Each year the electronics industry starts with a bang through the opening of the annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Realistically, many of the announcements that stem from CES won’t impact the more targeted world of custom electronics or more simply, the smart home industry, but there are products and technologies coming from the show that will impact professional integrators.
Additionally, it is important to point out there are many products and technologies that are announced prior to CES that through maturation become relevant for today’s consumer.
Narrowing down the list of products and technologies that will drive smart home designs in 2026 is impossible, but with that said here are four either new or newer, maturing solutions to help grow the custom installation industry:
RGB TV Technologies
This is a bit of a confusing term in that it seems almost interchangeable with Micro RGB TV, RGB LED TV, and other similar names.
Summarizing these technologies, the naming of these products relates to the use of RGB backlighting and the ability of a TV’s backlighting to control individual pixels or zones to drive performance and picture quality.
At CES 2026, Samsung announced its Micro RGB R95H 130-inch RGB TV model that is said to have the ability reproduce 100 percent of the BT.2020 color gamut through the proprietary Micro RGB AI Engine Pro.
Other companies such as LG also introduced Micro RGB during the show. The new LG Micro RGB evo product line is said to deliver 100 percent of the BT. 2020 color gamut, and the TVs utilize LG’s Micro Dimming Ultra OLED (organic light emitting diode) processing technologies from its OLED-based TV products.
All these new television products aim to meet the public’s desire for larger screen size, state-of-the-art display solutions that blend into smart home environments without compromising performance.
HDMI 2.2 Moving Forward
Multiple reports from CES state the HDMI Forum has been showing a prototype version of Ultra96 HDMI cable products. These prototypes are significant because they represent the first public look at HDMI 2.2 cabling that delivers bandwidth capabilities up to 96Gbps. The higher bandwidth enables the transmission of higher refresh rates and resolutions, including 12K at 120Hz and 16K at 60Hz compared to older versions of the HDMI format.
HDMI 2.2, which is expected to become available later in 2026 or 2027, also supports full chroma formats such as 8K at 60Hz 4:4:4, 4K at 240Hz 4:4:4 at 10- and 12-bit color rates to allow for greater color detail.
Supporting gaming and other smart home activities, the upcoming format also provides HDMI’s Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and Quick Frame Transport (QFT) to make gaming experiences smoother and more responsive.
Faster Wireless Network Speeds Via Wi-Fi 7
Back in January 2024 the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced the Wi-Fi 7 format. The industry group states the new wireless networking format improves the performance of connectivity in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands.
The Wi-Fi Alliance goes on to say that it expects 1.1 billion Wi-Fi 7 products to ship in 2026, and by 2027, the format will enable 51 percent of wireless traffic with about 2.7 product shipments. Beyond the numbers, manufacturers such as eero, Netgear, TP Link, Ruckus, and Ubiquiti, have all developed and released products, which integrators can now use to provide faster smart home network speeds to improve gaming, streaming media, and other Internet-based activities, including smart home control.
Maturing Smart Home Lighting Market
For about a decade the smart home industry’s growth has been fueled in large part to the demand for home-friendly lighting systems and control capabilities.
Data from Global Market Insights estimates the custom electronics industry was worth just over $183 billion in 2024, and from 2025 to 2034, it expects the market to grow from $199 billion to $414 billion. Much of this growth is expected from categories like lighting, control, AV, networking and security.
More specifically related to lighting, a smart home story from LED-Professional.com citing numbers from a 2016 study entitled, The Insight Partners Analysis, “Smart Lighting Market to 2025- Global Analysis and Forecasts by Lighting Types, Application, and Connectivity Technology,” expects lighting to grow from just over $9 billion in 2014, to approximately $52 billion by 2025 validating lighting’s importance in smart homes.
In 2026 the lighting category should continue to grow, and as part of this growth it will foster sophistication. Custom integrators responding to the public’s desire for increased smart home lighting sophistication have resources such as the Lightapalooza 2026 show in Texas on Feb. 16-19 and the CEDIA Expo show, which takes place in Denver on Sept. 1-4. These events allow integrators to see the latest products, take part in educational sessions, and network with lighting professionals.
Adding sophistication to their lighting installations through work with lighting design companies such as Illuminated Lighting Design will enhance integrators’ ability to meet the needs of luxury homeowners hungry for modern lighting solutions that set moods; that enhance home security, and add elegance to interior home designs, which are the pillars of the next-generation smart home.
