So far I don't hear anyone saying they are doing more Crestron...etc..than ever. Anyone doing more home automation than ever (using traditional custom home automation brands)

i agree with alot of the above statements. i can say out urc remote buisness has dropped off. we are doing more commerical with QSC Q-SYS. but not so much in residential. Alot of Sonos and SoundBars

"Alot of Sonos and SoundBars"

That's it, right there, and I'm ok with that. As a business, you have to pick and choose your spots take the easy project, or try to hit the homerun.

I do a little C4 and still some Pro Control for budget, but that's only in a full system with receiver, SS etc. The reality is that there are so many rooms now that get a S/M/Lg Sonos soundbar, and a Sub maybe. Use ARC for connection, cable box or Roku for source and you're done. Most of those rooms in previous decades would have had a receiver.

I'm really glad to hear a lot of you have similar stories, especially the one about Sonos. I thought there was something wrong with me.

Once in a while a speaker or home automation distributor calls me to remind me about speakers, receiver, and control systems. I feel really bad about telling them I don't use their products much any more because of Sonos. I even had to install a Sonos system for one of the owners of a large distributor of popular speakers.

We need to change with the times. A while ago a service business could be a box of tubes and a few screwdrivers. Then we got into instruments, more instruments, and more expensive instruments. Now we are beginning to get back into replacements, but at the board level.

For installations we are facing economy of scale. Phones and pads sell by the millions and our receivers and control systems sell by the tens of thousands at most. The unit development costs for our small market are spread over a smaller number of units, resulting in higher costs for the consumer. For less than the cost of one of our controllers, the customer can buy a phone that does a credible job of controlling things. And, since the customer already owned the phone, the controller is "free".

The customers still willing to opt for the full system are very happy and they achieve better performance than the soundbars and Bluetooth speakers, but there are now fewer of these customers.

A lot of the change as another mentioned is phones and tablets. everyone wants to listen to their own music and you don't need a special player to do this now. Endless hours of music is available on your phone and you either wear headphones or just use your phones speaker to listen. Most Younger millennials and Gen Zers don't care about quality as long as they have access instantly.

Want to watch TV, talk into your free TV remote and you are watching whatever you want. There is no DV systems and there are no DA systems as they kind of go hand in hand. Before you needed a way to get the sound from the DV system into the room so we installed a DA system and speakers. Now you install an HDMI ARC soundbar and have decent sound without all the added expenses of a DV, DA, Control system with an expensive remote that needs programmed and still doesn't work as good as the free remote that came with your TV.

Consumer grade electronics has affected the lighting and shade control side as you can buy a smart switch for $30 install it and connect it to your WIFI with the app, set it up on your Google Home/Amazon Echo system and now have a "smart home". All the shade manufactures have released battery powered shades that connect to their app and are installed by the shade supplier.

Was checking some prices for the new 5G products from Wilson Electronics a few days ago. A. wow, where did my margin go? And B. now Wilson is offering free installation with all of their kits.

WiFi7 will upset the wired video interconnection landscape.