Futuresource Consulting explores the fast-evolving in-car audio and entertainment landscape in its latest Future Sessions video episode

As automotive technology accelerates toward electrification, autonomy and software-driven innovation, the audio experience within vehicles is undergoing a radical transformation.

The global headphones market recorded a 4.3% year-on-year increase in shipments during Q1 2025, pushing past 106 million units. Yet beneath this headline growth, Futuresource Consulting’s latest data reveals sharp contrasts between global regions, shaped by marked differences in economic and policy pressures.

With optimism in the air and AI on everyone’s lips, InfoComm 2025 marked a turning point for the professional AV industry. Now, Futuresource Consulting has distilled all the buzz, product launches and strategic shifts into a free, insight-packed post-show report.

The global XR (Extended Reality) hardware market is gaining serious momentum, fuelled by a wave of innovation across Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and emerging wearable categories. 

Global set-top box (STB) shipments fell 1.4% year-on-year in 2024, to end the year at just over 181 million units, according to Futuresource Consulting’s latest market outlook report. With Pay-TV subscriber numbers continuing to retreat and alternative content platforms accelerating their expansion, the STB market is navigating a pivotal phase of transformation. 

The global hard disk drive (HDD) market faced ongoing headwinds in the first quarter of 2025, as consumer preferences continued to shift and economic pressures persisted worldwide. According to Futuresource Consulting’s latest Storage Media Quarterly Report, worldwide Q1 shipments of internal HDDs were down 4% quarter-on-quarter. However, despite the challenges, pockets of resilience remain. 

Buoyed by surging consumer appetites, the global music market is charting a course towards new growth. That’s according to Futuresource Consulting’s latest report, which forecasts music streaming subscriptions will exceed 1 billion by the end of 2027, climbing to 1.2 billion by 2029. Meanwhile, physical media continues to carve out a growing niche in this increasingly digital market.

Following a period of turbulence, the global consumer TV market is beginning to regain its footing. That’s according to Futuresource Consulting’s latest consumer TV display market outlook report, which shows a 0.9% year-on-year increase in global TV shipments for 2024, reaching 218 million units. This marks the beginning of a slow but steady growth trajectory through to 2029, with annual volumes forecast to hit 230 million units.

Professional video is no longer just for broadcasters, a new report from Futuresource Consulting and Platform Communications shows. The report reveals that enterprises are embracing professional-grade video, creating a fast-growing market for broadcast tech and pro audio-visual (AV) vendors that can tap into the right strategy to reach new buyers.

The home audio market experienced another challenging year in 2024, with global volume and value both declining by 7.7%. However, a new report from Futuresource Consulting predicts a more resilient future for the sector, with recovery prospects emerging from 2026 onwards.

The entertainment industry is being reshaped across all of its three vectors. Music, video and games industries are lining up for a year of transformation. But where are the strategic opportunities? And how can businesses capture and hold the attention of consumers in 2025 and beyond?

Save the date for the audio sector’s premier insight and networking event, bringing together industry leaders in the exclusive surroundings of London’s Soho Hotel, on 12 November 2025. 

After years of post-pandemic contraction, the global loudspeaker market is beginning to stabilise. However, the road ahead will require brands to rethink strategies and respond to changing buyer behaviours, as they take stock of where growth will come from next. 

The professional power amplifiers market continues to expand, as demand accelerates across commercial and leisure venues. A new report from Futuresource Consulting reveals the global market was worth $776 million in 2024, up from $724 million the previous year.

The global market for video bars continued to evolve through the second half of 2024, with the category achieving a total annual value of $1.4 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2023. That’s according to the latest Collaboration Bars Global Market Overview from Futuresource Consulting, which tracks the shift in enterprise video conferencing hardware as all-in-one, Android-powered solutions gain traction. 

Futuresource Consulting will release its latest education bulletin next month, entitled AI in Education: 2025 Progress and Possibility. Authored by a team led by Senior Research Analyst Iryna Kazanchuk, the upcoming report will provide insight into how AI has entered classrooms at scale in 2025, and what challenges, tensions and opportunities lie ahead for both K-12 and higher education sectors. 

Futuresource Consulting has published its latest wave of Kids Tech consumer research, uncovering the complex and fast-evolving relationships that children aged three to sixteen have with digital technology. Based on interviews with more than 5,500 parents and guardians across France, Germany, the UK and USA, the study examines the devices children use, the content they consume, and the role of technology in both entertainment and learning.

As global education systems evolve under mounting pressures, display technology remains a crucial tool in the classroom. Despite funding constraints, staffing shortages and shifting student expectations, education institutions are sustaining, and in some cases expanding, their investment in AV.