At Future B2B, our editors are constantly engaging with the market, staying in close communication with professionals across the entire industry, including clients, manufacturers, marketers, influencers, and leaders.

Each month, the Future B2B AV Tech team looks back at the previous four weeks to take note of what they have been hearing from the industry and what website visitors and newsletter readers have been consuming in order to see what trends they reveal. While this was traditionally a tool used inside the company to help inform team members, we thought it might be helpful for others to see these insights.

If you have any questions on the trends report, please email  anthony.savona@furturenet.com.

Top stories from February

PRO AV (ISE WAS A HIT!)

• Winners Announced for Best of Show at Integrated Systems Europe 2025 for AV Technology
• ISE 2025 Analysis: Trends from the Show Floor
• ISE 2025: Best Booths from the Social Media Universe
• Winners Announced: SCN Best of Show at ISE 2025
• ISE 2025 by the numbers: Records fall as attendees and exhibitors swarm to Barcelona

RESI

• Daisy Officially Opens in Ocala, Florida
• Review: Sonos Arc Ultra Dolby Atmos Streaming Soundbar
• Sonos Announces Availability of ERA 100 Pro and Zones; Releases App Update
• Seen at ISE 2025
• Residential Systems Announces Best of Show Winners at ISE 2025

PRO AUDIO

• Inside Iron Mountain: It’s Time to Talk About Hard Drives
• The Sound—And Studio Set—of ‘A Complete Unknown,’ Part 1
• Cover Story: Inside the Recording of Green Day’s ‘Saviors’

Top trend

PRO AV

• ISE news: Awards dominated; however we saw big wins during the week of the show with our new product roundup articles (featuring five manufacturers in each one).
• Hybrid: We had a couple of articles in our “SCN Hybrid World” series gain a lot of interest. One was on speakerphones, and another was somewhat of a “report card” of where we are. Videobars are also popular. Wireless mics were another.
• ACQUISITIONS. There have been a lot and people want to know about them. 

RESI

• Bolstered by ISE and Lightapalooza, new product news dominated the top stories for February. 
• The Daisy story at the top was aided by being picked up by Newsbreak, which specializes in local news stories. It grabbed the Daisy one because of the city mentioned in the headline.  

PRO AUDIO

• Mix published this article last summer, and periodically it starts trending again—in February, it was Mix’s second-most read story. The piece explores how to ensure that music recorded digitally in the last 30 years is properly preserved, backed up and transferred so that it won’t be lost if a hard drive holding audio files suddenly dies. With the music industry increasingly dependent on archival releases (every box set, new Dolby Atmos mix, etc.), keeping those audio assets viable is incredibly important to the bottom line, and the threat of failing archival hardware is indicative of a larger issue facing film and TV production, corporate record keeping and much more. Also, given growing concerns around the rise of AI, attentive preservation aids safekeeping of assets for proof of ownership, future creative control of those materials and more, providing even more impetus for those files to be properly maintained. The fact that this article keeps re-trending is a huge signal that our readers—and readers outside our typical subscription lists—are very interested in the topic, and that Mix should be considered a conduit between archival services/product manufacturers and their potential customers.

Additional trends

PRO AV

• Immersive: It may be becoming the new AI as far as the term being used too much. However, whether it is immersive audio for churches or immersive displays or immersive projection mapping, the stories get clicks. This story (Check Out How the Cosm Dome Is Reinventing Watching Sports) was a hit in September and continues to get a lot of PVs per month. One is opening in Atlanta this year, and I hope to do an in-person story there. 
• Digital signage saw a few articles pop with nice PVs. 
• We beat the buzzer, with the announcement of Orbi, the Sphere’s emoji that is displayed on the outside. While this wasn’t technology focused, the running blog, now entering its third year, continues to get clicks. Technology inside includes HOLOPLOT, Big Sky cameras, Disguise media players, Hitachi, and more. 

RESI

• Shades continue to drive interest and the outdoor category is just starting to kick off for 2025. 
• CEDIA held a webinar on tariffs at the end of February and it looks to be have a sizeable effect on the luxury community. 

PRO AUDIO

• New Gear / Buying Season – Eight of our top 25 stories in February were related to new equipment, whether they were reviews, product announcements or news stories covering awards (Mix’s ISE Best of Show awards and the NAMM TEC awards, for instance). Readers are making choices for gear that they’ll purchase in the coming year.
• Education – Readers are forever curious to see what the top pros are using—hence the popularity of our Green Day and ‘A Complete Unknown’ coverage in February. They also gravitated to two articles about the upcoming Mix LA event and Craig Anderton’s column on how best to use pitch correction. This is indicative that we’re read by people who want to learn best practices and broaden their skill sets; these are readers that educators and schools might well be interested in reaching.