This has been discussed so many times here before. As a pro trying to survive you have to deny to yourself and your customers that an overwhelming number of consumer grade products are outperforming and outpacing traditional custom technologies. It’s probably a good time to reimagine our business models or start a new business altogether. There is just not enough of the super high end jobs that demand custom installations for everyone to get a piece of. Even with those I bet there’s an element of Sonos or Eeros like equipment being implemented.

Everyone talks about custom work which involves all kinds of automation but I believe the industry is driven by passion for audio and video. Unfortunately, traditional AV companies have failed to keep up with heavily funded consumer product giants, in terms of digital music management. It’s been proven over and over again to be more important than being able to provide the highest quality that is possible. Still waiting for Yamaha, Denon and the likes to prove this all wrong.

I believe Sonos struggles from the same "One solution fits all" approach that installers fall into.
Sure, it's easier as they don't have to design a custom solution.
But the amount of money left on the table by C.I. businesses who design with their own spending expectations AND who simply don't want to learn anything new is astounding.

When you see a residential product like Sonos (and it is a residential product - not commercial, sorry) in a commercial fitout, it's dis-heartening.

I like the above. I was just talking with an industry partner today and he was describing a recent visit to a high-end speaker manufacturer. He was mentioning how they had one person that was the "wrap the film around the driver guy". I think images like this help to raise the concept of pride of ownership, quality craftsmanship, etc. This is exactly what our industry has gotten away from and what it needs to maintain relevance with high-end offerings.

If I was a high-end speaker manufacturer and I had "film around the driver guy", "Bob the 8 coats of lacquer guy", "Joe the long-haired 40 years with the company perfect ear guy", etc. I would make videos about them and have that content on their websites, Youtube and other areas to help tout that this audio stuff has a history and can be special.

Don’t want to learn - maybe.

Don’t want to install things that are can stop working unexpectedly - maybe a bit of that.

A 10 year industry vet might think no big deal when the automation system needs rebooted every so often. Customer frustration just a way of life.

A 30 year vet might wish we could just connect it, program it, and only hear from the client when they wanted to upgrade. Like it used to be.

It seems the “willing to learn” part includes a new diet of maintaining certain beta test products for the manufacturer.

I don’t disagree with you but think there is more to the equation.

One day Tom, I will buy you a beer. I don't know when that day will happen, but one day I will.

That's were I'm at.
Too many years in the biz I guess.

I'm about 16 years in, so I'm right in the middle of those 2 groups; I saw the transition between the old and new. The push for IP control for everything hasn't made things better in terms of reliability. And when you say that today, you get instant pushback from people who accuse you of not being a good networking guy. And that might even be true, but they seem to think no one did this stuff before they arrived. Actually, things were pretty solid before they arrived - just ask the 30 year vet. Sure the TVs were huge and the picture sucked, but IP control didn't fix that.

What TVs were YOU selling/installing?

My customers back then were blessed with contrast, accurate colors, and no noise. A few hours and I had those CRTs polished to perfection. Even doing some board mods to correct overshooting/ringing on some RPTVs.
And the customers were happy to pay a few hundred $ to have their TVs calibrated and looking good.
And all TVs needed it. There were no good 'out of the box' picture settings back then.

Was planning a trip to the motor city this year, now - who knows...

Earnings: [Link: marketwatch.com]

"direct to consumer sales". Yup, we need to support this company as much as we can,,

(uh huh).

Well sure, but I don't understand new tech and just want something simple that my clients can install without me.

Also, can you send me some money? I've run out of my own...

76,000 holes? That’s a lot...

What standalone music system are you offering in place of SONOS?

Denon HEOS and Yamaha MusiCast, just to name a couple.