I think this thread is great. As things always change.
But as always I think it’s important to look at the markets we all serve. I don’t care if your 25 or 65. When you have a 20-35k house you will have a control system. And if your even semi smart you’ll have your systems integrated. Example said 20-35k sq ft house is in an area where satellite internet is the fastest option you have all of the cloud systems fail (latency). I know micro satellite and 5g will help to minimize this need but it’s still an issue (Plus the whole point of 5g and microsatellite is to control access and gather personal data). I looked at a 72k sq ft house last month. Internet is 5mb. 3xT1 lines combined with satellite internet (Hughes as the backup failover and a few other items segregated in the network) No cable service $2.4m to get fiber to the property

I get that these kind of projects may not be the norm for many. But for those of us that this is par for the course. I don’t see control systems going away for quite a few years still.

The race to the bottom the constant pressure from players in this industry to provide more for less is self defeating and idiotic. And show the lack of business acumen by most on this board. We went from Ferrari dealers. To “we will sell you whatever you want so that we can keep our doors open” Fing stupid.

Couple last thoughts
Everyone should be T&M and I think most know that. If your not. Why not?

And define successful? When someone says they ran a successful integration company and shifted to install consumer products “because of forsight”. I’d ask how they define success. If you own an AV company and your not doing a minimum of $350k in revenue per employee you are NOT successful. Your not even close

Lastly for those who are successful make sure to put all that money into something besides AV. Because as the last 7 pages show Control systems are not needed. ;) and all of us traditional AV companies will disappear