HTG 551: CEDIA 2026 Part 3 - Impressive Demos & Growing AV Trends

yeah yeah well when that happens we i'll have you guys back on we will talk about it but for now uh let's finish up with cda 2026 uh in denver And I will start by saying, we're gonna talk about some of the demos and the trends, and I'm gonna save the trends for later, except for this one, which is there weren't nearly as many, if any, million dollar plus systems that were being demonstrated at Cedia.

These cost no object systems seem to be kind of out of favor.

Joe, what do you well, Mike, go ahead.

I wouldn't say out of favor, but as much as anything for financial reasons.

And again, I you know, I'm hate to keep bringing it up, but I know I've been around Cedia from the beginning, and I know a lot of the guys that put these things on, and the cost, it's the ROI.

Return on investment.

I was going to say, I could tell you, but I won't, what it costs to put one of those things together.

Just the drayage to get all that stuff from the dock not from the airport not from the ship but from the dock inside and then back out to the dock so the truck can pick it up you're talking almost five figures just for that and a number of the manufacturers said it it ain't worth it and there were some brands that just said I'm not going to do that anymore.

And again, that's not just a knock on Cedia.

That's an issue that the trade show world in general is having these days economically.

I'll say two things about that.

You know, back in the day when I was exhibiting at CES with other companies.

there was not a really good way to get that information.

Now on YouTube with podcasts, there's a wealth of information out there that I think you can at least hear about or learn about these things much quicker than you could in the print days.

So I think that, yeah, you are seeing less of an impact from some trade shows, and that's not this industry specific.

That's all of them.

It's everybody.

Yeah.

So I think that's a big part of it.

Mm-hmm.

and then some manufacturers said they'd rather take that same money and put it into a showroom that's there you know 365 days a year for a customer to get that experience i know harman for example was offering rides to golden colorado where they had a pro source demo set up where you could sit inside a jbl synthesis theater You can take a

lot of dealers out to dinner for what it costs to put

out, put on one of

those shows.

Or if you're a dealer, you could say, give me some MDF.