I Say A Dirty Word

DIY is Your Friend   -(originally published on Ravepubs.com)

 

Now that the noise and overstimulating barrage of products, specifications, digital signage and  the after effects of copious  adult beverages has diminished- I  want to propose what may seem a counter intuitive idea. Blasphemy even. 

 

The DIY home control fan is your best bet for future client growth. Yes I said that out loud. 

 

A few weeks ago AV nations’ podcast AVweekdiscussed how the retrofit market has grown by 23%  over the last year. This is pure economic necessity where new build homes  are becoming rarer than a Javan Rhinoceros, with less new build work coming in you need to find jobs to keep the trucks rolling. In an economy that has flirted with death spirals it is the enthusiasts who will shell out hard cash for such toys.

 

Admittedly, many of us in the install world have viewed DIY’ers  with the same forced tolerance we give a girlfriends yipping little dog. (yeah, I wouldn't allow the damn thing into the bedroom if I could help it either). 

 

For years the press has been abuzz declaring the industry is on the precipice of mass market acceptance, proclaiming that now is the time where integrated home control will be viewed as necessary as indoor plumbing. Perhaps my home sits in an aberration of the space time continuum because it is not happening here. Maybe where you live?  Thought not.

 

Who will drive the push to demand a touch panel in every kitchen? The DIY revolutionists. This push is similar to the early days of radio. When broadcast radio started in the early part of the 20th century most radio receivers were built by hobbyists from purchased plans or kits- it was not until the mid 1920’s that ready built receivers were sold in stores. Who, I dare ask you, started the home computer market?  Some us are old enough to remember being able to buy a home computer only via a build it yourself kit, through the mail only. 

 

The custom install business once was based on a top down supply chain - Manufacturers heard from dealers about a need for a product and added it to an already existing eco-system, usually proprietary and partnered with other proprietary third party manufactures. The standard consumer or ‘pro-sumer’ products lived in their own world and ‘never the twain’ met’. 

 

Now clients are bringing off the shelf products to dealers and asking them to incorporate it into a larger system.  Arguments about audio quality, durability and multi purpose use are pushed aside.  In effect the high and ‘low’ end products are meeting in the middle.  Case in point  the iPod.  Many manufactures of high end products resisted integrating the device arguing that their level of clientele wanted, nay, demanded a higher quality sound source.  Can you name an integration company that does not offer an iPod / mp3 interface?  Where again are the product decisions being made from now? 

 

But then again you and me are DIY’ers, are we not?  I would aim to guess that most of you reading this got your start by installing an off the shelf product then tinkering with it to make it work ‘right’.  

 

Lutron has been selling to the DIY client for over a decade with products available at the Home Depot, Lowe’s and other electronic box stores.  This campaign of using the main company brand has not diminished its commercial  or custom residential market-share. At this years CEDIA the company introduced a a battery powered shade that is available as a consumer installed and CE model that can connect to a larger home automation system.  The units, beyond a bit of extra hardware are exactly the same.  

 

There are issues in reaching out to the DIY community and some  in the group will be unwilling to listen and some will react as if attacked, but if handled properly it can reap the great reward of lifelong clients. To engage the community one has to check their professional ego at the door and remember that you are sharing knowledge not teaching. 

 

How do you find the people who could be come potential clients in this community? 

 

Think about the guy who designs, builds and programs synchronized Christmas lights for their home. I am sure you must have a ton of them in your area, go ahead and reach out to them.  I know, this can seem like the joke about the dog who chases cars - what are you going to do once you catch it?  The Idea is to get them into your shop and into the idea that ‘pro’ gear is something that they want and can afford as well.   

 

How do you entice and work with this community without it interfering and congesting your showroom during business hours?  

 

How about some seminars on the essentials of control with classes such as How Serial works or expanded programming techniques ( what is an variable array, how Boolean logic works) and wiring techniques for proper outdoor use (like how and what to use for an outdoor splice). how about loaning out some work space to the class members for building and checking  their holiday systems?

 

When the conversation comes to  the home I have had success in with discussing these topics:

 

Reliability - especially when connecting to security / fire systems

 

Partner comfort - we all know that at least one partner in the home is a technophobe or has become frustrated with using  a constantly updated DIY system. Why not sell the one system to the non tech in the house that will rarely change or go down. (thereby giving the DIY guy more time to tweak his other projects in peace)

 

Insuring that the system allows for some changes or add-ons to be accomplished by homeowner. Having the ability to change presets, some macros and backgrounds fills the need to feel ‘in control’ for many. Yes, this means some more programming, but I am at loss as to why you would not have this available already.  Do you really make any profit by sending a tech over to a client's home to change one preset channel? ( I used to have a default settings stored in the program, just in case the client managed to get themselves into a corner). 

 

Service contracts -  Yup, I will save your butt when you muck something up for a small fee each month. 

 

Now before you get yourselves in as froth, I am not saying you should teach these folks how to take your job. No sir.  I am suggesting a grass roots community building by teaching and supporting a safer and more educated client base. These folks can be drawn into your shop during non business hours, once a month, where you can show off some of the solutions your company provides. 

 

Tsunamis are more often than not deceptive in the appearance - not appearing as 20-foot tall waves but a powerful and sudden rush. Are you ready to ride the wave?

 

AV Week Episode 10 - "Oh Canada"

we mock our northern neighbors, take one for team ,  have serious moment -(ha' who we kiddin?) #avtweeps

 

Episode 10 of AV Week brings new blood with Adrian Boyd, Matt Scott returns as our international correspondent, and George Tucker joins us.

We talk about AV Week, the InfoComm industry celebration of all things AV. Cheryl Regan from ICIA gives us some tips and ideas on how to promote the industry where you live.

Crestron has killed a long beloved product; we mourn the passing of the Adagio line. How would you like a control system you can control with your brain? We’ll explain. Also, George explains how to build your very own satellite. Plus, we have the next big market for you integrators… senior citizens.

http://www.avnation.tv/avweek-episode-10-oh-canada/

A Truly Useful Engine

Originally posted to Rave Pubs on  August 18, 2011 

Now you're back in line

Going not quite quite as far

But in half the time

 

- Jumping Someone Else's Train, The Cure

 

Perspective can change everything; running straight line the countryside is truly bucolic, but when the train jerks ‘round a turn you find that the rolling hills hide a shanty town.  Which side of thetracks your business is living on can be a fluid line. One month you are in the middle of richly appointed houses with green lawns and blooming gardens, the next morning it is in a freight yard of dinged cars and grimy out buildings.   

 

How could this happen?  Perhaps you rode the line too far without checking; all lines end somewhere and these places look nothing like they do on Sodor.  Anyone who has ‘ridden the rails’ will tell you that the first rules -(after keep away from the bulls)- are to keep an eye on where the train is heading and to be wary of junctions.  

 

Are you still riding the same tracks only because you are unsure of what  throwing the switch yourself will mean? The economy is volatile as all get out and experts predict years more of slow climbs up and lurching dips and stops; it is pretty scary and it is tempting to simply put one’s head down and keep on the current line. 

 

Fear is the initial response of first time riders of the NYC subway system, a peculiar reputation which has persisted.  Contrary to popular belief, the subways are not a caravan of absolute acerbic strangers and look nothing like (well, not since the early 90s) the way they are depicted in the Kurt Russel vehicle ‘Escape From New York’.  If you ride the subway with anything resembling a regular schedule you start to notice familiar faces, a recurring cast.  In many ways these folks come to feel a bit like family, only ten times removed.  Riding on a daily basis begins to become like a micro reality show, one witnesses the rise and fall and rise of peoples lives and situation.  The cycles play out as a change in style, the new loves pressed tight taking the morning train together for the first time or the late night tear smeared mascara. It is a daily one-act play drawn out over the station stops. 

 

Shakespeare à la the third rail.

 

I have recently had the opportunity to ride the subway again after over ten years of commuting with a car over a bridge and through the woods. 

 

I lived and worked in NYC for just under 20 years mostly traveling  the east-side lines of the 4, 5, 6 and for a short stint, the F outta of Park Slope. Even so, as with all things in the city, a week's ride can involve some time on nearly any line.  

 

Muscle memory is a funny thing, while it had been too many years since I last rode, without really thinking about it I made my way to the 42nd street shuttle and across town to catch the Q to Long Island City. What awoke me from the autopilot path I was on was the fact that when I rode the trains (all those years ago), the Q did not exist.  I was lost momentarily and had to check the station map, twice, before I was confident that this was where I got on again.  My body took me there but my brain was still on the old tracks.

 

I found myself looking for a familiar face, a strong desire to bump into an old acquaintance who had been too long living on the Island of Lost Friends. I wanted stability and a known frame of reference. It just felt weird and I had that panic of the unknown and my shoes felt glued to the floor. (I actually let a Q train come and go before finally screwing up my courage). Traveling the first few stops was, admittedly, a bit disquieting - but once we hit 57th and Lex, I found the train’s  rhythm and made its frequency a harmonic of my own. 

 

Sometimes you just gotta throw the switch, move to the new tracks. You never know, you might just find that this is the train you were looking for all along. 

AV Week the AV Nation Podcast

Tim Albright has tapped a vein with the creation of his Podcast "AV Week" part of the AV Nation community.

First episode of AVWeek:

A chat interview between AV insiders and commentators about all things Audio Visual. With Linda Frembes, yours truly and Michael Drainer Episode #0000 Infocomm - Favorite Infocomm products , HDMI HDCP lssues, The Best AV Apps, Audio Manufacturers OCA alliance,The return of the video wall and Kramer only company offering InfoComm classes.

The show can be found here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/avweek

http://www.albrightav.com/podcasts/

The Birth of Modern Music, The Value of History- a mini tribute to Raymond Scott

Our time is one  of daily paradigm changes  in  the technological, cultural and philosophical  arenas, where today’s internet superstar product is granted 5 minutes of fame only to be usurped at minute 4.5- often by the same creator or venture capitalist.  Despite the contributions to the revolution most of these individual –(and companies)- have made, they are destined to be remembered by only a few associates or researchers of the arcane.

I have been fortunate to have had many mentors –direct and incidental- who helped create or were involved from the onset in the early days of multi-image, AV and music recording.  Most of their names would be unknown or, perhaps, considered irrelevant to current installers, content creators or even heads of companies in the industry, yet they practice or build on the architecture and processes that these folks established.  I was also fortunate to have teachers in trade school who thought it was of great importance to at least expose us some of the history of the art and technology we were learning to handle.   While much of the education in the glory of my ‘forbearers’ was somewhat erudite, I did get  hands on training on split line RCA boards, refurbishing a Mellotron and the odd art of multiple projector slide shows. Much in the fashion of car restorers or mechanical archivist I was granted the oral history and hands on practical from these guys.    

One of the many quirky personalities and remarkable innovators I discovered by association (and have loved to read about and explore his work to this day) is Raymond Scott.  In a similar vein to the just as unique and visionary Joe Meek, Scott had a special relationship with music that helped change it forever. In fact he should be as well known as Les Paul for his contributions to music and the AV industry in general.  Jazz musician, inventor of the sequencer and the person nearly every sound a vending machine, ATM or ring tone makes can trace its roots back to, in one way or another.

 

 

Like Alan Turing, Raymond Scott has posthumously developed a cult following for his remarkable insight and contributions. Turning may have saved the world and Scott may just have saved music. There are a number sites –which I list below – dedicated to the work and times of Raymond Scott, if you want a one example proof of his influence- chew on this.  Mr. Scott had in his employ for some time a young electronics maven who he set to work helping finish and build circuits for his ' Electronium; that young man was none other than Bob Moog.

 Even ‘dead’ technology has something to teach and knowing where things came from provides fodder for innovation and creative thinking.  Are you teaching this information to your young wire guys and installers?  Do you, or they, know about UNIVAC? Or why we call it a ‘ Bug’ when code is erratic?

 I highly suggest finding the video collection of the ‘Connections’ series hosted by James Burke whose Scientific American essays the shows are based on.  They may not answer the previous questions but it will start you on a path to thinking about ‘just how did we wind up doing it this way’ or ‘how anyone ever thought to do that!’

The past is not dead, we live it every day, we just have to where to look.

I have linked key words in the post  with links, but i have been often asked to send the group via email. 

Raymond Scott website: http://www.raymondscott.com/

Raymond Scott synopsis:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Scott

Robert Moog overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moog

Joe Meek: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=joe+meek&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&fp=4bd1efb53b2bf9c5

Alan Turing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

UNIVAC http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/UNIVAC.Weston.html

The Electronium and Clavivox    http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=Electronium&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&start=0&social=false

James Burke- Connections: http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=james+burke+connections&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=DBSUS--IBZC1tgeItvDUCg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CC8QqwQwAw#

Mellotron  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR6D1ZH2CMk

er, did I leave the sink running ? perhaps I should go back and check

 I have been busy, busy with my Crestron Social Media duties with 3 tradeshows falling back to back to back.

Fear not I have several posts near completion and will update this week

you can always find me in the persona of http://twitter.com/CrestronHQ and http://twitter.com/tuckertues

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

 

 

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                    It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                                      It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

                   It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

  

                  

Whether you know it or not, you use an invention of the 1940’s cinema star –(and ‘most beautiful woman in the world’) Heddy Lamarr every day, sometimes several.

The concept of spread spectrum frequency hopping had been conceived prior but none had applied in a useful manner.  Heddy and her associate, avant garde composer, George Antheil came up with the idea -(based on player piano rolls )- to help guide torpedoes and avoid jamming from enemy ships.

WNYC’s ‘The Take Away’ had an interesting article this morning about this and a play based on the unlikely duo’s contribution to the war effort called Frequency Hopping.

Alas their patented system was never used to defeat the Nazi’s but would be   ‘re-discovered’ by independent companies working on CDMA.  Every time you call on your cell you are paying homage to Heddy and Antheil – Now, do you think that I could find the Ballet Mecanique as a ring tone?

And Just because it makes me laugh:

Governor William J. Le Petomane: Thank you, Hedy, thank you
Hedley Lamarr: It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.
Governor William J. Le Petomane: What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue *her*.

Aside:  I do seem to be on a Dadaist roll lately in my blog posting, not sure where this is going to go.