Despite the success some have had with this, I would like to submit a list of 7 thing adding an “i” in front of will never make cool.

1) iSandusky- (Yes, I’m comin’ out of the gate hard.)  Come on. Really.  You admit readily to hugging boys in the shower and like touching their legs and you’re not a pedophile?  If anyone needs a Goodfellas style baseball bat beating it’s this guy.  He will have an “i” in front of his name soon.  The “i” is for “inmate”.

2) iPocket Protector- I don’t care if it has a built in dock to charge your iPhone and sync it to video projection glasses with personal headphones and phsycho-acoustic surround sound.  I’m not buying it, the legacy is just too strong, even with an “i” prefix.

3) iGrape Nuts- Sorry Post!  Even Honey Bunches of Oats is cooler than Grape Nuts.  Any cereal that becomes the staple of people over 80 is probably not going to achieve an X-Games Era following.  Overheard- Anytime I think about eating Grape Nuts I go take a bite out of a pine cone instead.  “i” don’t think so.

4) iDepends- No explanation necessary.  I wonder though if Depends will follow Huggies lead though and start making fashion prints.  Nothing is cooler than an old guy at the pool wearing nothing but a faux corduroy print adult diaper. “i” am sick now.

5) iAmish Beard-  If you are going to have facial hair, let’s please include the mustache.  Going without is a bit strange, like the guy who shaves his arms, legs, and chest and then leaves a forest at his belly button, (yes, I have issues).  A beard without a mustache is just ugly, someone shot Lincoln for that I think. . .

6) iAccordian- Even squeezing the large bladder of a bagpipe under your arm while squinting and blowing into an unnaturally long wind pipe has more appeal than playing one of these.  Again add an LCD screen and some beatbox MP3s to jam to on this bad boy, and you are still a far cry from having an instrument worth people crushing each other to see you play.  I think a miniature Casio Keyboard and an Oven Bellows hooked up one night to produce this monstrosity.

7) iBlackBerry- OK so this is a personal vendetta.  Just because Blackberry and Apple are both named after fruits doesn’t mean they have anything, ANYTHING, in common.  RIMs theme song is Snoop’s Drop It Like Its Hot.  I have a BlackBerry Bold, and the only thing Bold about it is the price tag.  “i” need a smart phone.

My question is, does proliferation of Home Theater help us as an industry?  I argue that it doesn’t.

As we water down the definition of Home Theater, the market for dedicated rooms has dwindled.  Even those with the space needed to do a 12 seat plus room are opting out.  I hear many blaming low cost products, or Amazon, or a box store.  I propose that we have not been delivering a cinema experience in the home consistently.

There are a couple of items that we need to address.  One is the scale of the screen.  The screen in a home cinema should replicate the scale of a screen at the movies.  It should take up 75% of  width of the wall it resides on.  It should fill the visual cone of the viewer.

Second is contrast.  Brightness is really about contrast.  Projectors don’t project black.  Black is the absence of light.  The deepest black can’t be darker than the color of the screen when everything is dark.  As you increase screen size, you have to increase brightness.  THX states brightness minimum at 150 relative contrast.  Fair ratings are 50-150.

The reason I bring this up is that I see new screens hitting the market doing 4k projection, which is 4x the resolution of 1080p.  They are selling it as the ultimate cinema experience.

I am all for crisper images, don’t get me wrong, but consider that the projector has to convert all images up to this resolution, as no machine you have in your home will output that resolution.

The other thing to look at is that these projectors are about 2000 lumens bright.  In a near pitch black room on a 100″ screen StudioTek G3 screen (reference grade) , this projector would barely hit the 100 mark in contrast, equating to “Good”.  You need at least 3000 lumens to get to the THX benchmark, IF the room is pitch black.

If you have a large room, lets say 14′ wide, and you want to scale the screen appropriately at 10′ wide, you now need 5500 lumens to get there.

Very few projectors on the market meet that level of brightness when calibrated properly for color temperature.  What good is having a bright image, if the colors are all wrong?

My point is that if we have been charging 10s to 100s of thousands of dollars for dedicated cinema rooms, and then not delivering cinema quality picture, with high contrast and color, then we have been devaluing the product.

Aligning with manufacturers like Runco, Christie, Digital Projection, and Projection Design is the only way to make sure you have the resources to deliver a true cinematic experience to the client, and that you deliver high value solutions, not just high dollar ones.

I suggested an AV Wars type show in the style of West Coast Chopper.  With that, the show could take on one of a few flavors.

Flavor 1- West Coast Choppers- Jr. vs. Sr.

There would be two rival teams, one on each coast.   Of course I propose we be the West Coast Team and I would assume an NYC or FL based firm would be East Coast.

It could either be a season long project, or a project every episode.  I see it alternating East and West each episode with shots of the other team watching progress and making commentary/breaking on the other team, gearing up to top them in the episode to come.

Flavor 2- The Apprentice

Multiple companies send members in to compete.  There are two separate teams, each week a different company gets to do the design and project management, and assign their teammates portions of the jobs to implement.  An industry expert judges, one team wins, and the other loses, sending a company home.

At the end, two companies square off for the title having full control over design and installation.

Flavor 3- Overhaulin/Pimp My Ride

A lucky homeowner or company is picked to get a revamp of their conference room, theater, retail space, etc.  Each week a different system is featured as they take systems from “Blah” to “AHHHHH!” with a reveal to the owner at the end.

Could be different firms.

Flavor 4- Designer Showcase

3 companies pitch ideas to a project owner.  The owner talks through each designs pros and cons and uniqueness, and then   one company’s plan is chosen and implemented, being filmed to completion with an owner reveal.

So I watch too much TV, I know!  But which one do you like?

Vote Yes (Y) or No (N) for the show and “1″, “2″, “3″,  or “4″ for the concept on Twitter with the hashtag #AVWars and check results by clicking here.

-Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

We are looking to 1 special project in Southern California with the right client.  Who will be the first to experience “Mandarin Theater?”  Stay Tuned. . .

I finished the 90 minute session with my sales team and at the end, my boss, the President of the company, spoke up saying “Mark, that’s NOT what I wanted you to teach them!”  I was a little confused and at the time a little annoyed that she had not intervened some time during the training to let me know I was on the wrong track.  I gathered myself and asked, “What did I miss?  What would you have liked me to cover?”

She said, “Everytime a customer comes in, I can hear you in the appointment because my office is right upstairs.  They come in and sit down, and within a couple minutes, you are all laughing and talking and you know the names of their kids and their family history.”  She pauses for a second and then looks at me and says, “Teach them how to do that!”  I replied that I wasn’t sure I could teach that really.  Since then I have tried to isolate and identify the points of a meeting in which I develop that rapport.  Sometimes it comes quickly, sometimes it takes a little longer, but rarely do I miss the chance to develop it on some level.  So how do you teach that?

I’m actually not quite sure still.  I credit Ken Miller, one of my managers when I was 19 and working at The Olive Garden of all places, with some of it.  He didn’t teach me the “how” but he made sure I knew the importance of it.  He said, “When you approach someone’s table, the question they ask themselves within 15 seconds of your arrival is ‘Do I like this person?’  If they say ‘Yes’ you will be fine, if they say ‘No’ everything that may go wrong will be amplified and it will be your fault in their eyes.”

That sat with me, because although I had always heard “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”, I had always discounted that with the fact that I would have time to overcome that eventually.  But in that environment, the first impression was all that stuck.  I only had an hour max with most people you met, and my financial situation depended on them liking me.  I couldn’t control cold food, slow kitchen times, etc but I could control my interaction with the customer.  I averaged 30% tips most nights, with some leaving me tips equal to the totals of their bills at times.  While most of my peers were haunted by low tips and bad attitudes, I always topped the earnings list, and rarely came or left in a bad mood.

Why? I just rolled with whatever came my way.  Another waiter wanted to go home, I took his section.  Kitchen was slow, I stayed out on the floor and talked to the table to let them know I was waiting just like them.  I wasn’t on a break, I wasn’t hiding in the side station, etc.  They knew I was present, and that I was aware of their concerns, and was doing what I could in the meantime to make them comfortable.

CS Lewis makes a point in some of his writings to say that intent is more important than results for most people.  The example he gives is that you are much more angry at the person who tries to trip you and fails to do so, than the one who actually trips you up accidentally and makes you fall.

If you make your intentions transparent, and they are good, then you can roll with almost any situation involving people and come out on top.

Malcolm Gladwell shared an anecdote about successful improv troops in “Blink” I believe.  (You know like “Whose Line is It Anyway”)  Their first rule of engagement is to accept all suggestions.  If one says “I heard your mother was in the hospital”, the other does not say “you heard wrong”.  Instead they might say, “Well , she is a surgeon you know!”  The other again would not say no, I thought she was sick, he would roll with the surgeon comment.  Taking all suggestions is the unspoken rule that keeps them on the same page and develops the rapport and chemistry necessary.

I think the same is true in sales.  Many in sales try to exercise complete control.  Car guys even try to see if they can turn a customer’s hand under theirs while shaking hands to gain some psychological advantage from the start.  However, I have found the opposite to be more effective.  There is a way to always lead the conversation in the right direction, while still being open to customer cues and to what they are interested in.  Taking all of their suggestions in that manner develops quick rapport and leads you closer to the relationship required for someone to trust in your recommendations.

In the new world of Social Business, being able to roll with anything, and let the customer lead you into the type of relationship they desire in order to become a customer, is a huge advantage.  If I just knew how to teach people to do it, I may actually retire someday. . .

“I had hoped that I would finally find an article that would give real world comments on products used by integrators, but sadly this is just a cut and pasted vendor advertisement. Why are these better suited than other projectors? Under what conditions were they installed and what were the results? It would be nice to see a tab devoted to products installed and comments from installers about each one. I know this will impact advertising but it may also wake up some of the manufacturers to realize changes need to be made before they are left behind. Let’s start with the 2,000 hour lamp life and the cost of replacements.”

I can’t add to why the 10 projectors here were chosen over any others, but in the spirit of giving readers more of what they want, I have compiled some commentary on a handful of projector manufacturers and their offerings at large.

I want to preface the following with this note. One of my project managers uses a phrase that I love, “Horses for Courses”. It is true to the core. I don’t know much about horses though, so I likened these models to cars we all know instead. All of the following brands have their place in our market, (In fact I have used most of them at one time or another) and excel in certain environments. Some may even have one or two models that may break the mold I am casting them into here, but all in all, here is my take on the projector landscape and most of its major players.

Optoma and BenQ

In the installation world, these are bang for your buck models. They offer HD resolutions up to 1080p, decent brightness, and a good warranty. Don’t expect a ton of control features or color accuracy. That’s not the goal here. The goal is a high number of fairly bright pixels at a low cost. Small boardrooms are a good home for these if price is a factor, and the room is a standalone system with a laptop input driving the show. I think Kia makes a car called the Optima, so easy call here.

Hitachi

Cut and paste the description for Optoma and BenQ here, but add the description “Short Throw”, and you will know when to use Hitachi instead. Hyundai, but not Genesis.

Boxlight

This is a great projector for a no frills classroom or military environment. It has high brightness and a great price point, but there is a glaring lack of 1080p in this line up. If all of your projects are XGA and WXGA, this could be a good workhorse. They have a bulbs for life program on many models as well, which can help in maintenance costs over time. Again this is a boxy, no curves, utility piece of gear. I think of it as the Scion XB of the projector world.

NEC and In Focus

The projectors for teachers. Lower cost, but with some integration features if you need them like 12 volt triggers, control ports, etc. They offer models with HD resolutions as well. The higher Lumen In Focus models are good for House of Worship installs as well. Think Honda.

Epson

The market leader in projectors. There is a strong education contingent for Epson as well based on their heritage and resolutions. The most notable piece they have is their interactive piece, the BrightLink 455WI. If you need an interactive short throw projector for white board applications, and don’t want to navigate the waters of eBeam, Vaddio, Smart Technologies, Team Board etc, as well as the myriad of software and mounting options, Epson is your go to. The BrightLink model comes packed in a box with projector, mount, software, VGA cables, etc, ready to go. Just add screen. I think of this brand as Toyota.

Sony and JVC

These are two players I think have carved out more of a Home Theater niche, but do have commercial models. They are more HD friendly than the Epson crowd, and offer similar brightness to the Panasonic models. They have some models with lens options and are all in all I feel a middle of the road product. They take cues from the other guys upstream, but don’t quite get there. Nissan maybe.

Panasonic-

Serious Training Rooms, Hotels and Universities, (a ton of Universities), use Panasonic. They have a wide range of brightness, resolutions, and interchangeable lenses for different throw distances. If you have an application that needs more light and more install options, you will find a match here. I would deem this an Acura, a step up from Honda, but not a Mercedes.

Mitsubishi-

One word “warranty”. 3 years, 24 hour replacement. These also have all of the plusses of the Panasonic models above. Varying brightness up to 7,000 lumens, interchangeable lenses, and lots of resolution choices make these good for a wide variety of installs, including House of Worship and Auditoriums. They also have a mirrorless short throw projector for tricky installs that still require sharpness at the edges and color accuracy. Oh, did I mention the warranty. I know Mitsubishi makes a car, but this surpasses that. Audi comes to mind here.

Barco, Christie, and Digital Projection Inc

I group these together as the high end. Brightness to 15,000 lumens, dual bulbs, 2 and 4k models, 10 and 12 bit color processing, edge blending modules, 3 Chip DLP models, HD-SDI inputs, and the like make these the only choice for production quality projection. If you are doing a Theater, Museum, Performing Arts Center, TV studio, Awards Show, Editing Room etc with a projector, you most likely can’t go downstream from here. These are higher in cost and require more maintenance but will do exactly what you want, and do it accurately. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche

Projection Design

Projection Design offers a lot of the pros of the Barco, DPI, Christie group. They built a lot of the old Christie models, so they should. They do have some odd resolution choices as well including 2538×1080 (2:35:1 native) and 2560×1600.

They also have versions where the bulb sets in a rack based box, and the light is relayed through a liquid filled tube to the actual projector (perfect for installations where getting to bulbs is problematic or may mess up an edge blending scenario). However, the choice of color wheels, etc make this a projector that can be extremely accurate when need arises, but also needs someone with an experienced hand to specify. This is an exotic sports car, high performance, but potentially finicky if you don’t know how to drive it.

Is Jobs about to pull a rabbit out of his hat under a new corporate identity?  Is he the illusionist who disappears from the stage and appears on the balcony?

Here is a forum I participated in back in January.  Could it be coming to fruition?

“Apple To Make Televisions?

No I don’t mean Apple TV . . .

I mean IP enabled LCD Television sets.  This article says this is unconfirmed”chatter” but it rings true.
http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-television-on-its-way-say-insiders-23271/

Consider the following.

Apple comes out with Apple TV.
Savant comes out with iMac based equipment.
Savant starts replacing the AMX control gear at Apple HQ.
Apple comes out with iPad.
Savant quickly adopts iPad as only touchpanel discontinuing all other models.
Savant starts laying ground to discredit market leader in control -Crestron.
Apple files for multiple patents for home technology and automation related technology.
Apple stores are now removing AMX and installing Savant/iPad based control.
Apple comes out with AirPlay agreements and integrated receivers with B&W, etc
Apple comes out with television (speculated)
Apple absorbs Savant, becomes total solution content, hardware, control, home, mobile, and PC (speculated)
Steve Jobs declared King of the World (speculated)

Am I a crazy conspiracy theorist, or did I just trip ove reality?  Chime In!”

Many are turning to service based businesses, or to other areas like building automation or home health.  However, there is more to tackling those markets than the wish to do so. 

Service based businesses operate on a different level, have more inventory to manage, more technicians to keep on staff, and need to have infrastructure for job scheduling and billing, as well as sales and customer service.

Building automation has a new set of equipment to learn and forge relationships with, as well as some code and licensing requirements, as well as a field of competitors already slugging it out in that space.

Home Health Care is an immensely complicated field with many liability ramifications, that needs to be carefully explored and not dove into head first.

 The ADTs, Amazons and Best Buys of the world want to compete and some manufacturers even want to eliminate us as an intermediary between them and the consumer.  So where do we turn? 

I wager that unless we want to completely relicense and restructure our businesses, our hope lies in three words: engage, educate, and entertain. 

We will start with “Engage” tomorrow.

The Motive-

Of course market opportunity is the main motive, and ultimately dollars.  Best Buy is copying the migration of many small integration firms from the home integration market into commercial environments.  But have they laid the ground work to avoid the same mistakes?  It doesn’t seem like they have.

The Exodus-

New homes ceased to be built, and existing homes were no longer great sources of equity from which to draw and do improvement projects like home theaters.  But the commercial market was still seemingly moving along.  Many integrators started supplementing their work with commercial installations and flooded the commercial integration market.

The Problem-

Residential integrators didn’t have the knowledge base or access to the correct products to do these jobs correctly.  Residential receivers were being thrown into conference rooms with microphone systems on the Zone 2 with no mixing and huge gain over feedback issues, 1000 lumen Home Theater projectors in spaces with high ambient light producing unviewable images, poor VGA transmission, etc.  No knowledge of building codes, plenum environments, riser management, etc added to the confusion.  They made a splash because they were cheaper, and gained some work, but usually at the cost of a lackluster system for the end client.  In many cases most of the gear they installed in these spaces was consumer grade and the warranties were made void as soon as they were installed in commercial environments. If you have read any articles on companies that have successfully migrated, they did the research, hired the proper staff, and established new relationships with the appropriate vendors to make that a success.

The Encore-

So is Best Buy up for a command performance of the problems above?  Yes.  They have stated that they are going to leverage their current base of residential installers, coupled with the stellar performance and skillset of the IT Geek Squad (http://easytechtalk.com/2008/05/04/dont-use-geek-squad/) to go in and take market share in the AV-IT centric world of Digital Signage, as well as corporate boardrooms, training centers, restaurants and the like.  If they have established commercial grade equipment relationships and recruited top commercial AV talent for system design and installation, then they are doing an incredible job of keeping it a secret.  In fact, they have stated openly that their commercial labor pool will not be separate from the residential group or specialized at all, although some technicians may have better skillsets than others.

The Result-

The result of Best Buy’s entry into commercial is all too apparent.  They will come into a market where their stated core strengths are buying power and a large but unspecialized and random labor pool.  They will sell equipment at low margins in large quantities, and send a revolving door of technicians to jobsites to rectify issues that they create along the way.

Many customers will want better service but will expect other firms pricing strategies to match that of Best Buy, and the net result is that many firms, as in residential, will find themselves unwittingly trying to win every job on price, and most of those will find themselves out of business or extremely diminished within a couple years.

The Hope-

No, it’s not Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Tom LeBlanc at Commercial Integrator expressed his hopes as well.  I believe he is right but I see the major hope for commercial integrators in. . .

Swimming upstream.  Look at specialized projects that require higher end skillsets and unique configurations of products in quantities where buying power has little impact on the cost.

Education.  Obviously to accomplish the above, integrators must take their staff to the next level, but they must educate their customers as well on what the advantages of their firm are.

Selling.  Learn to sell, not to quote prices.  Tell people what the cost of your systems are.  Best Buy may have a lower price, which is the initial investment, but the cost is the total amount someone spends in service, support, time, etc. over the life of the product that is purchased.

Service and Support.  Finish on time.  Finish Punchlists.  Finish Drawings.  Finish Manuals.  Cross the finish line consistently, and sell that to clients.  Down time costs money, make customers aware.

Relationships.  This won’t win you the job on its own, but there is an advantage to an executive to have a single point of contact he can rely on to help his business get what they need, and not deal with a revolving door of former Gap sweater folders.  Build your staff with the right people, with a long term mindset, so you can offer the stability that they won’t.

I am currently working on a project where the customer is wanting to revamp an audio system.  They invited another to firm to attend a kick off meeting, which they missed (strike one).  That firm instead sent an email in their place (strike two).  That email said “we recommend applying acoustic treatments to mitigate the multipath reflections, decreasing the ambient to direct ratios and increasing the overall STI.”  To which the customer’s response was “What?” (strike three).

The problem wasn’t that the firm had the wrong idea.  Quite the opposite.  Their analysis was correct.  But what is the point of being right, if the customer cannot understand your recommendation?

I have seen this sales technique before, and it seldom works in today’s world.  The firm positions themselves as the expert (which they are).  They then make a recommendation.  “You need to install acoustic panels”.  To which the customer asks “Why?” or “How does that fix our problem?”  Then the firm’s ego kicks in.  “How dare they question us, we’re the experts,” they think.  Then they decide to show the customer that they know more than them, by spouting techno babble that is certain to show the customer that they need to just be quiet and do as told because this is all above their heads.

As opposed to trying to be the hero, try to be the mentor.  Teach the customer why your idea is a good one and explain in ways that they understand.  When I was asked “What does this email mean?” by the potential client, I responded as follows.

“Well, sound bounces.  It bounces off the walls, floors, etc.  The sound that bounces back to someone’s ears off of those surfaces can mess up how they hear what is being said or played through the sound system.  Addressing the “bouncing” can make the intelligibility of the sound go way up, and people will understand what is being said.”

I told them exactly the same thing, and they understood perfectly.  I became a teacher, I instilled confidence in the proposal I will submit, and they will be satisfied because they know why they are purchasing the items that they are.

Speak the customer’s language, and everyone wins.