Each year, CTA’s Smart Home Division presents the Mark of Excellence Awards, which honor the best in custom home integration and installed technology. The Integrator of the Year Award, specifically, recognizes the best smart home integrator in the industry. The winner exhibits outstanding business success, resource usage and comprehensive technical skills. The winner also shows exceptional quality in their professional installations and serves as a leader within their community and the industry.
This year, CTA is pleased to announce World Wide Stereo as the winner of the 2023 Integrator of the Year Award. World Wide Stereo is the Pennsylvania and Tri-State area's leading provider of premium home audio, video, networking and smart home automation technology and services. We spoke to the founder and CEO of the company, Bob Cole, about his company’s win and the future of smart home integration.
Q: What does winning a Mark of Excellence Award mean for you?
A: There is little more rewarding than the acknowledgement, respect and appreciation of one’s peers. Every job we do carries our own mark of excellence and we are proud of it. Customers expect that excellence of our industry. They are entitled to it; after all, we are working in their homes. We look for their approval and strive to improve the quality of their lives. Each job is our opportunity to excel, whether it’s a simple “hang and bang,” or total integration of an automated home. To be acknowledged for that is special.
Q: How do you view the future of smart home integration? Are there any specific trends that you foresee?
A: The future is bright! It’s always been about the home, and they need to be smarter. People are learning how much a smart home contributes to their lifestyle. If you consider stay-at-home healthcare and wellness, that’s the giant trend.
Q: What do you want the consumer technology industry to know about the importance of integrators in the smart home ecosystem?
A: That we are important. We are very much the core providers of what consumer technology does, where the rubber meets the road. All technology is important, but what people come home to matters most. Family and home.
Q: What advice would you give to other integration professionals who are new to the industry?
A: Learn as much as you can. Establish values you can base your business on and stick to them no matter what. They have to be the rules of the company, no exceptions. Values like quality, integrity, excellence and honesty. This is what propels one’s business.
Congratulations to World Wide Stereo for this well-deserved honor. The 2023 Mark of Excellence winners will be recognized at CES 2023 during the Mark of Excellence Ceremony on January 6. To learn more about the awards and view all winners, visit cta.tech/MOE.