A large portion of the U.S. is experiencing a polar vortex winter, and right now the custom electronics industry is experiencing its own vortex: The trade show vortex.
Fresh off the heels of the largest trade show in North America—CES—the industry is in the midst of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE 2026), Lightapalooza 2026, and the International Builders Show (IBS)/KBIS event all which are happening between Feb. 3 to Feb. 19.
For those not working within the electronics industry, there’s also some event run by the National Football League (NFL) on Sunday, Feb. 8 that will attract more than 100 million TV viewers and serve as the platform the year’s biggest budget ads.
Focusing on the news of the week, KMB Comm and its Technology Week in Review, the current emphasis is the above-mentioned trade shows, but there were several items worth highlighting, nevertheless.
KMB Comm Technology Week in Review Look at Residential Market News
Let’s start with a rundown of Lightapalooza educational sessions from CE Pro. In the story, Nick Boever reports the event will offer attendees learning opportunities for everyone from beginners to more advanced professionals.
Here is the CE Pro story.
Over at Residential Systems, the publication’s reviewer John Sciacca looks at the Klipsch Flexus Core 300 Dolby Atmos Soundbar. Without giving away anything, Sciacca points out the soundbar offers impressive levels of output and amenities that include Dirac room correction.
The entire review can be found here.
Since a large part of the U.S. is stuck inside due to the polar vortex and with only one NFL game left, it’s time to pick up on those streaming activities. Tudum by Netflix recently ran down the service’s most popular titles, which can serve as a guide to finding new content during the cold winter months.
The story points out the top 10 list is led by “The Rip,” along with other titles such as “Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials,” and “Skyscraper Live.” The story provides lots of suggestions for English and non-English speaking subscribers.
LinkedIn Leads with National News
The social media site LinkedIn had a good with of reporting several bigger stories this past week.
Anyone traveling to any of these winter trade events knows how difficult flying can be. LinkedIn states that Southwest Airlines has ended the “cattle call” open boarding practices, and its assigned seating is now active. With this new policy there’s one less problem for Southwest customers to deal with.
This Apple partnership with Google is kind of flying under the radar probably due to football, the current political climate and the economy, but this is big news. According to LinkedIn, Apple’s new version of Siri, powered by Google Gemini from making its public debut.
To learn more about these two tech giants collaboration click here.
Concluding the LinkedIn items the KMB Comm Technology Week in Review is looking at is an economic report. The post by the social media site notes that while spending on AI has exploded, it is not the sole reason why the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) grew in 2025. The story says AI was the second biggest reason why the GDP grew, falling in next to consumer spending.
Consumers, the post stresses were the biggest driver of the GDP this past year.
One final tech item that is making national news comes from the technology company Tesla. Yahoo Finance via CNN reports the electric vehicle manufacturer is ceasing production on the Model S and Model X products.
The story points out these are two of the most expensive cars from the company, and it will convert the factory that made those products into a facility that manufactures humanoid robots.
The complete story can be found 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.