CEDIA …
CEDIA is an acronym standing for Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association. No wonder they use an acronym! In simple terms, this association serves those who design, install and maintain home theaters and associated fixtures.
You might think this is some self-important group that is trying to make something out of nothing, but you wouldn’t believe how big it is. The show attracted 600 vendors and 27,000 attendees! Those interested include contractors, dealers and retailers.
CEDIA offers membership, learning and certification. Membership gives the aura of the best in the business. When you look to have a system installed in your home or office, you should look for the CEDIA label. Membership cost starts at $400 and includes certain other requirements. You must have at least one CEDIA Certified employee on staff.
Learning includes many opportunities. There are educational courses, reading material lists and examinations. The annual meeting offers both classes on useful subjects and certification exams.
Certification is very important. The Professional Certification Program is the result of learning the course material. There are several courses to be taken in order to be certified. These include Installer Level I, Installer Level II, Designer and Home Theater Designer. Each course covers a curriculum and requires an examination. The exams can be taken on-line.
The list of vendors at the show is quite impressive! Here are some of the areas covered by the vendors:
| | Video displays, LCD, plasma and projection. Most vendors had at least one large video monitor in operation, some had 10 or more. The high definition displays are the only ones being used these days and are quite impressive.
Audio. This includes indoor and outdoor (some look like rocks!) speakers and soundproofing.
Connection. Here we have cables, wireless and connector boxes. Some companies specialize in cables of different types. Variables are size of wire, number of wires, wire material and type of insulation. At the end of the cable we must have connectors and this is another subject of specialization. I’ve never seen so many different types of connectors! And then, we have boxes whose only purpose is to make it easier to connect several components together.
Installation. The companies offering installation assistance to those designing and installing systems provide entire outfits, system design software and mounts. This latter item, mounts, is important and a number of companies provide those all-important ways to hang your new video display on the wall, corner or even ceiling.Some provide swiveling devices as well.
Lighting. You can guess what this entails.
Furniture. This is a big area of retailing. Lounge chairs and couches with facilities for drinks, reclining and eating are big business. In addition to the abilities of the piece itself, you have various materials and colors.
Controls. Once your installation is in, you have to be able to easily manipulate it. All of us know how to use a thermostat, but operating your whole-house stereo and video system means much more complex controls. The challenge here is to make it as versatile as possible, yet as simple as possible. You shouldn’t have to take a course to learn how to operate your system!
Indoor-outdoor. While the major emphasis is on indoor systems, many people like to be able to hear their music when outside, too. Usually the outdoor system is only speakers, but may include controls and other elements of the indoor system as well.
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One of the interesting devices I saw was the Harmony Remote. This device meets the challenge of controlling several units from the same remote. It seems that each device we buy these days comes with a remote and one’s chair-side table is littered with remotes, one for each TV, VCR, DVD player, receiver, etc. Logitech bought the Harmony business several years ago and have been quite successful with it. They claim to have 45 million users!
This was a most interesting show, unusual in type. The annual show has been in Indianapolis for the past several years and has grown significantly. The Indy Convention Center and the Hoosier Dome, including hallways, were completely filled with vendor displays. The Convention Center in Indy is no longer big enough for the show and it will move to Denver for next year.
For those interested in more information, see cedia.org.
Chicago Computer Society MX-IV …
One of the great benefits of APCUG is the annual conference of User Group leaders in Las Vegas. Another is the regional conferences. The regionals give an opportunity to attend a conference similar in scope to the APCUG conference, but much smaller and close to home.
I attended the Midwest regional sponsored by the South Suburban Chicago Computer Society. The conference was held in a section of Prairie State College in Chicago Heights. About 200 people attended, all of whom are interested in computers and software, most of whom are CCS members.
We had a full day of vendor displays, seminars, lunch and the finale of product give-aways.
The sponsoring vendors were:
| | 3D Album
AMD
Blue Squirrel
Corel
Executive Software
H&M Software
Lowepro
Nik Multimedia
Microsoft
Peach Pit Press
Photodex
Prentice Hall
O’Reilly Publishing
Que & Sams Publishing
Roxio
Sunbelt Software
Tech Smith
TriVista Software
User Group Relations
interVideo
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Several of these vendors also had a booth at the conference. All the vendors provided give-aways, so many that there were almost enough for one per person, although the drawing was by ticket.
There were seminars provided by some of the vendors as well as by several CCS members. These were interesting and provided information we needed. Web security was one session that everyone today needs to learn more about. The session on malware detection and removal was very helpful, with a checklist of how to detect and remove, and another on several software tools to do these jobs.
Several old friends were there, familiar to those who attend the annual APCUG conference. It was great to see again Dave Whittle, Richard Katz and Matt McCann.
A conference of this magnitude requires a lot of planning and help to bring it off successfully, as this one did. Al Cheeks, CCS South Suburban President, was a delightful emcee and coordinator. Our APCUG Regional Advisor, Bill James, was present as well.
The lunch was satisfying, but not fancy. Prairie State College has an amazing facility. Their eating area held all of us in comfortable surroundings.
The meeting organization, program booklets, publicity material, hand-outs, goody bag and give-away drawing were all handled smoothly and efficiently. It’s a pleasure to attend an event like this and I look forward to next year’s.
For more info about CCS, see ccs.org.
