Two trade shows, one year, five separate video segments — rAVe [PUBS], the AV industry's leading trade publication, gave XSCACE consistent camera time across both major 2024 events: ISE in Barcelona in January and CEDIA Expo in the US later that year. This is the coverage that matters most to the professional install channel, since rAVe's audience is the integrators, distributors, and dealers who actually specify architectural audio into real projects — not end consumers browsing a review site.
ISE 2024, Barcelona: "Hidden, Tiny, or Ultra-Thin"
rAVe's ISE 2024 coverage framed XSCACE's entire category position in one line: a specialist in hidden, tiny, or ultra-thin speakers. The segment featured the Bonsai — introduced on camera as "a 35-Watt tiny speaker that can fill a room" — alongside the ultra-slim QuadCane Array speaker, giving European AV integrators their first look at both products ahead of wider distribution.
CEDIA Expo 2024: Three Products, One Award
CEDIA Expo is the largest annual gathering of the residential AV and smart home integration industry in North America, and rAVe covered XSCACE's stand in three separate segments — one per product. The Bonsai was introduced as a tiny slim array speaker with a built-in crossover. The Ghost was introduced as a slim in-ceiling/wall speaker with a built-in sub, a product that went on to win Best New In-Ceiling Speaker at rAVe's Best of CEDIA Expo Awards 2024 — recognition voted on by the AV trade press covering the show floor, not a self-nominated honor.
Why Trade Show Coverage Matters More Than It Looks
Consumer reviews sell one speaker to one household. Trade press coverage at ISE and CEDIA reaches the distributors and integrators who decide which brands get specified into dozens of projects at once. Five independent video segments across two continents in a single year is a signal that the professional AV channel was paying close attention to XSCACE well before the CEDIA award made it official.
XSCACE's Ghost in-ceiling speaker: Best New In-Ceiling Speaker, rAVe's Best of CEDIA Expo Awards 2024
2024 Trade Show Coverage Summary
- ISE 2024 (Barcelona): Bonsai, QuadCane — 2 video segments
- CEDIA Expo 2024 (US): Bonsai, Ghost, QuadCane — 3 video segments
- Award: Ghost wins Best New In-Ceiling Speaker, CEDIA 2024
What Five Trade Show Segments Signal About Distributor Confidence
A single trade show appearance can be a marketing spend. Five independent video segments across two continents in one calendar year is a different signal entirely — it means rAVe's editorial team judged XSCACE newsworthy enough to return to, unprompted, at both ISE and CEDIA Expo. Trade publications don't cover every booth on a show floor; they cover what their integrator audience is actually asking about. Repeated coverage across two shows, on two continents, in a single year is the trade press equivalent of a product category taking hold in real specification conversations, not just in a press release.
For a distributor evaluating whether to add a new brand to their portfolio, this kind of sustained trade coverage matters more than a single glowing consumer review. It's evidence the brand shows up, has new products to demonstrate, and is being taken seriously by the publications that integrators actually read before they call a distributor. That context is part of what made XSCACE's subsequent distribution deals in the UK, Ireland, and India straightforward conversations rather than cold pitches.
It's also worth noting what wasn't required to earn this coverage: no paid placement, no advertorial arrangement. rAVe's trade show segments are produced by its own editorial team walking the floor and choosing what to film — the same process that surfaces any product a trade journalist judges worth a integrator's attention. Five segments across two shows in one year is the AV trade press equivalent of a brand that kept giving reporters a reason to come back to the booth.
For a brand still building its distributor footprint at the time, that kind of unpaid, repeated editorial attention did work a marketing budget alone couldn't: it put XSCACE in front of the exact integrators and distributors who'd go on to sign the UK, Ireland, and India deals within the following two years.
Read more about Ghost's CEDIA Expo 2024 award win, or see the current Ghost 2.0 product page.