CEDIA's Technology Advisory Group releases its second industry analysis video, covering the past few months' emerging trends.

The main trend covered is the cloud-- which CEDIA says is taking over the market with "lightning speed," and will become even more important in the future.

The organisation says the cloud services your customers use and desire will determine their hardware purchases.

The cloud also ties into the growth in wireless networking hardware, including wireless audio and mobile hardware-- resulting in increasing challenges for installers, as the industry moves from device integration to app integration.

Customers will require robust wired and wireless networks covering both their current distributed AV and cloud-based service needs.

CEDIA concludes that the installers' future will not involve any lack of demand for their services, but getting clients to "pay a fair price for our sophisticated knowledge in a world of inexpensive electronics and free cloud services."

Watch CEDIA Emerging Trends August 2011

CEDIA releases its 2011 Benchmarking Survey results, saying companies hope for the best this year as opportunities should grow throughout 2011.

The survey evaluates the state of CEDIA members' 2010, as well as their expectations for the year.

Respondents report 2010 gross revenue grows by 13% Y-o-Y, with average profit margin growth of 4.1% (from 2009's 3.5%).

An installer in 2010 took on an average of 41 projects, with an average project size of $32000.

Remodelling and retrofitting work remains to be a leading source of revenue (making up 63% of gross revenue), while systems integration and control projects are 2010's most profitable product category.

Home theatres and media rooms remain 2010's largest category, but are also dropping significantly, making up only 17% of 2010's gross revenue (from 2009's 24%).

As a snapshot of companies' performance data, CEDIA says its survey "gives ESCs the ability to compare themselves to industry averages and high performance metrics, allowing them to identify their company’s strengths and improve upon weaknesses to accomplish greater profitability.”

Go CEDIA 2011 Benchmarking Survey Report

Danish power company SEAS-NVE selects GreenWave Reality's home energy management solution, and will it to a select number of households before rolling it out to all its customers in 2012.

SEAS-NVE will eventually also extend this solution to include renewable enrgy sources (such as wind).

GreenWave's solution consistents of PowerNodes, intelligent power strips allowing users to control connected devices, together with an in-home energy display through which one can check appliance's consumption while connecting to advanced Gateway.

Customers can also manage their power consumption through internet-connected devices (computers and smartphones).

The solution is expandable, allowing for the monitoring of electric vehicle charging, heat pumps, water and gas meters.

Go GreenWave Reality Providing SmartHome Solution to SEAS-NVE

The ZigBee Alliance releases the latest draft of its Smart Energy 2.0 standard for public review and comment.

Smart Energy 2.0 is an IP-based energy management solution running on both wired and wireless communications protocols, including those from HomeGrid Forum, the HomePlug Powerline alliance, the Wifi Alliance and ZigBee itself.

This draft 0.7 document collects the Smart Energy Working Group's progress on the topics identified during the last ballot-- and will now enter the next 30-day ballot period.

The Alliance is also looking for public input (as well as comments from its key external stakeholders) to ensure "the highest levels of participation and industry cooperation."

You can find all Smart Energy 2.0 related documents-- together with the online comment submission form-- at ZigBee's website. Comments will close on August 15 2011.

Go ZigBee Smart Energy Overview