Connected magazine has clicked its red shoes and is ready to take a trip down the yellow brick road, predicting what might be around the corner for the AV industry.

A timeless classic, The Wizard of Oz (1939), is one of the greatest films of all time. It’s also the theme for this year’s Connected Tech Predictor and boy, have we timed it well!

I was walking through a toy store the other day (Christmas is over 50 days away but knock off those presents early, and you’ll be your own best friend, trust me) and there were Wicked LEGO sets! I mean, what? What’s going on there, are they releasing LEGO based on Connected’s publishing schedule?

Obviously not, but 2024 is the release year for the much-anticipated Wicked movie, starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Jeff Goldblum. And it’s the year that I saw Wicked (the stage show) for the first time too, so there’s that.

Regardless of our impeccable timing, we’ve received responses from several people across the AV landscape, from commercial to residential, from the manufacturing side to the installation side. As always with the Tech Predictor, it’s a chance for us to break open the crystal ball and predict what may be coming for the industry, good, bad or indifferent.

For the residential market, it’s a very interesting time with several announcements coming from the CEDIA Tech + Business Summit, including positive strides toward industry recognition, recommended practices around assistive living technology and, honestly, another year out of the pandemic.

From the commercial side, collaboration technology will always be in demand, especially as we’re increasingly more dependent on technology and artificial intelligence (AI) pushes the capabilities of the Microsoft Teams and Zooms of the world.

So, sit back, enjoy the content, ponder over the predictions and see what we see along the way to the Emerald City!

• Sean Wargo, vice president of market insights, AVIXA
• Daryl Friedman, global president and chief executive, CEDIA
• Michael Bromley, business development manager, Sony
• Michael Daly, director and principal integrator, Wired by MJD
• Mike Blackman, managing director, Integrated Systems Events (ISE)
• Sean Carroll, editor, Connected magazine