The acquisition of Lightapalooza seems to have been just the tip of the iceberg with regard to the relationship between AVIXA and the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA). Today, the groups, along with ProSource, announced they will launch a brand new event for the integrated home market—RESIDE. The new event will debut with Lightapalooza at InfoComm 2027 in Orlando next June.
“Technology-driven experiences now shape how people live, work, and play,” AVIXA said in a statement. “As commercial and residential disciplines are increasingly sharing technologies and skillsets, the addition of RESIDE and Lightapalooza to InfoComm will accelerate the convergence already underway and strengthen connections across the AV industry.”
The association shared that 16 percent of their integrator attendees of InfoComm already serve the residential market, a number that is almost guaranteed to skyrocket next year as the association co-locates Lightapalooza, and now RESIDE.
HTSA and ProSource represent over 750 custom integration firms throughout North America.
“ProSource and HTSA partnered early on for Lightapalooza, a show that clearly proved the need for enhanced education, networking, and collaboration within the custom integration community,” Jon Robbins, HTSA Executive Director, said in the statement. “We’re thrilled to work with ProSource and AVIXA to build a residential show our industry deserves.”
Jenn Heinold, Senior VP of Expositions for the Americas at AVIXA, added, “This partnership brings together powerful communities that need a true connection point, one place to engage with peers, manufacturers, and solution providers through product demonstrations, training, education, and networking. We’re seeing the same convergence in the home that we’ve experienced in commercial AV. What was once disparate technology is now a fully integrated system, and that shift is reshaping the industry.”
The announcement comes at a unique for the CI trade show space. News around the events supporting this channel has been coming at an exceptional rate—the Lightapalooza acquisition, Emerald Expo’s sale to private equity, and now this.
InfoComm, for its part, has never really “threatened” CEDIA Expo in terms of pulling attendance away because of the different timing as well as its traditionally commercial AV focus. Now though, with Lightapalooza added to the mix alongside a brand new event geared towards the residential channel—and the support and backing of an industry association that’s realized success in a parallel vertical—there very well may be a new best show in town.
And, looking at the track record of the brain trust involved with this new RESIDE event, you’d be crazy to bet against them pulling it off.
Interestingly, the RESIDE announcement was made just a day after AVIXA unveiled a revamped website geared towards making its content more discoverable and easier to navigate. The moves by the association, which has been around since 1939, indicate they’ve identified a need for and interest in serving a broader integrator market than they traditionally have.
