The past few weeks with have been nirvana if you are a sports fan with the college football playoffs, the NFL playoffs, and the Winter Olympics.
Now, with football season over, and the incredible performances of the men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams, as well as individual athletes like Alysa Liu in the Olympic record books, we can look back and truly see how important sports are to the modern AV experience.
This week’s KMB Comm Technology Week in Review will look at the impact of sports to home AV and home theater ownership through a few stories from across the interwebs.
Cold, Snowy Weather Fosters Perfect Conditions for Watching Sports
With the glut of trade shows that start the new year winding down, the amount of technology news items has increased. The first KMB Comm residential technology story comes from LinkedIn.
Following the completion of the Winter Olympics from Italy, the social media website reports that NBC had a ratings hit with the games. According to the story, the media company averaged 23.5 million viewers across Comcast and its various streaming services.
LinkedIn points out these numbers represent its highest numbers in 12 years, and these games almost doubled the numbers from the 2022 games in Beijing.
Continuing the sports theme in the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review for the week of Feb.23-27, is a story from Residential Systems.
In a story co-authored by Chase Walton and Anthony Grimani, the writers admit that it can be difficult to get consumers excited about high-performance home theaters. However, Walton and Grimani note that live sports programming is providing the custom installation industry opportunities through 4K with HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive audio.
The Residential Systems story breaks down some of the basics of what goes into these live sports broadcasts, including resolution, bit-rate comparisons of broadcast and streaming, and the story briefly talks about the benefits of certain TV set-top boxes (STBs).
The story wraps up with a summary of some of the sports that are available in 4K. Some of those sports include NCAA football and men’s basketball, the NFL playoffs, and Premier League Soccer. Sports with Dolby Atmos audio is not as widely available with just HBO Max contributing games in 1080p with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Continuing with the KMB Comm theme of the week—or mostly to the TV theme—LinkedIn posted an item on efforts of Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
In the story, the post says Paramount Skydance’s takeover bid has caused Netflix to back out of its plans to acquire WBD. LinkedIn states that with Netflix walking away from the bargaining table Paramount can now close the deal, which is estimated to be worth about $111 billion or $31-per-share.
Learn more from the entire post here.
One more residential technology item from the audiophile side of the industry. The Listening Chair website has an interesting column written by long-time industry veteran Mark Cerasuolo.
Cerasuolo’s column takes the concept of vintage beyond the idea of listening to analog audio and sources such as turntables to look at vintage gear.
What’s interesting about the vintage column on The Listening Chair website is that contrary to the pro audio world brands like Gibson, Fender, and Martin that must constantly balance the need to innovate with the MI (musical instrument) industry’s steadfast commitment to 1959 Les Pauls, 1963 Stratocasters, 1968 Marshall Superlead “plexis” and other vintage instruments, while the consumer electronics industry for the most part is always moving forward, but the revival of vinyl does highlight there is some interest in yesteryear.
In this post from the beginning of 2026, Cerasuolo examines the CR-620 Natural Sound Receiver. The story offers a lot of detail on this vintage home audio component. For those that have an interest in the golden era of home audio, The Listening Chair column is a fun read.
Crossing over into the world of commercial AV, a new post from Sound & Video Contractor (SVC) helps to continue the sports theme in the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review.
The publication is reporting that IMAX has struck a deal with Apple TV to show the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship season at select IMAX locations across the U.S. The races the agreement will cover include the Miami Grand Prix, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Italian Grand Prix, which takes place in Monza.
KMB Comm Technology Week in Review National News
Looking at some of the national technology news items from this past week, LinkedIn says that “visual intelligence” may be the “defining feature” of Apple’s upcoming AI products.
Citing Bloomberg, the story states that Apple CEO Tim Cook has singled out visual intelligence numerous times in statements, and Visual intelligence in the story is described as technology that, “sees and acts on its environment.”
LinkedIn’s post suggests that upcoming products that could incorporate the visual intelligence technology include future AirPods, smart glasses, and pendants that employ cameras.
Finally, Business of Home, a publication for the design community, examines how the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling will affect home professionals.
Without getting into the history of the tariffs, President Trump imposed a 1977 law that was used called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose the tariffs.
The Supreme Court’s ruling the article says invalidates the tariffs the President implemented and ruled the tariffs illegal. The story emphasizes not all the tariffs were deemed as illegal and the taxes on items such as furniture, cabinets, vanities, and raw materials such as steel and aluminum are still in place.
Additionally, Business of Home also states within its story that President Trump is committed to his plan to balance trade through the implementation of tariffs.
Moreover, the story points out the Supreme Court did not rule on a process in which the $133 Billion that was collected from the tariffs will be returned. This means, the story concludes is that people and companies will have to sue the government to get their tariff refunds.
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.