CEDIA Communicates Q4 2019 US Version

Q4 2019

COMMUNICATES

MEET MITCHELL KLEIN An interview with CEDIA’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Developing the Workforce: Inside our Pilot Program CEDIA's Global Winner: Best Integrated Home

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WELCOME… To the 2019 Q4 edition of CEDIA Communicates. If I were to title this particular issue, I think I’d call it an “embarrassment of riches.”

There are recaps of several wildly successful events in this issue. CEDIA Expo’s return to Denver saw our classes packed with attendees, and our own Director of Technical Training Steve Rissi was on a recent CEDIA podcast explaining the philosophy of “why we teach what we teach.” You’ll find highlights of that conversation within.

While we’re on the subject of education, we’ve also included a look at the inaugural CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program, an immersive occupational skills training program that stretched over 12 weeks this past summer. The students were recruited from trade schools, vocational and community colleges, and a variety of other sources — they’re all new to the industry. The pilot program is an integral part of CEDIA’s strategic commitment to workforce development, and it’s already proven to be incredibly well-received.

Expo saw a rollicking keynote presentation from NYU Professor Luke Williams, and we have some key highlights from his speech. You’ll also find some tremendous business advice provided by the opening speaker at our inaugural Leadership Conference in Chicago, David Rendall.

That leadership conference was part of a single, day-long event that also included the 2019 CEDIA Americas Awards. One of our winning firms from that evening — California’s Cantara — is profiled in this issue’s “I AM CEDIA” feature. I think you’ll find their “why statement” — which lays out not what their firm does, but their motivation for creating beautiful, functional spaces for their clients — extremely inspiring.

We’ll also dig into the project profile of the 2019 CEDIA Global Award Winner for Best Integrated Home, and have a look at this year’s Best New Product award winners — and Product Hall of Fame inductees.

There’s too much more within to mention here, but I heartily recommend our interview with this year’s CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Mitchell Klein of the Z-Wave Alliance. Mitch is a former CEDIA Board President, and his insights are always terrific.

Thanks for picking up this issue of Communicates. Enjoy reading!

All the best,

Tabatha O’Connor CEDIA Global President and CEO

Contact

8475 Nightfall Lane, Fishers, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46037, USA Email: info@cedia.org Telephone: +1 800.669.5329

Front cover image: Mitchell Klein on stage at CEDIA Expo 2019. Photo by PWP Studio.

www.cedia.net

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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.

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ContENTS

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MEET MITCHELL KLEIN An interview with CEDIA’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient

DEVELOPING THE WORKFORCE CEDIA held a pilot program to recruit and train new techs

THE 2019 CEDIA AWARDS Take a look at the big winners from across the globe

30 YEARS OF TECH, PART 3 The final 10 of the 30 big advances in home tech since CEDIA’s founding

I AM CEDIA: CANTARA A chat with an award-winning California firm

A “PERFECT INTEGRATION” A profile of a project that won multiple 2019 CEDIA Awards

THE COI PROGRAM Members tell us about the benefits of being a CEDIA Outreach Instructor

WHY DO WE TEACH THAT? The philosophy behind the CEDIA curriculum

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NEWS IN BRIEF CEDIA RELEASES REFRESHED WHITE PAPER IN INTEGRATOR'S GUIDE TO VIDEO SERIES

by DAN MCGOWAN

CEDIA has released the final installment of a three-part, video-centered white paper series. The Integrator's Guide to Video: Colorimetry, which updates a 2017 white paper on the wide-ranging topic of video color, provides background on cinematic color and explores topics including: color perception, color gamut, color space, chroma subsampling, color bit depth, high dynamic range, and calibration.

CEDIA’S DAVID MEYER RECEIVES GLOBAL RECOGNITION

by ED WENCK

CEDIA’s Director of Technical Research David Meyer is the 2019 recipient of Connected Magazine’s “Golden Paul” award as the most influential person in the residential technology industry.

The award, now in its fourth year, is named for the editor of Connected Magazine, Paul Skelton. Connected is a respected trade publication based in Meyer’s home country of Australia.

Meyer started his career as a self-described “cable nerd” after discovering early on that an inexpensive and effective way to improve electronic systems was often an upgrade in connections. From there Meyer went on to found the company Kordz — and became an early adopter of the HDMI specification in its early days.

As the cable market began to become overrun with cheap and unreliable products, Meyer realized he had to educate his peers regarding the importance of quality cabling. He taught his first course for CEDIA in 2007, eventually coming to work for the association on a full-time basis.

Meyer tells Connected’s Anna Hayes in an upcoming issue of the magazine that he’s more than happy wit his present role: “I don’t feel like I’m working. I do what I enjoy and what I actually want to do. And now I feel like I’m being honored for really just doing what I enjoy.”

More details on Meyer’s honor will be published in Connected. Check connected.com.au for updates.

"Colorimetry is complicated and understanding its full scope — from the creator's vision to its final presentation on a home display — can be a lot to digest," said CEDIA Director of Technical Research David Meyer. "A truly immersive experience demands integrators grasp the art and science of colorimetry, and this white paper will help break down complex concepts so CEDIA pros can continue to deliver the best results for their customers."

The Integrator's Guide to Video: Colorimetry follows the January release of The Integrator's Guide to Video: Resolution and the November 2018 debut of An Integrator's Guide to HDR Video.

INTEGRATOR’S GUIDE TO VIDEO: COLORIMETRY

01 INTRODUCTION “Today’s cinematographers go to great lengths to ensure that all of the richness, range, and detail of their original images reach the home screens of the viewers.” [1] - Allen Daviau 5 times Oscar® nominated cinematographer

Color reproduction in film and video is a combination of art and science. The art is the vision and creativity of directors and cinematographers, and the science is a balance between human perception and the technologies used all the way from image capture to display.

The way a camera sees and records images is quite different to the way our vision works, so we depend on technology and standards to cater for this. But technology has historically presented consistent limitations, namely in display types, processing power, file size handling, and delivery bandwidth, be it via broadcast or a wired connection.

Limiting the color gamut and bit depth, using chroma subsampling, and compressing the dynamic range are all techniques that have been employed to optimize the video image within the confines of technological ability.

But as technology improves, these limitations reduce and video gets even better with new-generation features like wide color gamut, greater bit depth and high dynamic range.

02 BACKGROUND ON CINEMATIC COLOR There’s more than a century of pioneering and evolution in the field of motion picture color, most of which was emulsion film based, with improvements compounding in the digital arena to this day.

Color motion image capture and reproduction dates back to the Kinemacolor[2] system, invented in Brighton, England in 1908. The system used a two-color wheel comprising red and green segments, divided by two open segments, simultaneously exposing two separate monochromatic (black & white) film strips. The color wheel principle is not unlike today’s DLP projection system, albeit with one less color.

Fig 2.1

Kinemcolor 35mm camera, circa 1910 National Media Museum, Bradford, United Kingdom (Source: Museum Blog)

Technicolor entered the market in Boston, U.S. in 1916, with a process similar to Kinemacolor. However by 1922 they’d improved on it with a two-component subtractive color system, making reproduction simpler. Technicolor evolved through several systems, culminating in a full three-color process in the 1930’s, made — in modern context — most famous by The Wizard of Oz [3] in 1939. The process applied colored inks directly to the celluloid film, producing a highly saturated full-color projected image.

The last feature film made in Technicolor was in 1955, made obsolete by Eastman Kodak’s invention of a native full color method using three emulsion layers (one for each primary color) on one film strip.

This evolution of color film techniques was depicted very artfully in the 2004 Martin Scorsese epic “The Aviator”[4]. The early stages of the movie, including the Miramax Films logo at the beginning, are presented emulating the two-color strip Technicolor process, being red-green dominant (see top photo in figure 2.2).

As the story’s timeline unfolds the imagery changes to emulate the technology of the day, evolving to the vibrant three-color Technicolor process (bottom photo in figure 2.2).

Digital video changed things as it’s all based on pixels with red, green, and blue elements or sub-pixels.

Digital cinematography dates back to 1987, with the

© 2019 CEDIA. All Rights Reserved.

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"Colorimetry creates a host of challenges for technology integration professionals," Senior Director of Technology & Standards Walt Zerbe said.

"One of the main goals of The Integrator's

David Meyer

Guide to Video series is to demystify concepts that can be confusing because change is so rapid. With new display types, standards, and technological advances emerging all the time, we're proud to provide a refreshed look at colorimetry."

CEDIA's most recent white paper release is an example of an ongoing drive to move the industry forward

through initiatives focused on bolstering educational opportunities, workforce development, and setting globally-recognized standards. CEDIA members can download a complimentary copy of The Integrator's Guide to Video: Colorimetry white paper through the CEDIA Resource Catalogue. It is available to non-members for $99.

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CEDIA NAMES TWO NEW VICE PRESIDENTS

by DAN MCGOWAN CEDIA has announced two promotions. The organization named Samantha Ventura vice president of education and training and Ian Bryant vice president of technology application and workforce initiatives. The positions deal with two of CEDIA’s key areas of strategic focus: education and workforce development.

“The decisions to elevate the roles and responsibilities of Samantha and Ian were easy ones," says CEDIA Global President and Chief Executive Officer Tabatha O'Connor. "Each is dedicated to driving the industry forward by keeping education, training, innovation, and workforce efforts on the cutting edge.”

Ventura's responsibilities involve directing, managing, and providing leadership in all instructional and academic systems within the organization's education programs. She plans, develops, and oversees various curriculum development and certification programs, and promotes and coordinates curriculum and course development and evaluation.

“Since joining CEDIA in March of 2018, Samantha has shown an exceptional capacity to lead and direct her team in a way that ensures educational initiatives remain a cornerstone of the organization,.” says O'Connor.

major organizations, including McGraw-Hill, Eli Lilly, and High Point Global. Ventura is a published author in the field of automation for O'Reilly Media.

Bryant's responsibilities involve collaborating with the education department on high-level pathways and learning tracks, building business partnerships with industry organizations, and managing all things tech at CEDIA's new global headquarters. He works directly with the technology and standards department, tech council, and discovery working group. Bryant's new position adds workforce initiatives and workforce development efforts designed to bring more individuals to the integration field. These programs include CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician training, boot camps, City & Guilds, and the Smart Ian Bryant Home Technician Apprentice program.

“Ian has been a volunteer for CEDIA for more than ten years, and in his time as a CEDIA employee, he has been highly effective at fostering connections worldwide, taking workforce and tech initiatives to the next level,” O'Connor says. “Having come up the ranks in the industry himself, Ian’s deep understanding of industry career paths makes him uniquely qualified to lead our workforce initiatives.”

Bryant joined CEDIA in March after a more than two-decade career in custom AV and integration. His experience includes serving as a technology subcontractor for residential, corporate, government, and hospitality projects.

Ventura has spent the past two decades — both in California and Indiana — dedicated to developing and implementing learning programs, as well as best practices for engaging and Bryant ran the Indianapolis office inclusive instruction, in many larger of Detroit-based ZenArray, which Samantha Ventura organizations and institutions of specializes in consulting, design, higher learning. Her undergraduate work programming, and installation services, before was specifically in education, and her master's and coming to CEDIA. Bryant is the 2017 CEDIA Volunteer PhD work focused on teaching and organizational of the Year and 2011 CEDIA Education Volunteer of leadership. She has a special interest and focus on the Year, and has served as a subject matter expert cultural intelligence and virtual leadership. for the organization since 2008. He was also CEDIA Awards chair for three years and has been an Awards Prior to coming to CEDIA, Ventura served as director judge for a decade. Bryant is a Crestron Silver Master of learning initiatives for the DevOps Library, where Programmer and is Harman HCCP, CEDIA ESC-T, ISF, she designed and developed online offerings HAA, Biamp, BSS, and QSC-certified. He is also a supporting open source learning for a global nationally-certified EMS/EMT. audience. She has previously worked within many

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MITCHEIL ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW

Ed Wenck

Content Director, CEDIA

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ILL KLEIN M itchell Klein is learning the mandolin.

It’s what you’d expect from Mitch — even though he’s in the midst of a vacation when we sit down to talk, he’s always expanding the base of his knowledge, whether that’s in the realm of music or microchips.

He’s been a custom integrator, an exec at URC, a CEDIA President — and a working musician. And the sum total of all those experiences and accomplishments has resulted in Klein being honored with the 2019 CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award.

FROM HI-FI TO THIS OLD HOUSE Klein — who’s now director of the Z-Wave Alliance — got his start like a lot of other men and women in the CEDIA channel, in the realm of live sound. But Klein wasn’t mixing the music, he was playing in the band. Klein became a bass player as a teenager because there were too many guitar players in his high school jazz band. “I'm like, okay, I'll play bass,” Klein recalls. “I've always been that person to say, ‘Let's go explore, let's try something new.’”

"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN THAT PERSON TO SAY, 'LET'S GO EXPLORE, LET'S TRY SOMETHING NEW.'" MITCHELL KLEIN

Klein realized pretty quickly, however, that the vast majority of professional musicians aren’t making Beyonce money — in fact, most are barely surviving. But reproducing music accurately? That held Klein’s interest, and that interest became bankable when he was offered a managerial spot at a hi-fi store called Tweeter, Etc. From there, Klein eventually made the leap to custom integration, founding a firm called Media Systems.

“That firm saw a lot of firsts,” says Klein.

The company was CE Pro’s first “Dealer of the Year,” for example. Klein installed one of the first Lutron RadioRA systems, too: “I actually tested it in my house. And we also had one of — if not the first — showrooms with its own dedicated theater.” All of this was happening at Media Systems’ HQ in the Boston Design Center, which got the attention of a number of architects and interior designers — but not in a good way. “Back then, they wanted nothing to do with us,” notes Klein. “It’s so much different now.”

Public television, however, did want something to do with Media Systems, and gave Klein and company an on-camera gig as part of a renovation featured on the show “This Old House.” Klein’s ability to make an AV system unobtrusive was a fairly unique talent back in the mid-‘90s, and the taping was a hit. “We really kind of really hit it off,” says Klein, and the show gave his company national exposure on three more projects.

There was a downside, though — late-night calls to troubleshoot new tech, for example. But the toughest for Klein? Suffering through the economic slowdown that immediately followed 9/11.

After experiencing the pain of shuttering a business, Klein went about taking URC from a “hand-held remote control company to a whole-house interface

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business,” and from there wound up in the Director position at Z-Wave.

THE ASSOCIATION Klein also became intimately involved with CEDIA — nearly at the outset. After turning down an initial request from the association shortly after it was formed, Klein wound up becoming treasurer, then president.

Klein realized that the association wasn’t functioning as best as it could: “We recognized that we were always so focused on the technology that we're ignoring a really key ingredient, which is the business. We weren't really paying attention to the business side of running our companies. And the other piece was, at the same time there was legislation in my home state of Massachusetts that essentially would have put all of us out of business.

The bill would have required licensing for our people — it was geared towards electrical contractors.” That led Klein to form what would eventually become CEDIA’s Government affairs department, which tracks legislation all over North America with the help of a grassroots network of member volunteers.

From balancing the books to taking the notion of certification from pipedream to concrete reality, Klein’s tenure with CEDIA still resonates to this day.

But that’s not why he volunteered: “What I love so much about CEDIA is working with the other volunteers and bringing people in and recognizing other people's passion, leveraging that passion and letting them run with it.”

THE FAMILY Klein’s career path, his tenure with CEDIA, and his seemingly boundless capacity for trying new things all added up to a packed schedule. But Klein has always had a critical support system — an emotional infrastructure, if you will: his family.

“I still do travel a lot. And when the basement floods and I’m away, my wife Dorothy and the kids get together and they take care of all these problems all on their own without complete panic. They encouraged the trips. They never gave me grief about it. A lot of it was volunteer stuff for CEDIA. I did not have to do this, but I would go overseas, I would go to headquarters at Indianapolis, and they would encourage it. And on the flip side, I made damn sure I coached little league. I coached the kids’ games. I was very, very involved in all the kids' lives, certainly from every aspect possible.

“Dorothy is just always encouraging and always nurturing and always trusting my view and my vision.”

But if that vision isn’t always 20/20, Klein knows the family will advise — and occasionally dissent. “What she knows about me and what my kids know about me is when I become indecisive, when I can't make a decision, that's because I know that I shouldn't be making that decision. And they would come back and they would tell me, here's why you're not doing this. It's because you don't want to, because you don't believe in it, because you know it's the wrong thing to do.”

Klein pauses. “You know, they know more about me than I do.”

"WHAT I LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT CEDIA IS WORKING WITH THE OTHER VOLUNTEERS AND BRINGING PEOPLE IN AND RECOGNIZING OTHER PEOPLE'S PASSION." MITCHELL KLEIN

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Building the Next Generation of Technicians

Ed Wenck

Content Director, CEDIA

Tackling workforce development with the CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training Program

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ver the course of the summer, CEDIA HQ in Indianapolis hosted the inaugural CEDIA Electronic Systems Integration Technician Training program, an immersive occupational skills training program that stretched over 12 weeks. The students — recruited from trade schools, vocational and community colleges, and a variety of other sources — are new to the industry. The pilot program is an integral part of CEDIA’s strategic commitment to workforce development.

Jeff Gardner, a longtime CEDIA volunteer and primary instructor for this program, sums up the issue that integration firms are facing: “These smaller companies have people that are qualified to move up and take on more responsibilities and become designers, engineers, lead technicians. But you can't move them up unless you've got somebody to replace them. So we need people with some basic knowledge who have the fundamentals to come in and be productive from day one.”

Gardner’s sentiment is echoed by another CEDIA volunteer instructor, Joe Whitaker. Whitaker, who’s also on the Global Board of Directors and lends a hand to the Workforce Development Working Group, adds, “Workforce development is one of the most serious issues within our industry today: Finding early level, base-trained technicians to come into our industry.” It’s a problem cited by many. In CEDIA’s 2018 U.S. Market Size and Scope of the Residential Technology Systems Industry report, finding and keeping trained employees was far and away the number one challenge facing U.S. integration firms of all sizes.

The issue was cited as a major pain point by 29% of those responding — competition from DIY products was a distant second at 15%.

And for Whitaker, there’s something of a personal element to it: “Somebody has to take ownership.

Somebody has to say, for our industry, we need these entry-level people. We need to make sure that our industry, as a whole, lives on farther than just my lifetime in the biz.”

THE CURRICULUM As you’re likely aware, CEDIA already offers a fairly broad variety of entrylevel training — the association’s Basic Boot Camp is a prime example.

Tommy Tabor, CEDIA’s Director of Workforce Development, outlines the changes in what CEDIA’s offered previously and this initiative: “This program is vastly different from the Boot Camps and the one-off trainings we offer at our conferences and seminars. This is a 108-hour occupational skills training program that provides not only academic information but, also, hands-on vocational training that covers a very broad variety of skills. Individuals who participate in this program have an opportunity to earn two industryrecognized credentials and connect with employers.”

The coursework, developed by CEDIA’s technical experts and education staff, draws from a variety of materials in CEDIA’s library of resources — a library that’s being updated constantly by CEDIA’s subject matter experts.

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What’s more, CEDIA’s training facility has been approved by the state of Indiana, and, says Tabor, “The course itself is now a State of Indiana-approved occupational skills training program and deemed compliant with federal and state Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) policies.” That stamp of approval will be a huge help in expanding the program to other states.

THE STUDENTS Nate Raab, who had some experience in the field of live sound engineering, was hired by a firm in Indy even before he’d finished his training. The training he’d received proved invaluable.

“My first day on the job, and I was using compression tools. I was terminating Cat 6, right off the bat,” says Raab. It’s a direct result of the tactile approach that’s favored by Gardner, Whitaker, and the other CEDIA instructors who are volunteering their time to this effort.

“I think the best part of this coursework is having hands-on experience in the rooms,” says Raab. “You make mistakes once, before you get onto the job site.

Overestimating or underestimating the cable run, before it matters, is a mistake you should only have to make once, and I can make it here in this sandbox.”

Brett Jagger, another student who’s landed a gig, is enamored of the fact that he’s found a trade that matches his interests. “This has been a passion of mine for a long time,” says Jagger. “I mean, I have my own microphone for test calibration of my theater system at home.

I've never really worked ‘in my passion’ before and when I heard about this class opening up, man, it sounded like a great chance to do just that.”

And the experience is just as gratifying for the instructors as it is for the students.

“I get to relive my youth in the industry,” says Joe Whitaker. “I've been in the industry for 20 years.

“I had to go out in the field and make the mistakes that these guys aren't going to make. They're going to leave this class with the basic skills as to how this tech is integrated into a home — all the way through to basic calibration and so on.

“They're going to walk out of the building ready to go. It took me years to be able to get to that level.”

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ILLUMINATING

IMPERFECTION David Rendall, who presented the opening keynote at CEDIA’s Leadership Conference in Chicago, wants businesses to turn their “flaws” into “attributes”

David Rendall has an acronym for the notions upon which he’s based his books, Freak Factor and Pink Goldfish: FLAWSOM. The acronym — which we’ll break down in a moment — is a play on turning one’s flaws, into, well, awesomeness.

Rendall — who presented the opening keynote at CEDIA’s Leadership Conference in Chicago — is tall, funny, and animated.

The latter two were problematic when he was in school; he was pegged as a troublemaker who couldn’t sit still. As it turns out, those characteristics are great for someone who’s making his living as a public speaker.

His height is viewed by society in general as a plus: tall people generally get make larger salaries and are often viewed as more intelligent than their shorter counterparts. The rub? Rendall has numerous examples of how difficult it is to be a tall dude when he’s flying on commercial airplanes — especially when it comes to using the on-board restroom.

FLAWSOM The individual letters represent the following strategies a business can use to turn perceived flaws into business benefits: They include Flaunting, Lopsiding, Antagonizing, Withholding, Swerving, Opposing, and Micro-Weirding. Rendall illustrates concept of “flaunting” with a nod to Canadian cough syrup Buckley’s, whose ad slugs include: “People swear by it. And at it. It tastes awful.

And it works.” Embracing the notion that a liquid that’s so great at killing germs has to be horrible on the palate has made them a continued success.

Ed Wenck

Content Director, CEDIA

“Opposing” is summed up nicely using the example of a sock company called “Little MissMatched,” which markets socks to grade-school girls. Not only are the socks not matched, notes Rendall — to ostensibly play to a child’s individuality and uniqueness — the company sells the socks in sets of three.

“They’re not just opposing the competition,” says Rendall.

“In fact, they’re opposing the entire history of the sock industry.”

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KINTSUGI Rendall’s fond of the Japanese notion of “kintsugi,” the notion of fixing something but leaving its “brokenness” intact. The idea began when a 15th-century Shogun had a bit of pottery fixed and asked that its repairs be made obvious. His favorite bit of pottery was then repaired using veins of gold to bond the pieces back together, creating beautiful, natural-looking patterns within the ceramic.

The results were so beautiful and appealing that the idea caught on with the larger Japanese public, and soon, some folks were cracking their favorite teapots intentionally in order to attain the look. It harkens back to the fundamental premise at work here: “illuminating imperfection.”

The notion’s translatable to an integration firm, says Rendall: “When someone asks ‘How big is your company?’ and you’re a two-man show, don’t hedge. Say, ‘It’s just me and Steve. When you call, you’ll either get me or Steve. We’ve got a combined 55 years in the biz. And you won’t be talking to an automated phone program or some assistant.’”

Additionally, if your estimates are perceived by a customer as “slow and expensive,” the pitch is pretty obvious: “Yep. That means we’re thorough in every aspect, and we’ll deliver the very best quality you could ask for.”

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THE 2019 HOME TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL AWARD WINNERS FROM THE AMERICAS REGION ARE: BEST HOME CINEMA Level I: ACOUSTIC INTERIORS – Toronto, Ontario – Canada Level II: Audio Images – Tustin, California – USA Level III: Audio Images – Tustin, California – USA BEST INNOVATIVE SYSTEM OR SOLUTION Pacific Audio & Communications – Kihei, Hawaii – USA BEST INTEGRATED HOME Level I: La Scala – Vancouver, British Columbia – Canada Level II: Cantara – Costa Mesa, California – USA Level III: La Scala – Vancouver, British Columbia – Canada Level IV: The Premier Group – Carmel, Indiana – USA BEST MEDIA ROOM Level I: Audio Images – Tustin, California – USA Level II: Audio Images – Tustin, California – USA BEST MULTIPLE DWELLING UNIT DESIGN SmartTouchUSA – Columbia, Maryland – USA BEST SHOWROOM Atlanta Audio & Automation – Atlanta, Georgia – USA BEST DOCUMENTATION La Scala – Vancouver, British Columbia – Canada BEST LIGHTING SYSTEM Service TECH, Inc. – Cedar Park, TX – USA LIFE LIVED BEST AT HOME Cantara – Costa Mesa, California – USA TECHNOLOGY MEETS DESIGN La Scala – Vancouver, British Columbia – Canada

GLOBAL WINNERS BEST HOME CINEMA – GLOBAL SOUND SENSE (INDIA) – ARCADIAN ODYSSEY BEST MEDIA ROOM – GLOBAL AUDIO IMAGES (USA) – UP ON THE ROOF BEST INTEGRATED HOME – GLOBAL PERFECT INTEGRATION (UK) – LE ROCHER

AMERICAS On Thursday, July 25, CEDIA honored the projects that represented the best submitted work from the association’s Americas members for the 2019 Awards competition. The event capped off a full day of learning during the CEDIA Awards Celebration & Leadership Conference at the historic Drake Hotel in Chicago.

“This year's winners really showcase the exceptional work of CEDIA members and the innovative spirit of the industry,” says CEDIA CEO and Global President Tabatha O'Connor. “The awards event capped off a terrific day at a one-of-a-kind venue in Chicago that also included the successful debut of our Leadership Conference. A big thank you to all of our event supporters, particularly headline sponsors Crestron, DISH, and Savant.”

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ONCE AGAIN, CEDIA HONORS THE BEST OF THE BEST IN THE RESIDENTIAL TECH INDUSTRY

THE 2019 HOME TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL AWARD WINNERS FROM THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION ARE: BEST HOME CINEMA Level I: Wavetrain Cinemas, Taren Point, NSW – Australia Level II: The Digital Picture, Brisbane, QLD – Australia Level III: Wavetrain Cinemas, Taren Point, NSW – Australia

ASIA PACIFIC

BEST INNOVATIVE SYSTEM OR SOLUTION Smart Home Solutions, Alexandria, NSW – Australia BEST INTEGRATED HOME Level I: Electronic Living, Virginia, QLD – Australia Level II: Electronic Living, Virginia, QLD – Australia Level III: Len Wallis Audio, Lane Cove, NSW – Australia Level IV: Integrated Technologies Australia, Kilsyth, VIC – Australia BEST MEDIA ROOM Level I: Glance, Iwade, Wakayama – Japan Level II: Wavetrain Cinemas, Taren Point, NSW – Australia BEST SHOWROOM Shanghai AV Style, Shanghai – China BEST DOCUMENTATION Liquid Automation, Rosedale, AUK – New Zealand BEST DRESSED RACK Integrated Technologies Australia, Kilsyth, VIC – Australia BEST AUTO, MARINE OR AIRCRAFT Argus Technologies, Mulgrave, VIC – Australia LIFE BEST LIVED AT HOME Argus Technologies, Mulgrave, VIC – Australia TECHNOLOGY MEETS DESIGN Wavetrain Cinemas, Taren Point, NSW – Australia

During Integrate 2019 in Melbourne, CEDIA unveiled the winners of the 2019 CEDIA Awards Home Technology Professional competition for the Asia Pacific region. Winning projects were recognized in 12 categories and four subcategories at a cocktail reception at Melbourne Public in South Wharf. The celebration, sponsored by Control4, ran in conjunction with Integrate, Australia's premier annual AV and integration trade show.

“The competition in the Asia Pacific region was fierce, but these award-winning projects are genuine standouts,” said CEDIA Vice President Global Development, Wendy Griffiths. “This year’s honorees are prime examples of the exceptionally high level of innovative work CEDIA member integrators are capable of producing. Integrate 2019 provided a great backdrop for toasting this year’s winners, and we would like to thank Control4 for their partnership to help us celebrate the honorees in style.”

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THE 2019 HOME TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL AWARD WINNERS FROM THE EMEA REGION ARE: BEST HOME CINEMA Level I: Hi-Concept (France) – Le Cinema Garage Level II: The Pyramid Group (UK) – The Cavern Level III: Sound Sense (India) – Arcadian Odyssey Highly Commended: Perfect Integration (UK) – Le Petite Garnier BEST INTEGRATED HOME Level I: Perfect Integration (UK) – The Disco House Highly Commended: Woelf (Belgium) – Zen House Level II: Intuitive Homes and Ultamation (UK) – Lakeview House Level III: Perfect Integration (UK) – Le Rocher, Monaco Highly Commended: TwentyTwo Integration (UK) – Project 701 BEST MEDIA ROOM Level I: BNC Technology (South Africa) – Coral Road Level II: SMC (UK) – Superheroes BEST MULTIPLE DWELLING UNIT DESIGN Archimedia (UAE) – Palme Couture BEST SHOWROOM Homeplay (UK) Highly Commended: NGC Systems (UK) BEST DRESSED RACK Sound Sense (India) – Arcadian Odyssey BEST DOCUMENTATION Sound Sense (India) – Arcadian Odyssey BEST HARDWARE Cinema Build Systems – Cinema Space Frame System Highly Commended: Hero Labs – Sonic BEST SOFTWARE Control4 – Control4 Smart Home OS 3 BEST TRAINING COURSE CIE Group – AV Over IP Academy BEST TRADE SUPPLIER Habitech BEST TECHNOLOGY FEATURE Hayley Gilbert – The English Home LIFE LIVED BEST AT HOME Perfect Integration (UK) – Le Petite Garnier TECHNOLOGY MEETS DESIGN Perfect Integration (UK) – The Disco House SPECIAL RECOGNITION Sam Woodward

EMEA CEDIA announced the winners of the 2019 EMEA and Global CEDIA Awards at the sold-out awards ceremony on September 26 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The event was a night to remember for members from France, India, South Africa, UAE, the UK, and USA, as they were recognized for their standout work and awarded the top prize in front of an audience of 400 industry professionals.

The prestigious black-tie event kicked off in style with a cocktail reception in the Museum’s famous Dome.

From here, attendees headed into the largest and most prestigious space in the museum, the Raphael Gallery, where they enjoyed a three-course dinner.

Before long, it was time to announce the winners, and congratulate the two Volunteers of the Year in attendance — Geoff Meads (Presto Web Design) and Michael Robinson (Perfect Integration Ltd). Sally Phillips, the evening's host, warmed up the crowd with her comedic charm before announcing the 2019 EMEA CEDIA Awards winners, as well as the three Global Award winners. The ceremony concluded with CEDIA Volunteer Sam Woodward being awarded the 2019 Special Recognition accolade for his incredible technical knowledge and selfless support for the industry. With spirits high, the crowd headed back to The Dome to enjoy a drink with the after-party sponsor, Sonos, and celebrated in each other’s success.

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MANUFACTURER'S

AWARDS BEST HARDWARE | WINNERS

Meridian DSP640.2 In-Wall Loudspeaker Meridian Audio Powered by Meridian’s exclusive CLASS-M DSP engine and integrated with DYNAMIC Hi-Res amplifiers, the DSP640.2 is perfect for delivering Meridian’s renowned audio quality discreetly in any living or cinema room. With a range of Meridian enhancement technologies on board, the DSP640.2 offers great flexibility and the best possible performance from any source. Featuring high SPL with 117dB@1m and strong bass performance, it delivers full range sound with no requirement for an additional subwoofer, all in a 4/100mm installation depth.

ELAN Face Recognition Nortek Security & Control Imagine walking into a room — and the room knows it's you. Not just anyone — but YOU. Then the room responds with your preferences: lighting, climate, entertainment — all personalized for you.

Welcome to the Intelligent Home. The new ELAN Intelligent Touch Panels elevate the smart home to the intelligent home. Using face recognition, the panel personalizes the experience for individual users. The panels' integrated voice assistant technology expands the ways in which users can interact with their intelligent home.

NAD Masters M10 NAD Electronics The NAD Masters Series M10 is a BluOSenabled integrated amplifier that can serve as the heart of a quality whole-home system. In its simplest form, the M10 is an ultra-high-performance streaming amplifier with great audiophile sound.

M10 can also be combined with other players in a BluOS ecosystem of wirelessly networked music players throughout the home for a whole-home audio system with exceptional performance.

Apex Motorized TV Wall Mount Nexus 21 Apex revolutionizes positional viewing technology with a seamless blend of high function and sleek aesthetics.

Accommodating up to 80 TVs, Apex features nearly gapless in-wall mounting, a first-of-its-kind drive release to prevent service calls, and an ultra-simple installation process. This articulating mount is equipped with up to three presets, the proprietary COBRA Concealed Cable-Management System, and an ultraversatile wall box for in-wall or on-wall installation.

Savant Breaker-Companion Modules

Séura® Shade Series™ Outdoor TV

Savant

Séura

Savant Breaker-Companion Modules are an industry first, providing lighting control and energy management functionality of both lighting loads and other devices.

They fit into space- and cost-efficient standard electrical panels, eliminating the need for low-voltage wiring within the panel for the neatest and most efficient installation.

Séura® Shade Series Outdoor TV is simply the best option for shaded areas. With its sleek design, best-in-class picture quality, best-in-class standard 50W Soundbar and best-in-class two-year warranty, there is no better choice for shaded outdoor spaces.

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Seymour-Screen Excellence Adjustable Ratio Theater (ART) Motorized Masking Film Screen System Seymour-Screen Excellence New from Seymour-Screen Excellence is the Adjustable Ratio Theater (ART) series motorized masking film screen system.

Acoustically transparent and available in both two-way and four-way versions, the systems can achieve image widths up to 350 inches with a maximum system height of 20 feet with widths to 30 feet inclusive of masking and full aspect ratio control down to 4:3. To maximize system size, delivery, and installation ease, entire systems are built directly onto the wall.

WattBox® 250-Series Wi-Fi 2-Outlet IP Surge Protector

Sony MASTER Series Z9G 8K HDR TV

SnapAV

Sony Electronics Inc.

The WattBox 250 Wi-Fi 2-Outlet Surge Protector provides IP power, professionalgrade surge protection, and OvrC remote monitoring in an ultra-compact form factor. This budget-friendly, UL-listed power management device with two individually controlled outlets supports OvrC, the industry’s number one remote management platform. With its affordable price point and the truck-roll eliminating power of OvrC, putting this WattBox on every job yields massive benefits for the integrator while eliminating disruptions for the end-user.

Step into the world of 8K with Sony’s best processor ever. Sony’s MASTER Series continues to change the way you watch TV with the Z9G 8K HDR LED TV. With four times the resolution of 4K HDR, the picture is richer in color and clarity than ever before. Upscale anything you watch to the heights of near-8K HDR quality with the Picture Processor X1 Ultimate and Backlight Master Drive.

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FINALISTS

Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony Bang & Olufsen Designed and crafted for those who live for magical moments, Bang & Olufsen’s Beovision Harmony is a discreet piece of furniture that transforms into an impressive entertainment center. Its choreographed performance of acoustic clarity and vivid imagery capture your attention when turned on and blend in beautifully with its surroundings when turned off.

Beovision Harmony is more than just a lifeless black panel and far more than an ordinary TV experience.

Bragi Cinemascope

Formation Duo

Silent Partner

Barco Residential

Bowers & Wilkins

Draper, Inc.

The new Barco Residential Bragi Cinemascope 4K UHD LED Projector sets a new bar in its class with unrivaled image quality in native Cinemascope.

Powered by a high brightness LED light engine offering superior color performance in a low noise package, Bragi retains all the lens options and advanced functionality of his Balder and Loki siblings to allow for advanced architectural integration and freedom in projector positioning.

Formation Duo are the first wireless speakers that live up to the exacting audiophile standards of Bowers & Wilkins.

Each features the patented Carbon Dome tweeter-on-top technology for crystal clear highs, and the same innovative Continuum cone driver found in the company's 800 Series models for an expressive and accurate midrange performance. When coupled with the exclusive Formation® Wireless Technology that produces an immersive, seamless, and high-fidelity soundstage, Bowers & Wilkins has set a new standard in wireless audio with the Formation Duo.

Reduce the distraction of projector fan noise in a home cinema, higher education classroom, auditorium, or boardroom/conference room application. Silent Partners acoustic insulation reduces projector noise. The enclosure is designed to hold projectors from 5,000 to 15,000 ANSI lumens. It mounts beneath most ceilings or can be attached to a projector lift to conceal the unit when not in use. Lockable access doors provide easy projector service and added security.

CONTINUED >>>

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MORE FINALISTS Wall LUX to be an aesthetic complement for any environment, whether it be a corporate lobby, trendy museum, or luxury residence.

Epix Fusion Epic Sky Technology The Epix Fusion is a serial light controller that is geared toward wellness using chromotherapy, sound, and scent for use in medical, personal, and hospitality spaces. The Fusion comes with a free downloadable APP for Andoid or Mac devices that will trigger light cycles and sound as well as power aromatherapy fragrance devices to release on command or using pre-programmed shows including: • • • •

LG 75-inch LCD 8K TV (75SM99) LG Electronics USA LG’s 75-inch LCD 75SM99 offers the most advanced 8K resolution (7680×4320) and picture quality, equipped with the 9 Pro Processor and deep learning AI technology for an immersive viewing experience.

Ocean (soothe and pacify), Forest (balance and calm), Sunset (relax and connect), and Energy (energize and rejuvenate).

Capable of handling 800 watts at 24V, The Epix Fusion is the most unique serial light controller in the industry powerful enough to control multiple light sources simultaneously as well as audio and fragrance diffusers.

Samsung 82” Q900 8K QLED TV Samsung Electronics America The Samsung 82 Q900 delivers super big screen clarity and a cinematic viewing experience with 8K resolution, AI upscaling, and cutting-edge lifestyle capabilities. With incredible design features like Ambient Mode, the 82 Q900 stands out when it’s on and blends in when it’s off.

Lutron Maestro LED+™ dimmer

Somfy Systems, Inc. The Sonesse® 30 WireFree ZigBee® Li-ion is the first Zigbee® 3.0 bi-directional motor offering an embedded, rechargeable, lithium-ion battery for maintenance-free operation. Seamless integration with leading home technology platforms including Control4®, AMX, Savant, and more makes it easy to control window coverings with other smart products. This quiet motor solution for shades and blinds is perfect where wiring is a challenge and offers users the ability to know the exact position of their shades anytime, anywhere, thanks to the bi-directional Zigbee® 3.0 radio protocol.

WilsonPro Pro 1100 Wilson Electronics

Lutron Electronics Co., Inc The Maestro LED+ dimmer is one dimmer for any job. It has screw terminals and is neutral optional, making it a fast, easy, retrofittable installation for any age home, with any wiring. It’s also phase-selectable: It works in both forward or reverse phase dimming. This new dimmer controls LEDs, incandescent, halogen, ELV, and MLV loads, and has color changeable front plastics. It works with Lutrons RA2 Select, RadioRA 2, and HomeWorks QS wholehome lighting control systems.

Sonesse® 30 WireFree Zigbee® Li-ion

The Wall Luxury Samsung Electronics America Samsung’s The Wall LUX is the next generation of display technology, delivering a revolutionary viewing experience with pure black and color.

Experience an extraordinary picture quality and truly epic clarity. A slim depth with a seamless, flush surface allows The

The WilsonPro 1100 is part of the next generation of professional-grade, cellular signal amplification technology from Wilson Electronics. The WilsonPro 1100 solves poor in-building cell signal issues by making the building transparent to the signal. Optimizing quality outdoor signals, the Pro 1100 eliminates the challenges associated with modern construction materials. No longer does a mobile user need to step outside to get a quality signal, since the Pro 1100 brings it into your home or office space.

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BEST SOFTWARE | WINNER Control4 Smart Home OS 3 Control4 Control4 Smart Home OS 3 has been fully imagined as the first Smart Home Operating System.

Control4 OS 3 interoperates with a broad and deep ecosystem of connected devices, controls them all from a single platform, and provides homeowners the personalization they want with the professional support they need. Control4 Smart Home OS 3 facilitates professional installation to make sure everything works together, while empowering families to make their smart home experience uniquely their own.

FINALISTS

Crestron Home OS 3

D-Tools Cloud

Crestron Electronics, Inc

D-Tools, Inc.

Crestron Home powered by OS 3 delivers a stunning new highperformance user interface for mobile devices and Crestron TSW touch screens. In tandem with best-in-class Crestron hardware, OS 3 (formerly Crestron Pyng® OS 2) unleashes the full potential of the Crestron Home operating system, giving integrators the ability to deliver a simple, clean, and sophisticated user interface.

OS 3 enables integrators to set up and deploy complete smart homes on any scale in a fraction of the time of traditional methods, with no programming needed and now with the best user interface.

Building on 20 years of experience in providing tools and resources that help integrators become more successful, D-Tools Cloud intelligently guides users from managing sales prospects, through quoting, system design, and procurement. This awardwinning SaaS application features sales pipeline and opportunity management, in-app collaboration, workflow management and guidance, ordering, browser-based drawings, critical business analytics, and interactive multimedia proposals accessible from any web-enabled Mac, PC, or tablet.

Natural Language Voice Control Multisource and Multizone AV

Savant Advanced IP-Based Apple TV Integration

Josh.ai

Savant

Josh.ai’s distributed AV solution natively understands different sources and destinations, which introduces flexibility to enable users to go from room to room and simply ask to turn on a favorite song, show, or source.

Savant now offers IP-based integration of Apple TV using Apple’s sanctioned API that was first announced at WWDC in June of 2018. Savant users will enjoy easy and intuitive control over media player commands such as PLAY, PAUSE, STOP, UP/ DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, SELECT/MENU, and more, and direct access to the Apple TV HOME SCREEN and NOW PLAYING commands. Using the Savant Pro Remote with its powerful voice engine, users can enjoy push-to-talk fast IP-based voice control via Siri.

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HALL OF FAME

Crestron DigitalMedia™ Crestron Introduced to the market in 2005, Crestron DigitalMedia™ is the gold standard for AV distribution. Whether it’s HDBaseT® connectivity to extend HDMI® connectivity, fiber between the main house and the guest house, H.264 video streaming to mobile devices, or network AV over Ethernet, DM does it all, with the highest quality video, fastest switching, multi-channel professional audio, and network-based control and management, all on a secure enterprise-grade platform.

J+P 2G HD Over IP Platform Just Add Power J+P’s 2G HD Over IP platform allows integrators to costeffectively build a reliable, full HD 1080p matrix. Sources up to 1080p are equipped with J+P transmitters, which encode signals into IP and send them over the network using a single Cat cable. The signals are decoded by receivers attached to displays and projectors. The HD Over IP platform, introduced in 2011, is engineered to provide complete scalability, so expanding the system with an additional screen or source is as simple as adding another receiver or transmitter.

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Lutron RadioRA 2 Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. RadioRA 2 is a wireless whole-home, smart lighting control system that gives a homeowner the ability to adjust the amount of daylight, electric light, and temperature throughout the home. With the RadioRA 2, a homeowner can control and monitor a system with a smartphone or tablet from anywhere. This system, first brought to market in 2009, is scalable from 2 to 200 devices. Flexible PC programming enables home technology professionals to provide a customized whole-home lighting control experience.

Savant TrueImage Savant Savant introduced TrueImage Control at CEDIA 2009 as a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind, visually captivating control interface. Considered the most intuitive solution ever conceived for the home automation marketplace, TrueImage Control leverages the capacitive glass technology used on the iPhone and iPad to provide iOS-like gesture and touch control of lighting and other systems. Savant’s TrueImage gave users fingertip control via a simple tap on an image of each room in the home.

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THE 2019

VOLUNTEER AND FELLOWS

AWARDS After honoring Mitch Klein with the 2019 CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award at the Expo opening keynote on Wednesday, Thursday night saw awards handed to CEDIA volunteers and the 2019 CEDIA Fellow at the annual Social event.

Jamie Briesemeister 2019 CEDIA Education Volunteer of the Year

Geoff Meads 2019 CEDIA Volunteer of the Year

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T

he 2019 CEDIA Social — held in a highrise lounge with a spectacular view of the host city of Denver — was hosted by Dave Humphries, CEDIA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors. Humphries accepted the first award on behalf of the UK’s Michael Robinson (Perfect Integration — New Volunteer of the Year), who was unable to attend.

Next up: Education Volunteer of the Year Jamie Briesemeister (Integration Controls, St. Louis).

Briesemeister noted that she’s often asked why there aren’t more women in the integration biz. “When women see other women in positions of leadership, that’s something that goes a long way toward fixing that lack of representation,” said Briesemeister.

“Visibility is everything.”

Humphries then introduced the Volunteer of the Year, Geoff Meads. In the introduction, Humphries shared a few of the comments from peers that accompanied Meads’ nomination, all from Geoff’s peers: “An amazing volunteer and person.”

“I don’t believe I have ever heard him say no to helping when he can.”

“He will spend time with other volunteers explaining topics, coaching them, and even going on morning runs.”

Jeremy Burkhardt 2019 CEDIA Fellow

“He’s been instrumental in firming up the Awards procedures, helping with EMEA and US communications, selecting and coaching instructors, and he’s an amazing musician to boot.”

Meads’ remarks were brief, but heartfelt. “I’ve made so many lifelong friends through CEDIA,” he said.

Humphries then turned his attention to the 2019 CEDIA Fellow, Jeremy Burkhardt: “The CEDIA Fellows program honors longtime CEDIA members and volunteers who have contributed significantly to the association's success. Jeremy fits the criteria perfectly.”

Humphries noted that during the entire time Burkhardt built and sold his firm SpeakerCraft — only to then build another brand, Origin Acoustics — he’s been volunteering, writing, speaking, advancing, and promoting the industry, and even serving on the CEDIA Board.

“I came to Expo in 1994 as a punk kid,” said Burkhardt when Humphries handed him the mic. “And Frank White and Bill Skaer invited me to sit down, have a drink, and talk shop.

“I only had six speakers with me!” laughed Burkhardt.

“It’s that kind of vibe, that kind of thing that I love about these people,” he said.

“CEDIA is awesome.”

Michael Robinson 2019 CEDIA New Volunteer of the Year

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RETURN ON

LEARNING A recap of the 2019 CEDIA Keynote by NYU’s Luke Williams on keeping your business current in an ever-changing landscape

Luke Williams is not afraid to dive into a crowd.

The keynote speaker at CEDIA Expo 2019 in Denver is off the stage, wandering through the audience, interacting with the attendees — in some cases, oneon-one.

“Does anyone still have a Blackberry?” he asks.

One hand goes up, proudly, device in hand.

“Why do you still you use it?” asks Williams.

“I hate tapping on glass,” responds the man with his hand in the air.

THE CURRENT BREVITY OF IDEAS As you’d expect, everyone else in the crowd had iPhones, Samsung, and other modern smartphones without physical keyboards. Williams is noting the ubiquity of the current experience: The rest of us are wired to tap on glass.

And the word “wired” is apropos. Williams has a video of a small child, a one-year-old, trying to make an analog, printed magazine behave like an iPad. She swipes, she pinches, no response.

Bewildered, the child takes her finger and begins poking herself in the leg to ensure that it’s not her finger that’s malfunctioning.

All of this tapping on glass is a recent development. Ten years ago, the scenes Williams is showing us would have been frankly unimaginable. It illustrates one of the primary points Williams is making: the notion of learning how to, say, design and build cars over the course of a 30-year career by first learning the basics and then incrementally improving the product over decades is over.

Ed Wenck

Content Director, CEDIA

“There was a time when ideas lived longer than people,” says Williams. A modern person’s late grandfather would have understood the notion of “car” as “internal combustion engine sitting on steerable wheels” just as we do right now.

“But today, people live longer than ideas.”

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SO HOW DO WE ADAPT? Williams, who’s a professor at NYU, has a colleague named Paul Romer, a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics. Romer’s been a major contributor to the concept of “endogenous growth,” the idea that economics aren’t really driven by external forces, but rather, innovation, knowledge, and human capital. As an article at worldfinance.com notes, “To put it simply, giving an employee a second computer does not double their output.” However, if employer and employee discover that the worker is far more productive sitting at the local coffeeshop, they’ve simply rearranged the present elements into a new equation.

“It’s like cooking,” says Williams. “You think of the things, the ingredients — those are the devices you install. But each time you change the recipe, that represents a new idea.”

The danger for any business in 2019 is complacency, the idea that “what we’re doing is working — why change it?” But the challenge, as Williams notes, is continuing to follow present business models and keeping money coming in the door while looking for new ideas that will inform the inevitable — and perhaps unforeseen — changes heading our way in five or ten years.

“You need employees, everyone on the team, on the lookout for ideas that may change your business — that might even blow up your business and start it from scratch.” (Think of what Blockbuster would be today had they bought out Netflix when they got the offer, rented DVDs through the mail, and dropped late fees.)

“And don’t think about ideas that you wind up not using as ‘useless’ or a ‘waste of time,’” cautions Williams. “They’re all adding to the process.”

“Stop thinking about ‘ROI.’ Concern yourself with ‘ROL’ — your Return on Learning.”

Photos credit: PWP Studios

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Integrated Systems Europe 2020

MIKE BLACKMAN ON THE SHOW’S

WIDENING APPEAL Mike Blackman, Managing Director of Integrated Systems Events, talks about ISE 2020, and why the show has become the “must attend” event for users of AV technology, as well as for AV industry professionals.

ISE has enjoyed year-on-year growth since it began. Does that trend continue in 2020?

Unquestionably. At the last ISE, we had over 81,000 visitors — and we expect more in 2020. In 2019, we had 56,100 square meters of net exhibit space, and that will increase in 2020 by over 800 square meters.

Two important changes for this year are that the Hall 5 extension has been made larger and permanent, while Hall 14 will be the home of a new “Innovation Zone” — a specially designed area for companies that are new to ISE to showcase their technology. The ISE Main Stage theater will relocate to Hall 14 and will offer a full program of free-to-attend thought leadership and best practice sessions from ISE, AVIXA, CEDIA, and AV Magazine.

What’s new in the way of conferences and professional development?

All the conferences held at ISE 2019 will be back in 2020. In addition, we have a couple of new ones — the Control Rooms Summit and the CEDIA Design & Build Conference. Like in 2019, many of the conferences will be held at the Hotel Okura, near the RAI, which proved very popular with our attendees.

CEDIA has a four-day program of training sessions, beginning on the Monday, with a workshop on cybersecurity, as well as hosting free CEDIA Talks in their booth. As well as its conferences, AVIXA is running 20-minute FlashTrack sessions in their booth too.

What are the challenges presented by the event having become so large?

One of the biggest is ensuring that visitors can easily locate what they’re looking for — and relevant exhibitors can easily be found. One of the ways we’ve addressed that is with the creation of six Technology Zones — for audio and live

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events, digital signage and DooH (digital out of home), education, residential, smart buildings, and unified communication. The Technology Zones mean that visitors can quickly locate the part of the show where they’ll find the technology and product trends that are most relevant to their interests.

The ISE app has proved a big hit with visitors, and its wayfinding features are a key part of that.

You mentioned sessions by CEDIA and AVIXA. What is their role with ISE? ISE is owned by AVIXA and CEDIA, two trade associations with a focus on professional development — so education and training have always been an important part of the show.

Another priority for both associations is reaching out beyond the industry, to other stakeholders within AV projects.

Establishing and awarding professional qualifications plays an important part in establishing the expertise of the industry as a whole, as well as demonstrating the competency of the individuals who work in it.

AVIXA and CEDIA are hugely instrumental in helping deliver the outstanding visitor and exhibitor experience that ISE has become, setting the tone and themes for the event and helping us continue to develop and create ever-more engaging content for our channel and various vertical market end-users alike. Between them, the two associations provide a wealth of market intelligence, guidance, and education initiatives, as well as many entertaining and thought-provoking opportunities for development.

What trends in technology should visitors to ISE 2020 look for?

ISE 2020 will, I think, provide evidence of the rise of LEDbased screens. They have advantages over LCD — and prices are dropping rapidly. It will also be interesting to see the progress that OLED technology has made. Visitors should also look out for new generations of application-specific projectors.

On audio: object-based sound will be heard everywhere.

With the move to Barcelona in 2021, ISE 2020 will be the last one at the RAI. How do you feel about that?

The RAI has been a great venue for us for over a decade now, so of course, there’s some sadness: I’ll leave with many fond memories of our time there. It’s served us very well and has been part of our rapid growth to become the world’s largest professional audio-visual event. The downside is that we’ve become too big for a convention center even of the RAI’s size and facilities.

However, I’m also excited. The Fira is a fantastic facility and a much larger space, located in a very attractive destination. The move isn’t simply about growing the numbers: it’s about delivering a better-quality experience to our exhibitors and visitors.

“We’ve added substantially to our conference program over the years.”

MIKE BLACKMAN

iseurope.org

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Here we are — the third and final part of our series on the ideas and devices that have changed what we do and how we do it in the universe of residential technology. You can find items one through 20 in the Q2 and Q3 2019 issues of Communicates or online at CEDIA.net.

A caveat: These are the items identified as key by the CEDIA Technology Council. Lists such as these are born to be debated and discussed, and if you’ve got a suggestion regarding something we missed that was introduced from 1989 on, let us know.

We’ve figured out better ways to control sound. Remember the thumping disco/R&B bass drum beats (often referred to as “four on the floor”) that seemed to be on every radio station back in the 1970s? That steady thud would bleed into everything, rattling the innards of studio pianos. Recording engineers had to figure out how to isolate that drum kit — one early solution included filling a drum platform with sand and then resting the whole thing on tires. The tricks that recording engineers began developing were soon informed by more scientific methods — not to mention better materials. Foam absorbers, multi-surfaced diffusers, building a “room within a room,” and a much better understanding of how to make HVAC become almost sonically invisible have all been adopted from other industries into the home environment with spectacular results.

We’ve made staggering advances in the home theater/media room experience. There were once two kinds of “home theater.” One was an incredibly pricey projector and screen rig in a dedicated room, and the other was a TV set connected to a content player (yes, the latter really describes a media room, but bear with us). Funnily enough, those two kinds of “home theater” still exist — but the components in each have made stunning advancements. We’ve gone from hooking up RCA cables to a stereo receiver to 5.1, then 7.1, then immersive, “3D” audio that can give the illusion of a chopper passing overhead. The CRT was replaced with a variety of flat-panels, allowing much greater clarity and aspect ratios that could express a creator’s vision for expansive film scenes. Projectors are more brilliant than ever before (transitioning from light bulbs to lasers), microperforated screens have automated masking, and our understanding of everything from video calibration to seating to providing smooth bass response for the viewer has developed at a startling pace over the last 30 years (evolving from standard definition to 8K HDR).

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Managing — and cleaning up — the power to the home has gotten a lot more complicated.

Power management — and conditioning — has become increasingly complex in the last three decades, says Tech Council member Ken Erdmann (Erdmann Electric): “In 1989, we would get noise, surges, and spikes, from TV cables,

telephone, and power lines — power lines, of course, were the worst. But for the most part, except for a little bit of refrigeration equipment, the noise that we dealt with came from outside the residence. An LED light bulb was all well and good, except it has a non-linear power supply.

And so, all of these energy saving devices are adding significant noise and creating harmonics issues in the residence that we've really never had before.

The majority of the noise these days, except for the occasional catastrophic spike from outside, is being generated within the residence.” In addition to controlling that racket, energy management has its own unique challenges: Everything from set-top boxes in standby mode to the USB power supply integrated into a wall outlet are “power vampires,” and integrators are learning how to judiciously shut down those devices that won’t cause inconvenience with long boot-up times when switched back on.

Thirty years of “format wars” have left us with a lot of great content sources. Betamax tape. The 8-track.

The LaserDisc. The history of content delivery

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Heating and air conditioning got a lot smarter. As CEDIA began, the round dial of the home thermostat was slowly being replaced by rectangular, digital devices. (Mechanical programmable thermostats had been around since as early as 1906 — the first design was introduced by a gent named Mark Honeywell.) As the notion of a “connected” thermostat began to catch on — a thermostat that could be controlled remotely — three designers at Nest Labs were working on a “learning” thermostat. Their device, 2011’s first-generation “Nest Learning Thermostat,” utilized an algorithm that figured out a user’s patterns over the course of a few weeks, then implemented temperature changes based on a homeowner’s preferences. Better bandwidth and sensors that get ever smaller will usher in the next era of “smart” climate control — and will soon regulate more than just temperature, cleaning the air in a home and delivering consistent humidity.

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is littered with the detritus of ideas — some great, others not so much — that either died from their own limitations or were subsumed into other technologies. At CEDIA’s outset, the compact disc was making huge gains — the mid-80s release of Dire Strait’s “Brothers in Arms” became the format’s first million-seller.

DVD (and then Blu-ray) would soon replace the VHS tape, and the entire universe of content delivery would eventually be upended, first by the download (goodbye Walkman, hello iPod), then by the stream. Now, companies like Netflix and Amazon aren’t just interested in providing content — there’s money to be made in creating it too. As more and more people watch and listen “on demand,” though, physical media hangs on — vinyl album sales have been growing steadily for the past 13 years. The quality of digital delivery — in high-resolution, lossless formats — continues to evolve, though: As Archimedia’s Peter Aylett noted on a recent CEDIA podcast, “The goal of digital is to become indistinguishable from analog.”

In 1989, most folks thought of nothing more than television when the word “network” came up. “1989 is when the world wide web actually started,” notes Nathan Holmes. “It wasn't thought to be anything more than an experimental project, but it ultimately became what we think of as ‘the internet’ today.” Home computing wasn’t really a network of devices at all at first, often it was just a single PC connected via dial-up. Then, in 1993, GPS became viable: “This tied together so many different things that allowed developing the transfer of data and information to become viable,” says Holmes. Things, of course, would eventually get their very own internet, and eventually Wi-Fi became an option in 1997, but it wouldn’t have the speeds needed to be an effective solution until the second decade of the 21st century. Today, mesh Wi-Fi networks — as convenient as they are — are once again proving that a wired backbone is still the best solution.

“Mesh solutions have given people a comfort factor in thinking that they can connect anywhere in their home but they don't understand the performance that they're giving up for that,” says Holmes.

Codes and standards weren’t really a thing when it came to what CEDIA was doing — at first. Walt Zerbe, CEDIA’s Senior Director of Technology and Standards, says, “In 1989, there weren’t any connected devices, IoT, or what have you.

Policies and privacy for ‘connected devices’ didn’t exist.” That changed, especially as the

internet became a must-have for modern living.

“Network standards were 10BaseT, we’re at the Gigabit now and about to move to 10Gb in the home,” notes Zerbe. Building codes have gotten tougher, especially when it comes to energy loss (see our chat with Ken Erdmann about “vampire power draws” in Part Five of this series), notes Zerbe, “and legislatures in the U.S., for example, oftentimes still don’t understand the differences between the low-voltage expert and electricians.”

The good news? Insurance companies have taken note: “You could maybe get a break on your home insurance if you had a security system.

Now you can get insurance breaks for having a smart thermostat and water mitigation devices,” says Zerbe.

Computer processing has become smaller, cheaper, and more diverse than ever. Apple introduced the “Macintosh Portable” in 1989, but the 16-pound, $6,500 machine was only around for two years.

This was while the original observation known as “Moore’s Law” was still in effect: the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubled every two years (it’s since slowed a bit). As handheld devices and cell phones with cameras began to appear, and the power of smaller and smaller machines grew, new terms entered the lexicon: cloud (on-demand storage and power via the internet), edge (enabling data gathering and analytics to be moved from centralized nodes to the device at the source of the data), and fog computing (spreading the effort of all that processing, so to speak, between cloud and edge devices).

For the last two items on our list of 30, we invited Rich Green (Rich Green Design) to comment. He went us one better — and volunteered to pen the final entries.

Take it away, Mr. Green.

We discovered Design Thinking.

During CEDIA’s infancy custom installers had little awareness of the emerging field of Human-Centered Design.

Those were the freewheeling days of engineered solutions to problems that no one really had.

We invented a marketplace of gadgets and experiences that were nearly impossible to use without cheat sheets and weekly service calls.

That perspective changed suddenly in 2002 when CEDIA launched the ESC-D Designer Certification, which led to new insights about the process of client discovery and needs analyses.

CEDIA offered its very first class on usability testing that same year at Expo in Minneapolis.

We learned from our clients and designed

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customized systems optimized for their specific needs. As CEDIA designers probed their clients' lifestyles with a newfound sense of empathy, CEDIA adopted the benefits and expanding marketplaces of ergonomics, indoor air quality, acoustics, Green and LEED building standards, health and wellness, and assistive living and aging in place technologies, to name just a few. Designing for the intended user with empathy opened up vast areas of profitability and customer loyalty.

And changed the user experience — the “UX” — forever. “User Experience,” or UX, is a term coined by famed Apple designer Donald Norman in the early 1990s, shortly after CEDIA got its start. There was a clear and obvious need to make sense of the human relationship to products and technology, which was abysmal back in the day.

Who remembers the infamous Sony IR remote control with — literally — 140 buttons? AMX got the ball rolling for us with the first electroluminescent touch panel, and we suddenly became Graphical User Interface (GUI) designers — or not. We made all the usual blunders as we learned more about our customers’ experience. Sadly, many of those early touch panels went unused.

One of CEDIA’s founders, Chris Stevens, saw the opportunity instinctively and invented the very first audio keypad: Model KPS101 from his new company, Audioaccess. It was a marvel of human engineering and usability, and opened up the hugely profitable world of multi-zone audio. The irony is that we are circling back to keypads just like the KPS-101 because they are intuitive and

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I AM CEDIA JASON VOORHEES AND JIM BRAS OF CANTARA MOST RECENT CEDIA AWARDS: BEST INTEGRATED HOME (LEVEL II) AND LIFE LIVED BEST AT HOME, AMERICAS, 2019

First things first: How did the company get started?

Jason Voorhees: I interviewed for a position at a company where Jim was working. I wasn't quite sure about the company, but Jim said some things that really resonated with me, and I took the job because I wanted to work with Jim. At some point that other business wasn't doing well, and we had the misguided idea to start our own company.

Jim and I loved doing high-end projects. And being two younger guys in the industry, we realized that the typical path to starting your own company is that you pay your dues your first couple of years, and do smaller projects, and work your way up to the top of the ladder. Jim and I didn't want to have to do that because we

were experienced and qualified and confident. We figured if we wanted to immediately start doing higher-end projects, we would need to partner with someone that was already at that level.

So we had lunch with the owner of a high-end electrical contractor. We said we'd always wanted to open up an AV company. We offered to be equal partners if they’d help us launch. They said yes on the spot.

And the next day we were at their offices launching Cantara. In six weeks, we had signed a $600,000 project on the most expensive home in Orange County.

What got you interested in the business to begin with?

Jim Bras: I kind of feel like I was born into it. I did a lot of music in school and then got into recording and audio equipment. Then, one

day, I was sitting at a coffee shop that my mom owns and met a guy who was going to a soundcheck, and I asked him if I could go and he said sure. I started helping him out with live sound and staging, and it turns out he was also a projection calibrationist. So, we were hanging TVs in people's basements in LA. I was doing a lot of mechanical work and wiring and all that kind of stuff, too.

You know, I'm really passionate about solving the problems that this work presents, and I love audio.

Voorhees: I've always been the kid tinkering with stereo equipment and lighting. I was in college, and I needed a part-time job, and I was also looking for a pair of speakers. I stumbled into a hi-fi shop near my house and just kind of fell in love with all that stuff. I got a part-time

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job as a warehouse guy and, over a few months, found my way on to the sales floor. One day I sold a large ticket, about $75,000. The client asked, “Can you guys install all of this stuff?” And I just BS’ed my way through it: “Yeah, let's do it, we can install it.”

I told my boss what happened, and he said, "Jay, we don't install — this is a retail store. You better figure it out.” So, I figured it out. I'm not proud of the install quality of that very first job, but it definitely ignited the career that I've been in now for 19 years.

Does Cantara have a mission statement, a guiding philosophy?

What's hanging on the wall that gets you through every day?

Voorhees: Yes, it’s called our “Why” statement: Why does our organization exist versus what does it do or how does it do it? Why do you guys wake up every morning?

[EDITOR’S NOTE: See the sidebar.]

What technology or aspect of this business really excites you?

Bras: I can't point my finger at any one thing and say, “Hey, this is the most exciting thing.” There's just so many facets to it. It's about listening to the clients, finding out what they want. So even if somebody's going to do a simple Sonos system, say, with no wiring — if you don't have a network that works well, you’ll have problems. You can't really have one without the other.

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Bras: I think it’s education on the differentiation of systems or levels of equipment. You can go online and buy a video doorbell, but the client may have five or six doors that they want to connect in a controlled system with other features, such as fingerprint ID, for example. And the conversation is still, “Why can’t I just go buy one of these things and hook it up?

Why do I need you folks?” I think that the public in general is still not educated about what those different levels of systems are.

I imagine Cantara is working on becoming a CEDIA Member of Excellence, correct?

Voorhees: We are. I was part of or volunteer group that created that, and now I'm a volunteer for the membership committee. We are promoters of the concept that there needs to be a higher bar, and there needs to be stratification of qualifications in the industry.

You just picked up two more CEDIA Awards: Best Integrated Home, Level II, and Life Lived Best at Home.

Voorhees: I think that second one meant more to me than the first.

It goes to the heart of what we do — creating beautiful systems that work with the architecture and design of a home.

That’s terrific. So what’s been your favorite project?

Our favorite project is our next project.

What’s the biggest challenge you see facing the industry right now?

Outstanding. What is your next project, if I may ask?

Voorhees: We need our design/ build partners to understand what we do. We are always coping with, “Oh, I'm going to bring the audio-video guy in right after the electrician starts wiring the house.”

At that point, it’s way, way too late.

Yet we still face that constantly on the largest projects that we work on, where all of this wonderful stuff is available to the homeowner, and they would pay for it, they would fall in love with it. Except it's not being brought into the conversation at the right time.

Voorhees: I don't know.

CEDIA: Oh, I get it.

Voorhees: The reason Jim and I love this is because tomorrow is a new chance to see the new stuff, to meet the next client, and to find the next challenge.

One of the really cool things about what we do is we get to be involved in the creation of art — architecture as art — and it's awesome. I wouldn't want anything else. I want to be involved in these beautiful luxury rooms.

THE CANTARA WHY STATEMENT At Cantara, we believe in equipping people to create and experience more in the world around them.

With our clients, we enable them to make everyday more beautiful and connected to the things they love.

With our team and partners, we seek to inspire each other to do incomparable work.

Cantara 3187 G Airway Avenue Costa Mesa, CA 92626 USA 949.645.3684 cantaradesign.com CEDIA Member Since 2008

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THE

HOUSEBOAT

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When docked, certain systems power down while others run continuously.

T

he customer said simply: “I’m building a houseboat, and I’d like to automate it.” Argus Technologies had their marching orders.

One-button control was important: The owner wanted the boat to spring to life when the users boarded and subsequently to shut down with a single command.

To that end, there was a need for a single app for control — not multiple apps; a whole home control system was designed to tie everything together. Since the boat needs to be ready to be switched on at a moment’s notice, and the vessel’s battery systems are key to that function, the integration demanded two separate subsystems, one called “Continuous,” and one called “Switched.”

When the boat is switched on, blinds are raised, security is disarmed, AV is readied for use, hatches open, and, if it’s nighttime, welcome paths are illuminated. AC and power outlets are also readied when the boat is switched to “on.”

The continuous supply keeps the fridges powered up, ensures that the CCTV and security systems are running, and keeps certain essential networking and automation systems going even when the bulk of the boat’s systems are “dark.”

The houseboat also has tools that allow the vessel to be monitored remotely, a CCTV setup used for both surveillance and navigation, and a combination of Control4 and Dynalite systems that are used for power and management schedules.

Argus Technologies handled this integration from the beginning of the boat’s construction, managing nearly every aspect of Argus Technologies the vessel’s electrical Unit 5/ 6-7 Gilda Court AND electronic systems.

Mulgrave, Victoria 3170 In the words of Australia CEDIA’s judges, this is simply a “great +61 1.300.274.878 installation.” argustechnologies.com.au CEDIA Member Since 2017

INDUSTRY PARTNERS Status Luxury Houseboats Role: Builder

In the words of CEDIA’s judges, this is simply a “great installation.”

Porter Davis Role: Interior Designer Sunnyboy Electrical Services Role: Builder

The systems in this houseboat power up with a single touch.

Argus Technologies handled this integration from the beginning of the boat’s construction.

Equipment List Active Electrical

Marantz

ADM Systems

Middys

Altronics

MMT

Apple

Motion Dynamics

AWM Electrical

Ness

Bright Light

Pakedge

Canohm

Phillips

Control4

Power Supplies

Dataworld

Australia

DriverCentral

RadioParts

ECD

Remtron

Elsema

Saturn South

Honeywell

Seltec

HouseLogix

Skandia

Ivory Egg

Sony

Kordz

TERACOM

Laceys

Unios

Leader

Ultralift Australia

Leckys

Westan

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DISCREET TECHNOLOGY

A SEAMLESS

BLEND OF

& SOCIALITE STYLE The interior design of this London property — “The Disco House” — was inspired by the style of Italian socialite, Marella Agnelli of the Fiat empire, who loved to party. This is rather apt, as the home has given UK-based home technology integrator (and CEDIA Member of Excellence) Perfect Integration plenty of reasons to celebrate — they won two 2019 CEDIA EMEA Awards for their work on it: Integrated Home Level I and Technology Meets Design.

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A speculative development, The Disco House was to be fully furnished and marketed as a turnkey property with a target sale price just shy of £10 million ($12.8 million USD).

The systems had to be programmed so as to help show off both the interior design and the technology during viewings by estate agents and potential buyers.

One of the other key considerations was that the technology needed to be fully integrated and installed as discreetly as possible, but where it had to be seen, it was imperative that it complemented the interior of the home.

There were challenges to overcome — Perfect Integration was working on a strict budget and their brief was to offer complete functionality from day one, but with an easy means of upgrading the technology should the buyer wish to personalize and expand the system at a later date.

Internal space was relatively limited, so the AV racks had to be installed in a cleverly hidden, ventilated cupboard on one of the half landings.

The house is very tall and part of a narrow-end terrace, which means that natural light is quite restricted, so lighting control — both artificial and natural — was a primary consideration, as was privacy. With this in mind, Perfect Integration chose and installed a Lutron HomeWorks QS lighting and shading control system, along with the latest Palladiom keypads.

The finish of each keypad was chosen to blend into (or complement) the wall that it was mounted on, and the number of buttons on each keypad was kept to a

minimum to allow intuitive control of all the automated systems.

PIR sensors are used for motion sensing in key areas, while Lutron QS roller blinds were installed within hidden pockets, built into the top of the window reveals in the master bedroom, master ensuite, and snug/library.

A Creston control system is used to integrate the whole house, with one touchscreen on each floor, which acts as a video entry station and heating control point for that level.

Supplementary control was provided via a whole house iPad/iPhone app.

Security is taken care of by an IP CCTV system, which was fitted to provide coverage of the front door and lightwell.

It can be viewed on the touchscreens inside the house.

Amina invisible speakers are used in all the principal areas, with small Amina subwoofers discreetly installed in the walls or joinery.

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In the basement, there is a leisure area, with a gym and spa, as well as a cinema, which doubles as a poker room.

The cinema was delivered on a very tight budget — the JVC projector is hidden in the ceiling and operated via a twin mirror system, while the Projecta screen is concealed behind a heavy curtain when not in use.

There is a small garden to the rear of the property — outside speakers are tucked away in the planters.

As the property was part of a development, the whole system had to be programmed with a marketing mode, which automatically presents the house and its features in the best possible light during viewings.

Due to the high traffic of real estate agents, it also needed to be fully automated. On pressing the welcome button on the front door Lutron keypad, the lights throughout the property all switch on to a setting which highlights the room and what it has to offer.

At the same time, the Crestron system primes the cinema room by switching on the projector, which takes 90 seconds to warm up, and triggers a Blu-ray player, pausing a movie at a dramatic scene. Low-level classical music plays out of all the speakers in the rooms where there are no TVs. As the real estate agent and potential buyers enter certain rooms, ceiling-mounted PIR sensors operate various features — in the master bedroom, a sliding panel opens, a TV appears, and motorized blinds silently close. On entry to the bathroom, the sensor triggers the lights to fade on, along with the music, and the blind closes.

In the basement, the PIR sensor in the spa area switches on a plunge pool function and underwater lighting, while, in the cinema, the projector mirror drops down, the curtain opens, the blackout blind closes, and the screen shows an impressive scene from a movie.

At the end of the viewing, a single press of the “goodbye” button switches everything off and the property reverts to its unoccupied state.

Equipment List

• Amina • Apple • Audipack • Blustream • Bowers & Wilkins cinema speakers • Crestron • Furman • Future Automation • KNX from ABB, GIRA, Theben and Zennio

• JVC

Perfect Integration 5 Welbeck Street, London W1G 9YQ, UK 0.20.3763.4610 perfectintegration.co.uk CEDIA Member Since 2012

THE ART OF SOUND For those who desire the ultimate home theater experience, nothing compares to a JBL Synthesis system. Industry-leading, patented acoustic technologies delivering effortless power, stunning dynamics, and sense of emotion that grabs ahold and doesn’t let go. There is no substitute.

JBL Synthesis is redefining what premium home theater performance means.

Learn more at www.jblsynthesis.com Š2019 HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated. JBL Synthesis and the JBL Synthesis logo are trademarks of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved.

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Standards Update: October 2019

F

or years, CEDIA has worked with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) — the organization that puts on CES every year in Vegas — on a joint residential systems standards body called R10, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). R10 relies on working groups of volunteer subject matter experts, with their efforts currently reviewing or developing several recommended practices. There are three key documents that affect the majority of technology integrators and, as such, should be regarded as important reference tools. They pertain to Audio Design, Video Design, and Verifying HDMI Systems. Let’s take a look at each in turn:

David Meyer

CEDIA Director of Technical Research

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CTA/CEDIA-CEB22 Home Theater Recommended Practice: Audio Design First developed in 2009, CEB22 was specific to dedicated home theater rooms — and high end at that. In fact, it’s regarded as highly aspirational and applicable to less than one percent of installations, meaning it wasn’t directly applicable to most integrators and/or projects.

The review currently underway addresses this by proposing four performance levels and changing the focus from specifically home theater to Home Entertainment Spaces. The entry level allows some flexibility and will be quite achievable, while still providing great performance. Then moving through the tiers culminates at the reference audio system with characteristics including controlled noise floor, acoustics, bass management, baffle wall, and tiered seating. Importantly, the recommended practice also adds immersive audio speaker layouts, such as for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. CEB22 is well underway, so watch out for its release early in 2020.

CTA/CEDIA-CEB23 Home Theater Recommended Practice: Video Design CEB23 was first published in 2010, as the video companion to CEB22. It was reviewed in 2012 as CEB23-A, and again in 2017, as CEB23-B. However, a lot has changed in video in just these last two years, including the introduction of wide color gamut, HDR, and 8K, amongst other things. This warrants another important review. CEB23 has also historically been focused on home theater, but as with CEB22, the scope may broaden to cater for the diversity of video installations.

CTA/CEDIA-CEB28 Verification Methods for HDMI Systems Interoperability Anyone who works with HDMI will acknowledge the challenge it often presents, and new AV features such as HDR only exacerbate this. In fact, Joel Silver, founder of ISF and chair of the working group developing CEB28, at the start of this project, said to me that, “The greatest challenge with HDR is getting it to turn on!” He was, of course, referring to what can go wrong in the HDMI system, and this is just one of many things.

CEB28 is a new recommended practice that will present verification and troubleshooting methods for ensuring the HDMI system is doing what it’s supposed to do. It will also serve as an informative reference for features and protocols that operate through HDMI, with a supplement for system design considerations, making it an all-round highly valuable document for all integrators.

The effort is well advanced but still ongoing. We’re targeting late 2019 for comment and early 2020 for formal release.

It’s not too late to get involved! If you’re a CEDIA or CTA member and interested in contributing to any of these volunteer working groups, I invite you to contact the CEDIA Technology and Standards team at standards@cedia.org.

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BIOPHILIA:

RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION Systems designed for human wellness are creating a huge opportunity

One of the more popular breakout sessions at CEDIA’s Leadership Conference in Chicago was Grant Farnsworth and Julie Jacobson’s two-parter: Healthy Home: Attitudes and Wellness Opportunities for Home Tech Pros. Farnsworth (director of business at the Farnsworth Group) provided the research on the topic, while Jacobson (a founding editor of CE Pro) covered the practical applications.

THE BACKGROUND “We’re seeing a spike in interest in ‘wellness’ tech that mirrors the surge in ‘green’ solutions that popped a while back,” says Farnsworth. Homeowners (and renters) are mainly concerned about

things like mold and other toxins in the air, and the group who’s most concerned about having a healthy home are buyers 25-34. (Farnsworth further notes that the demo referred to as “millennials” account for about three-quarters of the real estate market right now.)

Contractors are having these conversations, too, but the research that Farnsworth has conducted (with an assist from no less than Harvard) shows an opportunity for integrators: The solutions builders and remodelers are talking about center primarily on static materials, like lumber and paint. Integrators can introduce tech to support a holistic approach to buildings that support wellness.

BIOPHILIA Julie Jacobson picks up where Farnsworth wraps: Her mission of late has been one

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of evangelizing for the concept called “biophilia,” a term that’s defined by MerriamWebster as “a hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature.” From Jacobson’s perspective — and the research she’s been digging into — there’s nothing hypothetical about it. Work spaces that implement either actual or virtual elements of the outdoors see results; employees with a view of the outdoors don’t call in sick as much as their peers — and they’re more productive, too.

“The problem,” says Jacobson, “is that we’re wired to be outside. All of human evolution has built us this way, to be up with the sun and in deep sleep in the middle of the night.”

The natural chemistry that the brain and body cooks up is designed for a life that interacts with forest greens and the sounds of water.

It’s thrown into disarray when humans are suddenly expected to function in a world in which we spend 90% of our lives indoors.

LAYERS OF NATURE There are layers of nature that could be introduced into a variety of ways into businesses or homes, according to Jacobson:

“

• Visual

• Auditory

• Thermal

• Smell

• Spatial

• Stochastic

Virtual skylights, scenes of trees and streams (coupled with sounds and vice-versa — one without the other can be off-putting), building design that includes “living walls” literally made of plants, expansive video scenes of sky and mountains are all solutions that can make for a better, more “human” indoor experience. Using monitors to check air quality and trigger something as simple as the opening of a skylight to create a “chimney” effect is one of the simpler automated solutions that Jacobson notes.

Integrators can introduce tech to support a holistic approach to buildings that support wellness.

One of the most interesting aspects of this, though, is the “stochastic” layer — the random appearance of a puffy cloud, a change in wind, the random rustle of one leaf and not another. This natural smattering of unorganized stimuli keeps us alert and creative, unlike an office space in which everything is uniform, regulated, and neverchanging.

Creating a natural-seeming, virtual world — “biomimicry” — is something Jacobson feels is uniquely suited to the CEDIA integrator, so much so that she’s created her own word for it: “biodigitry.”

“And when you think about it,” she notes, “we’re really the only channel that has the experience to tackle every one of these elements.”

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Ian Bryant

Vice President, Technology Application and Workforce

DISPLAYPORT 2.0

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER PERFECT TIMING FOR NEW STANDARDS WITH HIGHER DATA RATES

On June 26, VESA, the international, non-profit standard association representing a global network of more than 280 hardware, software, computer, display, and component manufacturers released the newest revision of the nearly forgotten DisplayPort standard.

Version 2.0 is not only a giant leap from the last version 1.4a (set back in 2016), but it is a huge step forward in cabling technologies, surpassing the max data rate HDMI 2.1 can handle at a whopping 77.37Gbps.

This is perfect timing for new standards with higher data rates, since 6K and 8K displays are starting to be released. Japan’s national broadcasting organization, NHK, has announced plans to broadcast the 2020 Summer Olympics in 8K and has already begun to broadcast 8K content to its viewers. Gaming platforms are continuing to push manufacturers for higher resolutions and faster refresh rates. The home entertainment market is reporting the average display size is now 65”, and customers are frequently asking about 4K/8K and HDR. The projected timeframe to see DP 2.0 on devices is late 2020, and we believe consumers will be ready with open arms — and open wallets.

There is an added feature new to the DisplayPort technology called “Panel Replay” that will help with power and thermal performance in smaller devices like all-in-one PCs and laptops. This feature will enable the video processor to update only the portion of the display that has changed from one frame update to the next, resulting in significant power savings.

The traditional DisplayPort connector will be supported, as well as the USB-C connector and Intel’s new Thunderbolt 3 technology, giving flexibility to the new 2.0 standard.

The big question on everyone’s mind is what exactly can one do with 77Gbps? Here are some examples of display configurations with the new DisplayPort 2.0.

SINGLE DISPLAY RESOLUTIONS: • One 16K (15360x8460) display @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC) • One 10K (10240x4320) display @60Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression) • One 8K (7680x4320) display @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

DUAL DISPLAY RESOLUTIONS: • Two 8K (7680x4320) displays @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC) • Two 4K (3840x2160) displays @144Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

TRIPLE DISPLAY RESOLUTIONS: • Three 10K (10240x4320) displays @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC) • Three 4K (3840x2160) displays @90Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (no compression)

Keeping in mind that no current technology can distribute some of these resolutions throughout a home, installations will be direct source-to-display situations at first. But rest assured that manufacturers in the custom market are hard at work getting ready for 2020.

This article is one of an online series called “The Two Minute Tech Read” brought to you by CEDIA’s Technology Advisory Council and Technology Application & Innovation department. Find more at CEDIA.net.

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INDUSTRY Q&A

COLLABORATE WITH DESIGN AND BUILD PROS:

BECOME A CEDIA

OUTREACH INSTRUCTOR THE COI PROGRAM ENABLES CEDIA MEMBERS TO DELIVER EDUCATIONAL PRESENTATIONS ON HOME TECHNOLOGY TO THEIR LOCAL DESIGN AND BUILD INDUSTRY PARTNERS, HELPING DEVELOP VITAL NEW BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS.

How would you describe your company’s previous relationship with architects and interior designers?

Stephen Gibson Before joining the COI program, our relationship with architects and interior designers was limited to the time when we are on site together. There was often a degree of friction, as we seemed to have conflicting priorities. Of course, we always managed to get the job done, but it didn’t feel like we were always on the same

team! I think the AV and technology elements of a project were being overlooked by the design team because they didn’t understand what was possible. Unfortunately, that creates uncomfortable conversations with designs requiring change to accommodate the client’s technology requirements.

Richard Padun We have worked closely with architects and designers for a number of years to create homes that not only meet the needs of today, but for years to come. Our relationship begins from the initial outset to firstly

Stephen Gibson

Richard Padun

Bill O'Connor

Nick Caripis

Acoustic Pixel

Integrated Logic

Dallas Sight and Sound, Inc.

BNC Technology

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understand their design vision and user requirements, then we work with them to integrate the correct infrastructure with customized solutions for the chosen smart home systems. We act as trusted advisors every step of the way, even offering support after the install.

Bill O'Connor Dallas Sight and Sound has always had good relationships with interior designers and architects.

Given the level of homes we work in (luxury and estate), they understand how important it is for us to be involved from the earliest stages and have used us as a resource for both design-only and design-and-build projects.

Nick Caripis I think you always resonate with certain people, so we have always had decent relationships with this audience.

Why is educating architects and interior designers important for your business?

Gibson For us, it is crucial. It does three things: 1. It helps us position Acoustic Pixel as experts, 2. It introduces us to a steady stream of potential new projects, and, 3. The knowledge that we provide in the CPD (Continuing Professional Development program) helps the architect and interior designer to include technology in their schemes.

This means that we have less conflict on site, and the client gets the best solution. We are aiming to deliver at least one CPD a month and then keep the architects and interior designers up to date with relevant information at regular intervals. Consequently, the relationship is strengthened, more projects feature technology, and the client gets the best possible service.

Padun Architects are very influential in the design of residential developments, and as the popularity for smart home technology is on the rise, it is important that they have a thorough understanding of the systems available, but more importantly, how to integrate them properly.

“

The relationship is strengthened, more projects feature technology, and the client gets the best possible service.”

Stephen Gibson

The learning never stops; the technology is constantly changing, and so it is very important that we maintain the relationships with architects.

O'Connor As technology has become an increasingly important aspect of home life, it is critical that we convey to specifiers how technology has to be planned from the earliest stages of design to properly integrate the systems unobtrusively into the project, and account for critical factors such as space, ventilation, and power requirements. When technology is planned from an early stage, we can reduce or eliminate surprises (“You

How many times have you delivered a CEDIA CEU to an architect or interior design practice?

Padun Since delivering our first one in June, we have delivered two CEDIA seminars and have another three booked in before the end of the year.

O'Connor I would estimate I have taught 60 to 70 classes — many in architects’ and interior designers’ offices. We hold a monthly class in our office, and we do some at association meetings or education events, with as many as one hundred attendees.

want to put a speaker WHERE?”) for

Caripis We deliver roughly four to

the design team, as well as the other

six CPDs a year.

trades, like framers, electricians, and mechanical.

Caripis I believe it is a long-term education process, and it is an investment for our industry. If we all plant seeds and water and feed them the correct food, we will all reap the reward. We don’t operate in isolation and need to add value to their business, so that we can all benefit from a fruitful industry.

What is the feedback you receive when the course is delivered?

Padun The feedback from delivering the CPD seminars highlighted how relevant the content was in meeting the demand for future-ready homes and confirmed the value of investing in smart home technology for their own projects.

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“

The exposure we have received has led to a number of jobs, from small systems (in the $50,000 range) to million-dollar-plus projects and have increased the scope of some projects.”

Bill O'Connor

O'Connor From comments on the evaluation sheets: “Knowledgeable speaker, answered questions, added input,” “Always well done,” “Great presentation,” “Bill is a great presenter, thank you!” And there is almost always a comment to the effect of, “I have a client who will be interested in this…”

to them by offering something they need (both knowledge, which they are hungry for, and CEU credits), and, most importantly, establishes us as the experts in the market. It also helps us to be confident that products are properly specified and that they understand the requirements when specifying tech.

How useful is the course in helping you build relationships with architects and interior designers?

Caripis It’s a good start. You don’t connect well with everyone, but I do feel that it’s a good opportunity to meet industry-related people, spread our industry offering, and then you partner with the ones you resonate with.

Padun Following the seminars, we have received a number of inquiries asking for advice and recommendations for best practices in integrating the systems. They perceive us as trusted advisers who are readily available to answer any product related or technical questions. These are important first steps to build the foundations for a strong working relationship.

O'Connor It is very useful. It helps us build relationships with the critical specifiers, gives us exposure

Have these connections led to any business for your company? If yes, what type of projects are you now working on?

Padun As the specification process isn’t immediate, and the fact that we have only started delivering CPDs in June, they haven’t generated any business to date. However, we are currently in discussions for a number of residential projects that are in the

planning stages in our local area.

O'Connor The exposure we have received has led to a number of jobs.

These range from small systems (in the $50,000 range) to million-dollarplus projects and have increased the scope of some projects by educating specifiers on the latest trends, products, and benefits to their clients.

Caripis Our biggest work has come from these workshops. It’s a longterm process but once an architect loves you and what you do, it becomes a fantastic relationship as you see eye-to-eye.

After a class, what are your next steps to further develop the relationship?

O'Connor I always follow up with an email to each attendee. Then I will often follow up at least with the principals in the firm, with a phone call to see if they have any questions and ask them what they would like to know more about. This exposure also makes it easier for me to approach them at industry events, as it is not a “cold call.”

Caripis It’s like farming — slowly take care of the soil, plant the seeds, and water them, and one day, you will reap the benefit. Our longest relationship took three years of planting and watering, but now gives us the most work.

cedia.net/programs/outreach

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THE CEDIA PODCAST:

WHY WE TEACH WHAT WE TEACH

A chat with CEDIA Director of Technical Training Steve Rissi

Steve Rissi and his colleagues are due for a long weekend: After packing class after class at this year’s CEDIA Expo with both content and students, the CEDIA education crew could use a break.

One example: A class that was a smash at ISE wound up requiring more space than the organizers had anticipated when it debuted at Expo in Denver. The Home Cinema Master Class saw the size of its presentation space double, and even Rissi was a bit surprised by the response.

“A huge hats off to our colleagues in the UK for putting this whole thing together for ISE originally,” says Rissi. “It sold out a couple of weeks before Expo, but we were still getting requests from members that were really interested in taking the class.”

The Master Class, taught by Theo Kalomirakis (room design), Joel Silver (image quality), and Anthony Grimani (audio), gets to the heart of something that’s close to the bone for Rissi: It shatters preconceived notions.

THE MYTH OF THE GOLDEN EAR Take the concept of the “subjective audio experience,” for example. “When you have people that can come in and show the science, and you look at the physics of how sound pressure waves interact and what that does, it's amazing," says

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Rissi. "It really shatters a lot of audio mythologies.".

“It's a way to really engage clients and engage the industry in general, to say, ‘Here's the science behind this.’ Human beings experience sound in a very specific way based on our biology, and based on the physics of the world around us, we can manage how that sound is experienced and what type of final product you can produce from a performance perspective for different applications.”

While it’s true to a certain extent that people have their preferences and biases when they listen to music or a movie soundtrack, Rissi is determined to show everyone from integrator to end-user that there’s a provable, measurable difference between Good Audio and Bad Audio.

Rissi says, "Most general consumers have been misled to believe you have to have a golden ear to hear these very special differences, and why one speaker sounds different than another speaker, and why it matters.”

And why does it matter? “There's an amazing experience that's out there, that's available, that our members provide on a daily basis, that changes people's lives. When you really experience good music, it can change your life.”

FROM EXPO BACK TO BOOT CAMPS Rissi and company have also been busy ensuring the education that happens back at CEDIA HQ continues to raise the bar after Expo’s come and gone. And since we’re already on the subject of audio, we’ll start there when it comes to the small home cinema rooms that have been built specifically for the purpose of teaching home theater basics.

“We’ve undertaken a huge upgrade on the rooms that are in this facility as opposed to our last location. They're permanent to the structure. They have an extremely low noise floor. They're designed with really good specifications so that when the students come in to actually calibrate them, they're starting with a room that works well.

“We now have new speakers. We're doing full Atmos 5.1.4 configurations. And then we also have 4k projection, 4k display, UHD video source.”

As far as what seems to excite Rissi the most (although, to be fair, the Advanced Networking classes he teaches are literally “tied for first”), the teaching of audio is all about “the speed of sound,” as he puts it.

“If you understand the science and the engineering, you can apply that to any budget. Once you know how to do it correctly, you can get the best performance, regardless of your individual client's budget.”

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% last 5 the

“The toughest part of a job?

Sometimes it’s the last 5%.” - ANON

When you bring technology into your home, there are three rules I think about: 1. Does it do the job I hired it do?

2. Does it play well with others?

3. Can I trust it to respect the information it’s actually managing?

Those are basic questions for any employee. Why can’t I require the same thing of my technology?

Delos CTO Jim Hunter on “frictionless” technology

5G happens to live in the radio spectrum — actually, above it — where microwave sensors are, and NOAA and NASA have said “If you deploy micro-cells all over the place, it’s going to take us back to the 1980s when it comes to weather predictions.”

CEDIA’s Walt Zerbe on the potential of 5G signals interfering with weather sensors from the CEDIA podcast “Emerging Trends” (Episode 132, No. 1930)

Can you make your customer base more concentrated?

Can you be so local as to own a block? Can you own your whole church community? Because the more concentrated your customer base is, the more efficient you become, and the more word-of-mouth spreads, neighbor to neighbor to neighbor.

Julie Jacobson (CE Pro) from her CEDIA Talk “Go Hyperlocal: Own the Neighborhood, Own the Town (Save on Truck Rolls)” at CEDIA Expo 2019

Shows are not about products. Shows are about people.

And the reason I love this industry so much is that it’s full of absolutely fantastic people.

Peter Aylett (Archimedia) from the CEDIA podcast “CEDIA Expo, Day Three” (Episode 141, No. 1937c)

WISDOM FROM OUR MEMBERS (And Some Others, Too)

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