CEDIA Communicates Q2 2020 US Version

Q2 2020

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D I S H . C O M / C U S TO M I N T E G R AT I O N

WE ARE CEDIA STRONG

Thanks for checking out this issue of Communicates.

At this writing, the entire world is coping with one of the greatest disruptions most of us have ever experienced. As our members navigate the impact of the global pandemic, I want you to know that the CEDIA staff and board have been working overtime to determine how to best provide the services and resources you need.

All of that work has coalesced into what we call CEDIASTRONG. You’ll find all the specifics in the pages that follow, and we’ll be constantly updating the microsite we’ve created, cediastrong.org.

But beyond that, I want you to know: We’re listening.

CONTACT 8475 Nightfall Lane, Fishers, Indiana 46037 USA Email: info@cedia.org Telephone: +1 800.669.5329 Unit 2, Phoenix Park, St Neots Cambridgeshire, PE19 8EP, UK Email: info@cedia.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0)1480 213744

We want your feedback, your ideas, and we want to hear your concerns, now more than ever. Feel free to reach out to our team.

We are going to do our absolute best to help you address this evolving situation and its aftermath.

It’s also a great time to contact your trusted colleagues in our industry. The free-flowing exchange of advice and ideas is something that has made CEDIA really special – it’s more than an association, it’s a network of like-minded folks that feels like a family. It is, frankly, the driving force behind CEDIASTRONG.

SOCIAL

Meanwhile, we’re still continuing work on the projects we’d begun before the virus spread. We’re expanding our education catalog. We’re updating our CEDIA Certification processes. We’re monitoring legislative moves. We’re continuing our outreach to the design/build trades. And we’re constantly on the lookout for resources, info, and content that can inspire and offer advice and ideas to our member firms.

FRONT COVER

In the midst of all this, I do hope you get a moment to enjoy this issue of Communicates. It really is a labor of love for our team.

www.cedia.net

Service TECH Inc. 1320 Arrow Point Drive, Suite 107, Cedar Park, TX 78613, USA 512.456.2800

Stay safe.

All the best,

COPYRIGHT All material in Communicates is the copyright of CEDIA and any reproduction of said material would require written permission from the publisher. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of content published, CEDIA cannot accept responsibility for any factual errors that may occur. CEDIA cannot accept responsibility for the veracity of claims made by contributors.

Tabatha O’Connor CEDIA Global President and CEO

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CONTENTS

Content 6 The Concierge Managing your clients’ choices for profit

Lighting 22 Luxury The 2019 CEDIA Award winner for lighting

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Tech + Design = Wellness Meet an interior designer working with integrators for healthy homes

the Cyber Bad Guys 12 Beating How to assess your cybersecurity needs Better Racks 28 Build Tips for creating the perfect heart of a system 2

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CEDIA 18 IMeetAM Rob Sutherland, integrator and CEDIA Board Chairman

Care 30 Client Setting up a winning program

Disney+ Dilemma 34 The Is this the end of physical media?

Disruption and 8K 36 AV A report on new standards and how they will affect your business

Myth-busting 40 5G What the next gen can and can’t do

NEWS IN BRIEF

CEDIA Bringing on Well-Known Aussie Trade Media Editor as Consultant

Correction In the Q1 2020 of CEDIA Communicates, we gave new staffer Ken Erdmann an incorrect title.

He’s CEDIA’s Director of Workforce Training (not Development). While we regret the error, we’re delighted to have Ken aboard.

CEDIA has named Paul Skelton regional development independent consultant, Australia and New Zealand.

Skelton previously served as editor of multiple home technology integration-focused publications, including Connected magazine and Electrical Connection.

"Paul has spent more than a decade immersed in the Australia and New Zealand home technology integration ecosystem," says CEDIA EMEA Vice President of Global Development Wendy Griffiths. "His stable of contacts and deep connections is broad and extends throughout all corners of the industry, the trade media, and even beyond into complementary sectors like construction, electrical, and data. Paul's high degree of passion for the CEDIA channel is infectious, and he's poised to be able to hit the ground running in our key Australia and New Zealand markets.”

Connected magazine's annual award that recognizes the home technology integration industry's most influential contributor is named "The Golden Paul" after Skelton. (CEDIA’s own David Meyer won a “Golden Paul” just last year.)

Skelton's work will help grow and advance CEDIA initiatives and membership in the region. His areas of focus include recruitment and retention, relationship building, and event planning and management assistance.

More than 100 CEDIA members call Australia and New Zealand home.

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WE ARE

CEDIASTRONG CEDIA launches a massive new set of initiatives in response to the global pandemic

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On April 9, 2020, CEDIA rolled out a new program comprised of sweeping new services and tools to empower, educate, and inspire CEDIA members. That program — dubbed CEDIASTRONG — was the association’s response to the global pandemic, and a way to help mitigate some of the disruption members are suddenly encountering.

CEDIASTRONG provides members free financial planning tools and services, technical training and webinars, career planning resources, online business roundtable discussions, and marketing content that members can use to promote their services locally. As part of the initiative, CEDIA also plans to establish a CEDIASTRONG Fund to provide financial assistance to members in need with the goal of awarding grants later in 2021.

“CEDIASTRONG was born from the COVID-19 pandemic and was designed to serve as a rallying cry for our industry,” says CEDIA President and CEO Tabatha O’Connor. “Today, as people hunker down and work from their homes, technology solutions are all the more paramount, as is the role of the professionals who design and install them. We want to help members power through this challenging period and prepare them for the future to ensure they are ready to resume business as usual when this crisis is behind us.”

The resources under the CEDIASTRONG banner are robust, and designed to draw upon CEDIA’s contacts in the industry (and beyond), leveraging the relationships CEDIA has built over the past three decades to help member firms.

Specifically, CEDIASTRONG includes the following (with more initiatives likely to be added as the crisis progresses): The services of financial advisors who will be sharing their expertise with members in weekly budget, cash flow, and business sessions — free of charge, An online COVID-19 Resource Center that features financial, legal, and regulatory information to assist CEDIA members across the globe, New career planning resources featuring an online library of content that will assist displaced workers in resume creation, job search strategies, and interviewing tips and tricks for the jobseeker, The waiving of all fees for our current online training so that technicians can hone skills during downtime and business owners can brush up on a variety of business issues, Two new CEDIA webinars each week, tied to white papers and podcast topics — and the frequency of podcasts has also doubled to include information on both industry trends and government responses to the pandemic, The hosting of regional roundtable discussions, live online events bringing integrators and manufacturers together to share insights on how they’re conducting business during these unusual times, how best to prepare for recovery, and how to market services in this time of crisis, New CEDIASTRONG marketing assets now available so members can help spread the word and generate new business opportunities in their local markets, And finally, once things begin to settle, CEDIA plans to establish the CEDIASTRONG Fund to provide financial assistance to members in need with the goal of accepting donations later this year and awarding grants to individuals and businesses sometime in 2021.

“For CEDIASTRONG to make a real impact, we need support throughout our membership,” notes O’Connor. She offers the following action steps: • • • • •

“I can tell you the staff, the Board, and all of our volunteers are all ready to pitch in and help.”

CEDIA PRESIDENT AND CEO TABATHA O’CONNOR

Promote CEDIASTRONG proudly on your social media channels and websites.

Market your services and show that you are CEDIASTRONG to those outside of our industry.

Participate in our events and our online community to share your experience with others.

Contact us to assist in the effort: cediastrong@cedia.org And if you are able to do so, donate to the CEDIASTRONG Emergency Fund.

“And remember,” adds O’Connor, “through good times and bad, we are united. The association is here for you. That’s what’s CEDIASTRONG is all about, and I can tell you the staff, the Board, and all of our volunteers are ready to pitch in and help.

“And I’ve never been prouder of these people.”

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THE

CONTENT

CONCIERGE 6

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Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

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he choices are overwhelming: Streams, services, devices — the range of available content is staggering, and the ability of the average consumer to sort it all out is likely past its limits. Geoff Meads (Presto AV) and John Penney (who’s been a strategy officer for some of the biggest names in content delivery) understand the challenges here, and they both see a terrific opportunity.

In a class — well, more of an open discussion — titled “The Future of Entertainment: Content, Distribution, and the Consumer,” presented at ISE 2020, Meads and Penney ticked off the issues for attendees who hailed from around the globe: Michigan, Cyprus, Belgium, and so on.

Moderator Walt Zerbe summed up the issue simply: “I’m a Star Trek fan, and there’s a new Picard series. It’s only on CBS All Access. I don’t have that.” Does he want that service — really? For how long? “Suddenly, my life was a bit more complicated.” A minor inconvenience for a single show, to be sure; but one that’s repeated — even multiplied — seemingly on a daily basis.

“Remember the days when you’d walk into a client’s home and they’d have five, six, seven remotes sitting on the coffee table? One for every device, every cable box?” says Meads. “It feels like we’re back to that place in some way.”

Why So Much?

“If you brought a client on to the floor of a show like ISE, they’d swear we were all speaking Klingon.”

GEOFF MEADS, PRESTO AV

Compounding that issue, for example, is the fact that TV manufacturers — facing ever narrowing margins — want to build ecosystems that manage your entire experience. The consumer, meanwhile, faced with a dizzying array of options and hardware, has difficulty sorting it all out. The average user likely can’t even differentiate between 1080p and 4K content. “If someone owns a 4K TV,” says Meads, “they think they’re watching nothing but 4K content.”

“If you brought a client on to the floor of a show like ISE, they’d swear we were all speaking Klingon,” he adds.

Penney is quick to note that there’s

another wrinkle in all of this: There’s a sameness to the bulk of Big Hollywood productions, and that’s by design. “We see remakes because they’re safe bets.

Every few years, the studios can make a new Spiderman movie with better special effects.” The economics here are staggering: It costs Disney $200 million to make, and another $200 million to market a film (and that’s part of the reason that merchandising is key).

“Movie production is an either-or industry when it comes to price,” says Penney, “productions are either extremely costly or very cheap. Lowercost productions don’t need to go into a theater — they can be marketed directly to the consumer.” Couple that with the way people consume content (made possible by all of our dazzling gadgetry), and you’ve created a recipe for the demise of “broadcasting” as we know it. “The idea used to be ‘one speaking to many,’” says Meads, “and now we have many speaking to many.”

A New RMR

The upside for an integrator lies in their knowledge and expertise when it comes to what’s delivered where, and in what format.

“If one thinks about perhaps rearranging their workforce, for example, so that a single employee is expert in this field, think about what a resource that person becomes,” muses Penney.

Penney’s bullish on the idea of the integrator as a “content concierge,” an idea that’s been echoed in CEDIA podcasts by Mike Heiss and Rich Green.

“There are people who are willing to pay top dollar to get the content to the family in as frictionless a manner as possible,” says Green in one such ’cast. “Imagine an RMR proposition that provides a consultant — you — monthly or quarterly, curating the best experience, one that’s tailored to that home.”

And all this content (and its attendant devices) isn’t going away anytime soon.

“The future will be the same,” says Penney, “only more so.”

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WELLNESS AND TECH In Line with Design

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“In addition to light, we need space around us.”

Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

CINZIA MORETTI, MORETTI INTERIOR DESIGN

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ou’ve likely heard the terms: “wellness,” “biophilia,” maybe “bio-centric design.”

While the concepts are seeing more and more practical applications in the commercial and hospitality worlds, residential integrators are starting to catch up. And adopters of this potential moneymaker will likely see allies in the interior design space, especially if an artisan like Cinzia Moretti has it her way.

Moretti — a native of Sicily whose firm, Moretti Interior Design, is now based in London — is a proponent of what she calls “bio-design.” It’s a marriage of interior design and technology that Moretti refers to as a “journey.” “We apply a lot of different elements like color psychology, lighting psychology, biophilic design, natural elements — everything that involves the five senses. It takes our clients on a journey to well-being.”

This focus on “wellness” as a part of design is borne of a fairly startling statistic: a study funded by the EPA in 2001 determined that the modern human spends 90% of his or her time inside (The National Human Activity Pattern Survey [NHAPS]: A Resource for Assessing Exposure to Environmental Pollutants, by Neil E. Klepeis and others, published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). That’s an inversion of most of human evolution: Our species has spent hundreds of thousands of years outdoors, and this business of surrounding ourselves with artificial lights and pristine, hard-edged surfaces is a very recent development.

The Virtual Sky

Moretti — who’s become familiar with these solutions through her husband, a residential lighting designer — starts where you’d expect, given her background. When she begins a project, she considers the universal human rhythm of response to light.

“In the morning, it is important to wake up with a warmer light,” she notes — the perfect application for automated shading or LED bulbs that can be tuned in sync with the circadian cycle.

In addition to light, we need space around us, Moretti notes. We’re stimulated (in the right way) by the fluttering of leaves and grasses around us and by the sounds of wind and water. There are manufacturers producing virtual skylights that can provide the illusion of an active sky overhead with clouds rolling by, and the concept of a “living wall” — displays that contain actual mosses or other plants in vertical environments with automated irrigation systems — can provide both the green we need visually and help clean the very air we breathe.

pastry. I used to wake up with a lovely smell.’ Imagine how the client would feel if we could provide that scent; tap into that childhood memory.

“Everything is connected,” says Moretti. “People say ‘we are what we eat,’ but actually, we are what we see, what we hear, what we touch — absolutely everything — because that's how it is in nature.”

Ultimately, whether it’s the right fabric or the right sound from a speaker, Moretti is an evangelist for a holistic approach in which designers and integrators are working together from day one. Because, as she says, “Design can improve your life. Everything we use, we wear, it's been designed.

And if it's been designed properly — thoughtfully — it will improve the way we live.”

Beyond the Visual

For Moretti, interior design goes well beyond the “seen” — she’s enamored with designs that address every aspect of a client’s wellness. “I’m interested in design that goes beyond a pretty look.

It's about how well we live and how we use the stuff around us.”

Beyond lighting and visual stimuli, the opportunities here are abundant for an integrator: music, sound, air and water quality control, even aromatherapy. “Suppose a client tells me ‘I used to always get up at a certain time, and my mom used to make a wonderful

Cinzia Moretti

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Duncan Wardle’s Done with Rules

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he game’s called “Yes, and” — it’s a classic exercise used by comedy improv troupes. One player offers a concept: Our Star Wars party will have Darth Vader conducting an orchestra, for example. The second player’s job is to build on the concept with the simple verbal trigger, “Yes, and,” as in, “Yes, and Darth will conduct with a lightsaber!”

The idea is the polar opposite of another game: “No, because.” One response to the above example might be, “No, because an orchestra is entirely too expensive.”

Both techniques were demonstrated by Duncan Wardle, who provided the opening address at ISE 2020.

Wardle, who’d been head of innovation and creativity at Disney for better than two decades, was demonstrating one of the ways a great many businesses unintentionally stifle creativity — and how firms could empower their teams to get back to the sense of childlike curiosity that could trigger true innovation.

Wardle — all the while asking the Ed Wenck Content Director, audience to split into teams of two or three CEDIA for a series of rapid-fire mental workouts like

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those mentioned above — notes that kids (especially preschoolers under the age of roughly six) have their own spin on “Yes, and” — they simply ask the question “Why?” over and again. “Kids have really good BS detectors,” says Wardle. “They know when you’re trying to dodge something.”

The Rules of Disneyland

A big part of Wardle’s strategy for success is breaking rules, including the unstated ones.

“The first thing we might think about when reinvigorating a theme park would be to come up with more rides, maybe dump $200 million into creation, testing, infrastructure,” he says. Instead, Wardle and company moved to find out what visitors to the park really wanted, even if they (and he) hadn’t quite verbalized it yet.

“What are the rules of Disneyland?” he asks. “You’ve got to fly somewhere, park, then wait in line …” That last part, of course, is a pain point for a Disney visitor. So, Wardle and his colleagues developed the “Magic Band,” an RFID bracelet that eliminated turnstiles, hotel check-

in waits, and so on. The technology mined the most precious resource anyone on vacation might have: time, up to two hours a day.

“We could have raised admission fees,” says Wardle. “We’d have made 3% more the next quarter.” Instead, he improved the experience, which meant return trips and the best possible advertising campaign any company could ask for in a universe bombarded with social media streams: word of mouth.

Diversity is Key

Another exercise Wardle led: Draw a house in seven seconds.

Most of the audience scribbled or imagined a peaked roof with a door in the middle of the structure. “That’s a pretty common result — especially when I asked a room full of fiftysomething white guys to do the same thing,” says Warlde.

“That’s the definition of ‘groupthink.’” When Wardle asked a Chinese woman who was a dim sum chef to participate, however, he got a different result: a round basket of a home with a fluffy roof that looked like a dumpling.

“A diversity of experience in that room led to that result,” says Wardle, “and as we left the room, someone slapped a Post-It note on the drawing that read ‘authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese’ — that’s become the slogan for the Shanghai Disney resort that opened in 2016.”

“We all say ‘we’ve got to innovate,’ but we’ve got to understand how,” says Wardle. “People need the tools to do it — now.” With A.I. poised to replace some (certainly disruptive) percentage of workers in the near future, and firms like Amazon investigating the distribution of inexpensive 3D printers to reduce shipping on a great many items, a sense of urgency isn’t unwarranted. And as Wardle sees it, the only way to meet those challenges is to make it a habit to tap back into our creative sense of childlike curiosity.

“Kids have really good BS detectors. They know when you’re trying to dodge something.”

DUNCAN WARDLE

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BEATING THE CYBER BAD GUYS Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

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Two new classes on cybersecurity have been rolled out for CEDIA’s Tech Summits

Longtime CEDIA volunteer Mike Maniscalco has been hard at work — this time crafting a pair of parallel classes for the traveling Tech Summit events. The courses, Cybersecurity for Business Managers and Cybersecurity for Technicians, are primarily about identifying and prioritizing the most pressing threats to your clients and your business.

But why two?

“The first is designed to alert managers to the threats that are out there,” says Maniscalco, “so that when a tech reports an issue from a jobsite, the boss will have some foreknowledge of that threat. The latter course is to help the tech in the field get that info back to everyone at their company.”

Key Stats

Nearly everyone in the field understands the challenges here, but to really drive home the point, Maniscalco’s assembled some stats: • One in three U.S. home computers are currently infected with malware, • 65% of Americans who’ve been online have received a scam offer, • 47% of American adults have had personal info exposed by cyber criminals, and, • 600,000 accounts worldwide are hacked every day.

As Maniscalco’s quick to point out, it’s easy to go down the various rabbit holes attendant to these stats: How did we get here? What kind of crazy dystopian world are we creating? But instead of philosophizing about privacy concerns or the future of the hackable universe, Maniscalco’s classes are about identifying problems that exist right now, today, and figuring out a strategy to get ahead of potential issues. In the classes, attendees are asked to rank potential threats on an x/y axis: x expresses risk, low to high, and y expresses likelihood. (By risk, Maniscalco is speaking about the potential mayhem that the breach might cause.)

And the Results?

“There are two types of people: Those who’ve been hacked — and those who don’t KNOW they’ve been hacked.”

MIKE MANISCALCO

To plot the threats properly on the matrix, attendees first listed as many issues as they could think of. Working in groups, they noted everything from default passwords being repeated over and over again in various systems to under-educated employees opening malicious email attachments.

Having listed the entire range of dangers, the students picked the three worst and then began to prioritize them along the axes. (Spoiler alert: The motive behind most of the threats is that old standby, theft.)

And what surprised Maniscalco about these new courses? “I’m amazed that everyone knows how important this is, and that most firms can identify what their major vulnerabilities — and liabilities — might be when they’re installing these systems. But this is about identifying the common threats you can tackle in the most cost-effective way possible. I get it — people are busy, but you’ve got to budget some time to address this stuff.”

“As the saying goes, there are two types of people,” he jokes. “Those who’ve been hacked — and those who don’t KNOW they’ve been hacked.”

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Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

the

GRAD CEDIA's Jeff Gardner (left) and Steve Rissi with Brett Jagger (center).

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Catching up with one of the many successful students who landed a gig after graduating from the CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program

DUATE O ne of the graduates of the inaugural CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program was a student named Brett Jagger. Jagger, who’d had retail management experience on his resume, found out about the 12week immersive occupational skills training program from his wife. “She works at a local community college, and she got an email from Tommy Tabor about this integration class.” (Tabor is CEDIA’s director of workforce development.)

“And she said, ‘You have to be a part of this. This is right up your alley.’”

And how did Mrs. Jagger know that this was the ticket for Brett? Simple, he notes: “It's always been a hobby of mine. I've been trying to do home automation on the cheap for years with a Raspberry Pi and piecing together as many different manufacturers as possible, making them work.”

An Immediate Hire

That hobby is now a profession.

After Jagger’s training at CEDIA HQ in Indianapolis, he’s landed a gig at a prestigious, 50-person firm in Central Indiana called TRIPhase. The firm’s founder, Robert Haecker, was so impressed with Jagger that he was hired by the 24-year-old company a week before Jagger had actually graduated from that CEDIA program.

“We could tell that he'd had management experience before,”

says Haecker. “But the real kicker was that he was going through the CEDIA program. Knowing that he had the basics down, combined with his management and experience from the past, he was just a perfect fit for what we needed.”

What they needed, specifically, was a service manager who could oversee a staff of six. According to Haecker, “that entails a number of things, but mainly it is receiving and delivering white glove service to all of our clients.

“With 24 years of customers, we have thousands of clients, and we're dealing with technology and even the best designed technology breaks and has problems from time to time. But he's managing a team, we're executing service, we're keeping our clients up and going. As part of the service department, we do have a preventive maintenance program, which Brett manages. That is our monthly recurring revenue model.”

“When Brett first came in, he obviously spoke well and presented himself well,” Haecker recalls. “We work with very high-end clientele, and I immediately thought, ‘Okay, I want this guy speaking with our clients.’”

The New Guy Fits Right In

And for Jagger, his training with CEDIA had prepared him not just for speaking with clients, but communicating immediately and effectively with his new co-workers.

“It was very helpful to be accepted by these folks that have been working with TRIPhase in the service department for 10-plus years that I knew what an CEDIA COMMUNICATES

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HDMI extender was, that I knew the handshake issues with HDMI and was able to diagnose those with customers and pass that information on,” says Jagger. “Suppose a client calls: She's seeing this issue, and for example, I can diagnose it for our service team.

Let’s suppose, say, it's likely an HDMI handshake issue. That gives my team a step ahead when they're on site to diagnose it and fix it so that we're in and out as quickly as possible.”

Of course, that kind of know-how that Jagger gleaned from his CEDIA education not only inspires trust with Jagger’s co-workers, but with the TRIPhase customer base as well.

“Brett can look at a broad situation and be calm and diagnose, walk the client off the ledge, de-escalate and let them know we can fix anything,” says Haecker. “And it's just amazing how he can immediately make that client feel that, ‘Okay, I'm talking to the right person, I'm working with the right company. They're here to help.’”

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Why It’s Critical

As Robert Haecker notes, “We've always been fortunate in finding talent, but I can tell you industry-wide, it's typically one of the largest struggles.”

Research bears that out: The CEDIA “2019 U.S. Market Size and Scope of the Integrated Residential Technology Industry” study found that the number one challenge faced by CEDIAindustry companies is finding qualified employees. (That response netted a 21% share of the answers.)

The problem isn’t limited to the Americas: CEDIA’s EMEA offices are addressing the same issue, and with the help of a long list of CEDIA volunteers, the U.K.’s Institute For Apprenticeships and Technical Education has developed and approved a brand-new Smart Home Technician apprenticeship standard that is now ready for delivery.

As CEDIA’s EMEA team noted when the apprenticeship standard was announced, “The Smart Home Technician level 3 apprenticeship

standard is aimed at those who are keen to install, configure, and maintain a range of electrically connected digital home technologies.

Combining a range of topics, this standard allows them to develop a comprehensive knowledge base and skillset, and will help build a skilled workforce for the future. Knowledge areas include, documentation; data and IP networking; automation and control; structured wiring, cables, and connectors for digital infrastructure; and system verification and testing.”

This push to build the workforce is one plank of CEDIA’s strategic plan that’s being implemented worldwide — and business owners like Haecker are grateful for the push: “If CEDIA can build more people like Brett Jagger, it would be a wonderful thing for our industry.”

What’s Next for the CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training Program

“If CEDIA can build more people like Brett Jagger, it would be a wonderful thing for our industry.”

CEDIA is currently working with industry subject matter experts to edit, refine, and package the curriculum into a comprehensive training program package (books, lab manuals, lab specs, instructor guide, and PPTs) for authorized training partners to deliver in local communities across the U.S. and eventually, around the world. CEDIA is anticipating that program materials will be ready for distribution to local training partners by the end of Q3 2020.

CEDIA will be working with career and technical education centers, vocational and technical colleges, community colleges, and other pertinent educational institutions to bring CESIT to key local member markets.

CEDIA members interested in learning more or who have existing relationships with educational institutions in their communities can contact Tommy Tabor, CEDIA’s director of workforce development, at ttabor@cedia.org for more information and to make sure that their local markets are high on the priority the list for CEDIA outreach.

ROBERT HAECKER, TRIPHASE

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I AM 18

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Rob Sutherland Inspired Dwellings

How did you get interested in the industry?

I got into the AV industry through my wife. After our children were born, Sarah was looking for a new job and an opportunity came up for her and her mother to renovate an apartment near ours. They completed that project and then moved on to a slightly bigger one, and then an even bigger one after that. As the projects got more elaborate, they needed technology. She'd been talking to an AV company, and I remember thinking that I could do that. After a few more discussions, we decided in 2007 that there was an opportunity to bring my world, which was heavy-duty corporate IT, into residential installs. And this was the start of Inspired Dwellings.

How did you scale up from there?

I started talking to people about it. We had young children, so we spent a lot of time at school talking to parents who lived locally who had an interest in technology. We also spoke to local builders and architects about it. These conversations generated some interest, and our contacts began to grow from here.

My wife's background is in advertising and branding, so we went through a branding exercise — we asked ourselves, “What do we think our vision is about?” We discussed this and came up with a number of things.

When we started the business, we thought that we were a B2C company, but actually, what we found out quite quickly, was that it was actually B2B as we were selling our services to architects, contractors, and builders, and they were saying to their clients, “We think Inspired Dwellings can help you with the technology you require in your house.”

What technologies did you first start installing?

We started off with Wi-Fi and multiroom audio and then moved on to simple lighting control systems. At this point, we were based at home, working around the kitchen table.

One morning, Sarah came home from taking the kids to school to find seven or eight people sitting around the kitchen table. At that point, we decided that we needed to go and look for an office.

We started off in one office space and then took on two more as time went on, but we found that we were running out of space — mainly storage and workshop space to prebuild racks before going to site — and our landlord knew that he had a premium site and wanted to begin to charge premium rent for it. We decided that it was time to move to bigger premises, we found a secure industrial unit in a business park, and this is where we are still based today, with a team of 15 people.

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Where do you do most of your work?

We mainly work in the UK, but last year, we completed a large project in the Caribbean. We've also worked on a chalet in the Alps. I think we have the capability to deliver outside of the U.K. when we have the opportunity.

How long have you been a CEDIA member?

We joined CEDIA in 2009, and my involvement with the association grew from there. In 2016 I decided to run for the EMEA board. When the two boards combined to become global, I was part of the EMEA contingent that transitioned onto the new board. I felt that this was a very good step forward, as it’s important for CEDIA to be a global organization, with members in the U.K., Europe, America, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India — the list goes on.

What roles have you served while being on the board?

I’ve been a board member, treasurer, vice chairman, and now, chairman. Outside of the board, I've also served on various CEDIA committees, including the outreach committee, and that's really how I became involved in CEDIA.

What do you think these experiences have given you?

Being the treasurer has given me a better insight into how CEDIA functions as a worldwide industry

association. We need to remember that we are part of a global industry, and we have clients, customers, and manufacturers who work on a global basis, not just in a local territory.

What are your priorities as chairman?

Certainly, for my first year, my number one priority is to make sure that CEDIA delivers on its strategy.

We worked very hard in building the strategy, so we now need to deliver on this.

The pillars of the strategy are education, workforce development, and design/build outreach. Can you talk us through these?

Regarding education, CEDIA’s in-person and online industry training and certification offerings will expand in the years ahead. Not only in terms of coursework, but also in terms of the ways that technology integrators can interact with CEDIA and engage in training opportunities. We are building a new website and online learning platform. This will provide members with access to our full portfolio of online training courses, no matter where they are in the world. Not only this, but their training pathway will be mapped out and tracked through the website for them. We have also been actively engaged in the revisions of four standards and recommended best practices, and have published six new white papers.

We are also focusing on workforce development.

One of the biggest challenges I have with my

“We’re dedicated to raising awareness of our industry as a career opportunity amongst jobseekers.”

ROB SUTHERLAND

Rob Sutherland and CEDIA's Giles Sutton (right) in a lighthearted moment with the La Scala team at the 2019 CEDIA Awards.

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business in London is the shortage of staff. By talking to other integrators and industry partners in the rest of the world, I know that London is not unique in not having enough qualified good staff. We’re dedicated to raising awareness of our industry as a career opportunity amongst jobseekers.

In the U.K., we’ve worked with the Institute For Apprenticeships and Technical Education to develop the Smart Home Technician apprenticeship standard, while in the U.S., the new CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program provides a comprehensive approach to preparing the next generation of talent. Everything we can do to help develop workforce is really important.

Lastly, the design and build community: Our key route to market is still through architects, designers, developers, and contractors, and ultimately, to end users. We can't deliver our project in isolation, so we have to work with these other professionals. We are continuing to reach out to this audience to raise the profile of CEDIA members. More members are now progressing through the CEDIA Certified Outreach Instructor (COI) program than ever before. In 2019, we launched Designing Home Cinemas and Media Rooms in both the U.S. and EMEA and Cabling for the Integrated Home in EMEA. We also completed needed revisions and updates on six courses that have been a part of the U.S. COI offerings.

Ultimately, we are an industry association run by industry people, so we need to be visible in serving these interests.

Projects by Inspired Dwellings.

@InspiredDwllngs inspireddwellings.com

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PROJECT PROFILE

VILLA STEL 22

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Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

C

hris Pearson, founder and president of the Texas-based integration firm Service TECH, vividly remembers the work that went into the project dubbed “Villa Stellarum:” “That was about a 16,000-square-foot-house, built over two years,” he recalls. “We’ve probably got 1,500 man-hours into that house — easily.”

During the design phase of the home’s lighting system (which eventually picked up the top 2019 CEDIA Award in the Americas region), Pearson and his crew were figuring out technology that was then new. “We weren’t lighting newcomers by any means,” says Pearson, “but this was cutting edge stuff at the time for Ketra and QS integration.

(This project was undertaken prior to Lutron’s acquisition of Ketra.) We had to get savvy with Ketra and Lutron at the same time, and ensure they seamlessly worked together.”

A View of the Stars

LLARUM WINNER, BEST LIGHTING SYSTEM, AMERICAS 2019 FINALIST, BEST INTEGRATED HOME, LEVEL IV, AMERICAS 2019

That they do. With a single button on a keypad, the homeowner can indulge his passion for stargazing. “When the client goes into his home observatory, he taps a ‘telescope’ command. We've automated all the shades and drapery along with the luminaires, and one button darkens all the windows that are motorized, turning the house into a darkroom where all the lights that are left on are set to a low red dim to minimize glare.”

What’s more, the homeowner can send the view from his telescope to a variety of displays. “All the video is 4K Crestron digital media,” explains Pearson. “We've got a 4K video feed from his telescope that goes to his Sony 4K theater, so he can view things there and control his telescope with an iPad.” Pearson and his team also integrated other systems into the home (including distributed audio and the aforementioned dedicated home cinema), but the attention to lighting design shone brightest (pun intended).

“The toughest part of this project was really balancing the lights,” says Pearson “There's a lot of artwork, there's a lot of stone detail. So getting everything aimed correctly and the right lens, just as it should be — and of course doing that at the appropriate time of day — getting those scenes perfect required a lot of work.”

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Lighting Takes the lead

For Pearson, lighting has become a massive part of his balance sheet: “I’d say lighting and shades, along with fixtures, make up probably half our business now.” Pearson began to see things shifting for his company roughly five years ago, as he recalls.

“We had three full-time programmers, and I said, ‘Guess what, guys, the future for us is not automation, the future is lighting controls and fixtures.’ We had always done a bit of lighting integration as far as controls, but not the actual design — and we certainly weren’t heavy into shades and drapery.

So, I brought on resources, I brought on a lighting designer, we brought on CAD people to do all of the fixtures and specifications, the different layers of these projects.

“Right now, we've got seven people in our lighting, fixtures, and shades department,” says Pearson.

Pearson’s team, armed with their ever-expanding breadth of expertise in lighting design, now speaks a language that architects and interior designers understand. “Our Vice President Shannon Bush and I are just one class away from our own lighting designer certifications. Once you know how lighting can be done correctly, it's easy to defend. And when you can properly say, using geometry, why a particular downlight is not going to work for an application, it's compelling. You're credible because you're asking about artwork, you're asking about the wardrobe and ceiling heights and distance from a wall.”

All of that knowledge comes to bear in the final result at Villa Stellarum, a lighting design that inspired the CEDIA judging panel to describe the system with a single word: “Stunning.”

Service TECH, Inc. servicetechav.com CEDIA Member Since 2008

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EQUIPMENT LIST Anthem Anticables Apple AudioQuest Autonomic AVID Labs Cary Audio Chief Crestron ETS Intuitive Ketra Lutron

Muxlab Oracle Pakedge Paradigm Screen Innovations SnapAV Sonance Sony STI Transient Protection Design Wirepath

PROJECT PROFILE

THE LOOPS

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An innovative solution for the hearing impaired

T

Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

here’s been a lot of chatter about “wellness” — integrated technology that mimics sunlight or provides background audio filled with the sounds of nature, for example. These stimuli have been proven to improve mood and perhaps even human health.

But what about tech that improves the quality of life for the differently-abled?

A 2019 CEDIA-Award-wining project by the firm Smart Home Solutions provides just that: The firm developed a system that integrated devices called hearing loops, which provides a wireless signal to their client’s hearing aids.

“The unique objective here was to place hearing loops throughout the residence that integrated with the AV zones and house music system,” notes the team from Smart Home Solutions in their winning entry. “The client asked that whatever was playing in that room or area, whether it be the TV or distributed audio, was to be broadcast into the hearing loop system. The owner wanted to be able to play a different source in each zone, walk between them and not have any overlap or ‘cross talk’ between zones.

“For this project, we used the Crestron house music amp to receive all of the home’s music sources and back-fed audio from the TVs. We then sent the ‘loop’ audio to a processor — as well as amplified audio to concealed Sonance speakers.” That latter feature allows the client’s guests to have the same audio experience as the homeowner.

“The line level audio received by the Crestron DSP (digital signal processor) was processed and distributed to each Contacta hearing loop zone amplifier at a set volume. The owner can then adjust the volume locally with his hearing aid volume controls.

“We added the ability to isolate and turn off the hearing loop zones from the Dynalite lighting control panels and Crestron remote controls. The reason for this was if the owner was entertaining and had background music on, he could turn this off quickly and easily to better hear his guests.”

CEDIA’s judges noted that this exactly the kind of assisted-living solution that member firms are uniquely suited to provide, and they awarded Smart Home Solutions the trophy for Best Innovative System or Solution in the 2019 Awards program.

EQUIPMENT LIST Contacta Crestron Dynalite Sonance

INDUSTRY PARTNERS Jeremy Marple Role: Builder Vince Vella Role: Architect Greg Crowe Specialty Consultant

SMART HOME SOLUTIONS smarthomes.com.au 2.9304.4700 CEDIA Member Since 1994

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Building the Best Dressed

RACK T he planning and processes of a rack build are as crucial as the physical build. While not all companies have the luxury of a system designer, starting with the design phase prior to ordering equipment and racks will save time and frustration during the build.

Here are 10 key points to consider from the outset:

1. Start with the system design.

This should include a minimum of a cable schedule, associated cable identification system, rack elevation(s), and BTU calculation. Further documentation such as line drawings and connection panel layouts will further assist during the build phase.

Nick Pidgeon Managing Director and Owner of Visualization Limited

@VisualizationAV avrackbuild.com

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2. When creating your rack elevation, you need consider the following: • Total unit (U) space of equipment • Additional space for future requirements • Thermal management requirements • Proposed rack size(s) • Equipment locations based on ergonomics, weight distribution, and ease of wiring.

3. Specify the rack type and size(s).

I encourage standardization, but the varied considerations that influence the rack specification means this isn’t the place to do so. Some points that need to be considered are the rack location (this will often dictate available space both horizontally and vertically), equipment heights and depths, equipment running temperatures and ambient room temperatures (avoid the plant/utility room!), and serviceability during and after installation. Bear in mind that there is more to a rack than just Rack Unit (RU) count. For example, you may need to consider an open frame for a small system with simplistic ventilation or a slide and rotate for a cupboard.

A “slide and rotate” configuration for servicing a small rack in a tight space. Photos from Audio Images.

4. Ascertain the best connection method for rack to site cabling.

While many racks are wired directly onsite, this isn’t always the most effective way as it often limits the progress and neatness than can be achieved. Alternatively, consider site cables terminated to the headend with a rack umbilical/tail (our preferred method) or rear rack panels with a site umbilical/tail.

8. Find the efficiencies.

At Visualization, we split our workflow into the following categories: • Cable preparation • Loading • Lacing • Termination • Testing This reduces downtime and build time.

5. Ensure sufficient and effective cable management.

This includes a cable tray for lacing multiple looms vertically and lacing bars to support equipment connections horizontally.

9. Plan offsite builds where possible.

Yes, really! This will allow you to control the unknowns, such as lack of access, dark and dusty rack rooms, return visits due to not having something on the van, and commissioning only starting when the rack is finalized.

6. Standardize, standardize, standardize.

Anywhere you can standardize on builds, do so with cable types, cable colors per signal type, cable identification schemes, rack shelves, and even equipment where possible.

This will save time during the build and when servicing the system at a later date.

7. Allow plenty of time to complete the build and provide for it in your project plan.

An hour and a half per occupied RU is a good starting point (and will likely extend to more than you first anticipated).

10.Document your process and constantly look to refine and update it.

Visualization is a resource partner for the audio-visual industry. While predominantly known for rack builds, other service offerings include installation, cable assembly, panel wiring, and product supply. Over the past 15 years, we’ve found it’s key to document the various processes to find efficiencies and work with our clients to pass on value.

Document your process and constantly look to refine and update it.

These terrific racks are the nerve center of a project by Len Wallis Audio that took Finalist Honors for Best Integrated Home, Level IV in the 2019 CEDIA Awards (Asia Pacific).

Cable management is always key when it comes to prize-winning racks, like this example that took the 2019 CEDIA Award (Asia Pacific) for Integrated Technologies Australia.

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INDUSTRY Q&A

THE

CUSTOMER

CARE CONVERSATION

Following a conversation thread that started on the CEDIA Community board regarding customer care programs, CEDIA set up a conference call with 35 member participants to explore the conversation further and share insights and experience.

We’ve extrapolated some highlights here (and many more online at cedia.net).

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expectations with clients — just because you can reach me during offhours doesn't mean that you're able to do it without paying for it and having a third-party system in place has helped with this.

Do you use a third-party provider or do you have an in-house solution?

Mike Ranpura, Smart Life AV (London, UK): It's becoming apparent that it really depends on where you are with your business. I’m a one-man band, and I find that there's real value in having a care plan for all of our clients, but we make the cost flexible depending on how much equipment is installed.

This allows us to deliver proactive and reactive maintenance. We actively maintain communication with all of our clients every month, which gives us an opportunity to sell additional services.

Mark Feinberg, Home Theatre Advisors (NY, NY): We've been using Parasol for around a year and a half. They will reboot systems, and they will help talk clients through reattaching an IR emitter or how to navigate menus on an Apple TV, for example. The real benefit is my quality of life. It means that I don't have to answer calls on the weekends.

Bryan Mills, Mills Technologies (Chicago, IL): We have been on the OneVision platform for about three years. One of the biggest things in making it successful is setting

“At this point, I'm willing to lose a job if the customer's not willing to buy our network.”

ROBERT MAY, SOUNDS GOOD SMART HOMES

Chase Mosman, Integration Controls (St. Louis, MO): When we started using OneVision, we only had five people at the company so decided that in order to grow, we needed some assistance in managing service as it was becoming a full-time job to handle the number of service calls. Having the structures in place that OneVision offers has made it super easy to make sure that we're setting those proper expectations and maintaining relationships with every one of those clients. It really does make your life a lot easier and gives you your life back on the weekends.

What are your process and solutions for managing those service calls?

Robert May, Sounds Good Smart Homes (Oakville, Ontario, CAN): We’ve found that it’s been important to us to have consistency in the router and network that we're installing, so that we have CEDIA COMMUNICATES

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VPN into the systems from anywhere in the world. At this point, I'm willing to lose a job if the customer's not willing to buy our network, because I know what the sort of long-term effects that would mean for us.

Mike Ranpura: I agree with that. I ensure that there's always an enterprise grade router in place, and we install Ubiquiti cloud keys for the Wi-Fi points, which gives us instant information about the network and remote access.

It also generates lovely reports on ISP speed tests that we can forward onto our client. In terms of communication, we're quite flexible in how our clients contact us. The top method is WhatsApp, with the second being phone calls.

James Ratcliffe, Homeplay (Sunburyon-Thames, England, UK): We manage our in-house service through Zendesk.

It took us a while to train our customers to email us, but we very rarely get calls now, because we're extremely fast at replying on email. If the customer is on a support plan, then they'll get a reply saying that we'll be in touch within 30 minutes. Through Zendesk, we know what plans our clients are on and how quickly we need to respond.

Mark Feinberg: No client has our mobile numbers — no communication has ever been transferred via text in our business. If you're working with the clients and you're texting back and forth, then you're setting yourself up to lose.

Robert May: I agree with that. No mobile phones, no text messaging. We have a support email and a landline, which is set up to transfer calls to our mobile phones. In our opinion, it doesn't matter what you're using, it's about whether your whole team has bought into the process. That's one of the big challenges when you start to scale the business — as the service element gets bigger, you're not just relying on three or four technical people, but a much broader team. It's far harder to support residential clients than it is commercial clients, who work Monday through Friday, eight to five. Residential clients have needs closer to 120 hours a week.

Mike Ranpura: In terms of implementing a service plan, it's about making it as simple as possible for the client. We tailor the price according to the project, so on the quote, we’ll say, “Based on your system, it's going to cost you x-dollars-per-month and that includes us coming out to resolve any issues, remotely resolving issues, collecting warranty equipment and

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Picture caption here

replacing it, proactively updating firmware every month, and sending a report about the health of your system.”

All of that is done for one monthly fee.

The client forgets about the cost as it comes out of their bank automatically, and it helps us cover our bills every month.

How do you market these solutions to your clients?

James Ratcliffe: When it comes to marketing and communicating our service plan to customers, it is about being really clear and making it apparent that it's the same for everyone, no one is getting special treatment. I have it detailed on my website, front and center.

Mark Feinberg: With new clients, it's part of the presentation of the proposal.

We have a brochure on our support

plans, and it's presented as we include three months of it in the proposal. They sign a support plan agreement, and they choose which plan they want to be on. We have four tiers. Our lowest is a “pay as you go” tier — there's no cost to it. Clients pay to either call us or have us come out. A phone call is going to be charged, and there's no afterhours support. We have a standard tier, which basically gives them the OvrC home app and they can reboot things themselves. Then we have our preferred and concierge options that have the two Parasol tiers, and those are fixed monthly amounts. For the concierge tier, if we can't fix it remotely and we can fix it in less than 30 minutes on site, that visit is included. We also include an annual onsite firmware update and cleaning of the rack.

Mike Ranpura: We send the client a separate document with the proposal,

Interested in a deeper dive?

which includes information about our care plan service, and we say that it's a requirement for the system to have this in place. We haven't had any pushback on this.

“In terms of implementing a service plan, it's about making it as simple as possible for the client.”

MIKE RANPURA, SMART LIFE AV

Ron Wanless, Technology Design Associates (Bend, OR): We use monthly billing as it eliminates questions from our clients. When they get the larger bill at the end of a year, they tend to question whether or not they got enough service out of it. As far as marketing it is concerned, we don't allow a service call for anything unless a client has chosen a plan. They have the option to choose a zero plan, but we make them look at the consequences of that and sign off on it before we send anybody out to it.

Chad Nichols, SimpTech Solutions (Cincinnati, OH): We do quarterly as it means less credit charges for us, it's less to track, and it eliminates the big annual bill for the client.

CEDIA’s Director of Technical Training Steven Rissi will be teaching a class on this very subject at CEDIA Expo 2020 in Denver: Executing on Client Care Programs: Strategic Considerations and Industry Best Practices Historically, the residential technology industry has leaned on a foundation of what may be considered a project-based model. Successful integration companies design and install systems for clients, receive a check for the labor and equipment to complete the job, and then move on to the next one. Today, we must acknowledge that we live in a services-based culture.

Technology giants like Netflix, Apple, Amazon, and others have created a paradigm shift in the expectations clients have about paying for an ongoing experience. As an industry many integrators are also shifting their business models to align with this new reality and finding success by offering ongoing support to their clients that ensures a high-quality experience (as well as cash flow) long after the project is completed. During this session attendees will learn about some the essential elements of a successful client care program as well as key considerations about the various business models and methods of execution. Friday, Sept. 11, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Steven Rissi

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The Mouse that Roared The launch of Disney+ is a game changer, but not for reasons you might first imagine

Steve May UK Technology Journalist @SteveMay_UK

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The arrival of Disney+ on the OTT streaming stage could have long-term implications for the home cinema market, but it’s not Netflix or Amazon Prime Video that should be worried.

After its server-buckling launch in the U.S. last year, Disney+ has finally landed in Europe, offering a mix of classic animation, superheroes, and space opera (plus some random Nat Geo documentaries), at a price that dramatically undercuts its streaming rivals.

With franchise-heavy attractions, it’s practically a theme park for binge watchers. Disney is even throwing in 4K Dolby Vision, for no additional premium. The recipe has so far proved irresistible.

Even before its European launch, the service had amassed global subscriptions of 28.6 million after just a few short months. It’s banking on 60 to 90 million by the end of 2024.

“Our research shows that consumers who were once saying they want one to three OTT services are now saying that they're open to three to five,” says Amy Jo Smith, president and CEO of DEG (Digital Entertainment Group). “What we’re seeing is that the pie is getting a little bigger. You're going to see Peacock and HBO Max and Apple Plus, and they’re all going to have something different that they're offering to consumers.”

The pie may be growing, but sector domination is far from a slam dunk.

The nascent service’s biggest hurdle could well be its own content library.

That’s because Disney+ is unapologetically PG-rated. Upcoming

The content on Disney+ is unapologetically PG-rated.

Everyone knows that keeping up with new arrivals on Netflix and Prime Video is a full-time job.

attractions include a live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and Forky Asks a Question. The only new show likely to generate interest amongst subscription-paying adults is the Star Wars spin-off, The Mandalorian, at least until the Marvel heroes arrive.

This kid-friendly environment is already frustrating creatives. Hilary Duff, headlining a Lizzie McGuire reboot for the service, took to Instagram to petition Disney to run her show on Hulu instead, saying the family rating will “limit the realities of a 30-yearold's journey.”

Disney+ is also working with a much smaller programming budget. It spent just $1 billion on content in 2019. By way of contrast, Netflix splurged $15 billion over the same period. Amazon has allocated $1 billion to fund its Lord of The Rings show alone.

Everyone knows that keeping up with new arrivals on Netflix and Prime Video is a full-time job.

By way of contrast, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe series to land at Disney+ will be Falcon and the Winter Soldier, due August 2020. Then it’s a four-month wait until WandaVision.

Somewhere in between, we’ll get The Mandalorian Series 2. Hardly a glut.

Admittedly, there’s no shortage of library content. The service boasts more than 500 movie titles and 350 TV series. This includes 30 seasons of The Simpsons, totalling some 600 episodes.

You might want to start on these early,

as Season 31 lands on the service in November.

Regardless of where Disney+ eventually ranks alongside its two main rivals, its executive Mouseketeers have committed long-term to a streaming future. This platform is almost certainly too big to fail. And that’s why I believe the real casualty of Disney+ will not be Netflix or Amazon but Blu-ray, specifically UHD Blu-ray.

The 4K disc format relies almost exclusively on blockbuster hits for market growth. The trouble is those same films — the Star Wars and Marvel movies — are exactly the same titles which will be on tap in Disney+.

Will buyers continue to invest in blockbuster titles on disc when they’re also available to stream in 4K Dolby Vision Disney+? I think not.

I reckon this mousetrap could herald the end of physical media — and that should send a shiver down the spine of every technology integrator.

But there is a caveat. Few could have predicted that Disney+ would throttle its own launch, reducing bandwidth by a quarter, diminishing image quality and junking Dolby Atmos altogether.

The move, ostensibly to reduce internet traffic congestion caused by the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, dramatically reduces the appeal of Disney+ as a home cinema source amongst discerning cinephiles.

The mouse has inadvertently handed the silver disc an unexpected reprieve.

It remains to be seen if it’s short lived.

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David Meyer Director of Technical Research, CEDIA

Standards Update: AV Disruptors and an 8K Update

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T

here was a time when the year 2020 sounded far-off and futuristic, but here we are. We’re definitely in a time of fast technological evolution and disruption, and a whole lot of social trends that influence what we want and do. At CEDIA, we continue to work closely with, or at the very least keep a close eye on, technology and standards news and updates.

The AV Distribution Disruption This sounds like a title from an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” but it is a big deal that impacts most technology system designers and integrators. At ISE, CEDIA hosted a “Death Match” panel discussion about HDMI, HDBaseT, AV-over-IP, and optical fiber as methods for AV transport and distribution, which benefited the full room of attendees and panelists alike, including updates to standards. The key takeaways were that that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but this diversity gives an installer flexibility. Integrators should keep investigating and learning, and keep options open for any given project. This space keeps changing, so we’re planning on having a similar panel discussion at CEDIA Expo in September.

At CES in January, HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc., announced the new Ultra High Speed cable label, the big news being mandatory individual cable testing (it was optional before). But at press time, there is still no HDMI 2.1 Compliance Test Specification (CTS) on which to base these tests, so don’t expect to see these cables in the market just yet.

There’s some HDBaseT news too, with the Alliance Board having just approved Specification 3.0 that supports the equivalent of 18Gbps HDMI uncompressed and selectable transmit or receive functions. Several manufacturers are already prototyping the new tech, with some working samples demonstrated at ISE. Meanwhile, AV-over-IP continues its growth, particularly in the commercial space. Interestingly, manufacturers’ proprietary approaches and innovations drive this category more so than standards, with SDVoE the only multi-vendor solution.

For more, check out the two new 2020 release white papers, “AV-over-IP Systems” and “HDBaseT for 4K and 8K HDR Video,” available through cedia.net.

8K Video Michael Heiss of M Heiss Consulting and co-founder of CEDIA’s Technology Advisory Council shared some news from the February HPA Tech Retreat in L.A.: Warner Bros and some other studios teamed up to conduct a consumer test of the benefits of 8K video. Using 88-inch displays with viewers seated at typical distances, a variety of 4K and 8K HDR content was played.

Overall, “8K was, at best, rated ‘slightly better’ than 4K, although the majority found 4K and 8K to be the same.”

Those with better than 20/20 vision were more likely to see the difference, but even then it was only moderate.

So, the real benefits of 8K come (ironically) not with 8K content, but with a display’s onboard processing power and ability to upscale lower resolution content. If 4K looks almost as good as 8K, hey, I’ll take that!

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The pandemic created a paradigm shift in society – one that will inevitably demand the talents of integrators

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Walt Zerbe Senior Director of Technology and Standards, CEDIA

WORKING AND LIVING IN A REMOTE WORLD

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re in the midst of what I believe will be a major change in the way business will be conducted in the future. We have more and more people working from home, taxing their residential networks and ISP nodes, and potentially opening liability for the businesses they work for in the process.

Stress on the Home Network

As we’ve quickly learned, the home network is burdened by working remotely and increasing our media consumption.

The demand on Europe’s infrastructure was especially strained due to increased streaming via Netflix. Thierry Brenton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, stated that people should switch to standard definition when HD is not necessary. The suggestion was widely criticized: Few would actually switch back-and-forth between SD and HD. Hence a deal was made between Thierry and Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, to throttle down Netflix’s bitrates to reduce data consumption during the crisis.

Speaking of data consumption, what about data caps? The caps vary from region to region: In the state of Florida, for example, this affects not only ISP service but cellular providers as well. There’s some good news here: Service providers like AT&T decided to lift data caps during the outbreak, and Comcast opened their Wi-Fi network nationally for free. (The company also offered unlimited data at no charge.)

Maintenance Issues

During the onset of the crisis, connectivity came to be viewed as an essential need so

we can be connected to news, information, instruction from local and national authorities, and even mental health as we get lost for a moment or two in a movie, music, or online education. A lack of connectivity on top of everything else would compound a troubling situation. In the U.S., the CISA (Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency, a part of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS]) provided guidelines for the “identification of essential critical infrastructure workers during the COVID-19 response,” which you can find at cedia.net.

(According to this guideline, our industry can fit into many buckets.)

Finally, I had the experience of trying to get five couples on a video conference call recently. I spent twenty minutes assisting others in figuring out how to download the conferencing clients, select speakers, cameras, and microphones. This would seem to be an opportunity for integrators to offer assistance within the community as to how to get all of this technology installed and working properly. The best part: A lot of this can be done remotely, which keeps everyone safer during a pandemic.

We must pivot to identify the needs of the users and put ourselves in the consumer’s shoes and assist them in any way we can.

These are the empathetic concepts at the heart of design thinking. As we learn the term “social distancing,” we have lots of tools at our disposal: Can we streamline the instructions for video conferencing or offer remote assistance for those new to the concept? It’s never been a better time to think about how we can help people with their connectivity, communication, and entertainment needs.

We must pivot to identify the needs of the users and put ourselves in the consumer’s shoes and assist them in any way we can.

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Ed Wenck Content Director, CEDIA

Industry expert John Penney has some thoughts on 5G fantasies and realities

THE CEDIA PODCAST:

Myth-busting 5G

J

ohn Penney wants to do a little myth-busting regarding 5G. “I’m sure you all heard that 5G is very low latency, which means there’s a very low connection time on the network. I attended one Mobile World Congress in which they used this illustration regarding that low latency: You could have a surgeon in one room, and a patient 1,000 miles away in another room, and the doctor could perform robotic surgery using 5G. “Do you REALLY want that surgery to take place over the open internet?”

Penney — in a podcast taped before a live audience on the Main Stage at ISE

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2020 — says that the notion is a fun thought experiment, but it’s a fantasy.

“You could pull it off if you had some truly hardened, robust systems and hardware between the two to handle it, but the backhaul (all the intermediate links between the core of a network and the edge of the network) would have to be perfect.”

A Health Scare?

Penney, who gave the opening keynote address at CEDIA Expo 2018 (and who’s since become a valued CEDIA content contributor and volunteer) knows of what he speaks.

His list of accomplishments is long: He’s been handling the marriage of strategic partnerships, content, and

Want to hear the whole episode? It's “The CEDIA Podcast 2009: 5G Update"

gear for decades for media and media technology-related companies including Twentieth Century Fox, Starz, HBO, Viacom, and Scient.

Penney has heard that there’s been some health concerns regarding 5G, too. In fact, the government of Switzerland halted the adoption of 5G in that country even as they’re building infrastructure for the fifth generation of cellular technology — there are concerns about radiation exposure to the general population.

Penney is less alarmist. “The truth is that much of 5G will run on high frequency, but at very low power,” he explains. “If I told you your Wi-Fi router in your home was running at 5 GHz, you’d wouldn’t say, ‘Uh-oh, I’m running this frequency all over my home’ — it’s at a power that’s low enough not to cause you any harm. I’m sure that there are certain situations with the right frequencies and the right antennas on the right device that, close to your body and with constant exposure, could cause danger.

“Admittedly, we need more information about this, but I think there’s a low probability that it’s going to have any health impact.”

What 5G Really Can Do

Penney sees the immediate application of 5G in a major way in B2B environments. “There will be billions of items on the network. What are some of those items going to be? Sensors.

“Now let’s say you’re a car manufacturer. As you’re making the car, your factory is controlled by 5G robotic systems, your car then has 5G sensors that are used for the manufacturing process — for quality control and the movement of the car through the system.

“But then when your car leaves the factory, it goes from the 5G in the factory to the 5G wide area network.

Then it can be seen as inventory on the dealer’s lot. The dealer can remotely tally how many miles it’s been driven before you buy it.”

And at that moment of purchase, the technology shifts to include the consumer. Penney continues: “And now you have the car, and that 5G sensor network is alerting you regarding predictive maintenance. If you’re making that purchase five years from now and it’s an autonomous vehicle, it’s communicating with other cars on the network to keep you safe.

“Now apply those concepts to every device you have in your home, and the possibilities are really incredible.”

Penney with CEDIA's Walt Zerbe and Ed Wenck on the Main Stage at ISE 2020.

“I think there’s a low probability that it’s going to have any health impact.”

JOHN PENNEY

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Samantha Ventura Vice President of Education and Training, CEDIA

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REFLECT MORE TO WORRY LESS: ADVICE FOR THE LEADER

O

ur days are so busy, no matter the positions we hold, and no matter the size of our organization. Because we often find ourselves on a treadmill of a weekly routine, we often forget to take the time to reflect on our jobs, our successes, and our challenges.

And we especially forget to reflect on what we’ve done to become good leaders.

From a basic definition, reflection itself is the process by which we take time to review past events in a way that allows us to move beyond the surface level of what transpired. In a nutshell, we think about the things that happen during our workday: who was involved, the outcomes, what challenges arose, what we did well, and ultimately, what we could have done better. As we get better at the reflection process, we can often test assumptions and structure our daily work and happenings in a way that streamlines processes, garners more successful outcomes, and ultimately positions us as better leaders in the workplace.

How We Reflect

The practice of reflection will be different for everyone. You don’t necessarily need to take stock on paper; often, a ten-minute meditation on the day will work just as well. No matter how you decide to reflect, there are typically four stages involved: 1. Examine what happened and how you felt about the situation, event, or just your day in general 2. Evaluate what went well, what didn’t go so well, and think about what you could have or should have changed (if possible) 3. Analyze your own biases — preconceived thoughts about a situation or person — and determine whether those had any bearing on the eventual outcome of what happened 4. Come to a determination of what you might do differently in the future Good reflection practices can help us in many ways, especially as leaders. We can learn faster from mistakes or errors in judgment, which ultimately helps us not make the same mistakes twice. We can learn to adapt a bit better to challenging situations or work relationships, helping to recognize when these should cause concern for us versus when we can probably shelve something for a bit. And, finally, we can question our own biases, which then allows us to relate better to all of our employees (and those we work with externally as well).

Yet, aside from the benefits listed above, wouldn’t you like to just worry less as a leader in general? Worrying is part of any job — that’s a given — and as you move into positions requiring more decisions, it feels as if the amount of worry can be at times insurmountable. However, we must learn to worry less, so we can focus positively on things we can change and leave ourselves with the energy to feel motivated to actually make those changes happen.

Next Steps

We must learn to worry less, so we can focus positively on things we can change.

So, in addition to reflecting, how can we take it a step further and use our reflective practices to worry less?

1. Stop worry by writing down what you are most worried about 2. Give yourself only a certain amount of time to worry about things you absolutely cannot control, and stick to that timeframe 3. Choose one positive in your life you can think about when doing idle things, such as driving or sitting for a long period of time Worry itself is your brain figuring out if it wants to “fight through” what you are worried about or, instead, using the “flight” response, “worry about it tomorrow” or ignore it altogether. This tug of war in your brain is what causes the worry to persist. Using tools to better deal with worry will help you move from a place of stress to a place of action. This is a practice you can get better at, if you do it often.

So, leaders, reflect more to worry less. Focus your time efficiently, so you can leave yourself with time later to experience life inside and outside the workplace with less stress, and more productive conversations, outcomes, and relationships.

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THE LAST 5% WISDOM FROM OUR MEMBERS (AND SOME OTHERS, TOO) “The toughest part of a job? Sometimes it’s the last 5%.” – Anon.

So you have to make certain that the content that the client wants is available, you have to know what form it’s available in, you have to determine if they have to pay for it, and you must ascertain which device they need to access it.

Michael Heiss (M Heiss Consultant) on the challenges presented by the vast amount of content and delivery platforms the consumer faces from the CEDIA Podcast “The Streaming Show” (No. 2003)

What our industry does very well is sell music, but actually if you think about wellness and reducing unwanted noise, actually we're more acoustic engineers for homes. That's what we should be doing.

Jeff Hayward (Wildwood PR) from the ISE Main Stage presentation “Wellness and Biophilia”

With the massive size and growth of device and data breaches, can your business afford to be on the target end of an attack ending in a large settlement? Unfortunately, cybersecurity insurance is not the only answer. It is imperative to take the time to implement better preventative measures such as company cybersecurity policies and investments in training for your staff and customers.

Mike Maniscalco (Pytheas) on cyber-precautions from the CEDIA.net blog post “Time to Invest in Cybersecurity in 2020”

If you bring some positive news to the table right out of the gate, it sets a much better tone for the meeting.

Pete Trauth (Nirvana Home Entertainment) on morale-building during team meetings

And now, fade out to Freddie Mercury: “Barcelona!”

Kris Hogg (Samsung) saying goodbye to Amsterdam at ISE 2020 from the CEDIA podcast “ISE, Day Four” (No. 2007d)

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DESIGN AT THE SPEED OF THOUGHT.

Every project begins with an idea. With The CEDIA Designer, transform your media room and home theater projects from idea to rendering in a matter of minutes.

Developed by renowned designer Guy Singleton, The CEDIA Designer begins with your specifications, and then perfectly calculates every inch of your design, including the top technology brands for seamless integration.

3D CAD model, complete scale rendering, full documentation, technically perfect math—weeks of design work finished as soon as you can imagine it.

Visit TheCEDIADesigner.org for more information.

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SEEING i TO i When it comes to home technology, it’s not enough to see the future. Installers and integrators—it’s your job to see how people fit into that future. Of course, we’re not here to tell you how to do your job. As the largest network of Home Technology professionals, we’re here to help you do your job better.

Learn more at CEDIA.NET/MEMBERSHIP

EMBRACE THE HUMAN NETWORK.

CEDIA Member Alec Haight Kansas City, KS Pioneer Music