I'm a long time member and have beed doing this for over 20 years. What is on everyone's mind these days? Are you still profitable? What kind of systems have you been installing most in the last couple of years? Are you doing a lot of home automation or more Sonos..etc....What is the best thing you do to keep profitable these days?.....Seems like less people here. Don't know if that's a sign of something

Because all the young ones are idiots. Go look at Facebook groups, where all the young (and some old) integrators & installers seem to be these days. You will pull your hair out looking at the idiocy. It doesn't look like any of them have ever been to a training in their lives for anything. And it shows.
The biggest hope is there are a bunch that just lurk there, saying nothing and shaking their heads at most of the people posting.

As for me. Somehow since 2020 I've become the camera guy. That seems to be all I get these days are referrals to install more camera systems. And that leads to pulling teeth to make clients upgrade their network most of the time.
Very rare these days I get to work on audio or video systems, lighting control and integration. Control systems in general. Or any number of things I use to enjoy.

Camera systems are a race to bottom that has spun its last lap. I'm always way more expensive than any of the trunk slammers around me, so rarely get new jobs. I get called in to estimate fixing/cleaning up what the trunk slammers did - still to expensive - so I just watch the client squirm around. I don't care, I sit back and eat my popcorn and watch it all burn!
I guess I'm semi retired? But I'm to young to retire (52). So I don't know what I'm doing. It just feels like 35+ years doing this has been enough.

Well I'm not going to completely echo Brad.... But I feel like he and I would agree on a lot of things about this industry. Lol

All I'll say is that if I could figure out how to only do the A/V stuff I actually enjoy, I would do only that and leave the rest of the crap to someone else. 😁

It's been a weird year. Up here in Canada, folks are paralyzed by the thought of tariffs. Control system installations in my area have hit bottom. Much like the rest of you, camera installs are what we are quoting on lately.

I wonder how many of you are doing more Sonos centric systems. That has eliminated most of my control system installations. I leave the thermostats, lights and blinds to others. Only home theatre gets automation and there seems to be less than that too.

Doing a lot of lighting control and shades. Finding clients interested in those, the rest of the low voltage scope usually follows.

AV is a lot of Sonos, AppleTV, Rokus, but with the right architect, designer, or GC, those lead to better TVs, better mounts and invisible speakers.

My business started slowing up about 3 years ago so I semi retired. Still doing service calls for select clients and another local company does my pre-wires and hangs TV's.

Spoke to a lumber salesperson a few years ago and people in the suburbs were not buying lumber for additions. They were only selling lumber to custom builders doing large homes.

After 35 years I am on some clients 3rd home. One client was worried that I would retire. I assured her that the opening to her elevator was wide enough to fit my walker...

I wish I was retired and travelling the world or sailing around on boats but this industry has not made me rich like it was supposed to. lol

I got out a few years ago as it was not longer fun. I moved to commercial construction, and have not had a firmware debacle ruin my day since. Or a shitty programmer...

I do miss home theaters. But I only did a couple a year the last few years.

We still do full automation, but the number of projects have started to go down. Many people unfortunately have no issue jumping from app to app, installing Phillips Hue instead of real lighting systems, Sonos stand alone, Nest Tstats, Ring Cameras, etc. I will be semi retired as of Jan. 1, selling my company and consulting my lead who is buying me out.
At 67, it's time due to health issues and change in the industry.

We’re still doing full projects but not as many as we used too, get lots of calls with owner bought equipment that they can’t figure out and want us to come fix or install. Pass on a lot of it. Have several large lighting/shade jobs in progress now, kind of feels good on that aspect of work.

We do a lot more commercial AV than residential the past several years. We still do residential but not as many theaters or whole house systems. The Ring, Sonos, Philips Hue or Caseta, and various HVAC systems all use their own apps and not many are integrating the systems or do much for automation. Residential is mostly just mounting TV and a sound bar. Only several full theater systems or installed whole house music systems.

Although, I enjoy doing theaters the commercial work is a lot easier and no one questions pricing or products. They just want it to work and be easy to use.

As far as profitability this summer was slower but fall has been busy. We typically do a lot of work in the summer with the education market. This year most of the institutions complained that there was little or no technology grants avaialable this year. Which is where most of their funding comes from for technology upgrades. Last summer we put in about 400 digital whiteboards this year 15-20. Other commercial has picked up in the fall though. Overall since going commercial we have been much more profitable.

We are in the same boat as Gman. The uncertainty of the economy has paralyzed a lot of projects. Even our electrical division has slowed down with less new builds happening. Cameras and Security systems are what we are quoting.

I have no idea because I jumped ship years ago. Working from home with 40 paid days off has been great. I have quite the pajama+crocs collection.

What kind of work are you into now Mac? I'm jealous that you were able to jump ship!