Home offices get upgrade after coronavirus pandemic

Before the coronavirus pandemic, home offices were mostly an afterthought for consumers. Now, with many companies having employees work from home, people are rethinking those spaces.
Professional electronics installers are seeing an uptick in business from customers wanting to outfit their home with the best tech for telework, according to a panel discussion at the CEDIA Expo virtual conference on Tuesday.
The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association is holding its annual conference online this year because of the Covid-19 crisis.
The CEDIA Expo traditionally has been focused on home theaters, audio systems and smart home technologies. But this year, it addressed the home office category because of growing interest from customers.
“It’s really a growth category like none other,” said Jason Knott, chief content officer at CE Pro. “That trend is going to continue after the pandemic is over because a lot of people are going to realize they may not need to be in a commercial office setting to get their work done.”
Many people never realized they needed a home office before the pandemic, he said.
“A lot of my coworkers were working at their kitchen tables when this whole thing started,” Knott said. “And that got old really fast.”
Today the home office is much more than a desk and a computer. Many people are trying to imitate their commercial office environment with multiple screens, superfast internet and professional cyber security.
With the growth of Zoom and other teleconferencing apps, people needed to get high-quality webcams, headsets, microphones and better lighting.
Some people are adding soundproofing to their home office for a quieter setting, Knott said.
Joining Knott on the Tech Talk panel called “Rise of the Home Office” were Will Gilbert, co-founder of Think Simple, and Dave Raines, founder, president and CEO of Osbee.
Gilbert noted that customers who were using Wi-Fi in their home offices before now want wired high-speed networking.
The home office used to be just “a place to open your mail,” Gilbert said. “Now it’s somewhere where people are doing real business.”

Photo: Home office (Betta Living via Creative Commons)