THE ART & TECH OF LEON SPEAKERS | IMAX ENHANCES HOME THEATER
EXCLUSIVE WITH RING LEADER
JAMIE SIMINOFF PLUS: The Worldwide Weather Web
The Science of Audio Streaming A More Intelligent Smart Home Pop Culture’s Connected Tech Predictions Nov/Dec 2018
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From the Editor I’m far from an expert on blockchain technology. Yet, I believe it has the potential to change our society for the better. Mention the term “blockchain,” and most people think of cryptocurrency or specifically, Bitcoin. But, as I learned from the excellent CEDIA Tech Council podcast on the subject, Bitcoin is to blockchain what email is to the internet. It’s only one shiny application of a much larger technology.
Executive Editor Jeremy Glowacki
“ The bigger message that I discovered in my blockchain research can be summed up in one word: Trust.”
Blockchain is a decentralized database storing a registry of transactions over a peer-topeer network. Think of blockchain as a digital version of your old checking account ledger, but here it is shared among business network members, eliminating the need to reconcile disparate ledgers. Each member of the network must have access to privileges, and information is shared only on a need-to-know basis. To add security and accuracy, a consensus is required from all members of the network, and all validated transactions are permanently recorded. Even a system administrator can’t delete a transaction. The bigger message that I discovered in my blockchain research can be summed up in one word: Trust. Blockchain has the potential to bridge the growing “trust gap” in commerce and society, from our political elections to the security of our smart devices and online transactions. Trust is the fundamental currency of commerce and, unless something changes, it will continue to erode. So much of our trust in our systems of commerce these days is based on a little bit of data and a lot “gut.” We trust in our gut that our Uber and Lyft drivers will safely drive us from point A to point B. We also trust that the folks to whom we’re renting our houses via Airbnb won’t destroy the place or steal our stuff. We trust that our fresh produce won’t be contaminated and that our pharmaceuticals won’t be tampered with. We also trust that maintenance and sales records kept on a home or used car that we’re looking to buy are honest and accurate. We trust…but we also verify through intermediaries like the DMV, mortgage title companies, credit agencies, and other government bodies, because we don’t completely believe in the honesty of certain transaction registries. Blockchain technology may eventually replace these slower, less-reliable intermediaries with its more trusted, easily available system. It has the potential to tighten up the trust gap in not only commerce, but also in the way intellectual property rights and patents are monitored, and how manufacturer supply chains, product warranties, and service contracts are manage.d. We’re absolutely in the infancy of blockchain, so now is the time to start reading and researching the topic for yourself. Take the technology seriously and expect it to change the way you work and conduct business in the future. Think of an example where centralization is hurting you, slowing you down, and eroding trust, and it probably will be changed by blockchain technology. I can’t predict exactly how blockchain will affect our industry, but you’ll just have to trust me that it will.
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
NOV/DEC 2018
contents
Departments 12 By the Numbers 14 Quick Bits 16 Smart Devices 18 Inside Installation 20 CEDIA Says 70 Product Revolution 76 Art & Tech 78 Events 80 Lighter Side
54 The Lord of the Ring Interview with Jamie Siminoff
22 Innovator Profile
Mero Concepts Owner Marc Oliveri
24 Health
A Reimagined Experience in NYC
26 Audio
KLH: Not Just a Relaunch, a Rebirth
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
30 Green Tech
The Life-Saving Tech of Intelligent Energy Systems
34 Science
Change Your Playlist, Change Your Life
40 Outdoor Tech The Worldwide Weather Web
46 Issue Focus A More Intelligent Smart Home
60 Client Relations Discovering a Client’s Unspoken Need
66 Entertainment
IMAX Enhanced Home Theater Takes a Bow
Kendall floor-standing in Black Oak real wood veneer
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ACOUSTIC REVOLUTION Maxwell Concentric Driver In-ceiliing
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Maxwell 3-way In-wall
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This year KLH introduced a new line of speakers reflecting our tradition of high-performance audio at extremely competitive prices. Our entire line of floor-standing, bookshelf, surround, center, and powered subwoofers have exceeded professional and consumer expectations, and are consistently reviewed as truly impressive. KLH is using those same design and engineering principles in the Maxwell in-wall and in-ceiling speakers featuring sealed, tuned enclosures. These speakers need to be heard to be believed. And our new VX-1 voice enabled amplified keypad is an industry game-changer.
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Contributors Michael Heiss is a long-time observer of the consumer and professional electronics markets. As a product and marketing executive at Harman International he was responsible for many breakthrough audio and video products. On the entertainment side of the business he was a promotion manager at NBC and was key to the development of hotel in-room movies and created the first nationwide movie rental service for Beta and VHS cassettes. A part of CEDIA since its founding, he served two terms on the CEDIA Board, headed the Technology Council and is a favorite presenter at CEDIA events around the globe. He was awarded CEDIA’s “Volunteer of the Year” award and is a CEDIA Fellow. He is also a member of the TV Academy, IEEE, the Society of Broadcast Engineers, and is a Life Member of SMPTE.
Greg Tarr is a 29-year veteran of the consumer electronics industry covering the development, marketing, and sales of consumer TV and video products, cameras, and home theater equipment. He has been an editor with two consumer electronics trade publications and currently reports on and reviews new television and home theater gear as a freelance writer with several enthusiast publications. He is a member of the CTA’s Academy of Digital Television Pioneers.
Brent Butterworth has worked as a professional audio journalist and consultant since 1989. He has served as an editor or writer for SoundStage, Wirecutter, Sound & Vision, Home Theater Review, Home Theater Mag, along with many other publications, and also worked as marketing director for Dolby Laboratories.
Darryl Wilkinson is a veteran freelance writer in the consumer electronics industry, which includes work as editor-at-large for Sound & Vision. He’s written for Audio, Home Theater, Wirecutter, Home Theater Review, and others. He’s currently working on a design for the perfect automated smart chicken coop.
Jamie Briesemeister owns a custom integration firm in St. Louis, MO, providing design-minded home and business owners technology solutions that simplify life. At Integration Controls, she leads sales and marketing and is actively involved in business development, including industry outreach and education. In addition to local, community-focused CEU sessions and seminars, Jamie also speaks nationally about the smart, connected home at events such as The Remodeling Show/Deck Expo, IBS/KBIS for Design & Construction week, The Remodeling Leadership Conference, and at CEDIA Talks and Expo panels. She is a passionate volunteer for CEDIA and advocate for technology collaboration within the design/build community.
Dennis Burger is a native Alabamian whose passion for AV and home automation technology is matched only by his fascination with the weather and his love of Star Wars. His credits include writing for and editing publications ranging from Robb Report Home Entertainment and Digital TV & Sound to Wirecutter and currently Home Theater Review.
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
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A look at the metrics shaping the technology market — and our lives
It seems that it started with doorbells and Amazon Alexas and spread throughout the home. Now, nearly every appliance has a “smart” option on the market. In September, Amazon even unveiled a smart microwave, which comes with full Alexa voice technology and the company’s Dash service to conveniently replenish your pantry. With smart appliances invading the home, we’re taking a look at the statistics that reveal just how prevalent this market has become and which devices are dominating.
10000 8000
Smart Appliance Revenue $8,809 2016-2022
in millions
$5,075 $4,129 $3,151
Source: Statista
2000 0
984 2,150 3,772 6,266 9,773 14,597 19,942 26,149
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
(projected by type) Source: Statista
Smart Appliance Awareness
27%
Washing machines
% OF U.S. ADULTS WHO ARE AWARE/UNAWARE OF SMART HOME TECH BY AGE GROUP
FULLY AWARE AND KNOW A LOT ABOUT IT 18-34: 26% 35+: 19% AWARE BUT DON’T KNOW MUCH 18-34: 52% 35+: 67% NOT AWARE AT ALL 18-34: 9% 35+: 9% Source: today.yougov.com
Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
2%
Clothes dryers
25000
30000
Source: Statista
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
SHARE OF CONNECTED APPLIANCES BY 2020
12
40 509
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
$6,820 $5,946
6000 4000
$7,795
Global Market Value 2010-2019 in millions
4%
28%
dishwashers Refrigerators
CONNECTED APPLIANCE MARKET WORTH TO HIT
$37.2 BILLION BY 2020
Source: marketsandmarkets.com
37%
Air conditioners
2%
Large cooking appliances
Concerns about owning smart appliances
% OF U.S. ADULTS WHO HAVE THE FOLLOWING CONCERNS ABOUT SMART TECH BY AGE
THEY ARE OVER-PRICED 18-34: 31% 35+: 38% HACKING/CYBER ATTACK 18-34: 28% 35+: 37% DATA PRIVACY 18-34: 27% 35+: 36% NOT BEING ABLE TO USE IF INTERNET ISN’T WORKING 18-34: 27% 35+: 32% Source: today.yougov.com
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QUICK BITS
WE ASK INDUSTRY INSIDERS ONE QUESTION
What is the most popular use case for voice control with your clients and what challenges still get in the way of full implementation of voice? We are finding that most of our clients are using voice control for lighting and music. The most challenging part of voice control is how a device is labeled (Kitchen Island Pendants or Family Room Downlights) and being able to precisely repeat that name to control said device. —Ken Irvine, System Designer/VP Vendor Management, Premier Luxury Electronic Lifestyles
Voice control works very well for controlling lighting, and also for activating a scene, such as “Turn on Movie Time,” which could turn on a projector, lower a screen, fire up a surround system, drop lights and shades, etc. Customers think they are going to be able to control everything via voice, but that just isn’t practical yet, especially things like multiroom music. —John Sciacca, Co-Owner, Custom Theater and Audio
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
We have been successful with voice control of lights and thermostats. The lights and thermostats integrate efficiently, and voice commands are intuitive. Some of the music voice commands have been challenging. Printing off a sheet of commands with the correct phrase has been helpful. —Bill Lehman, Co-Owner, Millennium Sounds
Our big use case is opening and closing window shades and turning music on and off. The biggest issues are having to remember exactly what to say, having to repeat yourself, and the issue with too many similarly named devices because they need to be named by room to differentiate them, and different subsystems competing for the same commands. —Todd Anthony Puma, Owner, The Source Home Theater
For us, integrating Amazon Alexa with the client’s Sonos system has been the best utilization of voice in the home. However, the misunderstanding of the device is still an issue. Remembering the right wording can also be an issue for the client. —Heather Sidorowicz, President/Owner, Southtown Audio Video
The clients that have embraced voice control like to quickly be able to activate personalized scenes they have created. An example is saying, “Turn on Pandora in kitchen.” Another popular use is adjusting lighting and shades from voice. For full voice implementations, it will need to be more stable, and speaking to the system will have to become more natural. —Ryan McDaniel, President, One-Touch Automation The primary use case for voice is any task that is finite and simple, such as “Dim the lights to 50 percent” or “Turn off the music.” Where voice seems to fall short in a control environment would be things like fine tuning volume, menu navigation, and browsing content. Other challenges to voice adoption are a function of privacy, misfires, ability to recognize synonyms, natural syntax, etc. —Chris Smith, COO, Cloud9 Smart I have clients who have summer homes in Florida, and really like the Comcast X1 platform with the voice control that they use in the condo in Florida. This is a challenge, however, in their large home with centralized video distribution. I think the idea of voice control as a whole will evolve over the next five years, especially with things like 5G rolling out. —Eric Lee, Owner, Integrated Control Experts When combining devices like the Amazon Echo and a control system like Control4, a homeowner can ask Alexa for a recipe and then, with a connected device like an integrated oven, say, “Alexa set oven to preheat at 400 degrees.” The use case is all this can be done with messy hands stirring cookie dough. Integrating with voice assistants needs to be two-way in control and function. Right now, you can control devices and control systems with a voice assistant, but you can’t do that in the opposite direction. —Joe Whitaker, President, The Thoughtful Home
DEPARTMENTS
Smart Devices
Damage Control
A Smarter Way to Prevent Plumbing Failures By Anthony Leo
Most homeowners maintain a strictly “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding the plumbing in their homes. As long as the water routinely reaches the right temperature and pressure level in the shower, the toilet flushes reliably, and the dishwater doesn’t leak all over the hardwoods, the inner workings of those old copper pipes behind the walls are treated as out of sight and out of mind. Well, that is until that day of reckoning finally comes, and a tell-tale damp spot appears in the family room ceiling sheet rock or the basement carpet ripples underfoot after godwho-knows-how many days of rusty water has been draining out of a collapsed water heater.
According to Flo’s Chief Strategy Officer Aaron Edelheit, the brilliance of Halimi’s concept is that it’s a whole-home protection system from just one device.
The Flo System is also designed to provide preventative tests to help avoid future calamities. At night, it proactively shuts off the water to the house to run a microleak test.
“We not only monitor water, but we’re an automatic leak detection and shut-off device,” he said. “We think we’re eliminating water damage and because of that, if you have a water damage claim, we will pay your deductible up to $2,500. We really think that, in the industry, it stands out that we’ll not only stand behind our product and the ability of our product to protect your home, but that we also guarantee it.”
“Imagine a balloon full of air…” Edelheit illustrated. “If there’s even a tiny pin prick hole in that balloon, it’s going to lose pressure. The same dynamics work in the plumbing system in your house because we create a closed, pressurized loop. We can detect leaks as a small as a drop a minute. It’s those small vulnerabilities that lead to larger ones.”
According to the American Insurance Association, water damage claims have been growing faster than other components of homeowner’s insurance. Rooted in a number of different situations, $9-billion-a-year catastrophic water damage can come from natural disasters, plumbing failure, and a range of other sources nationwide.
The device installs where the main line enters a house. For example, in California, it would be located right outside the house, whereas in the Northeast, it will be cut into a water pipe in the basement or crawl space. The plumber-installed unit, which requires a standard 120V power connection to work, integrates a water flow sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, and a ball valve that can automatically shut off the water. Layered on top is machine learning/ artificial intelligence software that learns when an inconsistency occurs in the plumbing system.
Until fairly recently, there was really no way to prevent the plumbing failure portion of this equation, but now, an increasing number of water sensors and other smart home devices are giving homeowners at least a fighting chance. One company is so confident in its ability to protect the home, in fact, that they’re willing to pay the insurance deductible if a home with their product installed experiences catastrophic water damage. The Flo Water Damage Prevention System from Flo Technologies was invented by Henry Halimi, a mechanical engineer with 30 years of plumbing equipment experience, who honed his knowledge of the category while serving, for many years, as an expert witness for insurance companies in water damage claims.
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The Flo Water Damage Prevention System from Flo Technologies is a wholehome protection system from just one device.
Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
“Let’s say that your pipe bursts,” Edelheit explained. “The device will know, based on machine learning/artificial intelligence, what is normal and what isn’t. So it will automatically shut off the water in your house. Or, if you left your bathtub running or your garden hose running, it will alert you that there’s extended water usage. If you don’t respond, it will shut off the water. Or, if your pipes get close to freezing, it will email, call, or text you to tell you that the water is getting close to freezing and here’s what you can do to avoid it.”
The Flo System does not turn the water off in the event of a power outage. If you want to turn your water off when the power is out (or in case of other emergencies), you can use the hex key and green manual knob on the Flo device to turn your water off/on. A client’s smartphone is command central. It allows you to receive alerts and turn your water on or off from anywhere in the world. You can view your home’s water consumption, or even contact your plumber to have them come fix a problem. Flo is currently compatible with Amazon Alexa and more integrations are in development. The system is available direct to consumers at The Home Depot or more traditionally via plumbing supply distributors. The Flo team believes that by combining machine learning, sensors, and a proactive nightly pressure test, they can protect an entire home and prevent almost all forms of avoidable catastrophic water damage that comes from a potable water line. They’re so confident that they’re willing to bet your deductible on it. x
DEPARTMENTS
Inside Installation
5 Things
You Need to Know About Amp
New Sonos Product Adds Versatility to Custom-Installed Home Audio Systems By Jeremy Glowacki
Sonos, one of the best-known brands in home audio, has created a new piece of hardware called the Sonos Amp that is designed to drive systems as simple as a turntable and a pair of speakers to as powerful as an entire house of streaming music. This new “home audio hub” can power traditional wired speakers with sound from nearly any source and fully integrates these speakers into Sonos’ wireless home sound system. It supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 and more than 100 streaming services and includes an HDMI Arc port for TVs. Launching globally to consumers via the Sonos website in February 2019, the $599 Amp will be available first to professional installers in the United States and Canada starting December 1, 2018.
2) HDMI and line-in ports on the back of an Amp mean that TVs, turntables, CD changers, and other audio components can easily connect to the device and become part of the Sonos system.
aimed at delivering a series of three architectural speakers—in-wall, in-ceiling, and outdoor—that gain additional functionality through software when paired with the new Sonos Amp. This collaboration will provide a complete offering for professionally installed architectural sound, exclusively enabling Sonos’ Trueplay tuning capabilities to ensure the best sound for the space as well as the benefits of Sonos’ software platform. These products, which will be sold and marketed by Sonos, will launch in early 2019.
Here are the five most important things you should know about Sonos Amp, a product that was built in collaboration with the company’s partners after understanding what they needed over the past two years.
1) Amp is twice as powerful as its predecessor, the Connect:Amp. A single Amp can power up to four speakers with 125 watts per channel. To power a multi-room audio system, as many as 32 Amps could be mounted inside a component rack.
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
3) Amp’s hardware was built to power the Sonos software platform. New updates to the platform make it easy for installers to incorporate Amp into integrated smart home set-ups, including smart lighting and centralized control systems. It is also AirPlay 2 compatible, meaning music and other audio from any iOS device can be played wirelessly through Amp. And when wirelessly connected to an Amazon Alexaenabled device, like a Sonos One or Beam, Amp is controllable with voice commands. 4) Sonos has formed a collaboration with architectural audio manufacturer Sonance
5) The platform will continue to expand with new APIs that allow partners to innovate on their integrations with Sonos. New control APIs and features can make the experience better for customers, especially those with integrated control systems, such as Control4 and Crestron. Features may include line-in switching (for both analog and home theater), to allow for components to be selected within the third-party control interface. Volume pass-through would allow for easier and more predictable volume control. And, the ability to add Sonos playlists will be enabled within a third-party interface. Eventually, other capabilities may include notifications and alerts from third-party devices, like a doorbell, through Sonos speakers. x
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DEPARTMENTS
CEDIA Says
What Makes a Great Speaker? Legendary Loudspeaker Engineer Andrew Jones Describes His Design Preferences and Philosophies By Ed Wenck Andrew Jones may be one of the more storied names in speaker design when it comes to engineering speakers for discerning ears in the residential market. Jones’ latest stop – in a career that has seen stints with KEF, Infinity, Pioneer, and Pioneer’s TAD – is at ELAC America, where he’ll be rolling out the Navis series of active, powered speakers with wireless capabilities in late October. (You may have heard of these products referred to as “Argo” speakers while they were still in development.)
Fortunately, what I like seems to be popular in the marketplace. But one of the things I do look for is vocal reproduction. I want a presence – not a presence like, “Oh if you elevate this frequency range you get presence,” if you’re doing a recording. I’m speaking about almost a physical presence of that singer being there in front of you, singing for you.
ELAC’s recently introduced Navis series of active, powered speakers with wireless capabilities
Jones joined CEDIA’s Ed Wenck and Walt Zerbe for an hour-long podcast recently in which he described his preferences and philosophies. He’s partial to concentric drivers, and he’s got a pretty unique approach to speaker enclosures, too. (The podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and other platforms as Episode 1840, released on October 5, 2018.) Jones spoke to Wenck and Zerbe at length about what he pulled off at Pioneer – namely, creating a quality speaker at an entry-level price point ($99 per pair for a set of bookshelf models) and convincing an iconic Japanese firm to allow the “Andrew Jones” moniker to be affixed to one of its products. The bet paid off handsomely, according to Jones. “We did, over the course of three or four years, more than $50 million in business on those speakers.” It’s an even more impressive feat considering that Jones was the man behind the TAD Reference One design – an audiophile speaker sold in pairs for nearly $80,000 a set. This portion of the conversation, though, gets to the heart of what makes Jones really tick:
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
Wenck: But for Andrew Jones – for Andrew Jones’ subjective ears – what is the most important quality of a speaker? Is it frequency response? Is it the imaging of it? Is it the sound stage? What is it, in your mind, that makes an excellent audiophile listening experience?
Now, I want good performance for cymbals; all the treble stuff. I want a good bass foundation, a mid-bass so that the voices aren’t thinned out because as soon as you thin them out you lose that realism. But I want that sense – and this is one of the things that the concentric drivers always seems to do for you – you get this presence in the room almost. And it doesn’t matter if you set your concentric systems crossing over just in front of you, you can move forward or backward, and the singer always seems a consistent distance in front of you, as though they’re just there for you. That’s the magical thing that I look for.
Jones: First of all, I try and get a balance of all the properties because [there are some] speakers that concentrate on only one aspect because that’s the passion of the designer. And the designer says, “Well, I don’t care about the And you know when you’ve got it, even if you other parts.” Most people do care about the don’t know how you got it there. x other parts, so you’re severely limiting your market with that Andrew Jones, approach. And I will say that whenever I design something I’m not specifically targeting a “market” in that sense and changing the sound balance because I think, “This market would like that sound balance.” And I’m the only one responsible for deciding what it’s going to sound like. Nobody else contributes to that process.
VP of engineering, ELAC America
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innovator profile
Making It All Appear Seamless
Marc Oliveri, owner of Mero Concepts
Mero Concepts Owner Marc Oliveri Brings Apple Aesthetic and Acumen to His Integration Firm By Anthony Leo Marc Oliveri, owner of Mero Concepts , considers his Austin, TX-based integration company a “boutique-type firm,” that tries to align with clients who have a shared vision. Prior to starting his firm, Oliveri worked at Apple for 10 years, where he served in the company’s education group, traveling to school districts to discuss how Apple products and services could integrate into the educational environment. He says that he learned early on not to push hardware in his meetings, but to emphasize the experience of using certain educational tools in the classroom. His initial work in the integration field began as a “moonlighting” gig, helping a friend and neighbor fix the security cameras and control systems in four restaurants that he owned. By 2012, he was ready to leave Apple and enter the system integration field full time. “I was getting ready to turn 40 and didn’t want to look back in 20 years and say, ‘I wish I would have started this company…’” Here’s what else we learned from our conversation with Oliveri. Residential Tech Today: Were your supervisors at Apple aware that you were doing integration work on the side while working there? Marc Oliveri: My management team at Apple knew what I was doing and when I told them I was thinking about doing this full time, they said I could name my end date with them. I left them on really good terms. To this day, directors at the company still use our services for their homes.
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Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
RT Today: What are some of the lessons that you learned at Apple that you apply to your business today? MO: I picked up a lot of design language, aesthetic cues, and how to treat the customer. Their philosophy is to “surprise and delight,” and that’s what we try to do with our company. Our tagline is “seamless integration with seamless customer service.” We really push hard on customer service. We show it in everything we do, day to day. We even try to hire toward that. We’re just a small firm—there are only seven of us—but our guys are really focused on making sure our clients’ expectations are exceeded. We’ll do that in various ways, from how our guys interact from the beginning to how we handle internal service calls. We partnered with OneVision, and they’re our first line of triage with our clients and so we really want our clients when they call in to be treated well and we respond quickly to their calls. Our Lexus RX 350 service vehicle is a little showy, but we do it so the client associates our level of service with the Lexus brand and their pursuit of service excellence. On the back it says, “24/7 Planning Support Vehicle.” RT Today: In what ways do you apply a design language to the projects that you work on? MO: One example is a project inside a 5,000-square-foot art gallery in downtown Austin. The client’s attention to detail was off the charts; her front glass doors, alone, were almost $70,000. For the project, we had James
Loudspeaker custom build their pendant speakers to the client’s specifications and had them custom painted to her specific color palette. She was adamant that anything that was installed had to match her environment. We even disassembled all of her access points for her WiFi, took all of the cameras apart, broke all of the DSC alarm components down, and had James custom paint to her custom colors. This turned into a real showcase for us because she’s got 16 James Loudspeakers that are all custom painted in her environment, tied into an AudioControl interface, Control4, and 55- and 77-inch Sony OLED displays that display digital artwork alongside with her “analog” artwork. It’s a really gorgeous environment. RT Today: What are the most important lessons you’ve learned since starting your integration business? MO: One of the big lessons learned is just focusing on follow up and follow through with clients. We know that everything isn’t going to go perfectly smooth and exactly as we planned to go every time, but if you set the right expectations and you follow through with the client, they’re typically very flexible and understanding with what you’re trying to do. I also learned that clearly communicating is a big deal. We stumbled a little bit in the beginning and we still learn lessons today, just making sure clients know where we’re at on projects. Especially on a commercial project, we never want to be the hold up. We always try to be spot on with when we’re going to be there and what our process will be. That’s how you gain trust
For Mero Concepts’ project inside a 5,000-square-foot art gallery in downtown Austin, Oliveri had James Loudspeaker custom build their pendant speakers to the client’s specifications and had them custom painted to her specific color palette.
with the GCs of a project and the owners and the other trades, which can lead to other jobs. RT Today: What part of this business makes you happiest? MO: The happiest for me is when the client kind of gets it, and we’re delivering the final piece of the project. When we get that feedback the day after, unsolicited. We consistently will get emails or a text from a client about how great our guys were out on site, how they enjoyed having them there… That’s the biggest thing that feeds us, is getting that kind of feedback. RT Today: What do you find most frustrating? MO: The industry itself is not regulating as well as I feel that it should. That’s one of the reasons we aligned with HTA [Home Technology Association.] We feel that we’ve made these investments as a company in not only our office/environment but also in our staff, their training, and making sure we are certified and licensed to do security. I feel that piece is missing and if we had that it would clean up the industry. I just don’t like that our industry has the worst rap. Some of the problem is with distribution, where they will sell to anyone with a pulse because they just want the sale. I feel like that’s a big disconnect because those integrators make integrators like us look bad. We hear, “Oh, you’re the second company we’ve had out here. The other guy had the best price, but he never finished.” That’s what gets frustrating because it makes us all look bad.
RT Today: When you’re deciding whether to start offering a new product or technology in your projects, what are some of the most important criteria you consider?
manufactured product, and they have very customizable EQs that are paired to major speaker manufacturers. I also really like Revel’s bookshelf speakers.
MO: We’re a bit of a hybrid. We will early adopt in our own environment to test and see. But, a big piece is the support from the manufacturer. It’s all technology. It’s all electronics. At any time, things can go sideways or there could be an issue. With every manufacturer, it’s like the perpetual beta, and firmware updates are always fixing something. What we try to do is first look at a manufacturer’s pedigree or how long they’ve been doing this, how long they’ve been in this industry, and what is there backing. And because we have our office and enough space to connect products, manufacturers will send us something to try out. Then our guys use it, learn it, and see if it’s the right fit. If there are hiccups, we test out their support. If there’s good support, then we feel like we can move forward with them.
RT Today: Looking ahead, what technology trend do you expect to have the most influence on the work that you do?
RT Today: Currently, do you have favorite products or technology that you like to work with and why? MO: I’m really in love with the Arcam line of AVRs. Just a solid build. You can tell they’re engineered for performance with just the right amount of feature sets without being all glitzy. Then if you look at speaker lines, I really like what we do with James because of how they customize for us. Same thing with the AudioControl amps. It’s a great story. It’s a U.S.-
MO: There’s a thing that Steve Jobs used to say about speech recognition. That in five years, it was going to be amazing. And, that’s kind of how I feel about voice control right now. Right now, a lot of voice delivers 90 to 95 percent of the time. That seems like it’s really good, but actually it isn’t because what happens is the four percent that it’s off causes people to pause and not use the systems or causes people to not get comfortable. The system should be able to know what room I’m in and how to turn this on. That still isn’t there, but I think it’s getting there. Beyond that, I really hope that the industry develops a standardization to have devices truly work together and communicate with each other in a way that allows these companies not to feel threatened. If I buy X’s voice control, but I want to have Y’s lighting system in it, there should be a standard bus communication that allows things to talk and communicate universally. There needs to be that piece so that the complexity is reduced, and the experience for the end user is better overall, and they champion to have these devices in their homes. Everyone wants to automate something. How cool is it when it recognizes that you’re home, and it turns on what you want it to turn on. x Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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HEALTH
A Reimagined Experience in NYC Photo Lutron/Halkin Mason Photography
By Jeremy Glowacki
“This is not our space. This is your space,” said Michael Smith, VP of sales at Lutron, during the grand opening his company’s newly reimagined Experience Center and training facility in the Decoration and Design Building in New York City on September 27. Nearly three times the size of Lutron’s former New York City space, the new Center will be the destination for Lutron’s residential tri-state area customers and international visitors. “This represents a significant investment that we’re making in the design, luxury space,” Smith noted during his opening remarks to a room full of custom integrators and design professionals. “We doubled down on our investments a couple years ago, and we want to make sure our dealers know that we are committed more than ever to bringing this space to you and the design community. Innovation creates opportunity, and innovation differentiates not only us, but also
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you and your designs and gives you something for your clients.” Lutron opened its first Experience Center in Plantation, FL, in 2001. The company has since added facilities in Coopersburg, PA, Irvine, CA, New York City, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and London.
own clients here to show the new things that maybe aren’t included in your own space. We hope as you go through this, you’ll see every shade, every style that we make…over 60 working shades in this space.”
The new Experience Center features a broad range of Lutron products showcased within residential vignettes. Products include everything from Lutron’s Caséta Wireless to HomeWorks QS systems, a full range of Lutron shading solutions, including the luxurious new Palladiom shades, plus samples of shading fabrics and keypad finishes.
The Center also features a variety of Ivalo and Ketra high-performance LED fixtures, which the company predicts will be the next business expansion opportunity for dealers. Dealers wanting to explore LED fixtures as a business expansion opportunity will have plenty of chances to do so in the new space. Lutron customers can witness the performance of LED fixtures, drivers, and control solutions from the company’s Ivalo Collection and, as a result of the company’s recent acquisition, from Ketra.
“What’s nice is that this space will always be current. It will always have the latest and greatest and newest,” Smith explained. “Even if you have your own experience centers, you can bring your
“I think that with our acquisition of Ketra, we’re at that moment in history again that’s going to be the beginning of the next category that Lutron and our dealers are going to create
HEALTH
together,” Smith said. “That’s that intelligent light source combined with outstanding control and delivering and experience that the world has never had the ability to experience before. But it won’t be easy. It’s going to require all of the training and knowledge of lighting and that entrepreneurial spirit. We’re going to challenge you to get into that lighting space and that lighting business. We’re going to challenge you to align with the wonderful partners of ALA. We’re aligned with lighting experts in the design community.”
Michael Smith, VP of sales at Lutron, welcomed design professionals to the grand opening of his company’s newly reimagined Experience Center and training facility in the Decoration and Design Building in New York City.
Matt Emmi, owner of OneButton in Brooklyn, attended the grand opening, having been a frequent visitor to the company’s previous Center in the same building. He mentioned that his company was a Ketra dealer prior to Lutron’s acquisition, having been interested in the ability to dynamically shift LED lights and create circadian lighting control. “We have that set up in our office and have been living with it for about six months now,” he said. “We’re incredibly excited that these two companies came together because we were trying to figure out how to cobble the two solutions together ourselves. We think that circadian light and dynamic shifting is one of the most important advancements to come along in our industry.” Emmi is looking to Lutron to help OneButton in this new revenue and business opportunity, without stepping on electricians’ toes, who the integrator is “already leaning on” to do the wiring and electrical connectivity to the panel.
“ Innovation creates opportunity, and innovation differentiates not only us, but also you and your designs and gives you something for your clients.”
“It’s a technological and business shift,” he said. “We’re bringing our design team up to speed to be able to do more of lighting design work. We have three professionally trained architects on our staff, and they’re now learning more about lighting control. We’ll still look to the designer or architect to do the fixture placement [on the design plan], but when circadian or color temperature comes up, we will replicate the fixture and figure out how to execute that strategy.” x
AUDIO
KLH:
Not Just a Relaunch, a Rebirth
A Team of Loudspeaker Industry Veterans Revive a Legendary Brand with 30 New Products and a Time-Proven Distribution Strategy By Brent Butterworth purchase. “I couldn’t believe my good fortune,” Kelley said. “Henry Kloss was one of most iconic engineers not only in the history of audio, but in the history of consumer electronics. It’s such a great brand, but it had been dormant since 2004.”
(Left) The drivers in KLH’s Maxwell speakers use Kevlar laminated with fiberglass to make it stiffer and give it more mass. (Right) KLH’s VX-1 voice-enabled, Wi-Fi-equipped in-wall keypad.
When people start a speaker company these days, they typically launch with a few rebadged products designed by Chinese OEMs, and they tend to sell mainly through Amazon or their own website. This approach does work sometimes, but it rarely elicits a reaction from consumers more enthusiastic than, “What’s the price?” The September relaunch of the KLH brand was the opposite of this approach. The official roll-out, which took place in a large ballroom in the InterContinental Hotel during the recent CEDIA Expo in San Diego, featured no fewer than 29 different speaker models, all conceived and designed by a team of engineers with a collective 200 years of experience at such companies as Carver, Definitive Technology, Klipsch, and Polk. It’s being sold not through mass-market websites such as Amazon, but primarily through specialty retailers and custom integrators—in 22 countries as of this writing, with more expected. Lest you think you’re having a flashback to 1995, the presence of an Atmos-enabled speaker and a voice-enabled, Wi-Fi-equipped in-wall keypad in the KLH line will assure you that this is a company launching in 2018.
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Most people under 50 probably don’t know KLH. The company was founded in 1957 by audio pioneer Henry Kloss, with his partners Malcolm Low and Josef Anton Hofmann. The company succeeded with such iconic products as the Model Eight table radio and the Model Nine electrostatic speaker. But by the 1990s, KLH had been sold and resold several times, and like so many once-revered audio brands, KLH was most often affixed to copycat products its founders would almost certainly have rejected. Enter David Kelley, former Klipsch global sales president, who grew bored after retiring at age 50. “I was playing golf with guys in their 70s, and they kept asking me what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” Kelley said. “Call me a glutton for punishment, but I missed the speaker business. And I saw a niche in the market—there were a lot of speakers that sounded great but didn’t look great, and a lot of great-looking speakers that didn’t sound great.” Figuring he had the skills and connections to do better, Kelley started thinking about how to put together a new company. An epiphany arrived in a conversation with a friend, who told Kelley that the KLH brand was available for
In January 2017, Kelley bought KLH and began putting together a team he thought could carry out his vision. “All of them had executive experience in engineering, manufacturing, sales, or marketing. Some of them came out of retirement to join us, and some had gone to other industries but wanted back into the speaker business.” “The attitude among the entire group is that we’re in this to do something special in the industry,” explained KLH Chief Technical Officer Steve Howell, a veteran of Sonance, Carver, and a long consulting career. “There have been some negative connotations around speakers for the last decade—people think of them as just vinyl or plastic boxes now, and they’ve lost the idea of what audio’s supposed to be about. Our goal is to create products that deliver goosebumps.”
The New Line The new KLH speaker line includes 12 inroom speakers and 17 architectural models. Each of the speakers is named after a street in Cambridge, MA, where Kloss and his partners founded KLH. The in-room line includes a couple of two-way bookshelf speakers, three tower speakers, a center speaker, a dipole surround speaker, an Atmos-enabled surround speaker, and two
AUDIO
KLH: Not Just a Relaunch, a Rebirth
powered subwoofers. But the model Kelley keeps coming back to in conversation—and the one the company chose to demo at the InterContinental Hotel—is the Kendall, its topof-the-line tower speaker. Each Kendall has two 6.5-inch woofers, a 5.25inch midrange driver and a 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter. “I’m especially proud of the way we designed the enclosure,” Howell said. “Rather than placing the bass ports where it was convenient, we took the time to figure out where to place them for optimum performance. People tend to put speakers too close to the wall, so we gave the speaker two ports in the back, and we include port plugs so you can tune the speaker’s bass response to the room by plugging one or both ports. We also put in a lot of time on the crossover; it took us two weeks to get it to the point where we were happy with it.” Kelley wants to stress that true to his vision, the fit, finish, and design of the Kendall go beyond what one might expect for $1,299 per pair. “The world doesn’t need another vinyl box,” he said. “With vinyl records so hot right now, we wanted to capture a mixture of vintage and modern. We’ve got three-quarter-inch MDF cabinets covered in beautiful wood veneer, vertical brushing on the aluminum trim parts around the drivers, laser etching of the KLH logo on the tweeter fascia, and magnetically attached grilles.” Many speaker companies have a “signature” design trait, such as Klipsch’s horn tweeters or MartinLogan’s electrostatic panels, but according to Howell, KLH takes the opposite approach. “We’re not married to any one technology,” he said. “Every single part in a product we do is designed for that application. For example, we like Kevlar cones, but in small enclosures, Kevlar cones are too light and you lose control of them. So, while the Kendall has straight Kevlar, the drivers in the Maxwell [the company’s $649-each in-wall model, with an integral back box] use Kevlar laminated with fiberglass to make it stiffer and give it more mass.” Perhaps the most interesting product in the new KLH line isn’t a speaker. It’s the $199 VX-1, a keypad with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth plus a 25-watt-per-channel Class D amp built in. It’s designed to replace in-wall passive volume controls (of which Kelley says there are at least
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The in-room line includes two-way bookshelf speakers, three tower speakers, a center speaker, a dipole surround speaker, an Atmos-enabled surround speaker, and two powered subwoofers (Windsor model pictured.)
8.5 million in the U.S. and Canada), and to draw its power from a supply connected to the existing speaker cables. “In 15 minutes, an installer or a DIY customer can upgrade to multisource and streaming,” Kelley said. “Any Alexa device can control the VX-1, and the MUZO app we supply also allows your smartphone to do far-field voice command of any Alexa device.” Next for the company will be a new Model 8, which shares nothing technically with Kloss’s original. Kelley reports that the new all-in-one speaker system, which is likely to launch at CES in January, will have two 1-inch tweeters, a 3-inch full-range driver, and two 3-inch passive radiators for bass reinforcement. Spotify Connect and Alexa compatibility will be included, and the target retail price is $298.
The Strategy Lots of speakers—almost all of them, really— are designed in North America or Europe and manufactured in China, so what’s special about KLH’s formula? “A lot of those companies do some design in-house but farm out much of the design and engineering of the components,” Kelley said. “We’re more vertically integrated. We don’t use OEM suppliers. We design everything in-house, which allows us to control costs. And we don’t have a large corporate palace, and we don’t sponsor concerts or anything like that. We put all our money into the design and engineering of the products and pass the savings to our customers.”
Some might consider KLH’s distribution strategy downright radical in the era of Amazon, even though it might have been considered humdrum in the era of Microsoft. Kelley has decided to take a traditional approach, focusing on specialty retailers and integrators, with e-commerce limited to Crutchfield, World Wide Stereo, and IQ Entertainment. Talk with other speaker companies, though, and you’re likely to hear that the specialty retail channel has all but vanished, and that most installers don’t invest in showrooms. Kelley strongly disagrees. “I think that’s a cop-out on the part of the manufacturer,” he said. “You know, ‘There’s nobody left to sell to, so I’m forced to sell mass retail or Amazon.’ We’re opening up at record pace in specialty retail and CEDIA dealers. They still have showrooms, but it has evolved to be more focused on the experience. If you’re selling a Ferrari, the best way is to toss them the keys and let them drive it. We don’t believe you can get that experience in mass retail.” Will the bold yet, in many ways, conservative approach of Kelley and company be enough to bring KLH back to the prominence it enjoyed almost 60 years ago? Considering the constant technological revolutions that the audio industry has gone through in the last 20 years, it’s anyone’s guess. But based on the enthusiastic response of showgoers at CEDIA to the company’s demo of the Kendall, it seems likely that the reborn KLH will be one of the most talked-about audio companies in 2019. x
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GREEN TECH
The Life-Saving Tech of Intelligent Energy Systems Sonnen ecoLinx Users Can Power Devices That are Most Essential for Survival By Patricia Miller When Hurricane Maria destroyed the power grid for 80 percent of Puerto Rican citizens, the tiny island of more than three million people was cast into darkness. For many, the lack of a reliable power backup cost them their life. Energy insecurity and power outages can often result in the same thing – loss of life. That’s why intelligent energy management systems could become the future of the electrical grid, particularly with the increasing prevalence of climate change-related severe weather events. Incorporating sustainable energy solutions into home planning is an increasingly vital decision for homebuyers. For Puerto Ricans, solutions were scarce as the island awoke to the realization that all of their major infrastructure had been wiped out in hours. One energy management company, sonnen, knew they could help. Their smart energy management systems are designed to work with traditional power sources and solar energy to keep the essentials running, even in the event of mass grid failure. Sonnen’s Senior Director of Sales and Marketing Michelle Mapel remembers the moment well: “After Hurricane Maria it took us a few days to reach Pura Energia, one of our key partners on the island, who told us, ‘We’ve got a big problem. We don’t have a grid anymore, so we’re going to need to figure out a way that we can help out.’ In response, sonnen actually installed 12 solar + storage humanitarian microgrids in communities to give them basic power using mini, renewable power plants to do things like get clean water, run some basic refrigeration, power a kitchen where they can cook a few things, just to help sustain basic life and provide some sense of normalcy.” Basic necessities like clean water and safely stored food are pivotal in an emergency
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situation. Ensuring that you have enough power to maintain those resources can be a challenge. Intelligent energy management systems, like the new sonnen ecoLinx with energy automation, create a clear interface between the user and their available power. These systems allow the user to know how much power they have, what it can run, and for how long. The user can choose where their energy will be utilized during a grid outage, ensuring they are able to power the devices that are most essential for survival. Mapel expanded on the ecoLinx’s advanced capabilities, “Beyond smart configurable backup power, energy automation with our ecoLinx takes connected homes and home devices and turns them into even smarter homes where we can layer renewable energy and full energy management. We can help do things like backup the home in the event of a power outage, and give it intelligent backup so it can pick which modes it’s actually going to continue to power depending on how long the power will be out. Additionally, we help manage power use throughout the day by allowing homeowners to intelligently control their energy supply and demand by pre-cooling homes, lowering shades, and dimming the lights to reduce loads in the afternoon before peak energy rates occur.” All these components communicate with each other to create a safety net, monitoring variables in real-time to prevent homeowners from being caught unaware. Home automation control interfaces like Crestron and Control4 can be seamlessly integrated with sonnen’s energy automation software to create an
Intelligent energy management systems, like the new sonnen ecoLinx with energy automation, create a clear interface between the user and their available power.
GREEN TECH
The Life-Saving Tech of Intelligent Energy Systems
Beyond smart configurable backup power, energy automation with sonnen’s ecoLinx takes connected homes and home devices and turns them into even smarter homes where renewable energy can be layered with full energy management.
intuitive interface which the user can operate from their smartphone or from a wall-mounted digital display. Whole-home communication allows the entire system to work in unison to create an optimal experience for the user. For example, the ecoLinx’s smart weather management system links to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather database forecasting system to predict inclement weather. It then alerts the homeowner and asks if it should increase the amount of stored power in the battery in case of an outage. Mapel offered this example: “Customers who are in hurricane zones may keep a higher backup buffer; 50-80 percent of the battery may be reserved for a backup situation.” She continued, “If a hurricane is anticipated, there’s a likelihood that your power will go out and you’re not sure for how long. You might tell your system, ‘I just want to power the basics,’ and the home automation system is set up by the installer to know what is covered under ‘the basics.’ Then the home would shut down all the non-essential
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loads and utilize the batteries and solar system to just power the essentials.” When the storm has passed and the grid regains power, the management software would automatically restore the house to regular service. Systems like the ecoLinx can also be employed during a power “brownout,” in which the electrical power supply system is disrupted for a short time. In these situations, the system can be set to power the whole house during the duration of the outage. Laptops, lights, refrigerators, stereos, and HVAC can all be powered by the battery system. As long as the user is confident the outage is temporary, they could comfortably use all of their battery reserves to keep the house operating with full power. The future of the energy grid is likely to be a combination of both renewable power and traditional power sources. Mapel offered this glimpse into the way sonnen sees the grid of tomorrow: “We see an opportunity to enhance the grid, to help utilities use the grid infrastructure more effectively, and also to bring renewables into the picture because we see it as a
balance of all kinds of energy sources.” Enhancing the resiliency of the grid will become increasingly important as climate change becomes a more pressing global concern. That’s why sonnen is working with home developers, such as Mandalay Homes in Arizona, to create connected communities. According to Mapel, these communities utilize combined intelligent energy storage and solar generation to create clean energy virtual power plants. The community’s needs balance with each other, with some houses using less power, or creating more power, which can then be used as a surplus by the community. Clean energy communities, like Mandalay Homes’ Jasper community, benefit homeowners as well as the utility companies, enabling the grid of the future. Ultimately, intelligent energy management systems like sonnen’s ecoLinx could change the face of residential energy management, creating more resilient, more sustainable, and safer power options for communities across the globe. x
AUDIO EXPO NORTH AMERICA APRIL 12-14, 2019 • CHICAGO RENAISSANCE SCHAUMBURG HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER
HEAR IT ALL. Immerse yourself in the AXPONA experience. Indulge in discovering the best in loudspeakers, headphones, turntables, amplifiers, streaming services and so much more. Explore over 185 listening rooms, Ear Gear Expo, The Record Fair plus enjoy seminars, product demos and concerts. Connect with fellow enthusiasts, designers and industry experts. Audition the largest gathering of high-fi products in North America. It’s all in one place over three incredible days! See you in Chicago this April! Streaming Sponsor: Qobuz
Tickets on Sale Now! For information, visit www.AXPONA.com Learn about exhibiting at AXPONA 2019. Contact Mark Freed: mark@jdevents.com, 203-416-1927
SCIENCE
Change Your Playlist, Your Music Selections Can Make Your Environment Healthier and Happier
Photo Getty Images/iStockphoto
Although there’s debate about whether or not musicality is unique to the human species, there’s no question we are musical beings. That’s not to say that every person has perfect pitch, can play a musical instrument, or even carry a tune. Rather, it means that, from the moment of birth, we use variations in sound – pitch, timbre, rhythm, intensity, and melody – as our earliest method of communicating feelings of hunger, sleepiness, contentment, and irritation. Parents, likewise, use sound to interact with infants. In fact, research has shown that this early “musical” back-and-forth between parent and infant is so important that its absence can have large detrimental effects on the cognitive and
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emotional development of the child. In The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can’t Do Without It, author Philip Ball posits that evolution “seems to have given us intrinsic proclivities for extracting music from the world. Music is a part of what we are and how we perceive the world.” The importance of music doesn’t diminish as we grow older, either. In many ways, music is as fundamental to human health and wellbeing as eating and sleeping. It’s been that way for millennia. In 2012, for example, archeologists unearthed a pair of flutes (one made of bird bone, the other from mammoth tusk) that were carefully crafted by an aspiring homo sapien close to 43,000 years
By Darryl Wilkinson
ago. Throughout recorded history, indigenous cultures have used songs as a way of remembering and retelling oral histories and traditions. At the same time, they used (and continue to use) music and chanting as an element of “healing ceremonies” for both body and mind. “A look into the healing practices of indigenous cultures, for example,” writes Jill Sonke at the University of Florida Center for the Arts in Healthcare, “often reveals rituals that engage music as a means for transcendence, diagnostic discovery, affirmation, treatment, and for communication across human and spiritual realms … Even more fundamental is the broad utilization of music as a means for
Change Your Life transcending states of consciousness, notably in spiritual and religious settings, where music is an integral component of shifting an individual’s awareness from the realm of the mundane to that of the sacred.” While music’s effects on general mental health and wellbeing are outwardly obvious, only recently has medical science discovered the measurable, physical effects of music on the human body. For example, a Swedish study in 2014 showed that when individuals sang together in a group, the “unison singing, structured by the music’s course, synchronized the participants’ heart rhythms, and that this synchronization had a beneficial effect on the
singers’ wellbeing.” Scientists at the Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute have observed that learning to play a musical instrument alters brain waves. “This change in brain activity demonstrates the brain’s ability to rewire itself and compensate for injuries or diseases that may hamper a person’s capacity to perform tasks.” As a result, music therapy – the use of listening to or performing music in order to assist in a healing process – is rapidly coming out of the pseudoscientific shadows and becoming a respected area of neurological research.
Better Than Drugs (and Legal, Too) The powerful ways in which music therapy seems to have beneficial effects on so many
debilitating ailments and traumas can appear to be, to the layman’s eyes, at least, nothing short of magic. “Music is not tangible,” wrote neuroscientists Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor in a June 2013 op-ed for The New York Times. “You can’t eat it, drink it, or mate with it. It doesn’t protect against the rain, wind or cold. It doesn’t vanquish predators or mend broken bones.” Behind the curtain, though, there’s a very real, corporeal process going on. “When pleasurable music is heard, dopamine is released in the striatum … which is known to respond to naturally rewarding stimuli like food and sex and which is artificially targeted by drugs like cocaine and amphetamine.”
Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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SCIENCE
Change Your Playlist, Change Your Life
Screenshot via YouTube
The Music Instinct and This Is Your Brain On Music both explore the evolutionary roots and biological effects of music as they pertain to the human body. (Background image) Neuroscientists at Mindlab International in the UK claim they’ve found the so-called “world’s most relaxing song” with Marconi Union’s “Weightless.”
In addition to affecting the brain’s reward center, dopamine is critical to the coordination of the bodily movement. Dopamine and serotonin, another neurotransmitter, are both known to manage mood; and serotonin is also associated with the regulation of sleep. That’s just the beginning of the impressive scientifically documented effects music has on our bodies and minds. Research led by Dr. Daniel Levitin of McGill University’s Psychology Department, author of numerous bestselling books, including This Is Your Brain On Music, found that listening to music improved the functioning of the body’s immune system. Music was so good at reducing listeners levels of stress, in fact, that it was more effective in reducing patients’ anxiety prior to surgery than were prescription drugs. “We’ve found compelling evidence that musical interventions can play a health care role in settings ranging from operating rooms to family clinics,” Prof. Levitin said. “But even more importantly, we were able to document the neurochemical mechanisms by which music has an effect in four domains: management of mood, stress, immunity, and as an aid to social bonding.”
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Music therapy is now being used as an essential aspect of treatment for PTSD, opioid addiction, brain injuries, stress reduction, and in recovery from bronchitis and pneumonia, as well as in the care of people with autism. Music has even been described as a “legal drug” that can improve the performance of professional athletes by enhancing training and reducing stress prior to competitions. Choosing music with the appropriate tempo for the correct exercises can improve the quality and significantly extend the time spent working out for non-professional athletes, too.
on portable music players and stress, Marie S. Skånland of the Norwegian Academy of Music suggests that, in stress-filled urban environments, “The MP3 player may be a valuable coping device, enabling music users to enhance their subjective wellbeing and mental health.” In fact, in a 2014 “Music Snapshot” survey, headphone maker SOL REPUBLIC, found that 75 percent of their respondents said they “rely on music and their headphones in order to relax and unwind every day” – although 45 percent also reported that they wear headphones “to avoid interactions with other people.”
The World’s Most Relaxing Song?
Since the average person listens to music for 2.5 hours per day, it sounds like there’s a lot of self-prescribed playlists out there. If you want to put together the ultimate stress relief playlist, neuroscientists at Mindlab International in the UK claim they’ve found the so-called “world’s most relaxing song”: Marconi Union’s “Weightless.” In their study, the researchers discovered that “Weightless” reduced listeners’ overall anxiety by 65 percent. The 8.5-minute song is so relaxing, in fact, that they warn against listening to it while driving. (If you feel the need to really zone out, there’s a 10-hour version, too.)
The Harvard and Stanford Business Schools recently reported that job stress, by itself, causes more deaths than the flu, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s. While you could turn to prescription (or illicit) drugs or alcohol to attempt to manage stress, Sonos, the wireless streaming music system maker, suggests selfmedicating with music. According to an informal survey conducted by the company, “Music is about 40 percent more effective at reducing stress than exercise, though both are very beneficial.” Along the same lines, in her research
Change Your Playlist, Change Your Life
Photo Getty Images/iStockphoto
SCIENCE
In a 2016 study, Sonos found that, “people who listen to music out loud at home the most spend an additional three hours and 13 minutes per week together with their household members than those who listen out loud the least.”
Sex and the Ditty In early 2016, Sonos conducted an impressively thorough and rigorous global study on the effects of listening to music out loud with others at home called, interestingly enough, “Music Makes it Home.” Of course, you’d expect a company that makes streaming music loudspeakers to find that “Having speakers at home is great!” – but the results were much more interesting and specific than that. To begin with, Sonos discovered that “people who listen to music out loud at home the most spend an additional three hours and 13 minutes per week together with their household members than those who listen out loud the least.” Surprisingly, that’s likely the least exciting statistic in the study. More than eight out of ten participants, for example, believed that doing household chores was easier when listening to music. Half said they enjoyed cooking more with music playing, and the total time members of the household spent together in the kitchen increased by 20 percent. After they began playing music in the home, 43 percent of participants reported
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feeling “extremely loved” – an 87 percent increase from before the music started. You can see where this is going, no doubt. Almost 60 percent of the respondents said that “a person gets more attractive if they’re playing music that they like.” The increased attraction gets results, too. Sonos found that, of the 30,000 households in their global survey, “Couples that listen to music out loud reported that they have 67 percent more sex than their non-music listening counterparts.” To help get your mind around that statistic, Sonos explains it like this: “Say you and your significant other are ‘enjoying each other’s company’ three times a week. Throw on some mood-making Disclosure or Frank Ocean, and now that three might become five.” There’s not only more sex in homes with music – it’s better sex, too. “Of the time they spent together, the couples that fired up Apple Music spent 37 percent more time active in the bedroom than they did without music out loud.” It’s hard to argue with those kinds of numbers; and, really, why would anyone want to?
Zamfir’s Prescription Whether you look at it historically, anthropologically, scientifically, or personally, music has profound, positive effects on the human body and psyche. Continuing research points indicate that music therapy can have better outcomes than prescription drugs on a wide variety of physical and mental problems caused by diseases or traumas. It’s certainly less expensive than most of the alternatives. Most importantly, individuals can practice their own form of music therapy by something as simple as creating or streaming playlists with music that’s appropriate for the desired results. It’s easy to imagine one of our ancestors sitting by the fire blowing through a well-used bird bone flute to entertain and enthrall his or her companions 43,000 years ago in what could be thought of as the original version of Spotify. Today, we have the benefit of more music than we could ever listen to available anytime, anywhere. It’s important not to waste that opportunity by relegating music to the background. Choose your playlists wisely, and you’ll make your life healthier, happier, and, as it turns out, sexier. x
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OUTDOOR TECH
The Worldwide Weather Web
Internet-Connected Home Weather Stations Enable the Measurement of Hyperlocal Meteorological Conditions and Automate WeatherRelated Events in and Around the Home By Dennis Burger
Photo NASA
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OUTDOOR TECH
W
eather geeks in central Alabama don’t get our hopes up when we see a storm on the edge of the radar. We get our fair share of noteworthy weather systems, mind you, but the odds of any one rain shower making it halfway across the state without falling apart are generally not great. On the afternoon of June 28, 2018, though, local meteorological cognoscenti knew to take future radar seriously. There was a rare derecho headed our way – the sort of massive, widespread, long-lived gust front more common to the midwest and plains states. Making this system doubly rare was the fact that it moved from northeast to southwest – perfectly contrary to the normal flow of weather in our region – consuming the entire state like the titular Blob from the schlocky 1958 B movie of the same name. It gobbled up the little community of Eclectic, to the northeast of Montgomery, at 3:54pm local time. It slammed into the northeastern suburbs of the capitol city at 4:25pm. It oozed its way into the downtown area, near the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice, at precisely 4:41. And at every stop along the way, it dropped rain at rates in the neighborhood of nine inches per hour, threw winds at the ground in excess of 30 miles per hour, and knocked temperatures down from the low-to-mid 90s into the upper 60s Fahrenheit in mere minutes. Those details don’t come courtesy of some Rain Man-like memory for all things
meteorological, or even official government data, but rather from to the logs of dozens of privately-owned personal weather stations scattered around central Alabama, nearly all of which collect temperature and rainfall data, many of which also constantly measure wind speed and direction, humidity, dewpoints, and other relevant information. Some even come equipped with live cams that point to whatever clear patch of sky there is to be found in the land of lumbering Loblolly pines.
Measure Locally, Upload Globally Of course, Alabama isn’t unique in this respect. Weather Underground – one of the largest repositories of data collected from personal weather stations – draws information from more than 250,000 such sensor suites around the world, mostly concentrated in eastern Europe and the U.S. Even in the sparsely populated rangelands and prairies of Wyoming, you’d be hard-pressed to go much more than twenty miles in any direction without coming across a personal weather station logging its data to the Weather Underground PWS network on a regular basis. But why? It’s not hard to understand the utility of avid weather watchers like Thomas Jefferson keeping meticulous meteorological diaries in the 18th century, but in an era where official weather measurements are available to anyone with a
With the WeatherHawk 621, a PWS beloved amongst high-end home automation installers, you also get features like built-in automatic heating to stave off freezing moisture in the winter and – perhaps most importantly – dedicated drivers for home automation systems like Control4 (pictured), Crestron, Savant, Vantage, and AMX. Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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OUTDOOR TECH
The Worldwide Weather Web (Left) You can add an additional sensor that measures wind and rainfall accumulation, as you can with the also-popular Netatmo, which focuses just as heavily on indoor air quality as it does outdoor conditions (Right) Weather Underground – one of the largest repositories of data collected from personal weather stations – draws information from more than 250,000 such sensor suites around the world.
mobile phone, why do literally hundreds of thousands of private citizens band together to create a worldwide network of weather data? An Internet of Atmospheric Things, if you will? For some it’s a matter of near necessity, especially for those who live in areas with microclimates, or in rural areas where professionally monitored FAA or National Weather Service weather stations are thin on the ground. If you’re a farmer or gardener who needs to keep track of daily, weekly, or monthly rainfall, after all, it’s probably of little consequence how much of it has fallen at your local airport or military base. What matters is your own hyperlocal weather conditions, and there’s no substitute for measuring them yourself. Especially when you can use your own measurements to automate events in and around the home. You might, for example, interrupt your regular sprinkler schedule if rain has already fallen today, or up your watering schedule if a certain number of days has passed with no measurable precipitation. With a robust enough smart home system, you can also have your thermostat settings adjust to the conditions outside your door, raise and lower shades, turn lights on or off, or anything else you might want to trigger based on the weather. Of course, you could also do much the same by relying on the outdoor temperature sensors that come with many thermostats and other such single-purpose devices. Which raises an interesting question:
What is a Personal Weather Station, Exactly? The fact is that there’s no real hard definition of what counts as a PWS. Some units sold as
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weather stations, like the popular BloomSky, only collect temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and rainfall rate data, although BloomSky does add a built-in webcam to the mix. You can add an additional sensor that measures wind and rainfall accumulation, as you can with the also-popular Netatmo, which focuses just as heavily on indoor air quality as it does outdoor conditions. When most people say “personal weather station,” though, they’re probably thinking of all-in-one scientific sensor suites that generally range in price from $500 to $7,000, which gather weather data from a single multi-sensor chassis. Those data are then transferred – either wired or wirelessly – to an indoor hub or console where they can be viewed, stored on a local computer or web portal, or – if supported – uploaded to web services like the aforementioned Weather Underground PWS network, along with other repositories like pwsweather.com and the über-nerdy Citizen Weather Observer Program. Some weather stations even go further by allowing you to add sensors for additional data, like leaf wetness, along with the temperature, moisture, and salinity of your soil. Of course, “$500 to $7,000” is a pretty steep price range, which raises obvious questions about what, exactly, climbing that mountain of price gets you. It’s mostly a matter of durability and build quality, but in the case of the WeatherHawk 621, a PWS beloved amongst high-end home automation installers, you also get swanky features like built-in automatic heating to stave off freezing moisture in the winter and – perhaps most importantly – dedicated drivers for home automation systems like Control4, Crestron, Savant, Vantage, and
AMX. That’s especially noteworthy given that high-end integration of most weather stations requires the use of generic drivers that rely on external APIs, typically from services like Weather Underground. All of these variables mean that if you’re thinking of installing your own personal weather station, you first need to decide what, exactly, you want to measure and what you want to do with those measurements. When I spoke with Shaunna Donaher, senior lecturer at Emory University in the Department of Environmental Science, about the most important features people should look for, she had this to say: “I think temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, and rainfall total are probably the most important. Weather enthusiasts may also like rain rate, especially during intense downpours. Having indoor temperature and humidity on the display console or app is nice for the sake of comparison, but not required.” But most crucially, she says, “[It’s important to shop for a] personal weather station that is actually measuring the variables and not only pulling them in from nearby official reporting stations, because otherwise you could just look up those stations on your own.” She’s referring in this case to the glut of $40 to $50 “weather stations” available on Amazon and other e-tailers that simply act like the LCD wall-panel equivalent of the weather apps on your smartphone. One other thing to consider if you’re planning on shopping for a weather station is where you’ll install it. Because location matters, especially if meteorological accuracy is what you’re looking for. According to Weather.gov’s guidelines for weather station siting, to get a proper temperature and humidity reading, your
OUTDOOR TECH
The Worldwide Weather Web
The Davis Instruments Vantage Vue Wireless system has passed the Weather Underground’s PWS service’s quality control checks for data validity, sensor integrity, and reasonable agreement with local professional stations consistently enough to earn Gold Star status.
measurements should be taken 1.25 to 2 meters above a level patch of ground that isn’t covered with rocks, concrete, or dark surfaces, and at least two heights away from the nearest object (in other words, if your house is 15 feet tall, your temperature/humidity readings should be taken 30 feet away from the house). Proper wind readings, meanwhile, should be taken 10 meters above the ground at a horizontal distance of 10 times the height of the nearest object likely to obstruct wind flow. If you read the above and thought, “There’s no way!” especially with a single multi-sensor unit, you’re onto something. Personal weather stations are almost never installed to such exacting specifications. Especially when you consider the fact that they often need to be placed with regular maintenance – cleaning, battery changes, etc. – in mind. I spoke with Brian Peters – weather station enthusiast, former warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, and current contributor to WeatherBrains, a popular netcast for Alabama weather geeks – about this, and he had the following perspective: “I know that my observations of wind will probably not be as accurate as [those of local professional weather stations]. And because of the trees on my
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property, I’m probably not getting as complete a mixing of the air, so my temperature observation may be off a trifle. But I knew about all of these limitations going into the installation of my weather station, so I did the best I could.” Even proper placement is no guarantee of accurate measurements, though. I’ve been operating and maintaining four different weather stations on my own property for the better part of a year now, with most of them positioned within a few feet of one another, and their temperature measurements often differ by as much as four degrees Fahrenheit, largely owing to the fact that some are better shielded and ventilated than others. And although three of them are connected to Weather Underground’s PWS network, only one of them – a Davis Instruments Vantage Vue Wireless system – has passed the service’s quality control checks for data validity, sensor integrity, and reasonable agreement with local professional stations consistently enough to earn Gold Star status. But when it comes down to it, Peters says, “my station data are primarily for me, so I can live with them.” In other words, the attitude of your average
weather station operator and enthusiast is similar to that of Richard Feynam, who – when asked about the utility of theoretical physics – compared it to sex: “Sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.” To make that analogy slightly more relevant: yes, personal weather stations can in many cases be put to local use, tying in with smart home systems and triggering automated events like adjusting the thermostat or tweaking your irrigation schedule. Yes, their data can be uploaded to the cloud and aggregated with the data from thousands of other such devices from around the world. And with some effort, you can collect data up to the standards of the National Weather Service. But in the end, that’s not really the point. The real appeal is probably best summed up by Donaher, who put it thusly: “Working with instruments that record weather variables helps bring the weather ‘indoors.’ It gives you a sense of the climate and the changes in climate trends. And perhaps more importantly, it gives you a sense of how those changes in climate can impact your dayto-day life.” x
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ISSUE FOCUS
Intelligent Home
A More Intelligent Smart Home
cyberManor Expands Their Showroom into an Entire House for Next-Level Technology Demonstrations By Michael Heiss
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ISSUE FOCUS
Intelligent Home
H
aving a showroom is very common in the retail world, particularly when complex products for home control, integration, and entertainment are the subject of the display. But, have you ever heard of not just a showroom but a dedicated show house? That’s exactly what Gordon van Zuiden, president of Palo Alto, CA-based cyberManor created when he built his Smart Home Idea House – a 950-square-foot building behind his office, offering a unique display not only of products, but services and integration, as well. The idea of a design house is certainly not new. Sunset Magazine’s Idea Homes concept pioneered this idea, and charities such as LA Philharmonic’s Pasadena Showcase Design House have done them for years, providing custom design firms with a venue to show what they can do in a real-life environment. This type of arrangement along with traditional developer model homes, however, is limited because you’re not in total control of the environment. Indeed, cyberManor had participated in these showcases for many years but felt that to demonstrate to clients what is truly possible with today’s technology, they had to do it themselves.
The Smart Idea House not only showcases products but provides a venue in which to demonstrate how they work and more importantly how they work together. After all, it’s more than just voice control, for example; it’s how all of the devices that are controlled are linked together. It’s how all of these devices can display their status on a unified, easy-to-use dashboard display. At the core of the Smart Home Idea House is a Control4 system that serves as the conductor and mastermind of the building. In a marketplace where voice control from the likes of Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant ecosystems have the attention of the public, the use of Control4 allows the creation of a unique, all-inclusive environment custom fitted to the homeowner. This is something that off-the-shelf DIY products simply cannot replicate. The intelligence systems are personalized for the needs of every family member and allow extensibility to guests and service personnel. What were once called macros (the ability of a remote to trigger multiple events from different products) is taken to a new level here. In the words of van Zuiden, “The object is not only to
show integration of the whole-house control from A to Z, but to create a light bulb moment in the mind of the consumer or prospect so that they leave thinking, “I didn’t know you could do that…Gee, I’m glad somebody told me about this!” Examples of this are the ability to not only initiate simple lighting controls, but to consider the time of day, the use the room is being put to at a given time, and even the preferences of one family member versus another, to create a truly unified scene. This could include the type of music being played and its volume, which rooms the music should be played in, and the position of the blinds. Another example is a “Good Morning” routine that not only sets the lighting but also the sound or video to be played, as well as using a Wi-Fi-connected Moen shower valve set to the temperature preferred by the individual using the system at that time. Even better, the floor in the master bath even has an embedded intelligent electric heater from nVent that sets the proper room temperature in conjunction with the HVAC system. To show that smart home technologies are not limited to the inside of the house, controls are
(Left, Above) cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House is a remodel of a pre-existing garage built in the 1980s. The actual main house (home to cyberManor’s office) was originally built in the 1920s as a schoolhouse. The inside of cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House showcases a collection of connected devices. You can also see some of the few areas where they do have it covered up and then you can see the actual ceiling and what’s in the ceiling. (Above Right) cyberManor President Gordon van Zuiden Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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ISSUE FOCUS
Intelligent Home
A More Intelligent Smart Home
(Top left) A bathroom in cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House where you can see the hose coming down from the spout into the drain. The bathroom is the only room planned to be completely finished out.
provided to monitor water flow and report if there are excessive use patterns that might indicate a leak and even close the water valve if necessary. Infrared outdoor heaters use voice or app-based control to set the proper temperature for cool evenings, and even the outdoor grill can be monitored. When considering a showroom or idea house of this type, one naturally thinks of exquisite furnishings and designer fabrics and wallcoverings. In this case, the opposite is true. Virtually every wall and surface is left uncovered, including
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the ceilings. This shows the workmanship that goes on inside the walls, as well as the control panels and displays on the walls. The Smart Home Idea House demonstrates the planning and craftsmanship that is required to make sure that the electronic components perform to their full capability. Suffice to say, the wiring is done with NASA-like precision. After all, in van Zuiden’s words, “The end result of an installation may be elegant, but it’s equally important to open the hood to show that the work is clean. Otherwise, the finished product simply won’t work.”
ISSUE FOCUS
Intelligent Home
A More Intelligent Smart Home
In conjunction with a Control4 system and other proprietary software, the cyberManor system not only stores solar power in a Sonnen battery backup system, but it also uses a predictive algorithms as well as input data from the National Weather Service to know when there’s a cloudy day ahead.
This is yet another concept that allows designer/installers to show their value in a marketplace where consumers may be tempted to try and do it themselves. To further demonstrate the capabilities that only an installed system can provide, it’s the little touches that matter. The wall mount for the video display has multiple articulation positions, and of course it is motorized. The large ceiling fan in the main room is voice- or touch panel-controlled and more importantly its usage can be synced to whether the ceiling skylight is open or closed. It goes without saying that energy management is of paramount importance – whether it’s heating or cooling, lighting, water temperature control and usage, or electrical consumption. It should come as no surprise that there is an array of solar panels on the Smart Home Idea House
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roof. A unique addition to the total control system, however, is a battery system managed by sonnen. Described in detail on p. 28 in this issue, the sonnen system does more than just store energy produced during the day for use at night. In conjunction with the Control4 system and other proprietary software, the system not only stores power produced by the solar panels but it also uses predictive algorithms as well as input data from the National Weather Service to know when there’s a cloudy day ahead. In that situation, the system knows to charge the batteries at night for use the next day. This means that battery power can be used whenever possible. But, by taking advantage of the time-ofday rating now being instituted by many utility companies, it provides the lowest cost power regardless of the source. Going back to a higher-level view, the goals of cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House are widely applicable, regardless
ISSUE FOCUS
Intelligent Home
A More Intelligent Smart Home
(Top) Custom speaker grills and remotes in cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House. (Right) A TV on the wall is fully motorized and has the subwoofers and other speakers around it inside cyberManor’s Smart Home Idea House
of the showroom or demonstration environment. First, rather than thinking of products and services, it demystifies what makes a smart home a smart home. Don’t view the smart home as a collection of fragmented pieces, but rather make them cohesive. Walk the prospect through the entire system of control security entertainment lighting and energy management. Particularly with voice control systems such as Google Assistant and Alexa constantly appearing in the popular and
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business press, don’t focus on specific manufacturers but rather on the complete ecosystem. Remind people that your job is to get all of these products to play well with one another. Perhaps the easiest way to summarize my visit to the cyberManor Smart Home Idea House is to look at it exactly as it was intended. Think of not having a showroom or show house, but rather presenting a carefully curated museum
and living lab showcasing what’s available today and what will be possible tomorrow. Rather than concentrating on specific products, tell a story that relates to the customer’s everyday life in their own house. “Smart” is an over-used adjective applied to many products, but seeing what one company can do leaves us with the important message that what needs to be “smart” is your pallet of services and the way they can’t be replicated by do-it-yourself products. x
FEATURED
Cover Story
By Charles Warner
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FEATURED
Cover Story
Ring Founder Jamie Siminoff Discusses How His Security-Focused Smart Doorbell Went from Shark Tank Reject to Billion-Dollar Amazon Acquisition Smart home technology has certainly revolutionized the way we look at the home. From garage doors to ovens, it seems that every part of the abode is getting the “smart tech” treatment. And, thanks to Jamie Siminoff, the doorbell is no exception. The creator of the innovative smart camera-enhanced Ring doorbell, Siminoff certainly had a interesting journey into the world of home tech, illustrated perfectly by his 2013 appearance on Shark Tank when the company was still known as “DoorBot.” While Siminoff was attempting to raise an investment of $700,000 with a company valuation of $7 million, every host on the show overlooked the company outside of Kevin O’Leary, whose offer required 10 percent on all sales until the investment was paid off, seven
percent going forward, and five percent of equity in the company. Siminoff rejected the offer, leaving the popular program with nothing to show. However, this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as Siminoff ’s Shark Tank appearance and the company’s growth over the years has led to a $1 billion acquisition this year. In this exclusive interview, Siminoff discusses his fateful Shark Tank appearance, the evolution of smart home tech, and advice for fellow entrepreneurs. Residential Tech Today: Can you tell us briefly about your initial Shark Tank experience and how that affected your trajectory? Jamie Siminoff: So, we’re in the garage and have a tiny bit of money, but really looking back,
it wasn’t much. And I buried it all into this DoorBot and was way over my head in terms of how I thought it was going to take a lot less to get it out there and it ended up being a lot more. So, all of a sudden, we get this opportunity to be on Shark Tank, which for me, was like, “Holy crap!” And when we got on it, we didn’t get a deal which I really needed because we were broke. It aired in November of 2013 as we were about to start shipping DoorBots. That credibility and awareness catapulted us. It gave us amazing sales of the product. It gave us incredible awareness. So, for a little startup in a garage to now be a player in the market and also have some money coming in from the sales side, it’s what allowed us to become Ring. Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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FEATURED
Cover Story
The Lord of the Ring
Ring Alarm integrates smart sensors and motion detectors that send mobile alerts when triggered. Even if the power goes out, a property will still be protected by a 24-hour backup battery. Ring Chime Pro extends a Ring network and amplifies alerts. Ring Spotlight Cam Wired connects to Wi-Fi and streams live HD video and audio.
RT Today: Is it safe to say that you might have gone a different route had you not been on the show? JS: I think it’s safe to say that I probably would have a bankruptcy history if I didn’t bring it on the show. I really mean that, by the way. I think that looking back, I was so over my head because even with all the benefits and all the amazingness of Shark Tank, we still had a lot of trouble and ran into a lot of money issues. So, without that, I don’t think we would have stood a chance. RT Today: Were you frustrated after that point? Did you ever feel like giving up? JS: Every day. I mean, even after we had the benefit of being on the show and getting all that awareness, we really were always tight. The thing that drove me was if I stopped, I was going to go out of business and lose everything I had. I really had no other choice but to just keep going. RT Today: How did your company’s collaboration with Amazon begin? JS: Back in 2013, we were launching DoorBot. The smart home was a new thing and we were one of the early, not players in terms of size, but players in terms of new entrance. And so the people we talked to at Amazon were on a much higher level. Through that we ended up meeting the
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corporate development people. I started talking to them when I launched Ring. I went and showed them Ring before we actually officially launched it. So, I kept this relationship going, and we saw the huge rise of Alexa. We wanted to work with Alexa. So we started talking to them about that and we started growing obviously, so Amazon wanted to work with us and we ended up working together for about four years. Really learning that we both liked each other’s culture and that we were in very similar terms of how we did business, how we did things together. At some point they said, “Listen, we’d love to join forces.” And I said, “Absolutely.” I mean, I think Amazon is the place that we can really take this thing to the next level. And still, I wasn’t looking for myself personally to get out of something. I wanted to stay and keep doing it. And Amazon was 100 percent behind us, saying, “Yeah, it’s your business, keep going.” And so it’s been a great thing since and it was the right decision I needed to make in terms that were very much around our mission of reducing crime in neighborhoods here. And Amazon bought into that mission and it allowed us to continue to execute on it. RT Today: Can you briefly touch on that as far as security and crime and how important that was to your mission? JS: I mean, from when my wife said this makes her feel safer at home, that is truly when I
realized this is not just making a doorbell cooler for a guy in a garage. This is something that has transformed that experience into something completely different. It doesn’t just make her feel safer at home. It stops a crime from happening before it occurs and that’s different than any other product on the market. And that was when we came up with this mission of reducing crime in neighborhoods, by actually stopping – not finding the crime, not reporting the crime – but actually reducing it by stopping it before it happens. Again, I think that was the biggest invention of the whole thing. And it happened very quickly, we came up with that and that’s what really drove us the whole time to go with this business and it has driven our roadmap for every product that we do. And it has kept us focused. And it really is the thing that drives the business. RT Today: With more smart doorbells coming into market, what is Ring doing to stay ahead of the game? JS: Smart doorbells have been coming out since we showed early success with it. There’s been a number of people that have tried to enter the market. So far no one has been successful at it. We just stay focused on delivering to, we call our customers “neighbors.” We just stay focused on delivering our neighbors effective and affordable security through our products and services. And that’s it. That’s our focus.
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“ So, for a little startup in a garage to now be a player in the market and also have some money coming in from the sales side, it’s what allowed us to become Ring.”
So, whatever else happens in the market to me is just noise. We’re here to make neighborhoods safer for our neighbors, and we believe if we keep doing that, we will be rewarded with their business. And so far, it seems, that’s what’s happened. RT Today: How have you seen the smart home industry develop since you first entered? JS: When I was developing this product in my garage and NEST announced their thermostat, I was one of the first 100 people to buy it and Matt Rogers, who’s the co-founder of NEST, emailed me saying, “Hey, would you work with our installation service so that we can learn if it works or not?” And then when I got the NEST, I was supposed to call the installation service, but I was so excited that I just put it in. I wrote him back and said, “Hey, you did such a good job that I just installed it myself.” And then all of a sudden everybody was a smart home manufacturer. So, you have a bazillion companies out there and everyone had a doorbell. I’d say in the last two years, what we’ve seen is most of those companies, because I think they weren’t trying to solve a legitimate problem – I think they were just trying to build technology for technology’s sake – most of them have ended up where they should, which is in the graveyard.
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And now what you see is that second evolution of the smart home. Because a year and a half or two years ago people said, “The smart home’s dead.” There are all these things that came through. And I said, “The smart home’s dead. Long live the smart home.” I said it’s going to be the products that actually make your life better, that use technology to make your life better, and not use technology to sell technology. I think that’s exactly what happened, which is now, the products and the companies that have stayed around and gotten bigger like Ring focused on the customer experience, and they’re flourishing. RT Today: I think I saw a statistic that people are 80 percent more likely to purchase a home that has smart home technology inside it. Do you partner with any integrators or any other platforms out there? JS: I think out of the top 10 home builders, I think something like 60 percent have a Ring in every home. So, we are definitely there. I think the misnomer is they take integration and smart home as the same thing. They have a Sonos app and they use that for their music, so they play on their Sonos. And then they have a Ring app and Ring is for security. And then maybe they have something like Alexa and use that. So, tying them together for the sake of tying them together, it does not necessarily make a
smarter home. I think 2019 will be a big year for how we allow Ring to integrate into some of these better platforms like Alexa and some others in order to have these integrations where it does the customer good to have those natively in the system. But overall, I think the concept is that everything has to be integrated. If you watch how people really do use smart devices, they are typically using the native app for those devices. RT Today: What advice would you give to someone who aspires to enter the entrepreneurial world? JS: It’s so easy to fall in love with a new technology that doesn’t benefit anyone, and therefore it crashes to the ground. I think you really need to look at what true human problem you are solving and work on that. I think if you look at the people that are focused on those things, they have done well in this space. If you look at the ones that failed, most of them have because they were so focused on all the features and tech and the things they’re doing, how excited they were of how their product was “better than everything else.” But for a customer, they need a true benefit. If they’re going to reward you with their business, they need to know a benefit for that product. And the benefit is not, in most cases, just a better feature or a better bandwidth or a faster processor, it’s what the product does for you. x
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CLIENT RELATIONS
Discovering a Client’s Unspoken Need The World of Home Technology and Custom Integration is More About Relationships, Listening, and Problem Solving Than it is About Selling a Cool Gadget By Jamie Briesemeister | Photos courtesy of Integration Controls Most people are surprised when I tell them that my first career was as a speech-language pathologist, working with children who had language delays and disorders. Owning a home automation and technology company is a far cry This client did not want a “smart home” because she felt it meant everything had to be managed by a smart phone/tablet. She didn’t know that keypads existed, which allowed for “smart lighting control,” instead of the numerous switches that she was used to operating.
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from working with children who are struggling to communicate. My current role as a home technology provider, however, is ironically similar: determining what my clients want or need when they don’t have the words for it.
The world of home technology and custom integration is more about relationships, listening, and problem solving than it is about selling a cool gadget. Or rather, I feel it should be more than pushing the next cool “thing.”
CLIENT RELATIONS
Our client was disappointed by how in-ceiling speakers would affect her ceiling plan, and she asked for us to leave them out. Instead of blindly listening, we asked more questions, posed alternate options, and ended up supplying invisible speakers (built into the drywall ceiling) instead. She’s so happy that she can play music in her kitchen, and it has become her number-one question for guests: “Can you find the speakers in the room?”
CLIENT RELATIONS
Discovering a Client’s Unspoken Need
For many homeowners, all they can think of when it comes to “surround sound” are big bulky speakers. Alternatively, surround sound systems can be discrete and highperforming at the same time.
When our sales focus – or design intent – is built around the next new, shiny object (or trend, technology, or whatever), we lose focus on our clients’ priorities and may miss the mark when we suggest a possible solution, product, or design. Instead, we need to ask more questions, listen deeply, and dig further into our clients’ wants and needs. Most people don’t know exactly what they want, nor do they know all that’s available to them. A television commercial, a visit to a friend’s vacation home, a stroll through a big box retailer, or a show on HGTV can be all that it takes to plant the seed of “I want that, too.” But, do our clients know how to articulate what will fulfill their needs? Is the product they saw on TV or in the store the right one for them? As design-minded solution providers, it’s our mission to figure this out. We must read
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between the lines and discover their unspoken need.
Start by Discovering More I have a project with a couple, one of whom recently said, “Just because I like it quiet, doesn’t mean I like it silent. Just because I say I don’t watch TV, doesn’t mean I never watch TV.” You may think to yourself, “So, what the heck do you really want, then?” Stop right there before you get too frustrated and remember that the client doesn’t know what you know, and they may not know how to request what you have to offer. Instead of putting the onus on them to clearly spell out their needs, ask specific questions, such as: “Can you tell me more about what it means to you to have a ‘quiet’ home?” “What comforts you about a quiet home?
Conversely, when you think of a ‘loud’ home, what does that look like?” “When you do watch something, what do you watch it on? Tablet, computer, mobile device…” “What kinds of websites or media are you interested in consuming (podcasts, YouTube, documentaries) and on what devices?” “What, specifically, do you not enjoy about television?” All of these questions dig deeper, beyond simple one-word responses that we often get from our clients. Keep your questions open, friendly, and specific to dial in on their interests. Get clarity, and then polish until the vision is crystal clear. Here’s another comment that I typically get in sales: “I just want it to be simple.” Nearly any
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Discovering a Client’s Unspoken Need
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CLIENT RELATIONS
Do our clients know how to articulate what will fulfill their needs? Is the product they saw on TV or in the store the right one for them?
home technology integrator looks at what they have to offer as simplifying the technology experience for clients, so what does it mean to be “simple?” Does simple mean more of a streamlined aesthetic and unified interface (i.e. it looks simple)? Or does it mean a “button” that does everything for them (i.e. it is simple to activate)? Perhaps it means that it is simple in cost and doesn’t need any custom technology to make it work well (i.e. native apps for smart devices and no custom integration). Maybe it means they want a simple installation (i.e. no dust-no fuss). When you feel you have discovered the intent and understand their interests, ensure you have captured all of the details by restating and reframing. “I understand that you want this to work as simply as possible. What I hear from you is that you want one ‘button’ that
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accomplishes all of your tasks. Is that correct?” It may take a short or lengthy conversation to fully dial in on the details and we, as salespeople and design consultants, should provide the time to fully identify their needs. Sometimes, trying to define “simple,” isn’t so… simple.
Listen to the Non-Words If a picture is worth a thousand words, crossed arms, a non-verbal pause, a sigh, or a sideways glance are worth a thousand dollars (or more). Being in tune with your client allows you to “hear” what they aren’t saying (little hesitations or sparks of delight) and use it your advantage in developing the best solution and, subsequently, closing the deal. Can you hear when she doesn’t like something and he is really gunning for it? What about when she loves your high-end automated shades, and he doesn’t want to pay
for it? Or, those times when he is interested in the best performance, but his partner hates how it looks? Nonverbal communication happens in an instant and requires that you have the perceptual ability to “hear” and “read” all of the nonverbal cues that are around you. If your sales tools are developed to use technology, then ensure more of your time is spent making eye contact and focusing on your client, instead of looking at your screen. Otherwise, you may miss something along the way. Discover, get clarity, and be aware of the nonverbal messages around you. You will have more success when you slow down and listen intently. Consider all viewpoints and needs of the system, ask probing questions, and pay attention to your clients’ quiet cues. Their unspoken need is present. Can you hear it? x
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ENTERTAINMENT
IMAX Enhanced Home Theater Takes a Bow New Certification Program Promises to Bring Home the High-Quality Audio and Video Experience of the Popular Movie Theater Format By Greg Tarr IMAX movie theaters have long been known for their uniquely up-close and immersive sightand-sound experience. They present images shot in such a way that they make audiences feel they are both physically and emotionally participating in the action on the screen.
OLED series; and the X900F 4K LED-LCD TV series. Also certified are 2018 native 4K SXRD projectors including the VW995ES, VW5000ES, VW695ES, VW250ES, VPLVW285ES, VPL-VW385ES, VPL-VW885ES, and VPL-VZ1000ES.
Unfortunately, much of the thrill experienced in those theaters is lost when IMAX-produced content is packaged for playback on smaller home theater screens and sound systems.
In home theater audio, like Sound United’s new high-end Denon AV receivers AVRX6500H and AVR-X4500H due in October and the Marantz AV7705 will be DTS Enhanced using a variant of DTS:X developed for the IMAX Enhanced program. Interestingly, parent company Sound United said it will be offering IMAX Enhanced support to various qualifying products via a free internet-delivered software update starting in the fall and concluding in early 2019.
At the recent CEDIA Expo, a new certification and licensing program put together through a partnership between IMAX and Xperi’s DTS called “IMAX Enhanced Certification” was unveiled with the promise of changing that. The IMAX Enhanced program combines select high-end consumer electronics products with IMAX digitally re-mastered 4K HDR content and advanced DTS audio technologies to offer seemingly large-as-life immersive experiences at home. The first licensed partners in the program include Sony Electronics, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sound United. To be selected as a program partner, the manufacturers must design home theater equipment “to meet a carefully prescribed set of the highest audio and video performance standards, set by a certification committee of IMAX and DTS engineers and Hollywood’s leading technical specialists,” according IMAX’s statement announcing the IMAX Enhanced program launch. The first IMAX Enhanced certified products appeared at this year’s CEDIA Expo and include top-end Sony Bravia 4K OLED and 4K Ultra HD LED-LCD TVs, including the Master Series A9F and Z9F models; the A8F and A1E 4K
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IMAX Enhanced content is specially produced to work with this new equipment for the best pictures and sound, although the enhancements made to the gear will help non-IMAX Enhanced content look and sound better, as well. IMAX Enhanced products will have an “IMAX Mode” to optimize forthcoming specially produced IMAX Enhanced content to the standards originally intended by the filmmaker. In fact, IMAX executives said the program works with content creators to assure those standards are met. The IMAX Enhanced program has “four pillars” supporting both specially remastered IMAX content
and the equipment needed to play it back at home. These include the following: • Remastered video using IMAX’s proprietary Digital Media Remastering (DMR) process originally developed for upconverting traditional 35mm films to the 70mm IMAX theater format. The vast majority of movies shown in IMAX theaters today are DMR films. • An enhanced aspect ratio from the 70mm masters that IMAX creates by adjusting and cropping frames to preserve as much of the frame as possible on 16:9 configured home theater displays. The company stresses, this is not pan and scan. It’s much better. For comparison, many 35mm movies and features shot on video today conform to the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. This requires black bars at the top and bottom of the television screen. IMAX Enhanced images will be more squarely configured and should fill the screen without bars framing the image.
A CEDIA Expo 2018 panel on IMAX Enhanced featured Residential Tech Today Executive Editor Jeremy Glowacki, IMAX Senior VP Bruce Markoe, Xperi EVP Kevin Doohan, Sony Chief Distinguished Engineer Toshi Ogura, and Sound United CEO Kevin Duffy.
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ENTERTAINMENT
IMAX Enhanced Home Theater Takes a Bow The first IMAX Enhanced certified products appeared at this year’s CEDIA Expo and include top-end Sony Bravia 4K OLED and 4K Ultra HD LED-LCD TVs, including the Master Series A9F and Z9F models, the A8F and A1E 4K OLED series, and the X900F 4K LED-LCD TV series. Also certified are 2018 native 4K SXRD projectors including the VW995ES, VW5000ES, VW695ES, and the VW250ES.
• A special DTS:X 3D audio soundtrack that has been developed to match as closely as possible the immense surround sound experience produced in IMAX theater speakers. The theaters are famous for making every seat the “sweet spot.” If the promise is delivered, surround sound should include dialog and other effects that appear to come directly from the screen, just as they do from large rear-screen center speakers in an IMAX theater. • IMAX-exclusive content, presented through the IMAX Mode on IMAX Enhanced Certified equipment, will be a big part of the experience. A small library of feature films today are shot on 70mm IMAX cameras, but influential filmmakers like Christopher Nolan are shooting more and more of their projects with 70mm IMAX cameras. Some two-thirds of the shots used in the box office hit Dunkirk used 70mm footage, as compared to one third of the footage in Nolan’s earlier landmark The Dark Knight Rises. Coming soon, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and it’s upcoming sequel are to be the first major motion pictures shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Further, there is the large library of 70mm documentaries shot expressly for IMAX. These will require less drastic remastering for IMAX Enhanced home entertainment and should produce exceptional picture quality from these high-end television sets.
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about how to present HDR because their theater screens and projectors are designed for images that are much brighter than those seen in traditional cinemas. In this process, IMAX realized that very bright pictures produce more visible image noise and film grain. IMAX had to develop special processing systems to clean that up, and this technology will be applied – with the filmmakers’ cooperation–to IMAX Enhanced images. This is intended to make the look brighter (when called for), sharper, and more realistic. According to IMAX Senior VP of Post Production, DMR, and Operations Bruce Marco, “DMR is basically a noise-frame reduction technology that we use in addition to color tools to enhance the images we show in our theaters to compensate for these larger screens. Otherwise, the image would actually look worse, because our screens are so big, and with that extra brightness, grain and noise are magnified. We have a new generation of technology that we are using under this program to manage those noise and grain issues, and it works wonders in the high dynamic range mastering process because it really gives the filmmakers and the studios full control to optimize the process for HDR.”
Importantly, IMAX executives said IMAX Enhanced content has been remastered to take advantage of the high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities of today’s premium displays to present the elevated levels of brightness and contrast with intensity and clarity.
In optimizing sound for the home, IMAX theaters use 5.0, 11.0, or 12.0 format setups, with a “roll-off ” subwoofer, instead of a discrete sub, Marco said. They also use “point-source surrounds,” which he described as “more of what you have in a consumer’s home” than conventional cinemas. IMAX turned to DTS to help translate that theatrical experience over to home theater gear.
IMAX engineers said they know a great deal
“DTS is able to perform at the highest levels,
Residential Tech Today | Nov/Dec 2018
and with the DTS:X codec you can have many different speaker configurations and the sound will still be quite impressive,” explained Kevin Doohan, Xperi/DTS CMO and executive VP. Of course, in adapting IMAX to the home, capturing the whole experience will be limited by the necessary geometrical differences of the home theater space, as well as each component’s ability to achieve all of the sound and picture parameters. IMAX Enhanced will ensure that the experience is reproduced in the best way possible within the capabilities of each supporting device. Although the experience will be best presented using IMAX Enhanced content on IMAX Enhanced components for every link in the chain, that content will also play back on non-IMAX Enhanced certified products, and viewers will very likely benefit from some quality improvements as well, up to the maximum capabilities of those devices, IMAX executives said. Additionally, non-IMAX Enhanced content should look and sound better over IMAX Enhanced electronic components, because they will all be premium-level products tweaked to some of the most demanding specifications in the theatrical industry. As for the “certification” portion of the program, IMAX Enhanced is also a marketing tool that follows a line of standards certification programs, like those from THX, Dolby, the Ultra HD Alliance, and others. In most cases, these are all designed to carry a badge intended to help the consumer identify equipment capable of “the best” experience the industry has to offer. Of course, the consumer will ultimately be the best judge of that. But IMAX benefitting from its decades of very big-screen expertise will be flashing a pretty bright marketing beacon in retail showrooms. “There is a standard used for all our theaters that is unlike those used for any other movie theaters,” Marco explained. “Our theaters are all built with the same or similar geometry, the same proprietary projection systems and sound systems, so there is a very high-quality level of experience that people have come to expect and are willing to pay more for, because IMAX costs more.” x
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PRODUCT REVOLUTION
The latest Control4 OS, version 2.10.4, expands music streaming with the addition of Amazon Music and Deezer HiFi to its streaming integrations and hands-on personalization choices for homeowners with new native streaming services. Additionally, When >> Then capability delivers hands-on personalization, empowering homeowners to adjust certain functionality of their smart home systems independently, without the involvement of a dealer. Price TBA JBL Synthesis’ new range of subwoofers offers three models, the SSW-2, SSW-3, and SSW-4. All models in the SSW series will complement the JBL Synthesis range of SCL in-wall loudspeakers and are designed for installation into standard 2x4 and 2x6 construction respectively. As the highest performance model of the three, the SSW-2 features a cabinet that is designed to be placed inroom, built-in to custom cabinetry, or hidden behind fabric walls and video projection screens. Prices TBA
The new Home Cinema 4010 leverages Epson’s new, proprietary 4K PRO-UHD technology, which features an enhanced version of Epson’s advanced pixel-shifting, resolution-enhancement technology, along with an expansive DCI-P3 color gamut, high dynamic range, and 100 percent balanced color brightness. The 4010 is powered by Epson’s new 4K PRO-UHD optical engine that generates high color brightness and white brightness, color accuracy, and contrast with HDR10. $1,999 MSRP
Kaleidescape has introduced a movie service designed for luxury yachts and superyachts. The company has licensed approximately 10,000 titles from major Hollywood motion picture studios that can be purchased for delivery either on a new Kaleidescape system or on an encrypted USB hard drive for updating an existing Kaleidescape system. With the service available later this year, customers can select from and purchase movie titles on the same dates the titles are made available to local customers in key territories throughout the world. Price TBA
Brilliant replaces any existing light switch to give touch and voice control over smart home devices—from lights, music, climate, locks, and doorbells to whatever comes next. With Amazon Alexa built in, Brilliant enables voice control in any room without the need for voice appliances. Installing Brilliant is designed to be as easy as installing a light switch and takes just minutes with no additional wiring, modifications, or remote servers required. Brilliant will then evolve with the home and add support for new devices over the air. Starting at $299
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PRODUCT REVOLUTION HARMAN’s Mark Levinson has introduced the first two models from the new 5000 series, the Nº 5805 and Nº 5802 integrated amplifiers. The foundation of the Nº 5805 is its patent-pending, fully discrete, directcoupled, dual-monaural line-level preamp circuitry. Each of its three stereo line level inputs—one balanced XLR and two single-ended, using custom Mark Levinson RCA connectors—has its own individual high-reliability signal switching relays. $8,500 (Nº5805) and $7,000 (Nº5802)
The new Klipsch Heritage Theater Bar is a passive LCR, horn loaded sound bar that blends the acoustics and classic, nostalgic design legacy of founder Paul W. Klipsch with the most premium materials and latest technologies available today. The Heritage Theater Bar is fully customizable in width (49.5 inches to 80 inches), wood finish, and grille cloth to match any interior design requirement. A standard “quick-ship” 49.5-inch model is also available and designed to match most 55-inch televisions. From $2,199 - $2,999 AudioControl’s made-in-USA 70-volt amplifier solutions, delivering 750 watts per channel (all-channels-driven), enable integrators to deliver superior quality entertainment content through a large number of speakers connected to each output—addressing nearly any system configuration. This flexibility is particularly useful to integrators when assembling a premium outdoor audio system as well as a large variety of residential and commercial audio/video applications. Price TBA McIntosh’s new line of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers are fully enclosed to provide air sealing, including a controlled air chamber to minimize distortion and response irregularities. They all feature newly designed shallow woofers that fit in standard 2x4 wall construction. The woofers utilize a long-throw, high-power design with molded carbon reinforced cones with molded elastomeric surrounds for high linearity. The 2-inch midranges and three-quarter-inch tweeters are the same drivers used in the company’s XR50 and XR100 home audio speakers. Price TBA MantelMount’s SmartMount MM850 fully automated, full-motion TV mount offers several enhancements over its predecessor, including smoother operation and integration with more home automation hubs. Wired, built-in Ethernet enables a true “plug and play” set-up process for installers and allows customers to easily download software updates. Dual Electronic Actuators supply the “muscle” to adjust the mount’s vertical and horizontal positions, while the Favorite TV Position Memory feature lets users store up to six preset positions. $1,999
Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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PRODUCT REVOLUTION
Two new ELAN touch panels leverage face recognition and advanced motion analytics from Nortek Security and Control’s IntelliVision to enable the panels to respond to individual users with personalized options. The dual digital MEMS microphone-array provides voice control for the ELAN system, with flexibility that lets users choose their preferred voice interface without needing to fill the house with voice assistant hardware. Two-way audio and video enables communication with the video doorbell, paging, and ELAN Intercom. Prices TBA
Savant has introduced a suite of entry solutions enabling Savant homeowners to see and communicate with anyone who approaches an entry point such as the front door, side door, garage, gate, etc., all accessible from within a single app—the same award-winning Savant Pro 8 interface that they use today. As part of Savant’s latest groundbreaking 8.9 software and hardware release, Savant’s Entry solution enables homeowners to receive notifications within the Savant Pro App’s secure encrypted cloud connection. Price TBA
Simaudio’s new MOON 390 all-in-one network player features a DAC, preamplifier, headphone amplifier, phono stage, and network streaming capability. It is designed to deliver an outstanding highresolution streaming experience through music services such as Tidal, Quobuz, and Deezer. The DAC architecture supports PCM (up to 32-bit/384kHz), DSD (up to DSD256) and is MQA-certified. It is also Roon ready and has Bluetooth aptX HD connectivity. $5,300
Metra Home Theater Group’s Ethereal HDM-GA2 Gigabit Accelerator allows an existing passive HDMI cable to be used for a 4K+ upgrade to a home theater system. It is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and transforms existing hard-wired passive HDMI cables by expanding their bandwidth capability to 18Gbps for up to 20 meters and an expected capability of 48Gbps for up to 9-plus meters. Price TBA
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PRODUCT REVOLUTION
SunBriteTV, a SnapAV brand, has redesigned and re-engineered its Veranda Series of outdoor televisions with full HDR support, a significantly brighter screen, IP control, and plug-and-play compatibility for SunBrite outdoor soundbars. Like the original Veranda series, the new line is weatherproof, comes with a premium direct-lit 4K UHD screen and is designed for permanent outdoor installation in full-shade areas. In addition to performance improvements, the new Veranda also showcases a sleeker, more contemporary look. Price TBA
Electric Mirror’s Savvy Home SmartMirror is the residential counterpart to the company’s hospitality-market smart mirror. With home automation leaders like Nest and Control 4, social media mainstays such as Twitter and Instagram, and music and entertainment favorites like Spotify and Netflix, homeowners can install as many apps as they’d like, and link their favorites to the Savvy dashboard icons so they’re never more than a touch away. Consumers can call up the app they want when they want it, without taking up the entire mirror. Price TBA
The Spider Plug by Smart Home Devices and Lomiko Metals is the perfect outlet attachment for your smart home. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast with multiple devices or each member of your family has a device of their own, most people understand how frustrating it can be to share a charger. But, with the Spider Plug, it’s easy to charge multiple devices at any time. With six USB ports along that don’t take away from the electrical outlets, the Spider Plug is the ideal attachment for any 21st century abode. Price TBA The new Seasons Bollard loudspeaker from Origin Acoustics was designed to produce bass response from individual outdoor speakers in a more attractive aesthetic. Each Bollard has its own 6.5-inch sub in the base of each enclosure. Burying the small sub base in the ground, the larger portion of the enclosure is hidden from sight. The upper structure is a round enclosure design, housing the 4-inch mid/high frequency transducer 18 inches above the ground. The mid/ high frequency driver is down firing and reflects off of an acoustic lens that can be omnidirectional or limited to 180 degrees. $1,750
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Smart home technology has come full circle. C by GE Sol. The all-in-one smart lamp with a personal voice assistant inside. Learn more at CbyGE.com.
ART & TECH
Creating Sculptures with a Voice
Leon Speakers Continues Sonos Partnership with New Repeatable ‘Custom’ Speakers By Anthony Leo For more than 20 years, a team of artists, designers, engineers, and craftsmen at Leon Speakers have been meticulously handcrafting a full palette of custom speakers and technology treatments for both residential and commercial spaces. The Ann Arbor, MI-based manufacturer of high-end custom audio products is now doubling down on its vision of mixing art with audio and design with technology through an expanded partnership with Sonos and relationships with well-known artists. Among the new products are a collection of Sound Sculptures that were developed after the company’s Lena Sound Sculpture won a
prestigious BORN Award this past Spring in the Home category. This new Sound Sculpture line incorporates the new Sonos Amp, Leon’s Ultima speakers, and backlighting in a production-ready unit that will be available with a variety of standard sizes, designs, and pricing.
“We presented a lot of conceptual designs, but they gravitated toward our Sound Sculpture concept,” Kaplan said. “However, the original design for our Sound Sculpture and our Aura Tile products were not plug and play—an amplifier had to be remotely located.”
“As a Lifestyle Partner for Sonos, we integrate style with their amazing technology and products,” said Noah Kaplan, Leon’s president and founder.
In streamlining these products, Leon went back to its Tone Case line, which remains a huge success for Sonos. “People really seem to like adding style to their Sonos speakers, and Sonos has become synonymous with how people like to listen to music wirelessly,” Kaplan recalled. “I wanted to make the same Tone Case system for the Amp but to really elevate the concept. I
Although Sonos knows that its Amp may end up stacked out of sight inside an equipment rack, they also wanted to explore more ways to bring it to the foreground, Kaplan noted.
Leon’s new Sound Sculptures (pictured from two different angles at CEDIA Expo 2018) now incorporate Sonos Amp for a more repeatable product line.
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think of the new Sound Sculpture as the grandest of Tone Cases.” Leon’s new design makes the Sound Sculpture a repeatable, plug-and-play product that’s easy for the consumer to buy and easy for the dealer or end user to install. The Sound Sculpture now consists of two Aura Tile framework pieces housing the two Leon Ultima speakers, a single Amp, and a lighting kit, all covered by magnetically removable sculptural, wooden grille.
Leon has expanded its Tone Case concept to incorporate the Sonos Amp in creative ways.
Leon’s Aura Tile is now also powered by a Sonos Amp, serving as an entry-level or “shadowbox” to hold technology. Each Tile features limited-edition artwork on the outside and a frame on the inside that houses a Sonos Amp, the speakers, lighting, and optional voice control. “I wanted it to be your new stereo. The Aura has become a modern boombox, but because I come from the art world, I wanted to play on the idea of scarcity, customization, and style,” Kaplan said. “You’ll be able to change out the artwork on your Aura Tiles. Now all you need is one plug and two screws to hang it on the wall. The plug has a braided cord, so if you wanted to [leave it exposed], it still looks cool. Three well-known artists have been commissioned to do limited edition artwork for the Aura Tiles.
Leon’s Aura Tile is now also powered by a Sonos Amp, serving as an entry-level or “shadowbox” to hold technology. Each Tile features limited-edition artwork on the outside.
“I wanted the framework technology behind both of these products to last a long time, but to be iterative,” Kaplan said. “The frame and the speakers are the things that will never die. But I wanted the art and the technology to be completely interchangeable. If Sonos develops a new piece in five years, you can pop out the old one and put it in the framework.” x Nov/Dec 2018 | Residential Tech Today
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MEET-UP
Events
NOVEMBER 2-4
Capital Audio Fest, Rockville, MD
6-7
Smart Home Summit (KNECT 365 Series), Burlingame, CA
8
Anixter Teeing Up Technology Training & Expo, Orlando, FL
ÂŽ
8
4-5
Impact>Cities, Las Vegas, NV
Coming Up
ISSUES
COMING
From Residential Tech Today
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14-16
15
8-11
15-17
GREENBUILD Expo + Solar Power International, Chicago, IL
JANUARY
DECEMBER
CEDIA Outreach Instructor (COI) Train the Trainer Course, New York, NY
CES 2019, Las Vegas, NV
Arizona Technology & Business Summit, Mesa, AZ
Alexa Conference 2019, Chattanooga, TN
ISSUE 3:
ISSUE 4:
The Network Ecosphere. Now, more than ever, it’s essential that home networks provide both wired and wireless accommodations to create the best service for the end-user customer as an increasing number of intelligent devices are added every year.
The Power of Power. The electrical infrastructure of the home is more complicated than it used to be, with line noise, grounding challenges, and complications to the way power distribution and routing can be tackled according to the National Electrical Code.
ISSUE 6: ISSUE 5: The Commercial Crossover. With the Googlefication of the workplace, more and more corporate office environments are reflecting the same technologies found in the most advanced intelligent homes.
How Remote is Remote? The evolution of home control technology has involved not only voice integration and cloud-based infrastructure, but the incorporation of new security technologies and in-home health monitoring to allow an aging population to remain in their residences longer and more safely.
conference SPONSORED BY
AMAZON
january 15-17 chattanooga convention center c h at ta n o o g a , T e n n es s e e
www.voicefirst.fm/alexaconference HOME OF THE ALEXA WORLD FAIR AND THE ALEXA AWARDS
USE PROMO CODE ITTALEXA2019 TO SAVE 25% ON REGISTRATION
RELAX
The Lighter Side
Did Pop Culture Predict Connected Tech? By Anthony Elio
Popular culture influences us in a number of ways, from what we wear to how we act to even the various catchphrases we use every day. Which I personally find shagadelic, baby. But, with all of its influence, can popular culture predict the future? Many people are aware of these pop culture “predictions” – Back to the Future 2 had a functioning hoverboard, 30 Rock featured a sandwich eerily similar to the KFC Double Down years before it was released, and The Simpsons predicted the election of that one guy that I don’t want to write about and you don’t want to read about. But has popular culture also given us a crystal ball into the realm of connected technology? Let’s see if fiction can, in fact, predict our connected future.
Rosie Becomes A Reality
Only 90s Kids Will Remember
For decades, humans have dreamed of creating sentient beings of high intelligence and masterful engineering – so that we can force them to do meaningless tasks around the home. Possibly the most iconic example of this is Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons, whom the family seemed to have in a constant state of vacuuming. Well, it looks like The Jetsons were ahead of the curve, as Amazon is supposedly working on their very own Rosie-like robot project by the name of Vesta. However, Vesta might have gotten a better deal, as unlike the Jetsons, Amazon isn’t known for exploiting their employees. Photo ©Hanna-Barbera Photo Disney
1968: A Tablet Odyssey In 2010, Apple introduced the iPad, effectively reigning in the era of tablets. For the uninitiated, tablets are basically laptop computers, but without the false idea that you might get any work done. But while they are quite commonplace today, did you know that we got an initial glimpse over forty years before the iPad released? Yes, Stanley Kubrick, the director of such lighthearted romps as The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, featured tablets in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. This isn’t even Kubrick’s first major prediction, as The Shining predicted my last stay at the Holiday Inn.
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Back in the simple time of 1999, a young, plucky company by the name of Disney released the Disney Channel original movie Smart House. The film, which starred Katey Sagal and nobody else with a noteworthy IMDb page, featured a single parent (in Disney, no way!) raising a family that wins a contest to live in a smart tech-enhanced home. Some wacky shenanigans ensue, including a radical 90s party, a strict hologram housewife, and eventually the smart house locking down and holding the family prisoner. Ahh, the magic of Disney.
Schwarzenegger’s Self-Driving Car While they still seem decades away, self-driving cars are here and they’re likely only going to grow with time. But while these vehicles are now a reality, you may have already seen them nearly thirty years Photo TriStar Pictures via YouTube ago in a goofy Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that’s an absolute product of its time. No, not Batman and Robin. Or Jingle All the Way. Or Junior. In Total Recall, citizens are driven around in Johnny Cabs, automated vehicles that take citizens to their destinations. The only drawback? The cabs are inhabited by creepily uncanny robotic drivers whose mouths and eyes don’t match what they’re saying. I’ll stick to my judgemental Uber driver, thank you very much.
Turn lights to makeup mode. Okay.
Turn lights to makeup mode. Okay.
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