benchmarking their skills.

“This is incredibly important when you are talking to clients or architects and interior designers, but also allows business owners to incentivise staff and give them a career pathway to follow.”

A more recent revelation for the integrator industry was the COVID-19 pandemic. On one innocuous day in March 2020, our living rooms became our offices, our families became our co-workers and the water cooler conversations moved to our own kitchen sinks. Most importantly, a lot of the workforce had to try and make things work with technology, and nobody was prepared.

“Firstly, COVID-19 gave everyone in the AV industry a very profitable business during the pandemic. Initially, there was a huge amount of change and people needed the technology to help enable that change,” Adam explains.

The first event cancelled was CEDIA’s London Tech Summit (Connected publishing the news on 13 March 2020) and following this it was Integrate 2020, AETM 2020, InfoComm 2020 and well… every conference was cancelled, and some then transitioned online.

Shortly after this, CEDIA launched the CEDIASTRONG initiative, featuring new services, tools and programs to support CEDIA’s global members during the pandemic. Included in the rollout were free financial planning tools and services, technical training and webinars, career planning resources, online business roundtable discussions and marketing content that members can use to promote their services locally.

On the luxury smart home side of the integrator industry, a lot of projects were delayed or cancelled altogether.

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Integrating with the Integrate Expo

Integrate is Australia’s premier annual AV and Integration trade show. This event is a hub of activity for local and global brands to showcase solutions and products to AV professionals, integrators, technicians and corporate end users.

Integrate plays a big role in bringing identity to an industry that is still evolving and finding its identity.

In 2013, Connected magazine became the official show guide for Integrate, giving attendees a comprehensive breakdown of the show floor, the key stands and where to find everything. This has carried through to the current day where edition three of Connected every year includes an exclusive Integrate preview, giving our readers a breakdown of everything they need to know about Australia’s best AV show.

“Integrate and Connected have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration, especially in the months leading up to Integrate. Connected has taken a leading role in its pre-show review and coverage of what to expect at the event every year,” Diversified Communications commercial and event manager Soren Norgaard says.

“This has helped the AV industry get a good taste of what to expect and plan their visit to the show. This type of collaboration helps unite and inform the industry about innovation and new product releases, building excitement for the event.

“Congratulations to Connected magazine on its 20^th anniversary and I hope to enjoy years of continued collaboration between us.”

Connected is very proud of the work it has done with Integrate and it has been great to watch the show grow into the success that is it today. When you’re at the show this year at ICC Sydney, be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine on the show floor.

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Shortly after the lockdowns started, a Connected article asked Queensland-based integrator Matt Manalis how COVID had impacted his business. He said that his business was on track to meet its 2020 goals after a successful outing at the Brisbane Home Show that was quickly overshadowed by lockdown measures: “In the first two weeks of the craziness, we put $2.5 million worth of quotes on hold and around $800,000 of projects were cancelled. We let go of two staff and started rent negotiations to do everything we could to minimise our overheads.”

On the manufacturing and distribution side of the industry, the effects of COVID were similarly felt. Radio Parts advertising executive Bilgin Ozcan told Connected in 2020 that the hole in the calendar has a negative effect in terms of creating new opportunities, sourcing new products and staying on top of new, emerging technologies.

“Some of our suppliers are also facing supply chain issues, in particular with their regular annual/bi-annual release schedule, and this is having a flow-on effect on running out of existing models and not being able to replace them,” he outlined.

“Our biggest challenge proved to be isopropyl alcohol. Typically, we supply this to the electronics industry but due to the pandemic, there’s a thousand-fold increase in demand. We managed to fulfil all back orders more than ten weeks after the spike in demand.”

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The integrator’s skillset in commercial and residential technology placed them in a unique position to help the entire workforce, the education sector and anybody who wanted to connect with their friends on a boring Saturday night. Collaboration technology went from a nice cherry on top to an essential tool for everyone stuck at home.

In the education space, universities needed better infrastructure for remote learning as the simple lecture capture was either pushed to its limits or not coping with the demand.

“One thing that goes under the radar with the pandemic was the importance of the home/business network, the NBN was a saving grace for our industry, even all the professional integrators,” Adam says.

“Love it or hate it, if we didn’t have the NBN, I think COVID would’ve been a very different period in all of our lives if not for it. On top of that, it taught a lot of integrators how to be more operationally efficient and how to plan better since there were a lot of restrictions around when you could or couldn’t enter people’s homes and it led to more efficient businesses.”

The most recent technological advancement that’s changing the way integrators work is artificial intelligence (AI), a space that has boomed in the past couple of years. Leading us to…

What do the next 20 years look like for Connected and integrators?

Celebrating the past 20 years of the integrator and custom install industry wouldn’t be right without a look to the future.

Adam says that the biggest area he sees impacting the industry is big data: “I think there’s a lot of ignorance in the industry and consumers about what information is shared and how it’s shared. As integrators and experts in the technology space, we need to be professionals and teach end users what’s actually happening in the background with some of these data-collecting devices.”

IoT-connected devices, typically referred to as a “gateway drug” for smart homes are great and they serve their purpose. Still, there’s a huge difference in data collecting when it comes to a little plug-in device from retailers and a bespoke smart home solution from an integrator (depending on the control platform used).

That’s why AI can play a critical role in the industry.

“AI can be used for good and for… not so good,” Adam explains.

“People are introducing this technology into their homes, their most sacred and private place and again, as technology professionals, we need to let people know what some of the privacy concerns are.”

With an eye to the future, a lot of integrators are trying to “future-proof” installations, but Wendy pushes back against that terminology, arguing that the best an integrator can offer is a “future-ready” installation. These “future-ready” projects can also open up opportunities for future revenue streams as technology becomes available.

“Outside of that, as an industry, we have moved away from catering purely for the rich to embracing the mid-market and the ‘do it for me’ generation,” Wendy outlines.

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Connected Middle East

In 2007, at the CEDIA Expo in Denver, Colorado, Connection Magazines was approached by several integrators and distributors from the Middle East asking for an industry publication in their part of the world.

At the time, there was a boom in residential technology being installed and Connection Magazines, working closely with Clipsal Middle East, debuted the Connected Home Middle East publication, looking at the latest and greatest in custom installation, new products and some of the more interesting case studies. It was exciting to see the growth of this market, especially since Connected had been working so closely with the Australian side of the industry.

In researching for this article, I was flicking through old editions of Connected Home Middle East and in the second edition, there was a feature piece on calibrating AV, saying that integrators are leaving some exceptional features uncovered by not correctly calibrating the video settings, leaving them in their factory mode… some things never change, do they!

After several years of publishing this magazine, it was hard to maintain communications across the pond and the publication was eventually ended.

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“In my opinion, how the industry evolves will be very dependent on outside audiences and influences such as the design professionals who will impact the rise in things like lighting and shading, which are now more common in most projects, but becoming a bigger part of the home owner’s investment.”

James Billington looks further into the future, asking what the role of TV screens will be: “Something I’ve picked up from attending several CEDIA events is that the number of screens might change. The quality is just beyond what I thought it’d be, but now can we place multiple screens around the room and create an atmospheric environment where you could be in a jungle, watching a tiger chase something around the room? And it has been made in fiction a lot, but could we convey smell while watching these screens?”

Additionally, and in the more immediate future, CEDIA was proud to announce that there was the first specialist disability accommodation (SDA) project under the NDIS where the developer specifically requested CEDIA certification on the integrator completing the job. It’s a step in the right direction for integrators and CEDIA is working closely with the government to ensure the smart home technology elements of the SDA make sense for both integrators and end users.

Paul Skelton says that there are going to be significant challenges for the industry with external threats from third-party trades and the government.

“CEDIA is currently tackling a lot of these issues, but the industry is getting to a point now where we need to, I guess, grow up and mature. We can’t keep operating the way we did 20 years ago, we need to take ourselves more seriously,” he says.

“In the next 20 years, one of two things is going to happen; either we’ll enter this amazing time where we’re dealing with ultra-high-end technology and installing AI-based systems and we’re everywhere in the tech space or we’ll be completely consumed and disappear as an industry.”

At the 2024 CEDIA Tech Summit on the Gold Coast, Paul delivered a state of the industry report to integrators, talking about how the association is pushing for standardised recognition of the role of an integrator in Australia and New Zealand, ensuring that integrators aren’t just working in this grey area of trades.

Adam adds that in the AV industry, there has been this mentality that integrators go in, sell the product, install it and walk away and if something goes wrong, they go back and fix it without charging.

“That’s not a tangible business model. Integrators need to understand how to create recurring revenue off their project and the important of building a sustainable business model,” he says.

“I believe that this is because a lot of us started as hobbyists or enthusiasts of the technology and it’s one of the reasons why it’s such a great industry to work in. To ensure a viable future, integrators must incorporate a service model whilst being confident and professional about their industry.”

At the end of the day, it’s part of what makes the industry as fun as it is. Integrators are creating unforgettable experiences for people with cutting-edge technology.

“Personally, I’ve been in the industry for about 30-odd years now and there are some great people in it,” Adam says.

“Everyone loves it and there’s so much passion, that’s the best thing I can mention, everyone just loves to see the smiles and expressions on the customer’s face when their expectations have been met or exceeded.”

At the end of the day, it’s part of what makes the industry as fun as it is. Integrators are creating unforgettable experiences for people with cutting-edge technology.