by Bob Archer | Dec 15, 2025 | Blog, D-Tools, KMB Communications, Leon Speakers, Quantum Media, Somfy, SONOS, Torus Power, Wall-Smart
As 2025 draws to a close, it is time to take a look what KMB Communications (KMB Comm) has been doing to support its clients—and help to contribute to the smart home industry’s growth.
Led by founder and CEO Katye Bennett, the veteran public relations professional works closely with the popular smart home B2B (business-to-business) publication Residential Systems contributing monthly columns that focus on a range of topics.
KMB Comm’s Lisa Montgomery, another veteran market professional, has also written a range of content items for publications across the consumer electronics industry.
Highlighting Bennett and Montgomery’s contributions to the smart home industry in 2025, here’s a look at some of their articles.
A Look Back at KMB Comm’s Residential Systems Columns for 2025
Over the course of the year Bennett’s monthly column tackled a variety of topics to stir conversation, while providing thought leadership to help integrators streamline their businesses.
Here is a recap of the KMB Comm Residential Systems for 2025:
Highlighting a few of these columns, March’s “Outsmarted by a Smart Toilet” demonstrated that just because a product incorporates the latest technologies, it does not mean people will use the product if the solution isn’t intuitive to operate.
In May issue of Residential Systems, the KMB Comm column, “How to Stand Out in a Competitive Marketplace” looked at ways integration firms can make their businesses stand out. A few points of interest from the column include the importance of clear communications and the ability to deliver ongoing support and maintenance.
The column also provides examples of ways that integrators can validate their work to show potential clients their capabilities.
Towards the end of the year, the KMB Comm Residential Systems’ column, “From Browsing to Beling: Turning Clients into Community” examined why it is important for dealers to make clients feel like they are a part of something bigger.
The column makes the point that homeowners aren’t just buying a smart home system, they are buying integrators’ solutions and culture. Bennett recommends several ways that dealers can involve their clients in their communities—and most importantly make them feel like a valued member of a community.
Content for Other Media Companies
Montgomery has also been active throughout the year providing stories to publications that include CE Pro and Residential Systems.
Using her decades of industry experience, which include work at the consumer publication Electronic House, as well as the B2B publication CE Pro. Earlier this year Montgomery contributed an item to CE Pro on how to sell power management and energy storage, and just recently she contributed an item on high-performance, luxury home theater.
The KMB Comm account manager & copywriter’s contributions to Residential Systems includes an item on how to use the popular audio brand Sonos in light commercial environments such as restaurants and retail stores. Another interesting contribution Montgomery made to the large publication was a story on the rise in high-performance video walls in luxury home theaters.
In addition, the newest KMB Comm team member is former CE Pro staff member Bob Archer. Joining the team about a month ago, he had written a couple of noteworthy items for CE Pro earlier this year.
In the spring of 2025, he put together a story on the grassroots industry organization BIG AV. BIG AV’s goal is to provide more educational and employment opportunities to its diverse membership to help grow the smart home industry and fulfill its need for qualified labor. The other noteworthy story he wrote was the second annual CE Pro Women to Watch List for 2025. This story recognizes the contributions of women to the growth and prosperity of the smart home industry.
Of course, KMB Comm has its own website where visitors can learn about the PR firm’s roster of clients and what’s happening in the residential and commercial electronics industry. Go here to check out everything KMB Communications has to offer.
KMB Comm Sponsors CEDIA Awards
Helping to fuel the public relation firm’s profile within its core market, KMB Communications served as a sponsor for the CEDIA. The trade organization points out that KMB served as the headline sponsor for its 2025 Smart Home Awards, along with the firm’s clients that include Apex Technologies, Leon Speakers, Quantum Media Systems, Somfy, Torus Power, Wall-Smart, and D-Tools.
The awards recognize industry professionals that are driving current and future trends as the home technology market continues to evolve.
Commenting on the sponsorship of the annual CEDIA program, KMB Communications founder Katye Bennett emphasizes the awards provided her firm a platform to showcase its support of the smart home industry.
“At KMB, our support of the industry runs deep. So much so, that we were compelled to be the headline sponsor of the CEDIA Awards at CEDIA Expo. This provided us the opportunity to share who we are, what we do, and why we love and support the industry as we do—creating, distributing, sharing, and celebrating compelling content, creative, communications, and strategies for some of the best brands and people in the biz,” states Bennett.
“It was nerve-wracking at first [read the post on the event on LinkedIn] that was published in KMB’s feed the week after the show) but for me personally, it served as a career-defining moment. KMB turns 15 in 2026, and you will be hearing a lot more about our company, partners, offerings, and growth plan. Until then, you’re just going to have to wait eagerly …”
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.
by Bob Archer | Dec 12, 2025 | Apex Technologies, Blog, D-Tools, Daisy, KMB Communications, Quantum Media, RoseWater Energy, Somfy, SONOS, Torus Power, Wall-Smart
With Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror and Christmas and New Year’s rapidly approaching the entire technology industry is trying to button up their 2025 activities. Keeping pace with this end-of-year pace, KMB Comm has its weekly roundup of technologies stories for the week of Dec. 8-12.
Headlining the week’s news cycle, Residential Systems has announced its 2026 Companies to Watch list. Several KMB Comm clients were represented in the list, including Apex Technologies, Daisy, Global Wave Integration, HYPERSUB, Quantum Media Systems, RoseWater Energy, Somfy, Sonos, Torus Power, TPI Aerospace, and Wall-Smart.
In addition, Residential Systems named KMB Communications as a company to watch for its work within the smart home community helping its clients to meet the media goals.
The complete list can be found here.
Over in the world of audiophiles, the Audioholics website posted an item on Integra’s latest high-performance amplifiers.
The new Professional Series of Amplifiers offer a choice of models with features that include DSP capabilities that are highlighted by presets for Klipsch loudspeakers.
Check out the Audioholics item here.
Also, in the world of residential technologies, the popular data and research company Parks Associates released a study on the multi-family, multi-dwelling (MDU) category. The firm posted the item on LinkedIn and a couple of takeaways from the data include people are delaying moving and the spending of their disposable income.
Other findings in the report include that 14% of those polled in the study pay a technology fee, and more importantly, Parks Associates emphasizes, 84% of those paying this fee, which averages $75 per month, state the fee is worth the price.
The Parks Associates study can be found here.
One of the most difficult categories in the home technology market to navigate is power. Helping to shed some light on what some of these products and systems offer from this often-misunderstood category, RoseWater Energy has a nice summary of the differences between the solutions.
RoseWater Energy in its latest blog summarizes power terms such as solar power, battery backup, power conditioners, surge protection, and more.
The new RoseWater Energy blog can be found here.
KMB Comm Technology Week in Review’s Look at Commercial AV Happenings
Some of the best usage cases for video technologies can be found with 3D video walls and more specifically 3D billboards.
SCN’s AVNetwork website has an item this week on Disney+’s promotion of the second season of its “Percy Jackson” series. The billboard is located on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and the story notes the second season, which the 3D billboard is promoting is based on the second book, “The Sea of Monsters.”
The story also explains that underneath the billboard is a pool that catches splashing water from a water tank that supplies the exhibit to add the fun factor to the advertisement.
To see the 3D billboard in action and to learn more, click here.
Noteworthy National News
One of the big news items from the prior week was Netflix’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Following this news, numerous reports suggest the acquisition is now under scrutiny over concerns of antitrust regulations.
For more on these reports, check out this LinkedIn post.
The KMB Comm Technology Week in Review also has another LinkedIn item. This post focuses on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s comments on U.S. employment figures. The story goes on to assert the economy is entering a time of uncertainty led in part to statistics that may not be accurate.
Here’s more on Powell’s comments.
One last story from LinkedIn on Apple and how the tech giant handles AI. The story points out that Apple shares have increased 35% since mid-year based on some its competition perhaps moving too quickly with their AI plans, while the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has taken a more measured approach.
See the Apple AI post here.
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.
by Bob Archer | Dec 5, 2025 | Blog, Magnetar Audio
Just like a holiday turkey, this week’s KMB Comm Technology Week in Review is stuffed— skipping the carb-laden stuffing—the KMB weekly wrap-up for the week of Dec. 1-5, is however, chock full of the latest industry and national news.
With 2025 winding down and everyone looking forward to the rest of the holiday season the news cycle for the next couple of weeks will be busy. Keeping pace with holiday news cycle, KMB Comm has found compelling items from the smart home and commercial AV industries, as well as relevant national news.
What’s Happening in the Residential Technology Market
Starting with some product news from Residential Systems, the publication has an item on the new Magnetar MK II series of products. The publication points out the new product line made its debut at the 2025 CEDIA Expo show and it includes a choice of two models.
To learn more about the Magnetar MK II products, click here.
Over at CE Pro, the publication looks at the dealer software category with its software deep dive feature. Some of the deep dive’s findings include the massive leap in adoption of AI technologies, and the growing use of cloud-based software products.
To see the complete story from CE Pro, go to the link here.
Moving onto the audiophile world, the publication Future Audiophile recaps the recent Capital Audiofest home audio show.
Check out the show report here.
Wrapping up KMB Comm’s Technology Week in Review’s look at the residential market, Technology Designer has a nice story on Tommy’s Place.
Located on Cape Cod, the publication explains this facility provides a place for kids fighting cancer. Tommy’s Place also houses these kids’ families, and Technology Designer says the property features lots of gear from Snap One, including SunBrite TVs and Episode speakers.
The year-long project was handled by Adam Zell and the team at Boston Automations. Here is the entire story.
What’s Happening in the Commercial Technology Market
Shifting gears to the commercial AV industry, the AVNetwork website had a couple of noteworthy items.
The first item from the website is its annual SCN Top 50 Systems Integrators 2025 list. This year’s list resembles past years according to the site. SCN states that AVI-SPL remains the top company, and other content associated with the list includes a Q&A with former Diversified CEO Eric Hutto.
To learn more about the SCN list of top 50 commercial AV companies go here.
The other AVNetwork story to make KMB Comm’s Technology Week in Review is a digital signage case study with NowSignage delivering digital menu board solutions for the national pizza chain Little Ceasars.
To read this Hot-N-Ready item, click here.
KMB Comm Look at National News for Dec. 1-5
Widening the KMB Comm news scope, the past several years Spotify subscribers have looked forward to the streaming service’s annual end-of-year usage report. A story from Yahoo reports that on Dec. 3, the service launched its Spotify Wrapped to its 713 million users.
According to the story, new features added to Wrapped this year include the ability for users to see their, “listening age” and for them to compete in a “Wrapped Party.”
Other services, including Apple Music offer similar types of year-end reports. In the case of Apple Music, the service calls its year-end product, “Apple Music Replay.”
These year-end reports provide data on what songs users listened to most often, as well as users’ most popular albums each month, and their overall most popular artists for the year.
Concluding the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review for the week of Dec. 1-5, LinkedIn is reporting that gas prices fell to their lowest levels in four years.
LinkedIn news points out the national average now sits at $3.00 per gallon. Further down in the LinkedIn post there are White House figures that state these reduced prices could save consumers $200 per year.
Here is the LinkedIn story.
To see the previous week’s KMB Comm’s Technology Week in Review, click here.
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.
by Bob Archer | Dec 3, 2025 | Blog, KMB Communications, Kordz, Leon Speakers, Somfy, SONOS
On the surface gift giving sounds easy, but for the person that seemingly has it all, gift giving can be difficult. Unless of course, they are living a smart home lifestyle.
Because of the nature of technology with it always moving forward, staying on top of the latest technologies and trends can be a losing battle, particularly in the fast-moving smart home industry.
The ever-evolving nature of smart home living provides an evergreen level of opportunity for family members and friends to find gifts for the hard to buy for people in their lives. Whether it’s something simple like a Netflix gift card to ease those streaming subscription burdens or something more elaborate, here are some suggestions to help family and friends lead a more tech-savvy lifestyle in 2026:
6 Smart Home Products for a Holly Jolly Holiday
Epson QB1000 4K Projector: The QB1000 is a part of the company’s recently released high-performance Q Series of products. Epson specifies the QB1000 to produce up to 3,300 lumens of color and white brightness to allow the projector to reside in dedicated home theaters and multipurpose rooms. The projector also provides HDR10+ compatibility, and technologies such as the company’s Epson QZX Picture Processor.
Kordz ONE Outdoor Speaker Cable: At the recent 2025 CEDIA Expo show in Denver Kordz featured several new products that included the ONE Outdoor Speaker Cable. Designed for use as an above-ground connectivity solution, the 14AWG speaker cable utilizes a UV-resistant outer jacket. Internally, the cable employs OFC copper connectors, and the company says the smart-home friendly outdoor cable is packaged in easy-to-pull boxes to facilitate termination in the field to allow for efficiency when setting up outdoor AV systems.
Leon Speakers Ente SoundTile: Leon Speakers is a defining smart home audio manufacturer, and a good example of the company’s heritage can be found with its Ente SoundTile. Combining art with audio, the product features a set of stereo speakers with the option of Sonos amplification. Homeowners can choose the Ente SoundTile’s artwork and the option of LED lighting to discreetly integrate audio into home environments.
Somfy Motorized Awnings: Earlier we noted the increase in popularity of outdoor technology solutions. Somfy’s Motorized Awning solutions are a good example of bringing the benefits of smart home living to outdoor spaces. Somfy’s motorized awnings offer users protection from the elements, and the products can be activated through a simple button push.
Sonos Ace Headphones: Often overlooked by music fans, the high performing Ace headphones offer a combination of active noise cancelling, immersive audio (Dolby Atmos), and the ability to complement users’ existing Sonos’ systems. The competitively priced headphones also provide up to 30 hours of battery life, and a choice of Bluetooth, USB-C, and 3.5mm connection options.
The Sonos Ace headphones are the perfect complement for smart home audio and travel. (photo credit: Sonos)
Torus Power TOT Series: The Canadian company’s compact line of power isolation and filtration products can bolster the performance of smart home components that include networking and AV gear. The TOT components like the rest of the Torus Power product line employ isolation transformers to eliminate line noise issues. The TOT Mini is rated at 7 amps, and it can be used with projectors, TVs, source components, and network products. The TOT Max is rated at 15 amps, and it can be used with amplifiers and subwoofers.
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.
by Bob Archer | Nov 26, 2025 | Blog, News, PR & Communications Tips
Increasingly when the calendar turns to November, a growing number of people are now treating Thanksgiving Day as a full week off.
Using this trend as a starting point, it is a slow week in the world of residential and commercial electronics, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t noteworthy news items populating the world wide web.
This holiday edition of the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review features a good mix of content headlined by KMB Comm’s leader Katye Bennett and her column for Residential Systems on how to use voicemail as a more effective business tool.
Click here to read the column.
Over at CE Pro, long-time publication contributor Jeff Boccaccio takes a look why the power component within the HDMI 2.1b standard isn’t more popular. Boccaccio asserts the option within the standard has been underutilized since its introduction and he breaks down why manufacturers haven’t utilized the option more.
See what the HDMI format expert has to say about HDMI Cable power here.
Over on the commercial side of the electronics industry, Commercial Integrator posted a story on PPDS and the company’s 2026 ISE Show plans that include AI-ready Philips Signage products.
Go here to read the complete story.
Focusing on the audiophile hobby, FutureAudiophile.com provides an in-depth review on Fender’s collaboration with MoFi on the MoFi X Fender Vintage Turntable Special. To learn more about this $2,995 turntable click this link.
KMB Comm Recaps the Week in National News
A quick tour of the national news cycle finds a couple of stories on LinkedIn. Apple is constantly in the news cycle and this week there is some good and bad news from the tech giant.
Looking at the good news, LinkedIn citing a report from Bloomberg, says that Apple is planning a major upgrade for its iOS27 operating system. As part of the Bloomberg report according to the story, will be a focus on AI technologies.
Check out the post here.
Wrapping up this week’s KMB Comm’s Technology Week in Review look at national news is another LinkedIn post on announcements to keep an out on this week for those interested in the latest economic news.
Here are the news items LinkedIn says to keep an eye on.
Finally, since Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, Boston.com did a roundup of holiday TV specials. The Boston-based site, which is part of the Boston Globe runs down classics such as “Frosty the Snowman,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
The full post on Boston.com can be found here. For those wondering, the 1974 classic, “The Year Without a Santa Claus,” it has already run on TNT, but it is available for rental and purchase on services such as Amazon Prime.
Happy Thanksgiving from KMB Communications.
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.
