My Two CEDIA Management Conference Takeaways
By Jeremy Glowacki
It’s tough to summarize the content from a two-day CEDIA Management Conference that was good as the one I attended last week in New Orleans. However, there were two fundamental “takeaways” from the event that I would like to share, then feel free to click on the links below to access PDFs of the three daily newsletters published onsite by Residential Systems.
Connie Podesta The big message from the opening-night keynote speaker Connie Podesta was that there are basically four different personality types in the world. Although it’s good to know which of the four you’re dealing with on a ...
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CEDIA Lead Painting Training Site Now Live
By Jeremy Glowacki
In cooperation with the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) and other EPA-accredited training providers, CEDIA is now offering the two-part Certified Lead Renovator course, which includes both an online component and a hands-on component. The online portion of the training will be available through the CEDIA e-Learning platform, and the hands-on lab portion of the training will be hosted by CEDIA at select ADI locations throughout the U.S.By April 22, 2010, Electronic systems contractors performing installation work inside homes or buildings built before 1978 will need to comply with ...
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Thinking About Becoming an Energy Auditor?
By Jeremy Glowacki
Next week I’ll be introducing Dallas Jones from the Home Energy Institute who will moderate CEDIA’s Power Hour webinar about how ESCs can find new business by offering and conducting home energy audits.With energy management services growing at a rapid pace, performing an energy audit is a great way to educate clients on how your company’s services can help reduce energy consumption. A home energy audit is a complete, in-depth analysis of a home's energy efficiency. During this procedure, a certified professional home energy auditor uses equipment to analyze how energy is being used and ...
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My Existing Wires Retrofit Webinar ‘Takeaways’
By Jeremy Glowacki
My takeaway from the recent Residential Systems-sponsored CEDIA PowerHour webinar on “Using a Homes Existing Wires in a Retrofit Installation,” was that retrofitting an audio distribution system using one of the three standards now available is a reliable option, just as long you work with products labeled as being certified.Of the nearly 60 webinar participants, only 38 percent were aware of having installed products following either HomePlug Powerline Alliance standards, guidelines from HomePNA over coax or phoneline, or MoCA’s standards involving distributed audio or video over coax. But, ...
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Certified Cyber Solutions Offers Another Answer to Network Monitoring, Protection
By Jeremy Glowacki
Fear can paralyze you, but can also serve as an excellent motivator. Motivation was the answer for Russ Pritchard, owner of CEDIA founding member Audio Warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina, after he received a rare Saturday evening call from a client who believed that his personal data files had been stolen by one of Pritchard’s employees. That scenario, which turned out, instead, to be the work of the client’s own disgruntled employee, became a wake-up call to Pritchard about how vulnerable the networks that his company had been installing, actually were.
A false alarm from Russ ...
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New England Hi-Fi Discovers Changes in the Neighborhood Challenge Everyone
By Jeremy Glowacki
An unusual challenge has led to an opportunity for increased sales
at Maine-based New England Hi-Fi, a provider of high-end audio and home
theater equipment, service, and custom installation.
The New England HiFi storefrontA
few years ago, several big box stores were built near the company’s
showroom. Beyond representing a change in the neighborhood’s landscape,
the giant facilities created a major reduction in the power supply,
dropping the incoming voltage at New England Hi-Fi down to anywhere
from 109 to 115V -- far from ideal when demonstrating high-performance
components, ...
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Niles Audio Responds to ‘09 Challenges
By Jeremy Glowacki
This past October, Niles Audio invited 30 of its top dealers and distribution partners to share their thoughts about current products and to make suggestions for the future. Dealer advisory meetings like these are fairly routine for manufacturers like Niles, but the months leading up to this particular gathering had been anything but routine for the Miami-based manufacturer.
Most of Niles Audio’s manufacturing challenges were tied to the performance of its IntelliControl ICS system. A spate of dealer calls to Niles’ service department earlier that fall had convinced president Frank ...
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So Cal Reps Team Up for Training Event
By Jeremy Glowacki
A good industry friend of mine, Mark Cichowski from CLARITY AV International just let me know about two educational events (one on March 16, in Orange County, California; and the other on March 18, in Los Angeles) that his and two rep firm others are hosting. Called, “Can You Handle the Truth?” the technology and business summit will feature education on emerging technology and business trends affecting the CEDIA channel, including a seminar by Rich Green of Rich Green Ink. In addition Green’s session, the event will include a mini trade show of manufacturers with tabletop displays. ...
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Crestron Turns iPad into Touchpanel
By Jeremy Glowacki
I have to admit that in between all of the wise cracks about
Apple’s unfortunately named tablet PC, the iPad, one thought really
nagged at me. What would the iPad mean to the touchpanel business that
sits smack in the middle of so many designs by so many CEDIA-channel
integrators?
Crestron's Apple iPad and iPhone interfaces This past Friday, Crestron did it’s part to remain
ahead of the game, at least for now, when it launched a download from
the iTunes App Store designed to transform the iPad into a full
Crestron touchpanel. According to the Rockleigh, New Jersey,
manufacturer, ...
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CEDIA's International Perspective
By Jeremy Glowacki
The world feels a little bit smaller to me this week as I watch the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, where athletes from around the globe compete in some amazing cold-weather sports, and after meeting, last Thursday, with CEDIA’s two international region executive directors here in Indianapolis.I had a brief chat with CEDIA Region 1 executive director Wendy Griffiths, who focuses on the UK and Middle East, and CEDIA Region 4 executive director Stephen Miller, who is in charge of Australia, New Zealand, and the burgeoning CEDIA channel in Asia.Both directors are working on ways to expand ...
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What Retrofit Wiring Option Works for You?
By Jeremy Glowacki
We know all about the new home construction bubble going pop and that "retrofit" is our industry's best hope at the moment, but which technology makes the most sense when using an existing home’s wiring infrastructure to integrate multiroom audio and communication systems?CEDIA’s Power Hour webinar next Thursday will shed a lot of light on the subject. It will be my privilege to introduce the session, handing over to Russound product manager Walt Zerbe, who will moderate the rest of the way.Three Existing Wires are AvailableZerbe knows a thing or two about retrofit audio technologies, having ...
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The Social Media Trend Is Not the 'New CB Radio'
By Jeremy Glowacki
For a while I was convinced that the social media trend was the modern equivalent of the CB Radio -- a fad that would briefly take the country by storm, only to die off later when the novelty had worn off. I’m finally willing to admit that there’s a lot more to it than that. Here at Residential Systems, we have our website, this blog, digital editions, daily web stories, weekly e-newsletters, an RSS feed, and more -- not to mention our tried-and-true paper-and-ink magazine. When it comes to social media, sure, we do a little Facebook posting, but our two favorites are Twitter -- the famed ...
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SnapAV’s ‘Episode’ Promo Involves Some Serious Horsepower
By Jeremy Glowacki
SnapAV is so enthusiastic about its new Episode Architectural and Bookshelf Loudspeaker line, that beginning this month, the company is offering a dealer incentive promotion with some serious sales prizes.
Called “Holy Snap!” the promotion rewards dealer loyalty with sports car leases (Porsche, BMW, Audi), motorcycle (Harley Davidson) and Wave Runner giveaways, vacation getaways, and business solutions like computers, truck wraps, and website design.SnapAV, which considers itself a “new breed of supplier” in the CEDIA channel has been gaining market share consistently since its ...
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ELAN’s New ‘g’ Thang
By Jeremy Glowacki
ELAN has taken its lumps in recent years, particularly as a result of an overly long product development cycle for its ELAN Tools programming software. Now the company is hoping to put all that frustration behind them with the multi-tiered launch schedule of a completely new software, hardware, user interface, controller platform, called “g.”
ELAN's 'g' family of products Though the first wave of products won’t ship until April 1 (not a joke, they assure me), the company will first unveil an interactive website, called gvangelist.com, that will help build enthusiasm for and knowledge ...
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HTSA Hits New York with Soho 3D Showcase
By Jeremy Glowacki
With James Cameron's 3D extravaganza, Avatar, purported to have made $232 million from worldwide box office sales over the past weekend, Digital Projection picked the perfect time re-pitch its Total 3D Experience. Joining television manufacturer, Mitsubishi and home control innovator, Control4 at Manhattan's electronic retail store Stereo Exchange, Digital Projection's Titan demo was part of a one-day event last Friday hosted by the Home Theater Specialists of America to showcase 3D display technology.
Digital Projection, Mitsubishi, and Control4 helped the HTSA showcase 3D technology ...
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