CEDIA Communicates Q4 2017

Q4 2017

COMMUNICATES

Great Gaming Tips CEDIA 2017 Show Highlights Manufacturer Award Winners

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I AM “ All companies have access to the shiny black boxes, but having a pantry full of ingredients doesn’t make you a master chef. CEDIA educates our industry in the art of pulling all the ingredients together.”

Mike Chorney La Scala, Vancouver Member since 1993

Explore the benefits of membership today. #IAMCEDIA

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ContENTS

12 18 24 26 34 50 54 56

THE PLAYHOUSE THEATER A look at an award-winning dedicated home cinema

GREAT GAMING CEDIA’s David Meyer on what’s needed for a great gaming experience

NETWORK LATENCY Ihiji’s Mike Maniscalco with the info you need

AWARDS HIGHLIGHTS Relive the CEDIA Awards on three continents

MANUFACTURER AWARDS The best hardware and software for 2017

THE ESPA PROGRAM ESPA’s Jeff Gardner on developing a new generation of techs

IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD(PHONES) Inside the personal two-channel experience

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS How CEDIA keeps its eyes on legislation and licensing

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Thanks for opening up this issue of CEDIA Communicates. As 2017 begins to draw to an end, we remember a wildly successful show in San Diego and look forward to 2018. We were thrilled with the turnout for CEDIA 2017, and the content that the show provided was stellar. In these pages, you’ll find highlights from many of the CEDIA Talks presented at our booth and a look back at our Opening Keynote from Stringify’s Dave Evans. We’ll also recap the CEDIA Awards banquets held all around the world; introduce you to the recipients of CEDIA Lifetime Achievement, EMEA Special Recognition, Fellows and Volunteers of the Year for 2017; and honor the Best New Product winners in our CEDIA Manufacturer Awards.

EVER ONWARD!

Practical advice abounds in this issue, as you’ve come to expect. Some examples: Mike Maniscalco offers fixes for network latency, and David Meyer explains the latest advances in gaming — it’s becoming a significant opportunity for integrators.

We profile those in the CEDIA Channel who are doing amazing work as well — enjoy another integrator profile in our “I AM CEDIA” series, and we’ll look at an award-winning home theater.

We’ll also dig into smart locks and connected thermostats — two more examples of the ever-expanding areas in which our CEDIA professionals can shine.

We’re proud of this little publication — and we hope you enjoy it.

Tabatha O’Connor Acting President and CEO, CEDIA

Contact

7150 Winton Drive, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46268 USA Email: info@cedia.org Telephone: +1 800.669.5329 www.cedia.net

Follow us on:

Unit 2, Phoenix Park, St Neots Cambridgeshire, PE19 8EP, UK Email: info@cedia.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0)1480 213744 www.cedia.co.uk

Front cover image: Clever Association Unit 3, Stoneacre, Grimbald Crag Close, Knaresborough, HG5 8PJ, UK Telephone: +44 (0)1423 861166 Email: enquiry@cleverass.com www.cleverass.com All material in Communicates is the copyright of CEDIA and any reproduction of said material would require written permission from the publisher. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of content published, CEDIA cannot accept responsibility for any factual errors that may occur. CEDIA cannot accept responsibility for the veracity of claims made by contributors.

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NEWS IN BRIEF CEDIA EXPANDS AVAILABILITY OF CERTIFICATION GLOBALLY

IPRO MEMBERSHIP INTEGRATED INTO CEDIA IPRO AFFINITY GROUP

CEDIA Certification exams will now be available through Kryterion Global Testing Solutions, which has more than 1,000 testing centers worldwide.

Organization) have announced an agreement for the IPRO

“It has been a long-standing goal of CEDIA to make our certification exams more accessible to members around the world,” says David Whitney, CEDIA Certification Manager. “Members who previously could only take certification exams at the CEDIA show or at another CEDIA training event now have the flexibility to take the exam close to home.”

Wendy Griffiths, CEDIA VP of Global Development, adds, “As we look to expand CEDIA’s footprint, it is very exciting to offer our certification exams on a truly global scale. In the UK, for example, we previously had only one testing location and now there are 27 available locations for individuals to take a CEDIA Certification exam.”

In addition to the numerous testing locations, Kryterion also provides extensive exam development resources that will help CEDIA make more frequent and efficient exam updates, while continuing to follow testing best practices.

The certification tests include ESC (both in English and Spanish), ESC-T, ESC-D, and ESC-N. Individuals looking to sign up for a certification exam will purchase a voucher to take the exam through the CEDIA website. After purchase, a link will be provided to a Kryterion login, allowing individuals to select an exam time and location. A map of all the testing locations can be found at kryteriononline. com/Locate-Test-Center.

CEDIA and IPRO (Independent Professional Representatives membership to be integrated into the CEDIA membership under a new CEDIA IPRO affinity group.

“I’m excited about how this agreement positions IPRO in the rep community and positions our members’ organizations with the manufacturers we represent,” says Bill Zidek, IPRO President. “This integration will add needed resources and create long-term value and stability for members. CEDIA has the infrastructure that will greatly benefit IPRO, particularly in marketing, events, and member services.”

As part of this new structure, Ray Wright, IPRO Executive Director will lead operations for the CEDIA IPRO affinity group, and an advisory council will coordinate the activities of the group and support the mission. This council includes: •

William Zidek, Tandem Marketing, Illinois

•

David Thomas, Momentum Group, Colorado

•

Michael Sajecki, C&E Marketing, Florida

•

Michael Pecar, Mike Pecar Sales, Michigan

•

David Pawlowski, Atlantic Integrated, New Jersey

Additionally, the CEDIA IPRO affinity group will continue to have an annual conference in conjunction with a CEDIA-hosted event. The CEDIA and IPRO leadership are currently determining the best option for the 2018 event.

There is significant overlap in the current membership: Those members of both organizations will be transitioned into the CEDIA IPRO affinity group at no charge, and those IPRO members who are not CEDIA members will be encouraged to join. Other manufacturer rep companies that are CEDIA members may also choose to join the CEDIA IPRO affinity group. Beyond the normal CEDIA membership fee, there is no additional charge for manufacturer representative firms to join the CEDIA IPRO affinity group.

One key initiative that CEDIA and IPRO have been working on is a regionalized education schedule to provide local reps and dealers with CEDIA education at rep training facilities.

Current training dates are as follows: NOVEMBER 15-16

DECEMBER 5-6

Atlantic Integrated –

ByDesign Vision & Sound

Rockleigh, NJ

Marketing – Los Angeles, CA

Advanced Network Training

Principles of Networking Training

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NEW MEMBERS CEDIA welcomes 286 new members across the globe this quarter…

ARGENTINA >

DENMARK >

Cronolait

Cornered Audio ApS

AUSTRALIA > 232 Consult Pty Ltd Argus Technologies Asia Pacific Sales Management Aucam Custom Audio Visual Solutions Dueltek Pty Ltd ELOGIK SAVI Systems

INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO THE HOME TECH PRO CAREER PATH CEDIA’s Director of Training and Apprenticeship Stephanie Taylor offered these thoughts on an Indianapolis initiative called “JobSpark.”

It is no secret that the growth and health of our industry depends heavily upon a qualified workforce and a strong, sustainable pipeline of young people eager to learn the trade. This past September, CEDIA HQ staff — with help from volunteer Ken Irvine of The Premier Group — did their part to raise awareness of our industry by participating in a local Indianapolis initiative called JobSpark.

Sponsored by Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, JA JobSpark was a two-day, hands-on career expo at the Indiana Fairgrounds that allowed 8,700 Indianapolis eighth-graders to explore potential careers through experiential learning and interaction with local employers from fast-growing industry clusters.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC > AS Electricidad SRL FINLAND > Oviku FRANCE > DreamVision ITALY > Prase Engineering SpA

Smart Tech Homes

JERSEY >

Xiaofeng Trading Company Pty Ltd

Smart Digital Systems Ltd

Xped Holdings Limited

MEXICO >

BRAZIL >

BS Servicios de Mexico SA

Arte Em Cinema

de CV

Dimmer7 Soluções em Automação LTDA ME

Cabo Systems

Lffsantos Smart House Tech BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS > AVL Ltd CANADA > 360insights.com ArcLife Installs Inc AV LOUNGE BROSSEAU AUDIO VIDEO INC. Chromo Business Solutions FM Audio Video MBI Systemes Electroniques Inc. Modsterz Technology Inc.

Junior Achievement has built a broad coalition of participating companies, non-profit and government partners, business groups like the Indy Chamber and others to help coordinate JA JobSpark. Thousands of volunteers, dozens of schools, and hundreds of teachers worked together to give students a look at the opportunities that could be waiting for them after they finish their education.

Oakville Sight and Sound

CEDIA offered a hands-on wall speaker installation station, a demo on cable cutting and termination, and a home theater experience. We talked with students who had never held a screwdriver and others who had already tinkered with AV equipment and enjoyed the opportunity to show what they knew. It was a great opportunity to engage the youth in our area and have an opportunity to discuss what we do. It’s never too early!

Update TV & Stereo

OFB On A Ladder, Inc.

Desarrolladora en Proyectos de Seguridad IT Gtronik Integracion y Domotica de Elite, S de RL de CV Soluciones Tecnologicas VS Development & Management S de RL de CV Wiredhouse, S.A. de C.V. NEW ZEALAND > The Sound Guy OMAN > HiTec Center LLC PANAMA > SmartHome & Tech

Paramount Automation

SOUTH AFRICA >

Primex Manufacturing

Mirror Edge Networks

ProStudioMasters RBG Technologies

SOUTH KOREA >

Seamless Integration

Kaon Media

Stubbs Communications

SPAIN >

Van Ram Communications CHINA > Kwanasia Electronics Ltd Xiaofeng Trading Company Pty Ltd Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company

Bel Air Cinema DHS 2020 SL SRI LANKA > Lanka Links Holdings (Private) Limited UNITED ARAB EMIRATES > Smarter Living Technology

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UNITED KINGDOM >

Bedrosian Media Solutions

Imagineering Plus Plus LLC

Riordan Brothers Integration

AAA Satellites and Aerials

Bee Locksmith and Security System

Incipio

RJ Digital Solutions

BenjiLock

Indy Audio Labs, LLC

RS Development Group, LLC

Infinis Automation

Ryan Installation LLC

Arrow Audiovisual Ltd Cloud One IT Ltd Epitome Living Ltd GW Smart Homes Ltd ikandiav.co.uk IOT Smartnet Ltd iSecure (UK) JMV Solutions Ltd Live Smarter Ltd Luxe Smart Homes Marvel Electrical MK Sound & Vision Ltd Mount My TV MountMyTVOnline MQA MRB Electrical + Security Ltd MRFS Group Nucleus AV Ltd. Octagon Ltd RFS Fire & Security The VIP Lounge Tuning Solutions USA > 1 Touch AVS 4Tech Design, Inc ABB Advanced Integration Inc. Aire Theater Designs Akorba Allvy Technology Integrators

Black Tiger Bot3, Inc. C & R Media Solutions Castle Hill Audio Video Century Home & Audio Solutions Cinema Systems & Integration

Inspired Technology InstallPros Integrated Automation LLC Integrated Communication Designs Inc. Integration Techs

Select Sound Service, Inc. SL Speakers Smart Technology Solutions sonnen, Inc. Sound & Picture, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Sound Bookkeeping

ioty, inc.

Sound Reps LLC

IQONNECTION

Squaw Valley Electric

Iview

Steadfast Security

j.Patrick Audio & Video Ltd.

Stereo Planet

Creative Security Systems, Inc

KC Custom Electronics

Streem

KLH Audio

Superior Home Systems LLC

CSL Lighting

Konex AV Inc

Custom LA

Lancaster Entertainment Inc.

Superior Sound

Digital Boy, Inc.

Liberty Technology

Digital Life Home Media

Lightning Electric Inc

Synapse Sales & Marketing LLC

Digital Living Inc.

Lights...Camera...Action...

EasternCCTV

Logic Living

Synergy Systems Co

Ecobee

Lucidio Low Voltage, LLC.

Electroline Electronics

M+R Digital Innovations, Inc.

Systems Design & Integration, Inc

Electronic Interiors LLC

Mac Made Easy

Elegant Resolutions

Mack Worldwide Warranty

Tahoe Audio Visions

Elevate Audio Video

Malibu Dream Theatres & Design Inc.

ClearDevice CM Electric, Inc. Cote Acoustical Consulting LLC

Elite Electronic Designs Energy Squad Enlighten, LLC Enovate Tech

Massive Audio Video Mobile One Auto Sound Monehi Enterprises, Inc

Symantec Corporation

Syntiant Corp

Teague iCtrl Tech Dad, Inc Tech Design LLC TechniCom Audio & Visual Inc Technology Interiors

Morash Media LLC

TechPro Solutions LLC

EVWN

My Guys Know How, LLC

Fearing’s Audio Video Security

NEEO

The Custom Home Theater Store

Neothings, Inc.

Fisher Power & Data Inc.

Netatmo

Forbis Electric

New York Interiors, Inc.

Front Row Theater Inc.

NextData Automation

Fusion Integration

Omega Media Solutions LLC

FYC Systems, LLC

Omegalfa Construction

Glasshouse Smart Home

One’Sphere

Global Fiber Optics, Inc.

Optima Security

Goodman Networks

Orange Coast Audio/Video

HAEPro

Pace International

Harmony Integration LLC

PANELiNK LLC

Ultraviolet AV, Inc.

HAVE It Wired

Pinnacle Designs

Uniden

Hear No Evil, Inc.

Pinnacle Inc.

Unique HD Theater Designs

HERE Technologies

Power Acoustik Electronics

Up to Par Technology, LLC

Automated Motorized Shades

Herman Integration Services

Value Electronics

AV Programming Associates, Inc

Hero Audio Video

Powersoft Advanced Technology Corp

HiberSense, Inc.

AV Solution, LLC

HIFI EVOLUTION

AV Spaces, Inc

Hi-Tech Options

AVidea Group, Inc.

Home Protection Systems

AVS Inc.

HomeAdvisor

Axalt Audio & Video

HomeRun Electronics, Inc

Rancho TV Inc.

BAM Luxury Audio Video Cinema

Houston Smart Home Technologies, LLC

Rapid Motion Technology RCK Pros

Barefoot Sound

iCreative

Redrock AV

Batis

illumina, LLC

Rhodes Innovations LLC

Beaufort Alarm and Sound Systems

Imagine That Audio & Video Design

Richard Gray’s Power Company, LLC

Alternative Solution Integrators Amber Solutions Antennas Direct Inc. Antop Antenna, Inc. Apple Valley Commications Arizon Systems Inc. Arnold Audio A-Team A-Tech Automation Technology LLC Audio Design & Automation Audio Video Systems Audio Visions, Inc. Audio Vista Inc. Austin Home Systems Automated Atmospheres

ETA INTERNATIONAL

Premier Integrated Systems Premises Technologies, Inc. Pro IT Solutions Pro Tech Solutions LLC Quicksilver Audio, Ltd

The Installer Shop The Low Voltage Installation Company Theater Experts THIEL Audio Transtar Electric, Security and Technologies Twist Technology, LLC Tymphany UDR

Vick Audio Video LLC VITAL MGMT LLC Warrentech WAVE Media Designs Wave Media Systems LLC West Coast Automations Worry Free Technology Solutions WRJR, LLC Xtreme Systems, LLC Zeus Integrated LLC ZOME Smart Home Systems

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info@meridian-america.com 404.344.7111 meridian-audio.com

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SOME THOUGHTS ON CEDIA… A NOTE FROM DENNIS ERSKINE, CEDIA BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIRPERSON

A Dennis Erskine

Chairperson, CEDIA Board of Directors

s of this writing, voting is underway for your CEDIA Board. By the time this publication is printed and sent, you’ll know who the newly elected Board members are — three elected spots will be filled — and the two appointed positions will be voted on by the new Board at the January meeting.

(The new Board will be tasked with formally approving our two appointed members.) The interest in these open positions has been incredibly gratifying.

This Board represents our association as a global body — now that all of CEDIA has been integrated, we move forward as one unified, worldwide organization. It’s something that all of us should be very proud of.

Beyond that, we’ve just wrapped up a tremendously successful show in San Diego, complete with a new initiative between CEDIA and Amazon. CEDIA 2017 saw 7% growth in registrations to over 20,000, and on the education front, a 19% increase in individual course registrations.

(Another note on the show — we had attendees from parts of the U.S. that were coping with hurricane damage and the attendant floods. Some came or sent employees even though their homes and businesses had incurred damage. And while the show was running, many of you donated to the Red Cross or other charities. It was

touching to see, and I can’t begin to express my thanks for your generosity and dedication.)

We’ve begun taking CEDIA training “on the road,” with networking workshops booked in the Big Apple and at CEDIA IPRO Affinity Group member locations. We’re building a strategy for the future with the expert help of Dr. Rebecca Homkes. We’re breaking ground on a new HQ that will serve as a tremendous training and meeting space for our members, and a resource for everyone in the channel.

Having that new building means CEDIA is transitioning from renter to landlord, from paying for someone else’s asset to paying for our own.

And something else is happening — it’s a buzz that circulated on the show floor, a concept that many seemed to embrace.

I’ll sum it as best as I can.

The founders of CEDIA were tinkerers and hobbyists, enthusiasts who strove to take gear that was readily available and adapt it — make it work in a single system. The earliest distributed audio systems, for example, were often constructed from car audio speakers and adapted amps. That sense of “How can we make this stuff all work together?” has made quite a comeback — it’s the integrator’s job to take disparate elements and network them

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…THE INDUSTRY, AND THE FUTURE together. The IoT and the rapid pace of technological change has brought us back to the place where “custom” is a profoundly more important term than “product margins” — the channel is once again becoming a place where smarts and service will be the yardstick by which our customers measure us as technology integrators.

Don’t misread this — the DIY universe we’ve watched explode presents as many challenges as opportunities for our members. But when I walk the floor and hear the chatter, when I see the excitement as newly-minted integrators find the joy in giving their customers that “Oh, wow!” moment, when I see former integrators create both B2C and B2B products and services that fill a

need, when I see the “old hands” in the biz mentoring the newbies — and finding new streams of revenue that pay for our expertise, knowledge and professionalism rather than a reliance upon product margins — I couldn’t be more confident in our industry and its evolving relevance.

I’m further gratified when I see our CEDIA Awards entries. Custom whole-home integration, media rooms, dedicated home theaters — the work we’re doing for our high-end clients is nothing short of astonishing.

No matter your business model, no matter your client base, we are here to help you succeed. We are here to help with training, certification, keeping a watchful eye on potentially damaging legislation, and providing a

network to help you find support.

We intend to make CEDIA a name known well beyond the field of custom integration, known to builders, architects, designers, and ultimately, the consumer. The excellence of our member’s work will make our efforts that much easier.

Lastly, as you may be aware, my time as the Chairperson of the CEDIA Board of Directors is drawing to a close. (The eminently qualified Dave Humphries will become your next Chair in January.) I will always look back on my time as Chair with the fondest of memories — and that’s almost entirely because of you, our members. I can’t begin to express what an honor it has been to be the “chief collaborator” during this exciting — yes, challenging, too — era.

I’ll never forget your support, and in many cases, assistance and counsel.

In conclusion: It is my hope I leave the organization in a better place than I found it. I thank you all.

Onward,

Dennis Erskine CEDIA Board Chairperson

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I AM CEDIA 60 SECONDS WITH BRENDON REID Who are you?

My name is Brendon Reid.

What’s your company and where is it based?

Automation Associates is a residential and commercial integrator based in Auckland, New Zealand.

How did you get into the industry?

Pulling things apart as a toddler, turned into being able to put them back together again as a teenager, so I became useful to friends and family, especially when it came to tech. I installed my first MATV system at 11 and designed, built, and installed a home automation system based on a BBC Micro at the age of 15.

What’s your favorite project and why?

Providing the scoring and special effects technology for the internationally televised Red Bull Drift Shifters car racing event in Auckland is a highlight. With an incredible team of contributors, we developed a totally new scoring technology that we made from scratch. We had impossible-

looking deadlines, we worked around the clock to pull it all off, and then dropped into bed after three long days with no sleep knowing the client was blown away and had become a raving fan.

Which home technology do you consider the most important today and why?

Any technology that can bring together the control of anything the client is looking for, but in a way that I call translucent — it’s not in your face, but it’s there if you look for it. The Vantage Equinox

“

one-touch interface system is a perfect example of what this looks like when it is done right.

How long have you been a CEDIA member?

I joined CEDIA in 1998 to take advantage of the training at the Expo event in New Orleans.

What do you consider your biggest achievement as a CEDIA member?

My biggest achievements are serving on the NZ Advisory Group and on the NZ and Australian

“

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THOSE OF US WHO BELONG TO CEDIA WILL HAVE THE ANSWER

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CEDIA Boards, as well as running the Expo in New Zealand in 2010.

Which CEDIA benefits do you take advantage of the most, and why?

Training, training, training. I have always done as much CEDIA training as I could get my hands on.

It’s important to point out that some of the best training has come from unlikely places, such as those nasty round white plastic trestle tables in the food halls at the Expos. I have often learned just as much chewing the fat with other integrators at lunch or other functions as I did sitting in the classrooms. Thanks to the continued efforts of Lauren Tuckwell, CEDIA’s Regional Development Consultant for Australia and New Zealand, we have regular training in New Zealand now.

I go to these events without fail.

Do you regularly make use of other CEDIA resources?

The online CEDIA Community forum is extremely good and very immediate. I needed a phrase to use on a legal document last month and had three suggestions from fellow members within 24 hours.

What’s the biggest issue for home technology businesses today and how can they deal with it?

Without a doubt, GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon).

We have been chipping away at a goldmine with a shovel for 10 years and Google and Co. just arrived with an excavator. I’d advise professionals to learn the strengths and weaknesses of these products, use this information to steer your clients in the right direction (YOU are the right direction), diversify and get into things they don’t do, and provide a service installing their products that are popular, and then leverage from there.

that will hang a telly on the wall and call it a “smart home,” and a true integrator who cares a great deal about the subsystems and overall customer experience. I would like to see “home systems professional” discussed within the wider building industry, just like builders, electricians, and plumbers (I wish I got paid as well as my plumber!).

If you weren’t in the home technology sector, what would you like to be doing and why?

At some stage, I will spend a bit of time helping an outfit like the Red Cross with disaster recovery in the area of mobile power generation and emergency communications.

What does 2018 hold for your company?

Thanks to the teachings of Rich Green, we are expanding into VR, robotics, and gaming, so I look forward to seeing where our business is in a year’s time. One thing is sure, it will be completely different. We will have our first autonomous cars on the roads, drones will be dropping our shopping in the trunks of our cars, and we will start to spend an appreciable chunk of our weeks in a virtual environment — what an amazing time to be alive. We’ve just got to figure out how to make a dollar out of it and I know those of us who belong to CEDIA will have the answer.

If there was one thing you could change in the industry what would it be?

Encourage our industry to educate their market (including homeowners, architects, and interior designers) on the difference between a sparky

www.aa.net.nz

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CASE STUDY

THE PLAYHOUSE THEATER Integrator: DC Home Systems DC Home Systems 170 West Road, Suite 8, Portsmouth, NH 03801 USA 800.649.3228 www.dchomesystems.com CEDIA Member Since 1998

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Equipment List • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

AppleTV Apple iPad Mini4 Autonomic MMS-2A streaming music player CinemaTech seating Crestron shading and control Digital Projection Insight 4K Dual-LED 3-chip DLP projector Digital Projection 115-630 lens, 1.76 – 2.77:1 Fortinet FS-224D-FPOE 24-port Gigabit managed switch iPort WallStation and sleeve Kaleidescape Strato Kinetics acoustic treatments and fiber-optic starfield ceiling Lab.Gruppen C28-4 700w x 4-ch amps Lab.Gruppen FP4000/BP 1600w x 2-ch amps Lab.Gruppen NLB-60E Nomadlink amplifier network control manager Lumagen Radiance Pro-4440 4K video processor LWC speaker cable Middle Atlantic racks Seymour Screen Excellence TAM-2L-172.5-4K Cinemascope Screen with motorized masking SurgeX PF-420 Surge Elimination System Triad CR LCR2 Cinema Reference Main Speakers Triad CR 121 Cinema Reference Subwoofer Enclosures (Sealed) Triad IC Silver/6 Monitor In-Ceiling Speakers Triad IW Gold/4 Surround In-Wall/In-Ceiling Speakers Trinnov Audio AL32-1632 32-ch, 3D audio surround processor WattBox WB-700-IPV-12 12-outlet power distribution

A closer look at a CEDIA Award Winner (Best Home Cinema, Level IV, Americas) The “Playhouse” was already under construction when DC Home Systems got the call for a dedicated home theater in a 15,000-square-foot structure built for entertainment — and the room presented a great many challenges. First, the owner had to be educated about the gear needed for the 1,200-square-foot area set aside for the cinema. Next, the home’s design called for windows in the room housing the theater, so true blackout shades were needed. Then, the homeowner spec’d a bar and countertop that not only presented acoustical issues, but also demanded creative solutions when it came to speaker placement. Custom surrounds from Triad Speakers proved to be the solution.

The rack room was also especially small for the gear needed — and demanded cable management so elegant that one CEDIA judge said he was “blown away.” One more wrinkle: The entire theater sits directly beneath a basketball court, which meant that the vertical supports carrying the load of the court needed to be replaced with massive steel beams — which affected screen sizing and presented projector light path issues. As if that didn’t cause enough isolation issues, the integrators also had to contend with a bowling alley on the other side of the theater’s entry doors.

Lastly, the client is a fan of stargazing — and the star-field ceiling is the largest that the manufacturer, Kinetics, had ever produced: 1,000 square feet.

www.dchomesystems.com

@dchomesystems

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THE

CHALLENGE OF

DIY A Q&A with four of CEDIA’s brightest minds

The contributors…

JW

Joe Whitaker The Thoughtful Home, Clayton, MO USA

AG

Anthony Gallon Clever Association, Knaresborough, Yorkshire UK

NL

Nicolai Landschultz Indigozest, Radlett, Hertfordshire UK

AJ

Andy Jack TwentyTwo Integration, London UK

How would you describe the growth in DIY systems?

established and new players making waves. This is helping to make “home automation” more ubiquitous, but at the same time, customers will soon realize that these products can only go so far.

JW Critical mass hasn’t even hit yet, but DIY is everywhere. There are DIY products for every segment of the CEDIA industry today and many are from the world’s biggest brands. While the CEDIA industry knows that stability and security with DIY products are a concern, the mass growth of DIY IoT products and brands gives the CEDIA professional exposure to the market never seen before.

AJ I would say that at this time, it is relatively slow in our market. Most of our clients are not DIY people. That said, it’s clear from the amount now available that the wider market for DIY solutions is growing all the time.

AG When I started out, back in the mid-’90s, hobbyists were making their own weird and wonderful systems, but not always successfully! The difference now is that those “boxes of tricks” have been replaced by highly-polished devices that are easy to configure, which opens this sector up to the masses. The growth is exponential and I can’t see it slowing anytime soon.

NL There has been a rapid growth in DIY systems across all industries, from home, health, and fitness, to pets and cars. The ability to connect any device with an “on” and “off” switch to the internet has become so easy with wider broadband availability and smart devices. There is clearly still more room for growth in this market, with both

Which DIY brands and technologies have been most influential?

JW That’s the key to this question, not the products, but the brands.

Google, Nest, Amazon, Sonos, Philips, and Lutron are top of the list for most influential. But the brands continue to grow. Harnessing their brand recognition in our technology integration companies is key to growth through exposure. I always say find one that you can put in your secure system and let that outward-facing, big brand speak for you.

AG Sonos springs to mind, as it’s a consumer product that has made a real impact on what we do as technology integrators. It is one of the most consistently mentioned brands in client meetings — many people either have it or have used it. Other products that

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spring to mind are Apple TV, Amazon Echo, and the Nest range of heating, monitoring, and security products.

NL Initially, the most well-known brands were Nest, Hive, and Phillips Hue. However, Amazon Alexa has really proven itself recently. With a lot of initial hype, it is really starting to develop its capabilities and potential.

AJ Apple and Amazon have definitely led the way, as well as Philips Hue with regard to lighting.

How have you engaged with these systems?

JW My story with brand engagement is pretty public, from our work with Nest, Sonos, what we have partnered to do with Alexa products, and what is coming in VUI (Voice User Interface).

We have seen the importance of being inclusive of DIY products within our systems, not exclusive. Branding is important, and being able to encompass those “name brands” within your own company’s brand identity is important for co-brand recognition.

AG Like many of our peers, we were reluctant to embrace these products early on as they weren’t as flexible or high performing as what we were using. As they developed, control system manufacturers started to offer two-way control and they became a viable option. Sonos, HEOS By Denon, and Apple TV all feature regularly on our projects.

NL We have come across multiple installations where customers are insisting on using Nest thermostats, and in those cases, we are more than happy to integrate them into our professional smart home platform. We almost always get asked about Alexa and are happy to get “her” integrated as well. Customers do inquire about Phillips Hue, but often back off once they understand the limitations of this product when compared to a more professionally installed solution.

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AJ To date, the main system that we have engaged with is Amazon Echo, but even then, our clients aren’t too excited about speaking to their AV system — not yet anyway. I think this area will grow in popularity when people get used to the idea. .

How have these products changed your business offering?

explain the more flexible solutions that will work far more easily by referencing how they improve on the DIY products they are already familiar with.

NL These products have given us a wider base of interested potential customers. Yes, these may be customers who initially think a professional smart home can be done for “next to nothing,” but through conversation and demonstration, they learn that there is a big difference in what we can help them achieve.

JW How could these products not change any company’s offering?

Products with wide public views that are requested by consumers change the landscape of home technology. The problem with this trend is that they pop up exponentially now. They are acquired, shut down, absorbed, or die altogether.

The key is to evaluate them for the long haul. What brands or product categories can the technology integrator embrace that will be around tomorrow? Looking at it in this sense can give a lasting brand benefit to a CEDIA integration company.

AJ I wouldn’t say that they have changed our business yet, but we will need to be aware of it and accept that it will potentially impact on product offerings and potentially take some business away from us. I guess it’s similar to how the iPad eroded the native touchscreen market.

AG I wouldn’t say that these technologies have changed our business offering. What they have done is made clients more aware of what they want from a system, which in turn makes those early client discussions easier. The majority of our projects are in properties not typically suited to these components.

When we can’t embrace them, we can

JW While we would like to say the smaller ones, this is no longer the case.

Alexa (Echo Dot) is entrenched in even the most complex, high-end home systems today. Add to that the fact that Nest thermostats are a point of conversation and a sales talking point, the “project threshold” is all but gone today.

These products raise awareness of how different technologies can improve your way of life, and it helps advertise what we do to the mass market.

Which type of projects are these systems most suited to?

AG There are many different products and it all comes down to how scalable the solution is. I would say that the majority of DIY products are still limited to smaller projects — heating systems that aren’t too complex or large, for example. As soon as you have large properties with many individually controllable zones, perhaps in different buildings, you move a long way away from the consumer DIY heating control solutions.

NL They are clearly well-suited to DIY jobs! However, some of the

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products (e.g. Alexa and Nest) can also work well within a professionally installed solution, but some of the others just don’t make sense for the technology integrator to use (except, of course, if the customer insists).

AJ In time, all projects will have room for these products (to some extent), but I think realistically, many of our customers will refrain from the DIY systems either because they are not scalable enough or they are after a more customized, unique solution.

Provide an example of a project where you have integrated one of these products?

JW The latest DIY integration we did was with Echo Dots. Prior to the Origin Acoustics Valet Amplifier, we used the Dot as an answer for quick control. Being able to perform true, custom, userspecific actions has been a huge benefit to our systems. For a client to say, “Alexa turn on, Sarah is cooking,” and the kitchen lights set, the music queues up, and everything is set to her perfect cooking environment, is amazing.

AG We introduced Amazon Alexa control of a large Lutron HomeWorks QS system recently, a project that went on to win “Project of the Year” at the 2017 Lutron Excellence Awards. The client had an Amazon Echo Dot, which they used to check the weather and latest headlines.

We integrated that because it was simple to do so. How much it’ll be used remains to be seen.

NL An existing client of ours had a large whole-home Control4 system and wanted to add Alexa. This caused no problems — it was integrated into the system very easily and the customer now has one more way to impress and amuse his family and friends. We also recently did a retrofit project for a new customer who already had Nest installed, as well as a bit of Philips Hue lighting, along with Alexa.

We wrapped a Control4 platform around all of this technology, along with a new set of technologies (for AV control and more).

AJ By combining Amazon Echo with Control4 or Crestron, we can add additional benefits to the Echo solution that are far more customized than anything that could be bought on the high street. In this sense, it hasn’t impacted our profitability or system, but instead, we have been able to gain revenue from the setup side of things.

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What happens on the LAN stays on the LAN when a CEDIA professional is brought in to do the entire project.

What benefit do integrators bring to these products? How can integrators make them “smart”?

JW Integrators can take things one step further than the DIY offering in more than one area. The first is network stability and security. Being able to isolate a DIY device for optimization and security is essential. There are many things in the “cloud” that cannot be controlled by the consumer or the integrator. But what happens on the LAN stays on the LAN when a CEDIA professional is brought in to do the entire project. Another thing that the integrator brings to the table is breaking through the walls of what is “packaged” with DIY products.

AG Ensuring that all technologies in the home react appropriately when one of these devices — which are typically standalone — is controlled directly by the homeowner is one way that integrators can add value. We let our clients use the Sonos control app directly, even if we have an overall control system in place. We monitor which room they have started playing music in, and if the system needs to turn an amplifier on and route signals for it to be audible, then it’ll do that automatically.

NL As standalone products, these do a simple “on/off” job and you can easily end up with multiple apps for different functions. Integrators can combine the different apps into one easy-to-use interface. The integration then also allows the functions to work cohesively with other functions, making its response much smarter.

AJ Integrators will be able to ensure technology is set up correctly, securely, and where more than one technology is involved, help bridge the equipment to bring integrated benefits.

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How can integrators profit from the growth in this market?

JW The key is what more can the integrator do? A good demonstration of how they can take these devices to the next level is key. By saying, “This device can do so much more, but only with a CEDIA member company,” is important to build a scalable and profitable system based on a client’s current or requested interaction with a mass market DIY device. The integrator is the path to unlimited interaction for the consumer.

AG The majority of these DIY systems don’t carry great margins for integrators and it would be difficult to build a business exclusively around them. They can still be embraced and used alongside what we do. We can introduce overall control systems to knit everything together and ensure we make those products perform at their best. Using high quality DACs, power amplifiers, loudspeakers, and networking hardware with a consumer audio system will make a difference in the level of performance, while expanding the scope of work for the integrator. All of these extra components need to be installed, programmed, and maintained, which means additional chargeable time too.

NL It is has brought about great awareness to the general public, and once this has been experienced, it gives people a taste of what is possible.

Many will try several apps and be content with how they like to use it.

However, there are many others that then recognize the larger benefit and complexities of making this actually function in their own home. People are not interested in how it works, but just that it does work and that they just need to press a button. Our industry will profit from this through the knowledge of integration and understanding wholly

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the importance of a robust network infrastructure.

AJ Integrators will have the opportunity to add value to the DIY products, whether through charging for time to help people install the items, or adding services such as improvements in the network setup, cybersecurity, and wireless robustness.

What does the future hold?

JW The future looks amazing. DIY manufacturers are starting to recognize the importance of getting their products in the hands of the CEDIA professional to give the consumer an experience that they cannot provide out of the box. Learn your IoT DIY devices.

Build experiences around them while maintaining serviceable and secure systems. Learn to profit on products

The requirement to connect these devices to a home and to each other will grow exponentially, as will the need for it to be secure, reliable, and seamlessly functional.

This is where integrators can step in.

that have no margin by expanding the limits of what the consumer is told a device can do. The “future” allows the integrator to gain revenue and footprint on what I call “lost sales.”

You’ve already lost the product sale, but you can still grab the integration sale and deployment!

AG As these systems become more popular, there will naturally be a demand for systems to expand and become more flexible. The type of clients we work for will always want to engage an expert — to offer advice, design a custom solution, and deliver and maintain it. I see this as a positive for our industry. These products raise awareness of how different technologies can improve your way of life, and it helps advertise what we do to the mass market.

NL A report carried out by Gartner suggests that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. It is not going away, that’s for sure. The requirement to connect these devices to a home and to each other will grow exponentially, as will the need for it to be secure, reliable, and seamlessly functional. This is where integrators can step in and be recognized as the experts. Most people are busy being experts in their own field, as we are in ours.

AJ It is hopefully not a race to the bottom! The future for integrators is certainly focused on the network side of things and making the various technologies talk to each other reliably and in a secure way.

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ARE YOU

GAME?

David Meyer

CEDIA Director of Technical Curriculum

Gaming in 2018 is all about immersion — 4K resolution, greater color volume with high dynamic range (HDR), all augmented by immersive audio. Sound familiar? We’ve already been talking about these same things with video content, but gaming adds even higher performance demands and more installation challenges; an important consideration if gaming is part of your next project.

Gaming demands speed. It must be FAST! Mere milliseconds of latency can be the difference between life and death in the virtual world, while things like frame tear are just plain annoying.

Gaming also has a far more compelling use case for high frame rates than even movies. So how do you deliver exceptional gaming performance for your clients?

There are three key considerations — network connectivity, video bandwidth, and settings.

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY Wired is best. Wireless connectivity can create what online gamers frustratingly refer to as a “laggy” experience. The reason is that Wi-Fi is half-duplex, meaning it communicates in only one direction at a time.

Online gaming requires constant sending and receiving of data in real time, but if send and receive data has to take turns, things can lag.

A wired network is full duplex, capable of

simultaneous bi-directional communications.

Graphics data is not being sent over the internet, only actions and orientation data, so there’s not a big bandwidth load. As such, internet connection speed is surprisingly not as critical as a full-duplex connection to the router to ensure unhindered, real-time response. Having said that, faster is always better! Of course, the gaming console or computer must be up to the task on the graphics side of things too.

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VIDEO BANDWIDTH

COLOR SETTINGS

For gaming, 4K/60 with HDR is a whole LOT of high quality pixels to render in every frame, in real time. That needs serious horsepower. As an example, Microsoft’s new X-box One X (aka Scorpio) sports a blistering six teraflops of GPU speed and 326 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth! It’s a very different proposition from merely decompressing content from an UHD Blu-ray disc.

However, where the resolution, frame rate and color are all equivalent, the output amounts to the same load over HDMI. Either way, you need to ensure the connectivity to the display can deliver.

Gaming renders pixels in full bandwidth native RGB, whereas virtually all video (movie and TV) content available to us is in component video 4:2:0. In short, that means that gaming is heavier on the wire. The challenge here is that while RGB is the best, HDMI 2.0 doesn’t have the bandwidth to support 4K/60 RGB (same as 4:4:4) at anything more than 8-bit color. HDR needs 10- or 12bit to achieve the intended color volume. HDMI 2.1 will resolve this, but until then something’s got to give.

The maximum data rate currently supported by HDMI 2.0 is 18Gbps. Consider this a mandatory requirement.

Where possible, also cater to an HDMI 2.1 upgrade path with its fixed rate link @48Gbps, enabling future format combinations like 4K 60fps (or higher) with native RGB in combination with 10- or 12-bit HDR (e.g. HDR10 and Dolby Vision® respectively), which is beyond HDMI 2.0.

(We’ll get back to that shortly.)

HDMI 2.1 also introduces a new feature called Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for gaming. This can dynamically change the frame rate depending on the game play. For example, 30fps while leisurely exploring, that instantly steps up to 60 or 90fps as soon as the speed needs a boost to match the adrenalin of engagement with fast, complex graphics. VRR is based on VESA’s Adaptivesync standard, which has been available on some PCs for awhile as AMD’s “Freesync” or Nvidia’s “G-sync.”

As Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) advises, “In gaming applications, a computer’s CPU or GPU output frame rate will vary according to the rendering complexity of the image. If a display’s refresh rate and a computer’s render rate are not synchronized, visual artifacts — tearing or stuttering — can be seen by the user.”* Without VRR, moving to a faster refresh rate can lead to the faster frame wanting to resolve before the slower frame has finished changeover, causing frame tear.

Getting back to the Xbox One X, the HDMI output is specified as version 2.0b, meaning it’s limited to 18Gbps.

VRR might theoretically (?) be made available via a firmware upgrade, but a change of hardware would be required to increase the bandwidth beyond 18Gbps.

The solution to enable HDR along with 4K/60 gaming is to set the gaming source to employ Color Space Conversion (CSC). This will take the RGB render and convert it to component video 4:2:2 (or lower), to free up bandwidth that it can then use for deep color. The result is that 4K/60 12-bit HDR 4:2:2 runs at the same data rate as 4K/60 8-bit RGB, both just under the 18Gbps HDMI 2.0 limit.

Look in the video settings menu of the gaming console to enable component video output (often called YCC), and possibly conversion to 4:2:2 or less, while also enabling Deep Color and HDR. Keep in mind that 10bit and 30-bit color are the same thing, 10 being per channel, 30 being the aggregate of three channels.

Screen shots from X-box One S, showing setup to support 10-bit per channel (30-bit total) color, and permission to convert to YCC 4:2:2 for 4K/60 HDR support.

* https://www.vesa.org/news/vesa-adds-adaptive-sync-to-popular-displayport-video-standard/

CONCLUSION Movies and television aim to draw the viewer into the narrative. With gaming, it’s about the play environment and response time. Beyond that, they’re actually not dissimilar, with both potentially benefitting greatly from video advances like deep color, HDR, and far more pixels per second. It’s all about speed — speed of processing, speed of play, and speed of delivery. That means bandwidth.

Example of frame tear, indicating a refresh rate conflict.

(Source: Reddit.com Fallout 4 forum, © Bethesda Game Studios)

We trust in the makers of gaming consoles to spin their magic inside the box. It’s our job to ensure we capitalize on this by connecting it properly, both online and to the AV system.

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CEDIA TALKS HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BOOTH The CEDIA Booth on the show floor in San Diego was exceptionally busy this year, featuring a robust slate of CEDIA Talks (20-minute presentations that have been described as “mini-TED-talks”) and other presentations. Here are a few highlights:

Sam Woodward of Lutron on lighting.

In his Talk, “Fear the Dark Side, Do Not! Expand Your Empire with Lighting Controls,” Woodward brought some amazing stats to the table. Did you know that candles are still a worldwide business worth $8.5 billion? Woodward — energetic and entertaining — quickly pivoted to the present and the future in his presentation, noting that the successful integrator will soon realize that they’re not selling “solutions” or “technology” — they’re selling something Woodward calls “pleasance.”

Ed Wenck

Content Marketing Manager, CEDIA

That term expands beyond the two words (“pleasant convenience”) Woodward has mashed together. It’s about achieving the keys for success as lighting morphs from one central fixture in a room with a single binary circuit to LED-majority-load systems, already

so popular in Europe, that are making their way stateside. Those systems must match the client’s aesthetic aspirations (Woodward collects photos of “ugly switches”), do what the user expects intuitively, and provide a level of convenience, whether that means motion sensors for hands-free activation or geofencing solutions.

Finally, Woodward asks the integrator to consider this: Can you operate the system in the dark?

Joe Whitaker of The Thoughtful Home on guerrilla marketing.

Whitaker created quite a buzz with a targeted tactic that’s come to be known as the “Dot Drop.” Whitaker combed some neighborhoods where he’d had success, noted the homes that seemed in need of a technology update (“If a house had a ten-year-old surveillance camera…”), and left behind a pricey business card on several doorsteps: an Amazon Echo Dot complete with Whitaker’s contact info.

The gambit worked: Whitaker saw an initial investment of about $1,000 bring in a $50,000 job almost immediately. It’s part of Whitaker’s

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health monitoring — 90% say they want to live at home.

overall mantra: “Don’t do what your competitors do. Get out of your comfort zone. There’s more business out there than you realize.”

Whitaker has partnered with restaurants — yes, restaurants — to advertise his services.

“Wi-Fi services provided by The Thoughtful Home” is a message displayed on the digital platforms of several James Beard-recognized eateries he’s worked with. To be sure, though, not everything Whitaker’s tried has yielded positive results.

“It’s tough, but if a campaign or a partnership’s not working, you’ve gotta learn when to pull the plug,” he cautions.

Rich Green of Rich Green Design on AR/VR/MR.

Don’t do what your competitors do. Get out of your comfort zone. There’s more business out there than you realize.

Rich Green — who’s been a CEDIA volunteer and integrator par excellence for literally decades — has a simple way to sum up the magic of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies. It’s presence: allowing one to be present at any distance, at any time, regardless of physical location. Whether that means pulling on a pair of goggles or, better yet, wandering around in a 360-degree artificial (as in “generated via video”) environment constructed by projections on walls or some other technology, creating that immersive, otherworldly experience is something the big firms are betting on.

Soon we’ll be watching NFL games in much the same manner that Chewie and Obi-Wan viewed their alien chessboard full of predatory critters. Imagine watching a post play develop in a 3D image right on your coffee table (move the snacks, please). But the applications go well beyond entertainment — virtual whiteboards can add wallspace to offices with open plans, and glasses that include heads-up data on speed and mileage will make datachecks while bicycling safer than ever.

The immersive virtual experience will eventually extend to all five senses, according to Green — there’s even a device that can record and reproduce aromas. That family vacation among the pines or the seashore can be remembered with a smell.

Laura Mitchell of Laura Mitchell Consulting on “Analog Aging in a Digital World.”

Here’s a stunner: Two-thirds of all those people 65 and over who have ever lived on Earth are alive right now.

What’s more, 111 million people in the U.S. are over 50, and of those who are officially becoming “seniors” — retirees who either will or currently do need some kind of care or

Living at home is more than comfortable — it’s costeffective for their adult children. That “sandwich generation” — tasked with caring for both parents and children — will soon learn that the cost of care, having jumped 63% since 1997, is especially high when an elder needs regular monitoring.

(Add another issue to the mix: There’s a caregiver shortage in the U.S.)

There’s an equation here: fear of the old folks’ home + massive expenditures = huge opportunities in the near future for integrators. Mitchell, now a consultant with a background in “smart care,” is an evangelist for what she calls “Proactive Predictive Preventative Care.” Think of the difference between an airbag and a seatbelt in your car: it’s better to prevent a health crisis (the belt) than to deal with one in the moment (the bag).

Jack Wetherill of Futuresource Consulting on consumer AV market trends (and more).

Wetherill, whose firm collects market intelligence on companies from Netflix to Lego, had a dizzying array of stats he’d culled from a recent research project.

A few biggies that jumped off the screen: A full 50% of the $671 billion consumer electronics industry is represented by mobile phones.

AV is 19% of the industry, and it’s up 1.3% year-over-year.

Wireless speakers have seen an incredible 26% jump in sales (2017 forecast versus 2016 actuals), media streamers are up 13%, and soundbars are up 7%. (Bluetooth speakers drive growth in emerging markets — we’re talking speakers with a price point less than $100. For the CEDIA channel — the higher-end speakers — Wi-Fi is where it’s at.)

4K UHD panels are on the march: 97 million units were sold in 2016. The projection for 2017? 174 million.

For the smart home, the biggest percentage of sales and service belongs to security and monitoring, but lighting systems and climate control are also big movers.

Luxury audio (defined as a single speaker or amp or other component priced at $5,000 or above) is growing, up around 6% from 2015 to 2016. (A few asides noted by Mr. Wetherill: He sees the demand for vinyl dropping from its recent resurgent levels, and noted that the high-end audio manufacturers are drawn to the CEDIA event as opposed to other trade shows — for the obvious reason that CEDIA has a residential focus.)

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Lastly, as Wetherill dove into the issue of Amazon, Google, and many others feeding the explosion of VUI devices, he has what may have been the PowerPoint slide title of the show: “DIY v. CI — FRENEMIES?” .

Mitchell Klein of Z-Wave Alliance on home control in 2020.

Specifically, what are usually a client’s technology problem areas?

Clifford reckons they’re time, complexity, helplessness, and embarrassment.

Klein began his Talk with a caveat: There’s no way to make a presentation on smart home technology that’s truly current. As new devices and technologies are being developed every millisecond, the chance of any review being comprehensive is nil.

So what’s happened in the last ten minutes? For starters, the field’s getting crowded. Klein showed a photo of a Whole Foods “In-Season/Fresh Pick” display. The items by the placard weren’t produce — they were Amazon Echo units that had been cut in price to $99.

Comcast, Verizon, and even IKEA are entering the smart home universe in some fashion or another. Cortana and Alexa are entering into a marriage approved by their parents — yep, Microsoft and Amazon are techie in-laws.

While addressing the challenges of the DIY disruption, Klein noted the opportunities — and the importance of successful messaging. One example: Do these companies sell “lighting?”

Of course not — what they’re selling is “never coming home to a dark house.”

Check out all the CEDIA Talks on the CEDIA YouTube channel: youtube.come/CEDIAHQ.

Henry Clifford of Livewire on anticipating client pain points.

Clifford, founder of the integration firm Livewire, has a business mantra that’s pretty elegant, albeit simple.

To paraphrase something a colleague once told him: “Don’t sell vitamins. Sell medicine.”

Everyone knows the benefits of vitamins. Do they take them? Nah. But everyone takes their medicine when something’s wrong. Anticipate the illness, and you’re halfway home to a successful business model.

Specifically, what are usually a client’s technology problem areas? Clifford reckons they’re time, complexity, helplessness, and embarrassment. To tamp down the frustration a client may feel regarding the length of a job — or the delivery of operating instructions face-to-face — Clifford stresses setting very clear expectations. Next, overcome complexity with excellent design and engineering. (Yes, we’ve just reduced thousands of man-hours to a pithy sentence, but still.) Helplessness is another biggie — that feeling that one’s overwhelmed by a system crash. Offer 24/7 support and great documentation to offset that one.

And “embarrassment”? That’s the one that cranks the anger meter up to 11 and causes clients to leave voicemails “full of language I actually had to look up,” says Clifford. It’s the moment in the middle of the party when the distributed audio quits or the Super Bowl signal goes dark. Overcome that one with customer training — what Clifford calls “self-medication.” Clifford walks this walk — his employees even pick up bonuses when client issues are demonstrably reduced.

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Dave Evans on the Exponential Takeoff of the Internet of Things The Internet of Things is accelerating at rates the human brain cannot begin to comprehend — and it has the capability to solve humanity’s problems in ways we can’t begin to conceive of.

That’s the message from Dave Evans, CTO and Co-Founder of Stringify, in his Opening Keynote at CEDIA 2017 in San Diego. Evans spoke about not just the Internet of Things, but the Internet of Intelligent Things — the fast-approaching future where devices will be expected to have not just connectivity, but also intelligence.

After a brief introduction from Intel’s Miles Kingston, who outlined how voice control is driving smart home technology adoption, Evans painted a picture of multiple trends converging to turn the smart home into an intelligent home.

Audience members’ minds were blown with stat after stat about the pace of technological advancement. Some highlights: • In 1969, four things were connected to the Internet. (Yes, four.) Today, we add 100 new things every second.

• Human knowledge doubles every two to three years.

• The physical size of technology is rapidly shrinking. The processing power contained in the 1,800-square-foot ENIAC computer in 1946 is matched by today’s average musical greeting card.

Holly Keller Director of Marketing, CEDIA

In other words, technology is getting faster, cheaper, smaller, and more powerful. Add these trends together, and you get an exponential number of innovative solutions and applications: connected livestock, plants, trash cans, pills, diapers, all collecting and sending data. Evans posits that in the future, connectivity will be the default, and things that are not connected will be at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

And all these connected things are creating massive amounts of data. Humans generated more new data just in the year 2008 than they had in the preceding 5,000 years. We take more than one trillion photos per year. We upload 576,000 years of video to YouTube annually.

More and more of this data is being stored in the cloud, which makes it a gold mine for machine learning. Machines consume and parse and synthesize this data and apply the resulting intelligence to increasingly complex problems.

Machines have learned how to look at an image and describe what they see — not perfectly accurately, but improving all the time. What’s more, machines can see things humans cannot.

They can identify a person’s pulse rate from a series of images or translate text in a photograph in real time.

So what does all of this mean for real people?

As the global population grows and places greater strain on cities and resources and food supplies, innovators are looking to the IoT to help solve these challenges. Sensors will gather data in places we have previously had no visibility into, all in service of goals such as minimizing food waste and water pollution.

Heard the adage “You can’t manage what you can’t measure?” Measuring things that have previously been out of reach, Evans says, will enable us to address some of humanity’s greatest social challenges.

@DaveTheFuturist

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CHALLENGE LATENCY

AND SOLUTION

IN OUR LAST ISSUE, WE INTRODUCED YOU TO NETWORK LATENCY CHALLENGES – HERE ARE SOME LIKELY SOLUTIONS One of the founding principles of many CEDIA-member businesses is performance, as many home technology professionals got their start in two-channel audio, car audio, surround sound systems, Mike Maniscalco or home theaters. Unfortunately, when it comes to networks, VP of Product, Ihiji we often don’t take performance as seriously as we do with the other systems we sell. As I wrote in my last CEDIA Communicates article (Q3 2017), packet loss and latency are good indicators of the performance of a network. Now that we know about these measures and how they impact network performance, let’s dig deeper into what causes packet loss and latency.

I often say that troubleshooting network problems can often feel like chasing ghosts. There are a lot of complex, hidden issues and problems that present themselves sporadically; without the proper tools and training, resolving these issues can be impossible. A tip that I use in many of the CEDIA training courses is to use the OSI seven-layer model and root-cause analysis to bust those ghosts on the network. So, what causes packet loss and latency and how do you apply these fundamentals? Let’s take a look at what could cause performance issues starting at the physical layer and moving all the way up to the presentation layer.

PHYSICAL ISSUES ON THE NETWORK Bad cabling, improper terminations, and physical port failures can all cause packet loss and latency on a network.

In the field, this can be caused by poor pre-wire, bad trim out, a stray nail, and other physical wiring issues.

POOR SIGNALS AND INTERFERENCE For both wired and wireless connections, bad signals can cause slow transmission times as well as packet loss.

As you get physically farther away from the source, your signal weakens, and eventually, the transmission will fail.

Also, interference, both RF and electromagnetic, can cause signal flow issues which result in loss, latency, and signal corruption.

OVERLOADED EQUIPMENT Too much traffic for a device to process is a big problem with older equipment, especially switches, access points, and routers. Much like a computer, when you have too many programs running, the processor and memory of the network device may become highly utilized. That over-utilization results in queuing, which increases latency, lowers throughput, and ultimately leads

to packet timeouts and loss. As we add more devices and stream more content, equipment installed years ago may not have enough raw horsepower to keep up with the growing need for speed.

BUGS, VIRUSES, AND ROGUE TRAFFIC As we move up the stack, there are applications that can impact the performance of the network. High traffic flow can force queuing and overload the switches, routers, and access points. Additionally, in a software-driven world, bugs will exist. It’s an unfortunate reality, and it can lead to headaches when troubleshooting. Memory leaks, bad protocol support, and runaway processes can all cause problems on critical networking infrastructure. Following best practices, such as using only stable firmware releases in the field and using proven devices and manufacturers can limit your potential exposure to pesky bugs.

These are some of the more common causes of packet loss and latency in the networks home technology professionals manage. Understanding the root cause and what to look for will help you chase down the ghosts that often pop up in your networks. It is also important to note that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Taking the time to design, engineer, configure, install, and certify your networks and cabling will save you big headaches in the future.

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CEDIA INDIVIDUAL AWARDS 2017 CEDIA LIFTIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ERIC

BODLEY

Eric Bodley, President and CEO of Future Ready Solutions and Bodley and Associates.

The CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has exhibited outstanding, creative, innovative, and visionary leadership in the growth and advancement of the residential technology industry.

For the past 40 years, Eric Bodley has worked in nearly every aspect of the consumer electronics industry. Early on, he developed the custom installation division for specialty electronics retailer Sound Advice in Florida, and then, after forming Bodley & Associates, trained hundreds of sales associates with his IHAVS™ (In-Home Audio Video Specialist) program. From 1995-2009 he launched a myriad of products and programs for Monster Cable Products and started Florida Home Entertainment Design. In 2009, he was recruited to launch the revolutionary Perfect Path™ brand of Locking HDMI Cables by PPC®, and most recently founded Future Ready Solutions.

Eric is a past president of CEDIA (1993 - 1994); is a CEDIA Fellow; served as a judge on this year’s CEDIA Awards; and is a member of the CEDIA Advisory Council.

CEDIA FELLOWS CEDIA Fellows honors longtime CEDIA members who have contributed significantly to the association’s success.

DAVID GRAHAM David is MD of Grahams Hi-Fi in London, one of the oldest established specialist hi-fi retailers in the UK, and a founding member of CEDIA UK. He has over 35 years of experience within the industry, over 30 of which have focused on custom installation. Grahams has won numerous CEDIA Awards over the years, including best integrated home four times. David was Chairman of the CEDIA UK Board of Directors from 1998-2000 and subsequently served on the Board as Membership Chair, where he was responsible for helping to drive membership throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

JULIE JACOBSON Julie is co-founder of 23-year-old EH Media (formerly EH Publishing), publisher of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, and Security Sales & Integration.

Currently, she spends most of her time writing, speaking, and rabble-rousing for CE Pro in the areas of IoT, home automation, networked A/V, and the business of home systems integration. Julie received the CEA TechHome Leadership Award in 2014, and currently serves on the CEDIA Technology Council. A longtime champion of custom electronics, she frequently promotes the channel to analysts, investors, home builders, retailers, and mass-market consumer technology providers.

LEN WALLIS Len has spent his working life in audio, starting as a salesperson for MS Sound in 1970. He opened Len Wallis Audio (LWA) in 1978 as a one-man show, and is still very involved in the daily management of the company. LWA was a founding member of CEDIA Australia in 1995, and Len served on the local Board for many years, and served as Chairman twice. LWA was the first company outside of the U.S. to receive the prestigious CEDIA “Dealer of the Year” Award in 2001. That same year, Len received the CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award. LWA projects have won over 35 local CEDIA Awards.

VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR GUY SINGLETON VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR Imagine This Guy has been a CEDIA volunteer for the past 15 years, and has been an instructor at ISE, the annual CEDIA show and various other CEDIA training events worldwide. Guy is an ISF instructor (for EMEA) and both THX and HAA certified. In addition to his training roles, Guy has served as a U.S. and Global Awards judge and he played a key role in the IET Standards working group.

OWEN MADDOCK NEW VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR ConnectedWorks Owen has been the main author for the upcoming continuing professional development (CPD) course on home cinema, demonstrating his passion and commitment to educating design professionals, and creating exciting new content for the industry.

LARRY HEUVELMAN TRAINING VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR TheOwnerConsultant Larry has been an active volunteer, member, and supporter of CEDIA for close to ten years, lending his more than 35 years of business and ownership experience. Larry was a significant education contributor to the business course selection process for CEDIA 2017 as he volunteered his time to serve on the Business Working Group.

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Mike Chorney of La Scala was grinning — he’d taken a finalist nod in a CEDIA Awards category for Best Integrated Home in the Americas region.

Sure, it wasn’t a first-place win, but he waxed philosophical: “Glass is glass,” he said, hoisting his company’s award.

“And we’ll be back stronger next year.”

He’ll need to be, as the competition is tough. Dozens upon dozens of entries had been sifted through and judged on their various merits. With entries from 18 countries, technology integrators, manufacturers, and distributors from the Asia Pacific, Americas, and EMEA regions were all vying for first place.

Following rigorous technical assessment from the judging panels, it was time for the industry to gather together to find out who the winning companies were. First up was the Asia Pacific Awards ceremony.

AWARDS ALL AROUND PUTTING THE “GREAT” IN INTEGRATE

Around 120 industry professionals attended the Asia Pacific awards ceremony on August 30. Hosted immediately after Integrate 2017, attendees enjoyed a cocktail reception before CEDIA announced the 11 winners.

The event began with the two hosts, Wendy Griffiths, CEDIA’s VP of Global Development and Geoff Meads, Managing Director of Presto AV, celebrating what the awards stand for, and recognizing that those who have won the awards are the best of the best.

Queensland-based integrator, Digital Picture won the first award of the night: Best Home Cinema Level I. This was for a project that described as “an incredible installation for the price.”

The second winner of the night, Electronic Living, was delighted to walk away with Best Home Cinema Level I, but it didn’t stop there for them, as they were back up on stage just a few minutes later when they were announced as the winner of Best Integrated Home Level III. Everyone enjoys the Best Dressed Rack category, especially when the winning rack is described as “artful.” Not only did Beijing-based integrator Zene Private Theater get the credit they deserved for this piece of work, but they were also awarded Best Showroom, for a space that includes a karaoke demo room — something which would’ve gone down well at this awards celebration.

The awards ceremony was certainly enjoyed by everyone who attended.

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BIG SHIP, BIG NIGHT, BIG HONORS In front of a crowd of over 400, the Americas Awards were handed out September 6 in San Diego, on the deck of the massive, iconic, and breathtaking aircraft-carrier-turnedmuseum, the USS Midway.

cinema project, noted the importance

Giant screens flanked the opening act: three women mimicking the vocal styles of the Andrews Sisters — fitting, since a statue memorializing the LIFE magazine cover of a sailor kissing a nurse on VJ-Day stands near the vessel. TODAY show technology correspondent Carley Knobloch and a group of rotating co-hosts from CEDIA’s Board of Directors — Dennis Erskine, Dave Humphries, Omar Hikal, and Giles Sutton — handed out the trophies to the industry’s best.

home cinema nod, saw the benefits of

Paradise Theater’s Sam Cavitt, whose company won top honors for a home

integrator found very early radio gear

of the trophy when speaking with potential clients: “It helps to let them know

we’ve

been

celebrated

for

exceptional work.” Nick Mark, whose DC Home Systems project also won a competition. “It makes everyone strive to be their best, giving everything they’ve got to provide the client with everything they want and need.”

The depth of talent in the CEDIA universe

is

broad,

and

member

integrators are up to any challenge — as was proven by the crew at Admit One Home Systems, whose client desired a media room that mimicked the look of a luxury railroad car from the era when the house was constructed: 1906. The and speakers, pulled the guts out,

refurbished the exterior, and inserted modern electronics. The result: first place in the Best Innovative Solution category.

CEDIA’s judges were equally impressed with the showroom entered by the company Starpower.

A sprawling experience designed to give the end user a look at smart tech installed in nearly every room of the home. Starpower’s Brandi Thompson was thrilled with the win. “It’s amazing — we’re ecstatic.”

Greg Applejohn’s reaction was one of pure satisfaction when his team at Home Concepts won a Best Integrated Home award for a multiyear, 22,000-square-foot project: “It was just great to see all of this come to fruition. Steve Riley of Atlantic Control Technologies channelled a famous

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fictional San Diegan after his team’s win in the same category: “It’s kind of a big deal.”

A few companies made several trips to the stage. Maryland’s Casaplex had barely finished having their backstage photos shot before they were called back up for a second prize. The team at Land & Sea had an especially big night, picking up three trophies: Best Integrated Home $450,000 and Over, Best Documentation, and Best Dressed Rack. The man responsible for that rack, Ken Penner, was overjoyed — but wasted no time in stressing that the project was a true team effort. “It’s fantastic,” he said, then gestured at his assembled colleagues. “And I got to work with these guys on this one for two-anda-half years.”

For pure exuberance, though, one member of Mexico’s Smartlab team was

hard to top. After the company won a Best Integrated Home trophy for a project that included a 15-seat dedicated home cinema, a spa, and a gym with integrated lighting, distributed audio and video, and state-of-the-art security and surveillance, Smartlab’s Geraldo Santiago raised his hands to the sky and nearly shouted: “This is the first award for us! Thank you all so much!”

The evening ended with Eric Bodley, President and CEO of Future Ready Solutions accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award. The audience enjoyed a heartfelt video of Eric, which saw industry peers discuss what he has done for the industry, (and generally what a great guy he is). Eric finished the awards ceremony on a high with a fantastic acceptance speech that was amusing, emotional, and optimistic for the future.

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CELEBRATING THE MAGIC Completing the global tour of award ceremonies was the EMEA Awards gala dinner which took place at Warner Bros.

Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter on September 29. Over 430 guests came together for a black tie event, which began with a drinks reception that was followed by a tour through the renowned Harry Potter set, and ended on Platform 9 ¾ for a three-course dinner.

Adding to the splendor, British actor, presenter, and comedian who is known for his involvement in the Harry Potter films, Warwick Davis, hosted the awards.

After sharing some interesting tales from his film and TV appearances, and leaving the audience in fits of laughter, Warwick announced the night’s winners.

Andy

Jack

and

the

team

from

TwentyTwo Integration were first up on stage after scooping the opening award — Best Media Room £20,000 and Under.

Commenting on their success, Andy said: “Winning an award is always a fantastic feeling and a brilliant boost for the team, who work their socks off to try and be the best at what we do.”

A multiple dwelling project from Mosaic Audio & Visual received great praise

from the judges, who explained that their project epitomized how technology should be installed in a project and that they had to actually search for any sight of it.

When the awards turned its attention on the trade suppliers, Guy Singleton from The Cinema Designer was in for a surprise, as hot on the tail of winning a manufacturer award in San Diego, he received the double whammy of being announced as the winner of the Best New Software category for the EMEA region.

The Best Home Cinema £40,000 £120,000 category was the first of two wins for The Pyramid Group, as they also scooped the Best Lighting Control and Installation award. Following a successful evening for the team, Managing Director Nic Black commented: “CEDIA’s Awards program recognizes technical excellence in and

the

home

winning

technology projects

industry,

demonstrate

competence in all aspects of design, installation, and commissioning while meeting

all

applicable

industry

performance standards. We are proud of the teams involved in meeting these exacting standards.”

With host Warwick Davis explaining that the winner for the Special Project award had provided technology for horses, the audience was impressed to hear how Clever Association integrated technology into equestrian stables — a first for the CEDIA Awards.

Following the EMEA awards ceremony, Warwick

also

presented

the

three

Global Award winners, with Land & Sea Entertainment from America and Synergy Technologies from Pakistan present at the event to receive the coveted accolades.

The last award of the evening was a big one — the Special Recognition accolade.

Ian Morrish, founder of Together for Cinema, a UK charity for the home technology industry, was delighted to be presented with the award, and found it very moving. “I wish I had the chance to thank everyone who has helped make it happen. Having said this, we don’t do what we do with Together for Cinema for thanks and recognition, though the award was of course a wonderful personal moment.”

The awards ceremony concluded on a high note as Ian celebrated his award win by thrusting his trophy in the air, while the audience gave him a standing ovation.

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With thanks… SPONSORS

It is thanks to the CEDIA Awards sponsors that these thoroughly enjoyable and memorable events can take place. The EMEA ceremony was supported by Bowers & Wilkins, Definitive Technology, HEOS, IFSEC International, Meridian Audio, Murideo, and The Cinema Designer. The Americas cocktail reception was sponsored by DISH.

DRINKS RECEPTION SPONSORS COCKTAIL RECEPTION SPONSOR

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2017 CEDIA Award Winners GLOBAL WINNERS Best Media Room Synergy Technologies, Pakistan

Best Home Cinema DC Home Systems, USA

Best Integrated Home Land & Sea Entertainment, USA

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

CEDIA FELLOWS

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

NEW VOLUNTEER

TRAINING VOLUNTEER

Eric Bodley

David Graham Grahams Hi-Fi Julie Jacobson EH Media Len Wallis Len Wallis Audio

Guy Singleton

OF THE YEAR

OF THE YEAR

The Cinema Designer &

Owen Maddock

Larry Heuvelman

Imagine This

ConnectedWorks

TheOwnerConsultant

President and CEO of Future Ready Solutions and Bodley and Associates

AMERICAS WINNERS

EMEA WINNERS

AMERICAS — HOME TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

EMEA — HOME TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

Best Home Cinema Level II – Audio Images, USA

Best Media Room Level I – TwentyTwo Integration, UK

Best Home Cinema Level III – Paradise Theater, USA and AudioVisions, USA Best Home Cinema Level IV – DC Home Systems, USA Best Integrated Home Level I – Atlantic Control Technologies, USA Best Integrated Home Level II – Home Concepts, Inc, Canada Best Integrated Home Level III – Smartlab, Mexico Best Integrated Home Level IV – Land & Sea Entertainment, USA Best Media Room Level II – Casaplex, USA

Best Media Room Level II – Life Emotions, Portugal Best Media Room Level III – Synergy Technologies, Pakistan Best Home Cinema Level I – Philharmonic AV, UK Best Home Cinema Level II – The Pyramid Group, UK Best Home Cinema Level III – Clever Association, UK Best Integrated Home Level I – BrownHen Solutions, UK Best Integrated Home Level I – Highly Commended: CyberHomes, UK Best Integrated Home Level II – Archimedia, Dubai

Best Media Room Level III – Casaplex, USA

Best Integrated Home Level III – Clearly Automated, UK

Best Innovative Solution – Admit One Home Systems, USA

Best Integrated Home Level IV – NV Integration, UK

Best Special Project – DC Home Systems, USA

Best Innovative Solution – Perfect Integration, UK

Best Lighting Control & Installation – ZIO Group, LLC, USA

Best Innovative Solution – Highly Commended: Clever Association, UK

Best Showroom – Starpower, USA

Best Auto, Marine and Aircraft Project – Luxury Engineering, Russia

Best Documentation – Land & Sea Entertainment, USA

Best Auto, Marine and Aircraft Project – Highly Commended: Archimedia, Dubai

Best Dressed Rack – Land & Sea Entertainment, USA

Best Special Project – Clever Association, UK Best Lighting Control and Installation – The Pyramid Group, UK

AMERICAS — MANUFACTURERS

Best Lighting Control and Installation – Highly Commended: Teksclusive, UK

BEST NEW HARDWARE PRODUCTS

Best Multiple Dwelling Unit Design – Mosaic Audio & Visual, UK

Barco Residential — Balder Cinemascope

Best Showroom – Henri, France

FIREFX — Network Guardian Next Generation Firewall Future Automation — CHRST - TV Ceiling Hinge & Swivel with Telescope

Best Documentation – BrownHen Solutions, UK Best Documentation – Highly Commended: Henri, France

Inneos — Real4K™ Optical Adapter and Cables

Best Dressed Rack – Henri, France

Josh.ai — Josh Micro

Life Lived Best at Home – Perfect Integration, UK

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. — The Frame

Technology Meets Design – NV Integration, UK

SnapAV — Visualint™ 2MP IP Dome Outdoor Camera with Starlight and Motorized Lens + Virtual Technician

EMEA — TRADE SUPPLIERS

Sony Home Entertainment & Sound — XBR-77A1E 77” BRAVIA OLED 4K HDR TV

Best New Hardware Product – Meridian: Meridian 218

Z-Wave Alliance — Z-Wave Certified Installer Toolkit

Best New Software Product – The Cinema Designer: The Cinema Designer (TCD)

BEST NEW SOFTWARE PRODUCT

Best Training Course – LILIN UK: Surveillance for Custom Install Best Trade Supplier – Invision UK

The Cinema Designer — The Cinema Designer (TCD)

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR

EMEA — SPECIAL RECOGNITION

Alex Capecelatro — Josh.ai

Ian Morrish — Together for Cinema

ASIA PACIFIC WINNERS Best Home Cinema Level I – The Digital Picture, Australia

Best Media Room Level III – Liquid Automation, New Zealand

Best Home Cinema Level III – Electronic Living, Australia

Best Auto, Marine, and Aircraft – Liquid Automation, New Zealand

Best Home Cinema Level IV – Shanghai AV Style, China

Best Special Project – Zene Private Theater, China

Best Integrated Home Level I – Digital Residence, Australia

Best Showroom – Zene Private Theater, China

Best Integrated Home Level II – Look & Listen, Australia

Best Documentation – Liquid Automation, New Zealand

Best Integrated Home Level III – Electronic Living, Australia

Best Dressed Rack – Zene Private Theater, China

Best Integrated Home Level IV – Liquid Automation, New Zealand

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CEDIA profiles the winners and finalists from the 2017 CEDIA Manufacturer Awards and the Product Hall of Fame inductees.

SOFTWARE

WINNER & FINALISTS

THE CINEMA DESIGNER

WINNER

The Cinema Designer is a cloud-based design tool that allows integrators to design any cinema room in minutes. TCD’s theater designs are based on CEA/ CEDIA CEB-22 and CEB-23 home theater standards for design, as well as several ITU documents on audio and video criteria. www.thecinemadesigner.com

FINALIST

FINALIST

FINALIST

BLACKDOVE

CONNECTWISE

D-TOOLS

Blackdove’s Luxury Video Art platform provides a fully integrated solution for luxury home and commercial interiors, including display, in-home content server, mobile and tablet app, and cloud-based art collection. Customers can browse thousands of artworks available on the platform, select works for their personal collections, and build rotating playlists for this compelling new medium.

ConnectWise has created a business management platform designed to help integrators better manage their home technology business. This powerful platform integrates all aspects of business – from marketing, quoting, and sales, to project management, time management, and billing – eliminating the need for multiple systems that don’t communicate with each other.

D-Tools System Integrator (SI 2017) helps technology integrators streamline operations, increase profitability, and improve their team’s overall productivity and efficiency, while also improving communications. SI 2017 ties project workflow together into a singular, connected process that reduces time, eliminates errors, and improves bottom line results.

www.blackdove.com

www.connectwise.com

www.d-tools.com

FINALIST

FINALIST

FINALIST

SAVANT

The HDAnywhere tripart software ecosystem brings cloud monitoring and management, operating software, and control solutions together to make integration easier.

HDAnywhere hopes that with this software ecosystem it can fulfill the ultimate purpose and turn mHUB into a mass market proposition.

Savant’s original TrueImage lighting software has been updated with simplicity and elegance that takes lighting control to a whole new level.

The user takes a photograph of a room or light fixture with their mobile device and TrueImage allows them to see, touch, control, and dim the light from any Savant control system interface directly from the photographic image in real time.

www.hdanywhere.co.uk

www.savant.com

HDANYWHERE

OVRC OvrC Home is an industry-first, client-facing mobile app that serves as a virtual extension to the integrator’s support services for clients.

Through the use of command buttons in OvrC Home, an integrator can empower their clients to diagnose and troubleshoot simple system issues on their own, without having to understand the complexities of the system.

www.ovrc.com

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HARDWARE WINNERS

WINNER

BARCO RESIDENTIAL

WINNER

Due to a unique 2.37:1 optical engine, the Balder Cinemascope is able to deliver 5120 x 2160 pixels on screen and is compatible with the latest HDR10 4K content via an HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 compliant input.

It is available as either a T version (for light-controlled rooms) or as an M variant (for rooms with less light control). The T version outputs 3500 lumens and the M version outputs 5600 lumens.

The Network Guardian Next Generation Firewall is a military-grade solution combining hardware and software to address the fastest-growing consumer concern, cybersecurity. Just as home security systems ensure physical security, the Network Guardian ensures cybersecurity. The Network Guardian is the first next generation firewall designed specifically for Pro AV deployments.

www.barco.com

WINNER

FIREFX

www.fire-fx.tv

WINNER

INNEOS FUTURE AUTOMATION Future Automation’s new and improved CHRST TV ceiling hinge range is a bi-directional swivel unit that allows viewing in a number of positions and offers more flexibility in location of installation. A host of new features make this the most technically advanced and aesthetically pleasing TV ceiling hinge available. www.FutureAutomation.net

The Inneos Real4K™ Optical Adapter and Cable is a turnkey HDMI 2.0 optical cable kit that provides full resolution, long distance Ultra High Definition 4K video transmission up to 18 Gbps, enabling 4K video the way it was meant to be seen. Inneos’ Real4K™ Optical Adapters use standard multimode fiber (OM3 or OM4) which can be cut to length and terminated in the field in minutes. This means integrators can use existing fiber or run their own fiber without having to pull bulky connectors or stash excess cable behind walls. www.inneos.com

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WINNER WINNER

JOSH.AI Josh Micro is the only control system with built-in far-field microphones designed for voice control in the custom channel.

Integrators can offer clients a truly natural voice experience without sacrificing beauty. The Josh Micro design blends seamlessly into any decor, and has the flexibility to be wall- or surface-mounted.

Key features include hands-free voice control, POE, location awareness, and intelligent sensors.

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Introducing The Frame from Samsung — a revolutionary way to think about the TV. When not watching the brilliant 4K UHD TV with HDR, it turns into a beautiful work of art on the wall. With an array of paintings, prints, photos, and frames to suit every mood and style, The Frame TV goes beyond entertainment and becomes an expression of you. www.samsung.com

www.josh.ai

WINNER

VISUALINT MERIDIAN

WINNER

The Meridian Audio 218 Zone Controller uses Meridian’s high-resolution, up-sampling technology to improve audio output from a range of AV technology in media rooms and whole-home applications. Integrators can provide their clients with the very best in audio quality, as the 218 can be used for TV, AV matrix, or music streaming systems.

Visualint™ extends and enhances the security of customers’ properties through their 4350 IP camera line. It uses advanced intelligent video analytics to monitor the action through an active third party, eliminates false positives, and bridges the communication gap between traditional surveillance and security systems. www.visualint.net

www.meridian-audio.com

WINNER WINNER

SONY HOME ENTERTAINMENT AND SOUND The Sony XBR-77A1E 77” BRAVIA OLED 4K HDR offers a unique combination of the superior picture quality of OLED powered by Sony’s 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme, the world’s first Acoustic Surface™ sound system, and an edge-to-edge standless form factor. www.sony.com

Z-WAVE ALLIANCE The Z-Wave Certified Installer Toolkit (CIT) is a valuable tool for installers to test a Z-Wave network prior to completion to ensure a robust, reliable mesh network is in place and all devices are functioning as intended, and it is a powerful tool for troubleshooting and diagnosing problems. It may be left behind for logging or even permanent off-site maintenance. Every installer should have one in their toolbox! www.z-wavealliance.org

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HARDWARE FINALIST

FINALIST

BASALTE Basalte Auro is everything a motion sensor should be — small, fast, and almost invisible.

Only requiring an opening of 1.7”, it is very easy to install. Auro has a built-in light sensor to use for light-dependent switching, dimming, and controlling scenes. The internal temperature sensor discretely reports the room temperature to the home automation system and it can also be used to trigger a heat alarm in case of an abnormal temperature increase.

BANG & OLUFSEN The BeoSound Shape is a wall-mounted and fully customizable art installation, acoustic damping system, high-quality wireless streaming music system, and active loudspeaker system all in one. It works by employing an array of identical speakers across a star rail system that is powered by dedicated eight-channel amplifiers and customized DSP built into a dedicated sound engine to give customized sound performance to any room, all concealed behind hexagonal fabric tiles in a range of 10 color options.

www.basalte.be

www.bang-olufsen.com FINALIST

FINALIST

FIREFX

EC LIVING BY ELECTROCOMPANIET Electrocompaniet’s ALNA SA-1 is a compact wireless streamer and amplifier, featuring low voltage 75Wx2 amplification and 24-bit/192kHz DAC for in-wall or in-ceiling applications. The ALNA SA-1, compatible with popular streaming formats, delivers high-resolution audio throughout the home seamlessly, using the existing Wi-Fi network, while set up and control are simple and convenient with the free iOS or Android app. The ALNA SA-1 is compatible with leading third-party control systems.

www.ecliving.electrocompaniet.no FINALIST

FINALISTS

The FIREFX DATA VAULT is a unique military-grade solution combining hardware and software to address one of the fastest growing cybersecurity concerns — ransomware attacks. With the rapid rise of malware-based ransomware attacks, consumers need their data protected. FIREFX DATA VAULT provides on-premises protection of critical data and backups. It stores files in a protected “unencryptable” format for quick retrieval in the case of a ransomware attack.

www.fire-fx.tv

LG ELECTRONICS

KALEIDESCAPE, INC. The Kaleidescape Strato C Movie Player joins the Strato Movie Player as the most advanced movie players available. It is designed for playing the highest fidelity 4K HDR movies, and provides the best possible viewing experience with Blu-rayquality and DVD-quality movies downloaded from the Kaleidescape Movie Store. The Strato C player removes large installation limitations inherent to the Strato Movie Player’s server- and player-inone architecture.

The 77W7 LG SIGNATURE OLED TV — the TV of the future — provides the ultimate in minimalism. Its Picture-onWall design is only possible with the uniquely efficient technology of LG OLED. The 77W7 features perfect black, infinite contrast, and incredible color, providing an unparalleled viewing experience.

www.kaleidescape.com

www.lg.com

FINALIST

FINALIST

The Loxone Touch Pure incorporates smart home technology seamlessly into the home. This contemporary design makes it easy to intelligently control lights, music, blinds, and more — all with a gentle touch.

www.loxone.com

www.lutron.com

FINALIST

RA2 Select is a radio frequency-based lighting and shading control system that consists of a RA2 Select main repeater and up to four optional wireless repeaters. The main repeater connects to the home’s Wi-Fi router which integrates with the cloud and the Lutron app located on the customer’s smartphone and/or tablet. RA2 Select contains a curated set of control options including Pico scene keypads, dimmers, switches, and appliance module controls.

www.lutron.com

LUTRON ELECTRONICS Lutron’s Finiré Prime LED fixtures come standard with 90+ CRI, two-step color consistency, and a Lutron 1% dimming driver. Additional features include a shallow ceiling 3.5” non-IC housing and a convenient tilt mechanism allowing adjustable or downlight solutions within each round or square trim kit. Finiré Prime is available in both IC and shallow non-IC housing options.

LOXONE

LUTRON ELECTRONICS

FINALIST

FINALIST

ORIGIN ACOUSTICS Origin Acoustics VALET amplifier is the simplest and most efficient way to immerse a customer in whole-house audio. It is the first amp that integrates the Amazon Echo Dot into the home environment. Utilizing Origins awardwinning Tool-less Mounting System, the Dot can be mounted behind a 3” grille in the ceiling, seamlessly blending it into the environment.

www.originacoustics.com

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HARDWARE FINALIST

FINALISTS

FINALIST

Savant Shading is a line of innovative and unique décorfriendly motorized shades that eliminate the traditional unsightly wires, motors, and enclosures found on traditional shades. Savant’s unique installation process ensures far fewer fitting errors, preventing costly reorders that plague other shading solutions.

SAVANT The Savant Pro AV over IP solution enables integrators to answer increased demand for HD video distribution in luxury living spaces. The Pro AV over IP delivers 4K/60 4:4:4 HDR video with zero frame latency. Integrators will appreciate the convenience of a centralized 10GbE switch, enabling Ethernet connectivity throughout the project with either fiber or copper as an option.

www.savant.com

www.savant.com

SNAPAV

FINALIST

The WattBox® UPS + Surge Conditioner Kit is the world’s most sophisticated battery backup.

Ordinary UPS models have the outlets and battery backup in a single chassis, which forces integrators to place the large and bulky unit in the middle or top of the rack where outlets are needed.

With the WattBox UPS kit, the UPS and surge conditioner are connected with a single cable, so you can put the heavy UPS and batteries at the bottom, and place the outlets where convenient.

www.snapav.com

FINALIST

FINALIST

SOMFY SYSTEMS INC. The Somfy myLink™ is a Wi-Fi to Radio Technology Somfy® (RTS) bridge that provides app control for up to 16 channels of Somfy-powered RTS products. Users can execute scenes and schedules to move their shades, drapes, screens, awnings, pergolas, and projection screens right from their smartphone/tablet. Integrators can offer their clients a richer automation experience by integrating RTS products to home automation systems for increased privacy, energy savings, and convenience.

www.somfysystems.com

SONANCE From the company that created the architectural audio category comes the Sonance BPS6 TL — a thin-line in-ceiling or in-wall subwoofer. It has been purpose-built to fit any application and facilitate the Sonance Discreet Opening System audio solution.

The Sonance BPS6 TL subwoofer allows the integrator to complete the proposal and eliminate any construction-related concerns.

www.sonance.com

SPEAKERCRAFT

SAVANT

FINALIST

The SpeakerCraft AIM Series 2 ATX100 is the industry’s first available Dolby Atmos enabled in-wall speaker, which gives integrators a new way to create a totally immersive home theater experience for their clients. The ATX100 is the architectural inwall solution to the traditional floorstanding or bookshelf speakers currently available, and the design adheres to Dolby’s recommended specifications and requirements for optimal sound performance.

SONY HOME ENTERTAINMENT AND SOUND

FINALIST

Let the living space double as a 4K HDR home theater with the VPL-VZ1000ES ultra-short throw projector. Enjoy over 100” of stunning picture quality when and where you want it. Designed for style and built for flexibility, it puts no limits on the design or layout of the home and lets users live the dream of having a large screen display on their terms.

www.sony.com FINALIST

www.speakercraft.com

WYRESTORM TECHNOLOGIES

FINALIST

H2X Series modular matrix switchers were developed specifically for large, high-end residential applications requiring multi-source video distribution of the latest 4K HDR content, as well as multi-source audio matrix switching to multiple zones. The H2X combines management of the latest 4K UHD with HDR and legacy video formats, including SmartTV functions and audio-ondemand products.

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STEWART FILMSCREEN® Designed for high ambient light environments, Stewart Filmscreen’s new Phantom HALR offers HDR-ready image size options up to 40 by 90 feet in a flexible, front projection screen material that’s usable in fixed frame or electric roll-up screens, with two acoustical transparency options: Microperf and Cinemaperf.

www.stewartfilmscreen.com

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HALL of FAME WINNER

ELAN The ELAN VIA! Color LCD Touch Panel is an intelligent, affordable solution for controlling audio, video, and automation equipment in a multi-room environment or as a standalone controller. With built-in IR control, RS-232 control, and a full-motion video display, the award-winning VIA! family of touch panels have been the most successful products in their category. www.elanhomesystems.com

WINNER

IHIJI Ihiji Invision is a remote monitoring tool, designed by integrators for integrators, to generate “customers for life” through worldclass service and support. Invision is a cloud-based solution with a small hardware appliance that resides on a client’s network. Once installed, integrators can use the secure Invison portal to remotely monitor and manage all devices on a client’s system. Since its debut in 2009, Invision has evolved into the industry leading Remote Systems Management (RSM) platform. www.ihiji.com

WINNER

SAVANT Savant’s ROSIE System 12 was the first one-box control system to offer enterprise-grade digital AV signal distribution. The System 12 managed both analog and digital inputs, distributing content of the highest quality throughout the home. It featured an integrated mobile device server and built-in iTunes, providing easy access to music collections — eliminating the clutter of single-function solutions. The System 12 won a 2008 Product of the Year Award from Electronic House Magazine and morphed to become the SmartMediaPro series that is a cornerstone of Savant’s line-up today. www.savant.com

WINNER

SONANCE In 2007, the Sonance Visual Performance speaker series was released with ground-breaking advances in aesthetics and ease of installation. The Visual Performance series speakers were designed to look as good as they sounded with a one-step-to-paint process and a low-profile magnetic grille that changed the way standard grilles looked. Today, the Visual Performance Series remains the cornerstone of Sonance, ensuring that Sonance fits every application, budget, and performance level. www.sonance.com

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Set it and…

forget it!

The rise of smart thermostats in the home CEDIA’s Dave Pedigo (Vice President, Emerging Technologies) recently conducted a webinar for the Plumbing–Heating–Cooling Contractors (PHCC) Association, where he shared some numbers about smart thermostats courtesy of Statista: “By 2020, 33 million homes in North America will include a smart thermostat of some kind.”

That’s a pretty astonishing growth curve for a relatively new device. Consider this: In 2014, a mere 2.5 million homes had one.

he notes. “The device learned what you liked: After a few weeks, it understood when you left for work, when you went to work, what temperature you liked. For a while, Nest was it.”

The incredibly, refreshingly honest Jon Fischer, HVAC Automation Sales Manager for Aprilaire (Madison, WI), is pretty succinct about why his company, originally focused on humidity and air quality control, added smart thermostats to their line: “Our sales were basically being eaten by Nest … Years ago I wanted to have a wired IP thermostat and a couple of my engineers told me I was smoking crack because you’ll never see a thermostat that sits on the network.

Well, here we are seven years later and damn near everything’s on the network — including my frickin’ coffeemaker.”

Birth of the Thermostat with a Brain

Pedigo is quick to point out the difference between “smart” and “connected,” however — simply put, one learns about you, your habits, and your preferences.

As Gene Lanois, Head of Professional Channel for Nest (Palo Alto, CA) tells it: “The true light bulb moment came when Tony Fadell was looking for a new thermostat for his home. The options all felt clunky and antiquated … Even worse, the latest technology, programmable thermostats, didn’t improve the appliance much and often times were less energy efficient than traditional thermostats.”

Fadell expressed his frustrations to colleague Matt Rogers, and the two began developing an app-controlled device that used machine learning to understand the end user’s preferences and living habits.

“I’m not endorsing the brand or anything (NOTE: As an association, CEDIA is brand-agnostic, FYI), but Nest gave us the first thermostat with any kind of A.I.,”

After the company’s founding in 2011, the growth curve for smart thermostats quickly began to resemble the classic “hockey stick” model – and inspired both

If there’s such a thing as a “gateway drug” when it comes to smart devices, a case could be made for the smart thermostat.

A recent TWICE survey on “The Connected Home Market” painted a similar picture — connected thermostats were second only to smoke and CO detectors in terms of customer adoption.

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traditional HVAC and manufacturers (such as Carrier, and Trane) and humidity and filtration Aprilaire to join the fray.

thermostat Honeywell, air quality, firms like

The explosion of smart devices — and the headaches they can cause for whole-home integrators — is something Fischer’s not afraid to address. In fact, as far as Aprilaire’s concerned, Fischer figures that with his firm’s name recognition and industry outreach, he’s got a leg up: “That’s where we kind of bridge that gap,” he says. “Look, Mr. HVAC Contractor, wire up your six, seven, 10 wires to the heating and air conditioning system

Intelligent glass will be used as a control interface, entertainment platform, and communication screen.

and then, Mr. System Integrator, from there you take over and you put it on the network and what have you. And the HVAC contractor is like, ‘Perfect.

I hate doing the integrator piece anyway.’ The system integrator says, ‘Perfect. I hate doing the HVAC.’ So it’s the best of both worlds for us.”

For Nest’s part, they’ve built a “Nest Pro” program for everyone from DIY end-users to HVA techs to integrators.

LaNois says that in addition to manufacturer training, “Nest Pros can also choose to get referrals on only the products with which they’re comfortable. [If] an HVAC tech is only interested in or comfortable with thermostats, their nest.com profile will reflect that. In most of Europe, thermostat installation requires a Pro installation due to system complexities, so having a robust network of Pro installers available to support Nest customers is crucial to creating a simple and seamless transition.”

The Home Climate: More Than a Thermostat There are, of course, dozens more factors that create the “real-feel” temperature of a dwelling’s innards.

Moisture in the air is where a firm like Aprilaire can have a significant impact, says Fischer. “In the middle of winter, your skin is dry, your hardwood floors start to separate or crack, so on and so forth. We’ve been really lucky, to say the least, that a Honeywell or a WhiteRodgers hasn’t really played in the market that way.”

Shading controls can have a huge

impact on the heating and cooling of a home, too, especially when a residence has the kind of high-rise views that an integrator’s upper-end clients enjoy.

One profound example: A finalist in the 2016 CEDIA Awards, Americas for “Best Integrated Home, Level II” ($200,000 to $450,000) was a luxury apartment in the Pacific Northwest whose perimeter walls were all glass.

The integration firm that handled the project, Beyond Hi-Fi of Bellevue, WA, installed no less than 60 automated shades in the home. The shades are sensorized, and raise and lower to account for the level of sunlight hitting the rooms.

Another option is electrochromic or “smart” glass, which reacts to voltage by changing in gradations from clear to opaque in order to counter (or welcome, given the season) the intrusion of sunlight. That’s not all — imagine every pane of glass in your home becoming as smart as the screen of your smartphone. As CEDIA’s Tech Council expressed in a recent web series called “100 Predictions for 2020,” “Intelligent glass will be used as a control interface, entertainment platform, comfort control, and communication screen.” Gordon van Zuiden of cyberManor (Los Gatos, CA) says, “We live in a world of glass, touchbased icons. Obviously, the phone is the preeminent example — what if all the glass that’s around you in the house could have some level of projection so that shower doors, windows, and mirrors could be practical interfaces?”

We’re approaching a universe where

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Long story short: The percentage of any utility bill that covers HVAC has actually risen.

a swipe or an even a voice command could raise or lower the temperature in any given room.

Another Prediction But back to CEDIA’s 100 Predictions — number 35, to be exact: “Energy consumption will diminish, making energy management less important.” Tech Council member and industry expert Julie Jacobson summed it up: “The growth of energy consumption is declining — not energy consumption itself, but the growth — due to more energy efficient appliances, tighter homes … At some point, adjusting your thermostat to save energy isn’t going to be a thing.”

Jon Fischer counters that with two points: “Ten years ago the lighting guys were saying that 40% of your utility bill is your lights and 40% of your utility bill is HVAC. Now that you’ve got your LEDs, and your halogen lights, and what have you, all of that has lowered the energy cost of a house.” Long story short: The percentage of any utility bill that covers HVAC has actually risen. And homeowners will need some kind of climate-control device for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, says Fischer, “We do not sell our thermostat as an energy management product.”

“We sell our thermostat to control a heating and air conditioning system. We sell it to control the humidity, the ventilation, and we are starting to not really focus on energy management, but more so on the overall indoor air quality of the house.”

For their part, it seems Nest noticed a product segment that actually had even broader consumer adoption than smart thermostats: those aforementioned A.I.-driven smoke and CO detectors. Gene LaNois explains the logic behind the connected detector that speaks: “We learned that many homes had smoke alarms that were disconnected or disabled because of previous false alarms or annoying chirping. By creating a smoke alarm and CO monitor that you can interact with on your phone, one that talks to you instead of chirping at you, and one that has fewer false alarms, we believed we could help keep people safer at home. And based on customer feedback, we believe that we have done just that.” Additionally, when one considers that Nest has added surveillance/ security cameras to their portfolio, it appears that some smart-device companies feel that diversification will be a key to success, if not survival.

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LATIN AMERICA In August, CEDIA headed to Mexico City to participate in Tecnomultimedia Mexico.

Teaming up with Spanish speaking presenters to host a number of training courses and certification exams, CEDIA welcomed 25 attendees. In November, CEDIA will be attending another one of these events — this time, Tecnomultimedia Columbia.

SOUTH AFRICA In October, CEDIA teamed up with ELAN Systems South Africa and Sphere Custom to present its Boot Camp in South Africa. Held at HFX Systems’ facility in Johannesburg, over 20 integrators enjoyed the five-day event, which saw them attend sessions including Basic Wired and Wireless Networking; Audio, Video and RF Systems for Installers; and Rack Building and Wiring Fundamentals.

INDIA For the sixth time in four years, CEDIA is due to visit the second biggest market in the EMEA region — India. The Indian members are really engaged with CEDIA, and truly see the benefit in the local education and networking events that CEDIA hosts. From December 5-8, these members will be invited to an event that will include the Advanced Cinema Design Package and Boot Camp sessions being presented in Hindi — a first for this type of event. Members will also be able to take certification exams.

CEDIA was pleased to report that over 10% of those attending CEDIA 2017 were international industry professionals.

With the aim of continuing outreach and improving its global presence, CEDIA has hosted training and networking events in several thriving countries. Here is a rundown of its recent international activities, and a look ahead to events planned for later this year.

AROUND THE WORLD AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND CEDIA had a busy few months in Australia and New Zealand with the Integrate Show in August and Facilities Integrate in September. Hosted in Melbourne, the Integrate show was extremely successful, with just under 5,000 visitors. CEDIA worked with Integrate and AVIXA to create a training pass that covered all the education on offer. The show saw 107 registrants for its training program, which included CEDIA’s biggest ever education offering at the event. Facilities Integrate welcomed over 2,600 visitors at the two-day show in Auckland and featured CEDIA for the first time.

CEDIA also had a presence on the show floor at both events, which provided an opportunity to speak to existing members, as well as potential new members.

As a result, CEDIA has signed up 10 new members in the last month.

CHINA In China, CEDIA is working with local partners to bring its education to the market. To date, nearly 300 students have benefitted from CEDIA training.

cedia.net/events

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BUILDING ISE SUCCESS WITH CEDIA EDUCATION CEDIA brings an extensive four-day training program to ISE 2018, focused on delivering education excellence for home technology professionals.

“CEDIA Education at ISE 2018 will be rich in content for integrators, whatever their level within the industry,” says Aneta Armova-Levin, CEDIA’s Education Manager for EMEA. “Our expert presenters will cover a varied range of business and technology topics in over 40 sessions at the event. Visitors can buy an All Access Pass that gives them the opportunity to attend as many sessions from the program as they like for just £250*, and a Super Pass that will secure free entry to multiple AVIXA training sessions too. We will also offer the opportunity for integrators to sit for a CEDIA Certification exam, demonstrating how they excel within the profession.”

“It’s a packed CEDIA program that tells you ISE 2018 is the place to learn,” adds Aneta. “Many classes sold out very quickly in 2017, so make sure you book your chosen courses early to avoid any disappointment in 2018.”

Technology highlights in the CEDIA education program include full-day Advanced Home Cinema Design and Rack-Building workshops, as well as a two-part Acoustics Treatment training.

Additionally, areas such as power management, power conditioning, local generation and storage, and POE will be covered.

Other not-to-be-missed session topics include using VR for smart home designs, high resolution audio, lighting control, video displays, assisted living, interoperability, and much, much more.

Business owners can benefit from insights provided

by Leslie Shiner, the renowned U.S. author, speaker, and trainer. Leslie’s courses will help shed light on how to grow and maximize profitability for your integration company with sessions entitled: Time Is Money; 25 Ways to Increase Profit; A Project Manager’s Guide to the Financial Stuff, and Using a Dashboard to Steer Your

Company on the Right Path.

CEDIA Certification will be a major focus for the association throughout 2018. By taking CEDIA’s highly respected Electronic Systems Technician (ESC-T), Designer (ESC-D), or Networking Specialist (ESC-N) Certifications, members can establish their expertise and commitment to best practices. All certification examinations will take place on Friday, February 9 at the RAI. Attendees can also take part in CEDIA Talks – free, 20-minute sessions designed to introduce you to new disruptive technologies, challenge your way of thinking, and generally blow your mind. The theme for this year is “10 Things You Should Pay Attention to, but Probably Aren’t,” with each Talk focused on one important “Thing.” Taking place on the CEDIA booth every day of the event, CEDIA Talks are brought to you by the CEDIA Technology Council and not to be missed.

Taking advantage of CEDIA education is quick, simple, and great value for money. CEDIA’s All Access Training Pass* gives attendees unlimited entry to CEDIA educations sessions during the show. The All Access Pass is available for pre-booking at an exclusive Early Bird rate of £250+VAT through January 8, 2018.

Alternatively, individual courses can be booked on an a la carte basis. Attendees can also benefit from the joint CEDIA and AVIXA Super Pass, giving integrators access to both CEDIA and AVIXA training sessions at ISE 2018 in one simple, comprehensive ticket for £350+VAT. For more information, to buy an All Access Pass, a Super Pass, and to make your booking, go to the Professional Development section of the ISE website, www.iseurope.org/professionaldevelopment.

We look forward to growing your skill-set at ISE 2018! * Excludes Full-day training sessions and certification exams.

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STARTING THE “SMART” RIGHT AT THE FRONT DOOR CONNECTED LOCKS ARE GETTING EVER MORE INTELLIGENT

M

Ed Wenck

Content Marketing Manager, CEDIA

ike Chorney is President of a residential integration firm in British Columbia, a business named La Scala that’s been around for decades.

Chorney — like a lot of his counterparts — is more about awe than accessories: He’s more interested in providing a user experience informed by technology than the technology itself. His quest for that immersive, seamless interaction between human and home, between body and building, sees him bemoaning one aspect of the connected house: “I was in a board meeting with some developers and I asked a simple question: ‘How many people actually used a key to open the door of their car this morning?’ I got one hand in the room. Then I posed the next question: ‘Why are we building these condominiums in downtown Vancouver at a thousand dollars a square foot and then hand them a key to open up their door?’

Technology that we’re accustomed to dayto-day, in our car and through our mobile devices — why aren’t we actually using that

A version of this article has also appeared in SDM Magazine

in our own homes?”

We have good news for Mr. Chorney. The front door has caught up to the rest of the smart building.

A PARADIGM SHIFT — OR TWO Some of us are old enough (ahem) to remember when the shift from key to key fob occurred in the automotive industry.

The wow factor that “keyless” entry and remote-start brought to the key was big.

But a button on a small plastic box is still fundamentally “dumb” — it’s programmed to connect to the vehicle, not the user. Simply put, anyone who holds the remote can get into the car.

The modern connected lock, however, is a device designed to recognize the user first, the door second. And along with that change in thinking comes a notion that changes the very concept of what a lock on a door really does.

Mike Buckingham, director of the recentlyminted “pro” division at August Home, sums it up: “We really flip the script on what access control has usually meant. What that means is that traditionally locks have prevented access to the home for criminals, or those that we want to keep out.”

But a connected lock is less about who one wants to keep out, and more about who you’d like to walk through that door. Garrett Lovejoy, Senior Product Manager for IoT

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at Yale, says, “A smart lock is a great example of ‘access control’ for the home. And access control is not about keeping the wrong people out — it’s really about making it easy for the right people to get in.”

Solutions that let the right people in include apps that offer everything from PIN access to geofencing (as in, having a lock recognize a user’s smartphone and clicking the door open as said user approaches).

But — to Buckingham’s point — of all the smart-lock features offered by both the relative “newbies” like August and Lockitron and “old-guard” names (such as Kwikset, Schlage, and Yale), the one option that’s common across the board is guest access.

And, since the owner of the lock is alerted whenever anyone uses the door, the parent of a latchkey child, for example, can be notified that their offspring’s home. (Sorry, kids — the notion of ditching school at the house is officially obsolete.)

FROM RETRO TO PRO According to Cameron Robertson, CEO of Lockitron, trial and error is paying off for his company. The initial concept: Stick a smart mechanism directly over top of the thumb turn on the inside of the door, and voila — instant connected solution. Preorders were big, but manufacturing delays and other issues gave the company headaches. Robertson and his team pumped the brakes a bit, and developed their next-gen product more slowly, finally developing a replacement lock.

While the core of Lockitron’s business is primarily a low-cost, easily-installed solution, August is ramping up its pro side. “I came on board in November of 2015 to build out a B-to-B wholesale division of August that frankly had not existed before,” explains Buckingham.

“August products were not widely available in distribution. They were not available for integrators. So last year — actually at the CEDIA show — we announced August Pro as a new division for the company with ADI as our distributor partner. We expanded to bring on AVAD and a host of other smaller, regional distributors.”

August will have products the homeowner can’t buy online or in the big-box stores, and those products “have the margins that [integrators are] more accustomed to. And, some of the affiliations by having a Z-Wave chip built into this new lock will work with the panel providers and security cloud providers that you’re most familiar with.”

As for Yale, of course, they’re all about the pro side. “The majority of our business is still focused on the professional installing channel — security dealers and the like,” says Lovejoy. “We can meet a variety of price points with products that are fully featured and less featured. We try and create a continuum of product for the pro dealer. We do have locks that fall into the ‘good enough’ category so dealers can incentivize and move forward with that business model.”

When it comes to integration, Lovejoy notes that their products work with “ZigBee, Z-Wave — we have specialized products for specific dealers, too: Crestron, Control4, and we make a HomeKit module as well.”

As far as integration’s concerned,

Lockitron’s IFTTT connectivity works with many of the same apps and devices that August’s products work with, including Amazon Alexa and Nest.

UPSCALE SOLUTIONS Alex Capecelatro, who’s one of the brains behind Josh.ai, a wholehome voice control system, sees the systems in the homes he integrates hit a price point that’s easily 1,000 times the cost of a connected lock produced by August or Lockitron.

“Some of my clients have a series of Star Trek-like doors that recognize them and open in a series, turning on lights for them down the pathway they’ll use from, say, driveway to kitchen or wherever they’re headed.

My CTO has a series of palm-readers that recognize whether or not you’re allowed access to an individual room.”

Those technologies aren’t exactly mainstream, however. Many of the clients who ask for Capecelatro’s custom integrations have homes that offer 10,000 square feet of living space and above.

Capecelatro does see locks from Schlage and Lockitron turn up in his custom jobs, though. “A lot of the locks are Z-Wave and ZigBeebased, and our product is controlling everything over IP. We just route through a hub.”

Of course, as we’ve heard many thousands of times, “anything that can be hacked, will be hacked.” The folks at August promise “bank-level security,” and Lockitron’s Robertson expresses the entire industry’s mantra of “constant vigilance:” “I think the biggest thing there is, we go to the DEF CONs [a hacker convention] and things like that. We see what people are working on. But it’s really about being responsive so that if something crops up, you can immediately and securely deploy and update to resolve it.”

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TRAINING & EVENTS CALENDAR November 1

9

Total Tech Summit*

ADI EXPO*

Orlando, FL

Long Island, NY

Image: Wikimedia Commons

14-16

14-16

15-16

Advanced Networking Boot Camp

Technomultimedia*

Advanced Network Training

CEDIA HQ, Indy

Columbia

Atlantic Integrated, Rockleigh, NJ

December 4

5-6

TechHome Builder*

Principles of Networking Training

Phoenix, AZ

ByDesign Vision & Sound Marketing, Los Angeles, CA

January 9 2018

Design & Constuction Week* CEDIA Smart Technologies Pavilion Orlando, FL

February 6 Integrated Systems Europe

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

May 2-4

16-18

DISH Team Summit*

CEDIA Xchange

Orlando, FL

Image: Bill Dickinson/Wikimedia Commons

Phoenix, AZ

* Indicates an event with a CEDIA presence (not a CEDIA-branded event per se)

Book training at cedia.net/cedia-training

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www.21stCenturyDist.com

1-800-849-0647

Members of:

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The ESPA Program: Building the Workforce, Raising Awareness

Jeff Gardner Jeff Gardner ESC-T, ESC-D, CTS is the executive director of ESPA. Before his lengthy tenure on CEDIA staff he worked as a residential systems designer for a top 50 integrator, project manager for an acoustics company, and spent many years in pro audio — in live and studio production and recording studio design.

FOUNDERS

Ten years ago, some of the industry’s top association professionals saw the need for standardized training and certification for new technicians coming into the industry, regardless of what sector they were going to work in — commercial or residential, even areas such as cable, satellite, and security. It was a great idea, but it was launched just before the recession hit. When the economic downturn was in full swing, those training and certification programs became fairly inactive — after all, no one was hiring.

By 2015, though, that initiative — called the ESPA program — was growing right along with the economy. In my role at CEDIA as director of technical training, and then director of certification, ESPA was something I worked on as a “side project,” but by 2015 ESPA needed someone to take the helm full-time. So, I accepted the challenge of focusing exclusively on the growth and success of ESPA.

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What is ESPA? The Electronic Systems Professional Alliance was founded by CEDIA, NSCA (National Systems Contractors Association), and CTA (Consumer Technology Association). The mission is simple: develop and offer the curriculum and certification that would prepare people to get their foot in the door as an entrylevel technician (EST), with the basic knowledge and skills to start their journey into a great career in technology installation. The body of knowledge is suitable for a wide variety of candidates, from high schoolers attending a career center to those in post-secondary tech schools, as well as career-changers and veterans. The goal is to provide them a foundation for success, while providing employers qualified, entrylevel candidates who already know the basics and can hit the ground running.

Why is ESPA Important?

Everyone is aware of the challenge of finding qualified employees: This has been a major pain point in both commercial and residential systems for a few years now. It would be great if career centers and tech schools had programs designed to prepare people for our highly specialized field, but that just hasn’t happened for a couple of reasons: Our industry is tiny compared to hot career sectors like healthcare and IT, and most educators, let alone students, have no idea what we do!

But the ESPA program is changing this. We are raising awareness that there are great careers out here for people with a passion for technology and an eagerness to learn. We work closely with NSCA’s Ignite program to get integrators in front of high school classes to talk about the work they do. Ignite “sparks interest in technology” by providing presentation resources for integrators to speak directly to high school students and raise awareness of the career options. We encourage CEDIA and CTA TechHome members to do the same, engaging with schools and talking to students.

Since our program supports such a wide range of career verticals, it is attractive to more schools than something specific to just one industry sector. We are the only

fast-track program that is recognized by both residential and commercial companies, and can be dropped into virtually any IT or legacy electronics program.

Get Engaged!

Outreach is most effective when actual employers are in the schools letting students know that their need for technicians is real. This is where you, as a home technology professional, can make a difference — for the industry, and for your company specifically. Every market has high school career centers, tech schools, or community college campuses with electronics or IT programs. Many electronics programs are outdated and need a shot in the arm. Others are excellent, but fail to teach the fundamentals necessary for a technician to be productive on the jobsite from day one. Lots of IT students are acquiring a great skill set, but would rather work in a job where they can see and hear the fruits of their labor, rather than just working at a help desk in a corporate environment. These are opportunities to train people who have just the skills you are looking for. Who wins? Everybody!

What Have We Been Up To Lately?

Since I assumed my new role with ESPA, a lot has happened. We doubled student participation in 2016 from the previous year, and this year we matched our entire 2016 participation numbers by July. We have updated the Training Guide and classroom presentation and moved to a new platform for our pre-test assessment. We have had articles and blog entries in all of the major trade publications and on all of the websites, including a serious initiative with CompTIA to attract IT students to our industry. We have exhibited numerous times at the

ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) Career Tech Vision conference. We have helped create a white paper for CABA (Continental Automated Building Association) on workforce training and education. We have started profiling ESPA success stories — like the young man who got EST and computer training in high school, went straight into a good job, and in just a few years, became a lead technician with a very bright future (and bought his first house). We successfully launched an adult education program that provides EST training via night school for career changers. The list goes on and on. You can read about all of these at www.espa.org, as well as learning much more about the association, our industry partners, and industry training in general.

The Bottom Line: ESPA is growing, adding more schools, and bringing more people into the industry who are prepared to be productive team members for integrators. What we need to continue this growth, and eventually be a factor in every major market, is integrators like you who help us identify potential training partners right in your own backyard. Once a school has adopted EST training (and sometimes even more comprehensive content), they will be training people you can hire. As ESPA becomes more widely adopted in the academic channel, we will continue to see them expand their offerings to utilize CEDIA books and certifications, which is of course even better for the residential systems channel. We are already starting to see this happen in a few markets.

If you would like to be part of this effort, and bring a school in your area on board, just contact us at certification@espa.org. We are eager to work with you to make it happen!

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CEDIA

technology in one home — that sandwich generation has needs, as do their kids, as do their elder live-in relatives.”

Ed Wenck

Content Marketing Manager, CEDIA

BACK AT DCW

H

ere’s an anecdote from a focus group of one: Recently, a relative of Yours Truly told me she was building a new home. I asked her if that project included smart home technology — distributed audio, perhaps? Maybe a custom security system, automated lighting and blinds, or a dedicated media room? After said relative ran me through her list of must-haves, I asked her who was handling that stuff.

“My builder’s got a guy,” she replied brightly. (Note: This answer could have only made me happier if she’d said: “My builder’s got a CEDIA guy [or woman].”)

As you’ve likely heard, this little tale is representative of a much bigger trend — and it’s why CEDIA’s back at DCW. CEDIA’s first appearance at Design and Construction Week as “collaborative exhibitor” came last year at the annual event in Florida.

After attending prior DCW events — and mingling with reps from the relevant trades — CEDIA helped the joint venture of the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) International Builders’ Show and KBIS (the Kitchen and Bath Industry show, owned by the National Kitchen and Bath Association, or NKBA) by working with them to implement the concept of a smart home pavilion.

That concept returns in 2018 with the CEDIA Technology Solutions Pavilion, to be located on DCW Highway in the West Hall of the Orlando Convention Center during the run of the show (Jan. 8–11). Like

last year, this 10,000-foot space will “offer our members the opportunity to develop relationships with design and build professionals,” says CEDIA’s Senior Director of Industry Relations Dave Chic.

This has been a relationship that’s growing as fast as the IoT: “Through our ongoing collaborations with DCW, more and more opportunities are presenting themselves,” says Chic. A big part of this initiative — bringing technology integrators to the building trades — will focus on education. “There will be memberto-member training and tips on value propositions, budgeting, resource and product procurement — name it,” Chic adds. “More and more builders are making what CEDIA members can provide part of their business model.”

So What’s Big for 2018?

“I hear a lot of buzz about the IoT, of course — people are looking for advanced yet reliable ways to be entertained, to feel safe, to create an energy-efficient home,” said Chic.

More specifically, he’s hearing more about the emerging technology surrounding the concept of “Aging In Place,” and even “multi-generational

As Laura Mitchell, a “smart care consultant,” told us during her talk at the last CEDIA show, two-thirds of all the people 65 and over who have ever lived on Earth are alive right now. 111 million people in the U.S. are over 50. 90% of the folks activating their AARP cards say they want to live at home.

Remember that earlier mention of a “value proposition?” America’s sandwich generation, tasked with caring for both parents and children — will soon learn that the cost of care, having jumped overall 63% since 1997, is really pricey when Mom or Dad or Grandma needs constant monitoring. Simply put, it’s vastly cheaper to put the tech in the condo than to hire someone to perform the same functions (if you can find that someone — there’s a caregiver shortage in full swing).

CEDIA’s continuing collaboration with DCW is designed to get messages like that one in front of designers, builders, architects, and other important influencers in the industry. The models CEDIA has already built to get the word out — the popular CEDIA Talks and the new CEDIA Open Sessions — will be on display at DCW. And that commitment to getting the word out to sympathetic trades goes above and beyond CEDIA’s few days in Florida — just take a peek at the CEDIA Outreach Instructor program.

The Pavilion’s currently a work in progress — stay tuned for a list of products, exhibitors, and educational opportunities CEDIA will bring to the 2018 edition of Design and Construction Week.

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DCW continues to be the must-attend annual industry event with the co-location of NKBA’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show ® (KBIS) and the NAHB International Builders’ Show ® (IBS). The energy at this year’s event was palpable, as attendees explored the latest products and trends at the largest annual gathering of the residential design and construction industry. *Rates increase on November 11, 2017.

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THE CEDIA TECH COUNCIL PODCAST: HEADPHONES

Ed Wenck

Content Marketing Manager, CEDIA

A summary of a recent podcast on the personal two-channel experience There’s a meme that’s popular among recording engineers: A singer is shown emoting into a pricey Neumann microphone, and her creation is then mixed and mastered via boards and processors worth tens of thousands of dollars — and in the final panel, a listener is shown hearing the music through a $3.99 pair of ear buds purchased at a drugstore.

Luckily for audiophiles, though, in-ear and on-ear listening devices — and their attendant gear — are enjoying something of a renaissance. In fact, there’s a globe-trotting series of shows called CanJam (the next is slated for February 17 and 18 in NYC) dedicated to headphones. Peter Aylett, a CEDIA volunteer and integration specialist with the firm Archimedia, and Alan Sircom, editor with the UK publication Hi-Fi+, attended a CanJam show in Britain this past year. They dropped by a recent CEDIA Tech Council Podcast to share some of what they’d seen — and to talk about the opportunities this gear might present to CEDIA integrators.

The way to massively increase sound quality is to get a perfect seal of that headphone in your ear.

And why should someone in the CEDIA channel care about headphones, anyway?

“I think people in the CEDIA channel should care about any technology that our clients interact with,” says Aylett. “You’ve only got to walk through a duty-free store at any airport to see just how pervasive headphones are today. Most of our customers are very, very global people. They travel a lot, and as far as I’m concerned, what I want to do with my customers is curate my customer’s experience

with technology, no matter where they are.”

(CEDIA’s Walt Zerbe knows of another use for headphones: reference for audio calibration.

“The integrator will give their own personal headphones a listen and then listen to the room.

The headphones give the integrator a baseline he or she knows intimately.”)

Of course, the case for headphones in the home is as strong as the pitch for mobile music: Do you live in an apartment, a condo, some kind of urban setting that would prohibit cranking your bombast of choice, whether it’s Mussorgsky or Megadeth? Perhaps your spouse loves her Cat Stevens and hates your King Crimson (said the author, revealing entirely too much about his personal life). Or perhaps noise-cancelling or hearing-assisted technology is something you long for. No matter your needs, there are products that run the gamut from classic, closed, over-the-ear, high-end cans to devices built for you and you alone.

“It’s not just about in the home, it’s also out of the home,” Aylett adds. “Things like getting our customers custom in-ear monitors. In other words, in-ear earphones molded specifically to that customer.”

Aylett was knocked out by a product from a company called Snugs, which creates an in-ear monitor (not to be confused with ear buds that imply sit in one’s ear canal). These monitors are made after a 3D image has been rendered of the end user’s individual ear canal. “It’s completely painless,” says Aylett. “They probe your ear with this scanner and you can actually watch the monitor whilst it’s happening, creating a 3-D image of the inside of your ear. The really clever thing is they can then press a button and it goes straight to a 3-D printer that prints you a pair of custom in-ear monitors.”

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Do you live in an apartment, a condo, some kind of urban setting that would prohibit cranking your bombast of choice, whether it’s Mussorgsky or Megadeth?

The best part about this process? Better bass response.

“One of the essences of the whole in-ear sound is that these drive units are tiny,” explains Aylett.

“They don’t move a lot of air. To get bass, as we all know, you need to move a lot of air. The way to massively increase sound quality is to get a perfect seal of that headphone in your ear. That means that all of the bass energy that the tiny little driver is producing is coupling directly to your eardrum, so you can have tiny, very fast, very high-resolution drivers producing really, really great bass down to absolutely subsonic levels. To me, it’s the biggest way to increase mobile sound quality.”

All these goodies, of course, are nothing without a proper source. Alan Sircom was particularly fascinated by Sony’s return to the mobile sound market: “This is a company that abandoned this

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whole market years ago. They said, ‘Oh, we’re done with the Walkman. We’re finished with that.’ And now they’re back with this very, very geeky, very high-resolution format.” Sony’s reentry into mobile listening runs into the high end with the NW-WM1Z, a player that crosses the $3,000 mark.

There are hundreds more devices, solutions, and options, of course — from headphone-specific DACs to the Smyth Realiser, a unit that takes a signal and processes it to create the illusion of surround sound via a pair of two-channel headphones. The experience is nothing short of astonishing (and expensive), but for big fans of the intimate experience headphones provide, money’s often not much of an object.

This article only touches the surface of the CEDIA Tech Council Podcast on headphones. For more, check out Episode 17 of the podcast at cedia.net (file no. 1731). The podcast is also available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and Tunein.

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CEDIA’s Government Affairs Department TRACKING THE LAWS THAT COULD AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS Darren Reaman is a force of nature.

CEDIA’s Director of Government Affairs is part watchdog, part lobbyist, and a gent who disproves the notion that “nice guys finish last.”

As the head of a group that relies on member involvement, Reaman keeps tabs on every state legislature in the U.S. and every province in Canada. Every morning, he reviews a report from a tracking firm listing bills that have been introduced (or have begun moving) that may affect the technology integration field in one manner or another. “That sets the day,” says Reaman.

Given what’s happening, his daily tasks will include “anything from correspondence with legislatures to working with members.”

“If it’s a potentially negative bill, how do we amend that bill to make it less harmful for our members?” says Reaman.

On any given day, he is keeping tabs on about 250 pieces of legislation. To accomplish this Herculean effort, he relies on CEDIA’s members. Resources like that tracking firm only go so far. “The thing is, we need our members, as small business owners, to participate

in the process when they’re called upon.”

According to Reaman, the department he heads “was founded in the late ’90s/early 2000s, under then-president Mitchell Klein.

We track and monitor legislation that could impact our CEDIA member businesses, whether that’s licensing regulations, e-waste, or other technology issues that could impact on a day-to-day basis how our members do their jobs.”

Once Reaman has identified an issue, it’s key that business owners large and small get involved — making phone calls to their state reps, alerting others who may be adversely affected, and so on. When the grassroots are watered, state governments come to understand “we represent a lot of small businesses,” says Reaman.

“And that resonates with legislators.”

But members help with alerting him to pending issues, too — legislation or even smaller issues that can slip through the cracks.

“Our tracking service is set up to track state legislative bills, but we may also get wind of something at the municipal level,” Reaman explains, “or through an inspector or conflict with an inspector, or misinterpretation by an inspector at the local level. That’s common too.”

Reaman is always ready to help members with any concerns: “Call the office,” he notes.

“I’m happy to let members know what’s going on in their state. We also have that information online as well. They can log on and view that info at cedia.net/governmentaffairs. If they have a specific question within the state, we can provide that, too.”

“We are a member benefit — a resource to them,” Reaman notes.

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Licensing and the Long Game

In a Big Country …

Since nearly the beginning of his department’s creation, there’s a piece of legislation he’s been eyeballing: Massachusetts has been kicking around laws that would make life difficult for low-voltage systems integrators since 2003.

As technology marches forward, the language of law can struggle to stay current. Reaman’s keeping advances like Power over Ethernet (PoE) on his radar. “I think in the future, issues are going to entail low-voltage lighting and things like that — what type of license do you need to be able to do that type of work?”

It’s all in a day’s work for Reaman, keeping tabs on both the short and the long game. “That’s the thing, you don’t know how quickly something is going to move.”

Often, as is the case with Massachusetts, Reaman is coping with potential licensing issues.

“Our core issue has always been electrical licensing,” says Reaman. “Our position is that we’re not opposed to licensing. But at the same time, we don’t want to be licensed for something that we are not. Should an electrical licensing high-voltage bill be introduced [in a state legislature], we need to ensure that there’s a clear distinction between types of work that will be respected.”

The language of state legislatures is often broad when it comes to licensing electrical contracting. “Sometimes it can be as vague as ‘electrical contracting means light, heat, power, and communications,’” Reaman explains. The red flags are readily apparent to any technology integrator: What’s the definition of, say, “communications,” for example? And is every light fixture covered by the law — even today’s incredibly efficient ones?

“I’m looking for a clarifying amendment to make it strictly electrical, and draw that line between low voltage and high voltage,” says Reaman.

Once Reaman makes clear that small businesses will be adversely affected, the legislators listen.

If you look through the years, there’s a statewide electrical licensing bill in Iowa that we worked to get an exemption from. I mean, we worked on it, again, for two or three years … but we were successful in getting an exemption there a few years ago. In Wisconsin, there was a statewide electrical license bill. As introduced, the bill had an exemption for 50 volts or more. We were able to successfully raise that from 50 volts to 100 volts.”

“But you’ve also got the convergence of technology, security, and that sort of thing,” Reaman notes. “Where’s that line drawn with security licensing?”

Beyond keeping a careful watch on what statehouses are doing when it comes to pending legislation, Reaman also has a word of caution regarding laws already on the books: “As integrators are contracted for projects in other states or in bordering states, they need to be aware of those local laws. We always say check your municipal, county, and state license requirements ahead of the project, because even though you’re based in one state and doing a project in another, you need to be licensed where the project is being completed.

Just make sure you’re aware of those, or any permit requirements prior to a project.

Otherwise, again, an inspector could potentially hold up the project.” A call to Reaman’s office could make the installation work on that big client’s vacation home in ski or surf country much, much easier.

Although Reaman is focused on the state bodies, he keeps an eye on the federal government, too. One example: Reaman’s part of a coalition helping to diminish patent trolling. But ultimately, Reaman and his army of integrators do most of their work protecting the CEDIA channel at the local level.

And again, patience and persistence are two of Reaman’s best attributes.

“We have what’s called the CEDIA Grassroots Legislative Network,” he explains. “I would encourage all members to take the time — your state and local legislators have town hall meetings, attend those. It’s vital that you introduce yourself out of session so they know who you are when the statehouse is in session.

“One bill that just got signed last month by the Governor of Missouri is a statewide electrical licensing bill. That was actually the first bill we lobbied on in 2004. It was reintroduced year to year — and then actually enacted just last month.

And it has an exemption for low-voltage work.

“Think about all the bills that come across the desk of a legislature in a session.

Hundreds, right?”

You can contact Darren Reaman at dreaman@cedia.org or 800.669.5329

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