CEDIA reveals the results of its 2017 survey looking into the trends and services of the UK home technology market-- one showing the industry anticipates healthy annual growth in 2018 turnover.

Conducted in H2 2017 together with Futuresource, the CEDIA survey aims to conduct comprehensive research into the UK professional smart home market. It involved both members and non-members, and consisted of 76 questions covering business functions, installation types, equipment choices, workforce size and the areas installers consider most important for their businesses.

“We are pleased to announce the results of our research project,” CEDIA EMEA says. “This extensive survey provides the industry with strong comparative data and has helped to identify vital market trends and offer a greater understanding of the UK smart home market.  The findings for 2016–2017 show that our industry is extremely prosperous, as well as providing insight into future changes and likely developments moving forward.”

The Guardian reports one of the biggest music streaming providers is going to enter hardware-- Spotify is currently looking for employees to make "category defining" hardware products.

The job adverts state Spotify plans to create a hardware category "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo and Snap Spectacles." One position at the streaming provider posted back in April 2017 is for a senior product manager able to “define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it," while other, more recent, adverts have the company looking for an “operations manager,” “senior project manager: hardware production,” and “project manager: hardware production and engineering.”

CEDIA unveils its new strategic plan-- one that will prioritise the work of the association over the next 3 years, with the hope of "significant" advances in three key areas.

Developed by the CEDIA staff and board, plus input from members and strategy expert Dr. Rebecca Homkes, the plan focuses on education, increasing professionalism through standards, guidelines and best practices, and deeper engagement and partnership with the design and build community.

The CEDIA Board of Directors promotes Tabatha O'Connor from acting to permanent CEDIA global president and CEO, marking a moving away for CEDIA from being something of a "good-old-boy" club.

O'Connor joined CEDIA in 2002 and has led many different departments over her tenure, including membership, finance, human resources, operations and volunteer development. In 2015 she was promoted to COO, a role that had her creating structures and processes to manage the association's activities, and has served as acting global president and CEO since May 2017.

The CEDIA board of directors approves the 2018 executive committee and appoints two directors for the 2018-2019 term-- one filled from the EMEA membership, the other from the entire global membership.

John Buchanan from Meridian Audio was voted in by the board to fill the EMEA position, while David Weinstein from Lutron Electronics was voted in for the other position representing the entire global membership.

“CEDIA is in a fantastic position to hit the ground running for 2018,” CEDIA chairman David Humphries says. “Our directors have a wonderful and diverse set of skills and expertise which sets us up for a very successful year.”

Control4 announces the acquisition of a remote management services provider-- Ihiji, providing Control4 with a one-stop shop for remote IP network and IoT ecosystem management when paired with the Pakedge BakBak portfolio.

The deal covers certain Ihiji IP, development and support teams, and inventory. Financial details are not available.

“Connected home opportunities are emerging globally, and their individual performance, reliability, and resilience are foundational to all successful installations," Control4 says. "By combining Control4’s BakPak, with its strong network management capabilities, and Ihiji’s Invision, with its industry-leading device monitoring and management capabilities, Control4 can provide a set of unified cloud-based services to our dealers to securely and efficiently monitor end-customer systems."