Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to get serious about the holiday season with Thanksgiving just a few weeks away. With the lead up to the holidays starting, the news cycle may be slow, but with that said, this week’s smart home and AV Industry news takes us through a “Narnia”-inspired retreat, luxury audio trends, and the next chapter for AVIXA.
Other topics we’ll look at include Kissa bars are once again hip, and hackers continue to find new ways to steal personal information.
The news this week comes from CE Pro, Residential Systems, eCoustics, AV Nirvana, Connected Design, and Mashable. Here are the headlines from these media brands from on this past week’s electronics industry newsmakers:
- Through the Wardrobe: A Secret Retreat Inspired by Narnia (from CE Pro)
- Research: Global Luxury Audio Market to Reach $3.4 Billion by 2030 (from Residential Systems)
- Tournex La Page: Inside Japan’s Concert Hall Jazz Kissa—Exit to Vintage Street (from eCoustics)
- Magnetar’s UDP900MKII and UDP800MKII Earn THX Certification (from AV Nirvana)
- David Labuskes on Succession, Community, and AVIXA’s Next Chapter (from Connected Design)
- Beware: Fake Cloudflare Verification Tricks Users into Giving Hackers Access (from Mashable)
Through the Wardrobe: A Secret Retreat Inspired by “Narnia”
Each year the publication CE Pro features some of the best technology integration industry’s top home installations.
CE Pro calls these installations “Home of the Year” and this smart home installation draws from the movie and book series “Narnia.” The story states this custom children’s retreat includes matching wardrobes that open to allow children to enter a “secret room.”
The installation was performed by Fusion Audio + Video and it is part of a larger home install. The home utilizes several home control platforms that are all integrated together to manage lighting, security, the home network, and HVAC.
Research: Global Luxury Audio Market to Reach $3.4 Billion by 2030
Home audio enthusiasts will find this next story interesting. Residential Systems posted an item from Futuresource Consulting that says the global luxury home audio market will hit the figure of $3.4 billion in retail value by 2030.
What’s noteworthy about the research is that it finds that worldwide shipments declined by more than 5% in 2025, but retail value fell by just 0.6% to $2.8 billion. According to Futuresource’s estimates, the decline in shipments will continue in 2026, but retail values will increase.
Symbolizing what is going on, the Residential Systems story points out that consumers considering speakers that cost between $10,000 to $30,000 per pair are exhibiting sensitivity to the current economic climate. Speakers that cost more than $40,000 or more however remain stable.
Overall, luxury audio shipments are expected to experience an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) increase of 2.1% from 2025 to 2030, while the retail value CAGR is expected to experience an increase of 4% for the same period to reach $3.4 billion by 2030.
Tournez La Page: Inside Japan’s Concert Hall Jazz Kissa—Exit to Vintage Street
Earlier this year the KMB team put together a story on the reemergence of communal listening driven by Gen Z.
The home AV enthusiast website eCoustics has been covering these communal listening venues by visiting the country where communal listening venues first appeared: Japan. In Japan, these venues are known as Kissa bars, and their popularity peaked in the 1970s.
Kissa listening bars are still around the team from eCoustics are visiting these facilities. One of the most desirable Kissa listening bars to visit in Japan notes eCoustics is Tournez La Page. Opened in 2005, the bar hosts an Avantgarde Acoustic TRIO+6 BASSHORN speaker system.
The German speakers are powered by electronics from the legendary Japanese home audio brand Accurphase, and source components include an AVID turntable and an Esoteric universal disc player.
Visiting Kissa listening bars like Tournez La Page, patrons can order food and drinks and listen to music in an atmosphere that is dedicated to the practice of group listening sessions.
Magnetar’s UDP900MKII and UDP800MKII Earn THX Certification
With big consumer electronics companies such as Samsung either halting production or scaling back production, there aren’t as many disc players available as there once was.
Supporting the home AV industry Magnetar has stepped up to offer those that prefer physical media a high-performance product line that’s capable of playing Ultra HD 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, CD and SACD disc-based media.
AV Nirvana is reporting that Magnetar’s UDP900MKII and UDP800MKII have earned THX certification. The story admits the certification doesn’t mean a lot if someone already owns one of these components, but it emphasizes the certification does validate the performance of the products for those consumers looking to buy a new disc player.
David Labuskes on Succession, Community, and AVIXA’s Next Chapter
Looking at more smart home and AV Industry news, the commercial AV trade group AVIXA has been making news lately with the announcement that Marco Pardi will be taking the reins from long-time AVIXA leader David Labuskes.
Additionally, speaking to Connected Design’s Rob Stott on Stott’s podcast, Labuskes discussed the evolving technology integration market, AVIXA’s new beginnings, and the state of residential trade events.
Connected Design has posted a video of the interview as well as a transcription of the discussion.
Beware: Fake Cloudflare Verification Tricks Users into Giving Hackers Access
Wrapping up our look at smart home and AV industry news, with the holiday season set and consumers ramping up to shop both in person and online, a story from Mashable warrants attention.
The website points out that many websites employ Cloudflare to help manage their web traffic. As Cloudflare has risen in popularity the story notes, the few times the service has gone down, “a significant portion of the Internet goes down with it.”
Hackers, the story continues are aware of Cloudflare’s popularity and are now introducing cyberattacks that mimic Cloudflare to trick people into giving them unauthorized access to their computers.
In these attacks Mashable explains web users visit sites that have already been compromised and after clicking the Cloudflare box, users are told the process is taking longer than normal, and users unaware, don’t know the verification is fake. Users are then prompted to speed the process up by following the directions on the screen to run a specific command. The command then allows hackers to access users’ computers.