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?

 

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. 

Tinker, Tech’er, Solder, Sine via RAVE Pubs

This post orginally appeared on Gary Kayye's RavePub Site on August 2nd, 2011 

 

Are you useless?  I am and proudly so and I think you could do with being so too.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment before we proceed -- you should strive to be useless and leading by example, encourage your staff to be the same.

 Useless adjective       \'yüs-l?s\

              1.    Not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome

In reality useless is usually based on a simple frame of reference, or in the colloquial -- one man’s   
garbage is another man’s treasure. For an install company, tinkering is a useless endeavor, a wasteful process of learning as you go and where results are not always what one expected. Having a staff of useless tinkerers is not just terrible for your business, much worse; it is the best thing that can happen to it.

Do you remember back to when you were six or seven years old and the concept of chemistry or at least the idea that a mad scientist could hold such power with a simple set of beakers and surgical tubing held so much sway? Back then, you mixed shampoo with wood chips, hair gel, milk and orange juice half waiting for the, mostly inert, mixture to start moving of its own volition. These experiments were mostly harmless but if you were like me the ‘failures’ never dulled the excitement of the possibilities -- ‘if I could just find the right ratios!’ <cue cute-evil laugh>. Then again you could have had a mom like mine who occasionally would provide me with bottles marked ‘ingredient X’ - <Vinegar> and ‘Mystery Powder Y’ - <Baking Soda>.  That particular experiment had me wide eyed and standing atop a three-legged stool as the resulting reaction covered the floor of my room. Did I mention that I also became really good with a mop?

I want to see your staff doing more of the above. No, not the mop - the wild-eyed fascination of deconstructivism. Wasteful, you might say. Absolutely devastating to project deadlines and company profits one might argue. Horse Hockey! I say. (With apologies to Sherman T. Potter)

The process of tinkering provides lessons in how stuff works, it is demonstrative and practical, and there is great value in opening a box and figuring out just how they did that. An even greater benefit can come from forceful misapplication-creating wondrous new functions or in letting the genie out.

I am a big fan of something called Circuit Bending which is the process of opening up consumer electronics - mostly kids’ toys - and modifying the circuit boards to create new sounds. The cult community of circuit bending is part heath kit hacker, part pyromaniac musician and part serious electronics debugger. Modifying a toy is not nearly as simple as it might appear -- these units’ electronics are often undocumented; the process of figuring out just where to connect jumpers requires patience and research. It also requires a willingness to fail.

Failure is constructive.

Are you allowing your staff to fail?  

If you still think that I am full of it just take a look at what 3M™ does. 3M has a long standing policy (since the 1920’s!) of allowing employees - regardless of project schedules - to dedicate up to 15 percent of their paid work hours on personal projects. What possible benefits could a policy which wreaks havoc on deadlines and product to market schedules have?  Not much really -- just the development of whole new markets in adhesives, recording mediums and of course the ubiquitous Post-it-Notes ®.

What untapped solution are you missing out of by holding your staff back?  Where would we be without the invention the iPad typewriter?  For me it would be a sad, sad world.

 

 

A Preponderance of Presentations - Infocomm 11 as seen from the Mobius Curve

Walking the floor at ICIA's Infocomm 11 trade show

 “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Infocomm is huge this year. From the entire show floor to the second level of classes and demos and breakout rooms throughout  it just seems to never end.

It has been twelve years since I last had the chance to see the show as an attendee and not a booth  builder slash floor barker and perhaps this has altered my perception of space at the show.   When you work the booth for a major manufacture there is little chance to wander from your post and explore -  one eats sleeps and yes poops the product(s) with little chance of getting beyond the immediate parcel of show floor .  The universe is indeed a very defined area during these days.

As attendee, well, it is like being transformed from Sisyphus into David Bowman , complete with wide eyed expression and a multitude of lights reflecting in them.

 
Being here at the show is a must, having a physical relationship with the products and people cannot be recreated by reading press releases or wandering the halls of  a ‘Virtual Tradeshow’.  Only when you can touch a device, turn it over in your hands and look into the -proverbial- eyes  and look directly into the - real- eyes of the company employee does one get  a connection with the possibilities.

This is not to argue against virtual connections. In addition to seeing the gadgets, gear and goodies in action I am excited to finally meet, face to face and beer mug to wine glass, the fine folks of #Avtweeps.  We are a group of  Audio Visual folks who have gathered a tribe on social media, more specifically Twitter.  The daily and sometimes hourly conversations are extremely constructive  and I could hardly imagine a day without ‘hearing’ from the group at least once a day.   

Truth is that I have sought out the company booths of the folks who regularly chat, chide and console each other via the avtweeps association because I trust them. And in turn I am more likely to trust the products - or at least give them the benefit of doubt.

As I head out to dive into day two of the show, my feet still ache and my knees feel as if someone put them on backwards I am determined to see as many demos and presentations as possible.  

Coming from the cloistered world of working for one major manufacture has me learning anew and re-submerging myself into an industry I had taken a short sabbatical from.

See you on the show floor, say hi and join me for a coffee and nosh at the Infocomm Lounge.