D-Tools 'What's the Buzz' Podcast

CEDIA Expo returns to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from September 1-4, and the excitement is already building across the smart home and AV integration industry. On the latest episode of the D-Tools “What's the Buzz” Podcast, hosts Jason Knott and Tim Bigoness sit down with Jason McGraw, Group Vice President at Emerald, the owners of CEDIA Expo, for an inside look at what integrators, manufacturers and designers can expect at this year's show.

McGraw, a nearly 30-year veteran of the industry, says trade shows still matter in an increasingly digital world. 

The latest episode of the D-Tools "What's the Buzz" podcast features Jenn Heinold, Senior Vice President of Exhibitions, Americas for AVIXA, offering a preview of InfoComm 2026 and sharing details on the newly announced RESIDE trade show coming in 2027.

 With InfoComm 2026 just around the corner (June 13–19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center) D-Tools sat down with AVIXA's Jenn Heinold on the latest episode of our "What's the Buzz" podcast to get the inside track on what system integrators can expect. Heinold, who joined AVIXA in December 2024 after 15 years running the largest satellite technology show in the world, brought both fresh eyes and deep event industry expertise to the conversation.

 D-Tools will be exhibiting in the Work Hall at Booth C9012. Stop by on Thursday, June 18 at 2:00 p.m. for the D-Tools happy hour, a Plinko game, and prize giveaways, plus live demos of the latest innovations in D-Tools Cloud and D-Tools SI.

Show Floor Layout Built Around Work and Play

The biggest change integrators will notice at InfoComm 2026 is a completely reimagined show floor layout. AVIXA has organized the Central Hall and North Hall at the LVCC around a simple but powerful concept drawn straight from its tagline, "Together we change the way people experience the world."

 "We sat down and thought about how could we organize our solutions on the show floor to make it a more seamless and frictionless experience," Heinold explained. "We thought about how people experience the world and came up with work and play."

 Central Hall becomes the “Work Hall.” home to digital signage, conferencing and collaboration, EdTech, and retail solutions. North Hall becomes the “Play Hall,” featuring audio, lighting, staging, live event, and broadcast solutions. The idea is to help attendees navigate more intuitively and spend their time with the exhibitors and content that matter most to their business.

 AVIXA's newly launched InfoComm mobile app this year includes turn-by-turn navigation between booths, a welcome addition for attendees moving between the two halls. Visit www.infocommshow.org for full event details.

In the latest D-Tools “What’s the Buzz” podcast, Earl Naegele, Head of CI, Retail & eCommerce at Neptune TV, describes his 40-year career in the AV industry and what led to the creation of Neptune TV from within Peerless-AV. Naegele provides details on how the company uses his strong market position in the mounting business to bolster Neptune’s outdoor display offerings, including providing free mounts with many of the units. Naegele also outlines why integrators need to stop installing indoor TVs outside

ADI has announced a brand new business unit called 1Plan, which combines the existing networking design and configuration service from Access Networks, the remote network monitoring service from Parasol, and the Control4 Assist manufacturer-based remote support all under the same umbrella. 

Willy Williams, business development manager for 1Plan, explained the new offering in the latest episode of the D-Tools “What’s the Buzz” podcast. 

The latest edition of the D-Tools “What’s the Buzz” podcast is definitely buzzing… pun intended.  The podcast could not have a more appropriate guest than well-known industry veteran Buzz Delano of consulting firm Delano Associates. 

Delano revealed in the podcast that is real first name is Hugh and he was given the nickname Buzz by his dad as a young boy and it stuck. After years in the industry working for companies such as SAE Amplifiers and Sonance, Delano launched his successful consulting company Delano Associates decades ago. He has recently undertaken a new venture as part of his consulting gig with a news-oriented website, newsletter and podcast called Delano News Advance, or DelanoDNA for short. He joined D-Tools’ Jason Knott and Tim Bigoness to discuss why he saw a gap in the existing industry media space and some of the surprising revelations he has already learned from his various podcast guests. 

“About a year ago I started thinking about what I could do that could bolt on to Delano Associates,” he recalls. The idea was to extend the reach of his business, expand his relationships and impart to the industry some of what he has learned in his decades in the industry. The result was DelanoDNA where he hosts podcast discussions with various industry leaders, while also covering key trends and addressing important news. 

“The interview format I like the most and I think works the best is having two people,” says Delano. The podcast discussions cover a wide range of issues regarding business and technology trends and best practices. 

One of the more surprising trends he has recognized from his podcasts is that integrators tend to be more open with their staffs than in the past.

“I am finding that more integrators—no matter what their scale—are getting better organized. I have noticed that more integrators are willing to share information about their businesses with their teams than they were 15 or 20 years ago. It seems that non-owners of companies tend to know a lot more about where the company is going, giving them a greater voice. So, I think that is good and hopefully it is a trend for small businesses in general,” he says. 

A recent installment featured veteran NYC integrators Keith Cottrell of Electronic Environments and Ed Gilmore of Gilmore’s Sound Advice. Both companies were recently acquired (EENY by Daisy and Gilmore’s by AHT Global) so the duo discussed the reasons for the buyouts and what the future holds. 

From that discussion, Delano was shocked to hear how difficult it is to operate a business in New York City, noting how both Cottrell and Gilmore noted their technicians only have the ability to work for about 5 hours per day on projects due to traffic, parking, and other big-city factors. 

To subscribe to the DelanoDNA newsletter, watch the podcasts or read the content, go to www.delanodna.com. 

Eric Bodley, president of distributor Future Ready Solutions, is an icon in the custom electronics industry. He was among the founding members of CEDIA and one of its original board members. He had a long tenure as an integrator originally with Sound Advice and later with his own integration company. Later, he migrated to work at Monster Cable and eventually formed Future Ready Solutions in 2014 as a focused distributor of connectivity solutions for the industry, carrying a focused selection of Category cable, power cable, HDMI cable, audio wire, fiber and more. Because Future Ready Solutions concentrates solely on signal path connections, it has become a go-to distributor for integrators not just for product but also for design advice and elevating the quality of installations. 

Bodley joined the D-Tools “What’s the Buzz” podcast to discuss his long industry history and why integrators need to stay focused on improving the quality of their connectivity solutions between devices. He also addressed key issues of consideration such as latency, data transfer, error rates in selecting right type of signal connectivity.