By John Sciacca June 12, 2013
As an industry that prides itself on doing custom work, we like to
promise the moon and stars. No wish or desire is too grand, no hope or
dream too elaborate or unobtainable. “You want the lights to turn on,
the thermostat to drop, the blinds to raise, and the music to start
playing the Rocky theme at full volume every time you walk into this
room? Yep, sounds totally reasonable to me!”
By John Sciacca June 04, 2013
Perusing the June 2013 digital edition of Residential Systems, I came across a column by Ira Friedman, titled “Targeting the Mega Rich: Why Ultra High Net Individuals are the Best Custom Integration Clients.” Ira
had some interesting points in his piece. For one, he defined Ultra
High Net Individuals (UHNI) as households with over $30M in disposable
income” saying they “represent your best potential clients.”
By John Sciacca May 28, 2013
My particular brand of reality fetish has nothing to do with singing or
dancing, morbid obesity, rednecks or trailer parks, dating shows or
contests where genital obliteration is a very real/hoped for
possibility. No, the shows that I am drawn to are on-going contests
where “normal” people are thrown into abnormal conditions and then
forced to deal with one another.
By John Sciacca May 20, 2013
I had the unique, two-hours-only-a-parent-could-love, pleasure of attending my daughter’s ballet recital this past weekend. And if you’ve never had the opportunity, I can assure you that watching dozens of 4-12 year old girls dancing ballet and tap to covers of Michael Jackson hits is every bit as fun as it sounds. (Did I mention that there was no intermission? Or bar? And that it was two hours?)
By John Sciacca May 13, 2013
Doing the right thing might not always be easy. And it might not always be the most profitable. But a large part of being successful as an integrator is developing a solid reputation for always doing the right thing, and it will almost definitely win out in the long run.
By John Sciacca May 07, 2013
The world’s largest technology distributor, Ingram Micro Inc., owners of
CE distribution powerhouses AVAD and DBL Distributing, hosted a vendor
expo for resellers this past week in Scottsdale, AZ, at the absolutely
beautiful Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort, a AAA 5-Diamond rated
property.
By John Sciacca April 30, 2013
But after enough client encounters where the same incorrect terminology is used over and over, I thought I would make all of your lives considerably easier by giving you a handy translation guide so you’ll be able to cut right to what people are really asking you for.
By John Sciacca April 23, 2013
A little over four months ago, Kaleidescape unveiled an industry leading download store that offers Kaleidescape owners a revolutionary way to add content to their systems, by easily browsing and purchasing movies that automatically downloaded to their systems. Kaleidescape installed a fiber link between its Sunnyvale facility and its data center and can support download speeds in excess of 60 Mbps, meaning that you can often download a movie more quickly than you can get into the car to drive down to Redbox, Wal-Mart or Best Buy and days faster than waiting for the Netflix or Amazon.com discs to arrive in the mail!
By John Sciacca April 19, 2013
Like many of you, I received a postcard from CEDIA the other day getting
me pumped for the 2013 EXPO. Honestly, not much pumping is required. I
love the EXPO. And by “love” I mean I frickin’ love the EXPO.
By John Sciacca April 16, 2013
When I come across a quote that I find especially meaningful or poignant in magazines or books that I’m reading, I write it down—or take a picture of it—so I can remember it. In reading an extensive interview with Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, in the December 10-16, 2012 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I stumbled across this quote.