Editor’s Note: This article featuring Mike Boettcher, President of Edge, and his 2025 reflections kicks off a Commercial Integrator series that will run throughout the month of December. In this series, we’ll highlight 2025 reflections from some of the pro AV industry’s most notable luminaries.
As the pro AV industry reflects on the year 2025, it’s clear that this has been a period of both growth and transformation. To gain deeper insights into the trends, challenges and opportunities that have shaped the industry, Commercial Integrator turned to Mike Boettcher, President of Edge.
Mike Boettcher 2025 Reflections
In this Q&A, Boettcher shares his reflections on 2025, discussing the industry’s mixed performance, unexpected developments in commercial real estate, and the growing importance of service-driven business models. Read more into his insights on how the industry is evolving and where opportunities lie.
Commercial Integrator: What kind of year has 2025 been for the pro AV industry?
Mike Boettcher: I would call 2025 a mixed bag. Leading into the year, there were some headwinds that folks were concerned about. The economy had been teetering on recession for quite a while, and larger projects had continued to push into the future. Although the year started a little slow, and had some hiccups with tariffs, overall it seemed to be a growth year for the industry. Maybe not at the high levels we had seen in years prior, and certainly a bit more scattered with regard to geography (think floods and fires) and vertical markets. If you have a diverse business, chances are you found success, and if you have been doing the same old same old, it was most likely not so great.
CI: What has been the most surprising development in the pro AV industry this year?
Boettcher: What surprised me the most this year has been what didn’t develop. This was the year that many building leases were coming due, and I was expecting to see a commercial real estate fire sale. And while there were some instances of bargain sell offs and a few flips to residential, by and large it didn’t happen. Now some cities did better than others, and there definitely was a shift in new build-out locations, mostly to the southeast and southwest. And folks in the northeast may have something different to say about this, which is what made this year difficult to analyze.
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Boettcher: I think the industry as a whole has realized that services are extremely important to the overall business model. As the strongest growth in our industry has shifted to ‘the experience’ deliverable, the market strategy needed to support that model relies on a service perspective. Couple that with an expansion of networked product development from the manufacturer side, and a clear focus on device monitoring and data capture, we have lots of opportunity to drive service revenue opportunities. It has been a long journey to get here, but we have finally arrived.
Stay tuned with Commercial Integrator as we gather year-end insights and reflections from the brightest minds in the industry. If you’d like to be featured, contact our editorial team (Alyssa Borelli, Amala Reddie and Dan Ferrisi, [email protected])
