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The Profit Paradox
The “third rail” of the consumer electronics and custom integration industry–a subject so hot that you’ll get burned if you touch it– is the...
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The Evolution of Voice Control
At the recent May Connections Conference in San Francisco, I listened to Amazon’s David Isbitiski deliver a keynote talk on “Accelerating Smart Home Adoption...
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Keeping Your Edge in Sales Negotiations
Mike Detmer outlines some ways to recognize the red flags of emotional regression, and how to counteract them to better negotiate sales.
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Alexa, My Weatherbot
My relationship with Alexa is complicated. On the one hand, she’s great at telling me the weather or setting a kitchen timer when I...
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It’s Time to Make Big Plans
As a business owner, chances are you spend your day making and executing plans.
Behind the Business
James Loudspeaker’s Custom Niche
There’s so very little “custom” manufacturing being done in the custom integration business these days that a company like James Loudspeaker really stands out.
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Hands-On Education
As in any technical trade, continuing education is critical to maintaining a workforce of trusted advisors for end-user clients.
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HomeTronics: Thirty and Counting
It’s his passion for pursuing the next big thing that seems to keep things fresh for Greg Margolis, whose 10-person integration company, HomeTronics, is...
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How Flooring Affects Acoustics in Home Theaters
Sam Cavitt breaks down the significant influence that flooring can have on the performance of a private theater.
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The Disney Treatment in Client Satisfaction
Henry Clifford details some steps your company can take to improve customer satisfaction by following the example of the "Happiest Place on Earth."
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Where Can Big Thinking Lead You?
In the day-to-day of your business, how often do you get to take a step back and really think big?
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Hiring For Attitude
The next time you bring a job candidate in for an interview, consider this: he or she is probably better trained at being interviewed...
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Getting More Clicks With Paid Ads
There are incredibly powerful ways to drive traffic to you–in effect, tilting the internet to your advantage–that are both easy and affordable.
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iPoint Updates Business Management Platform
iPoint, which launched as a grassroots business management software provider for the home technology market in 2013, has updated iPoint Control, its flagship business...
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The Gen X Gap in Market Spending
Many of you built your businesses to cater to the needs and desires of Boomers. We’re at a critical inflection point now, however, and...
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Staying in the Green With CEDIA
As a business owner maybe you can relate when it comes to staying in the green; it’s not easy.
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The Great Equalizer: The Key to an Ideal Listening Environment
EQ units increase your sales and your client contentment factor. Don’t let fear or ignorance stand in your way, here.
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Legrand’s Brand Strategy
Legrand, known primarily in the custom channel as the parent company a growing list of home integration brands, including Nuvo, On-Q, Middle Atlantic, Vantage,...
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Sharing Pictures In Style With Meural
When I started cyberManor in 1999 as a custom electronic integrator focused on providing home networks for our clients’ homes in the San Francisco...
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Running a 21st Century Operation
I’ve heard a handful of businesses in our industry talk about competitors poaching their talent–a situation that leaves owners frustrated, to say the very...
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Directing Traffic
Lean back, close your eyes and let’s take a magical metaphorical journey.
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Driving Up a Home’s Resale Value
Until now, the only “value” your systems really added to a home’s worth was in the smiles they put on your clients’ faces. Now...
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What Makes a Client Request Unreasonable?
Sometimes we try everything to please a customer and still fall flat on our faces.
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Where Were You When You Learned Crestron Left CEDIA?
CEDIA’s CEO has attempted to turn the conversation away from controversy, emphasizing the association’s solid renewal numbers for exhibitors and refuting Klein’s claims of...
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Making Your Sound Hemispherical
For a smaller room, a 5.1.2 configuration may be perfect. But a large room may require 24.1.10. The point is that the channels are...
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Custom Career Paths
What did you want to be when you were young? An astronaut? A firefighter? I think it’s safe to say almost no one grew...
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How to Build a Team… and Keep It
We’ve heard it many times, and we’ve got research to back it up: building a team is challenging.
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Glikes: Partnerships Create Profits At Azione
TWICE caught up with Glikes recently to talk about Azione’s business philosophy, current plans and his views of today’s industry.
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Buy in by Architects for Home Theaters
The following is a recommendation of how to influence architects to consider a dedicated theater room early in the design phase.
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Wider Sweet Spot: Solving 50 Audio Integration Problems
In an Omni hotel suite during CEDIA, Grimani provided a lengthy explanation of the design process and what makes his speakers unique.
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CES 2016: My Top Seven List
The International Consumer Electronics show held in Las Vegas last month attracted greater than 170,000 attendees from more than 150 countries.
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CEDIA Offers New-Hire Training Package
We’ve heard it said more than once that finding qualified talent in this industry is a struggle, especially at the entry level.
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Playing CE Powerball at CES
Lately it seems like International CES is like a Powerball lottery, where you’ve got to be in it to win it, but in reality...
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Lessons Learned: Industry Best Practices
For some custom integrators, the road to business improvement has involved applying lessons learned about setting employee performance standards at CEDIA Business Xchange.
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Vital Mgmt to Host Bravas Summit Later This Month
Twenty-one independent custom integration companies from the U.S. and Canada, with a collective revenue eclipsing $70M in 2015, will gather in Dallas, TX, January...
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Selling Service Agreements
The survival of custom integration as a trade might be contingent upon the industry’s evolution into customer-centric service operations with a focus on personalized...
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The Demo Scene: Top Video Game Demos
If you’re not including video games in your home theater demo rotation, you’re doing it wrong.
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Total Fitness
It’s hard to believe that attending a CEDIA Management Conference a decade ago could have changed my life, but it did.
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Catering to Customers
Getting a fresh look at your shop isn’t as hard as you think. Is it worth it? Actually, you can’t afford not to do...
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Grimani Looks to Solve 50 Audio Integration Problems
In an Omni hotel suite during CEDIA in October, Anthony Grimani provided a lengthy explanation of the design process and what makes Grimani Systems'...
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Picking the Right Speakers
My purpose here is to help you pick speakers that will generally sound better in your installations, and will generate more client satisfaction, with...