An additional note on the future of our industry. Another thing to consider looking toward your future as a systems integrator, is to look back at the past. In both residential and commercial markets the same things tend to occur. Products we sell to make money on, eventually become commoditized. Take TVs in the residential market; I used to sell a 50" plasma for $5000-10,000 or more and make nearly 40% plus on it. Newer and better TVs barely offer a 7% margin now and can become money losers as soon as one you've installed breaks and needs warranty work.
In the commercial world, the same thing has occured. These businesses used to do $1M or more a year in box sales of projectors and similar products. Today, if you're shopped, you can't buy it for what they are available online for, so projectors have become the commodity of the commercial A/V world. They are the loss leaders of the day now, only sold to get the rest of the project.
Consider, what is it we are selling. Is it a product? Is it a bunch of products? Is it a service? OR is it SOLUTIONS.
To worsen the situation, I see dealers in both markets making, what is to me, detrimental decisions to thier own livelyhood and that of the industry. I see dealers and installers reducing prices for or eliminating altogether things like programming, design, installation and other charges ,that to me DEFINE an integrator or installers talents and should not only NOT be discounted or removed, but should be enhanced and promoted as what makes your company, product, solution, whatever, better. otherwise, we are all just selling A/V gear. I propose, that our industry is made up of some very intelligent people who have talents, experience and credentials that enable them to quickly research, learn about, figure out, install and program the plethura of new products and systems that come into our market(s) on an almost daily basis now.
Our industry needs to stand up for what we are, Systems Integrators. We are not just TV installers, A/V dealers, home theater specialist. I think we, as an industry, are much more and offer much more than that, and in fact are short-changing ourselves if we don't promote otherwise. We should promote the fact that we charge for design time, installation and programming, and that these are in-fact the exact things that differntiate us from our competition. We are not a big box store just selling products, we sell solutions, and to do so, takes experience, talent, education and more that we have all elected to put the time and efforts into learning.
So let's not shortchange our industry and begin to charge appropriately for what we should be, our time and talents, and not just try to make money on products we sell, and then wonder every few years why something we sold before that made us money, doesn't any more and what do we do now. Promote your company for what it is and offers, not what it sells, which we have little or no control over.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Future of Our Industry
I was speaking with a friend in the industry tonight and discussing the future of our industry. I am a firm believer in our industry and feel we have much more to offer than "smart homes" or super A/V systems. I sit on the CEA's TechHome Division Board and have made my opinion known, that we need to not only expand into some emerging markets, but begin to shape them from the start.
In my opinion a "systems integrator" can and should be able to integrate anything into any system, and we have been for years. This would help broaden our industry into at least 3-4 more highly lucrative areas. Green or energy efficiency, Home Health Care, Building Management Systems and more. Let me explain.
I have voiced this opinion over the years and feel now is the time, we as an industry, need to come together and steer ourselves into the next iteration of existance. I have long stated that we are systems integrators, meaning we integrate systems - make things that don't normally talk together and work together work with eachother, without limitation. This doesn't have to be audio/video related. We've been doing A/V, lights, hvac, pools, networks, phone systems, sound and more for decades at least. We can make lights work off of photo sensors, we can make shutters close when the wind speed is above 30mph, we can do all kinds of things, but I think we may be missing our calling if we don't look at the bigger picture.
Since 2007 I have been saying our industry should be positioning itself for the upcoming energy efficiency or "Green" movement that is now upon us. If an integrator is doing home systems they currently control or can control almost all of the systems of a home that take electricity to power, therefore we can control how often and how much these devices or systems are used. We are ready to GREEN. My company has offered this for years. We try to off-set our imprint on a homes electrical cost, how much our rack of equipment consumes, with at least saving that much in energy on a monthly basis. So say our equipment consumes 20Kwh per month, then we would set the system to adjust lights and HVAC to save at least that much per month and usually more. In our typical clients home, we are able to save 15-20% on electric bills simply by adjusting what lights are on, when and lowering the dim level of these lights when on. In addition, we can very easily adjust the HVAC to not come on when no one is home, saving a great deal more. Thus, we are in the energy management business.
We have now designed our own in-house BMS (Building Management System) which can control almost any aspect of a building from access control and security to A/V, lights and hvac. Furthermore it ties all of these systems together which creates an extremely efficient, controllable and easy to use and maintain system to control a building's energy consumption, among other things. We looked at some existing BMS systems which focused mainly on HVAC systems and had little to do with actually managing a building, so we looked at what we could offer, based on the various systems we've installed in the past. It worked out to be relatively easy to create, easy to install, retrofittable and 2 years into it, profitable. Hence, we are in the BMS business.
Finally, well, not finally, but on todays list (as there are, I am sure, a plethura of other ideas, products and things that we can integrate and control), we can look at the emerging Home Health Care market. First off, this is an emerging and fast growing industry and demographic. Baby boomers will make up the first of those starting to utilize some sort of home health care system. Ideas I have seen working or those I have heard discussed range from systems to remind someone to take thier pills each day, to toilets that analyze your urine to systems that monitor your health via sensors on your body that read back to Bluetooth or other receivers. Our industry is based on reading information from sensors and other input devices, then formatting that information for easy review or to send on to someone else. This is simply a different application of things we've been doing for, again, decades. So, various sensors are placed in the house, on the person, etc, and this information feeds back to receivers around the house, which then formats that data to send on to a doctor or remind the owner to do something. That's home health care in a nutshell. There are a ton of additional ideas and active models for this including home health monitoring, communicating the data collected to the appropriate facility (Dr, Hospital, EMR, etc.). As you can see, our industry is better positioned than any other to meet the many technical needs these systems will require.
I think it is time we actively and aggresively stear this industry into its next phase of growth and not stifle our members growth by self limiting simply by waiting idly by, while things happen around us. We've had great success at being proactive in guiding our industry for the past 15 years or so and our focus has tightened as the industry required. Now it's time to think outside the box, look at what is evolving around us and immerse ourselves into learning to integrate these new sub-systems and products and for our manufacturers to begin producing products that help our integrators and industry not only enter these new markets, but begin to dominate them.
I feel American ingenuity is alive and well, but it is time for us to re-establish our technological prowess and lead the world in these emerging areas. The alternative could be we are watching someone else dominate any one of these huge markets, which is probably not a good thing. Energy and Health, think about it.
In my opinion a "systems integrator" can and should be able to integrate anything into any system, and we have been for years. This would help broaden our industry into at least 3-4 more highly lucrative areas. Green or energy efficiency, Home Health Care, Building Management Systems and more. Let me explain.
I have voiced this opinion over the years and feel now is the time, we as an industry, need to come together and steer ourselves into the next iteration of existance. I have long stated that we are systems integrators, meaning we integrate systems - make things that don't normally talk together and work together work with eachother, without limitation. This doesn't have to be audio/video related. We've been doing A/V, lights, hvac, pools, networks, phone systems, sound and more for decades at least. We can make lights work off of photo sensors, we can make shutters close when the wind speed is above 30mph, we can do all kinds of things, but I think we may be missing our calling if we don't look at the bigger picture.
Since 2007 I have been saying our industry should be positioning itself for the upcoming energy efficiency or "Green" movement that is now upon us. If an integrator is doing home systems they currently control or can control almost all of the systems of a home that take electricity to power, therefore we can control how often and how much these devices or systems are used. We are ready to GREEN. My company has offered this for years. We try to off-set our imprint on a homes electrical cost, how much our rack of equipment consumes, with at least saving that much in energy on a monthly basis. So say our equipment consumes 20Kwh per month, then we would set the system to adjust lights and HVAC to save at least that much per month and usually more. In our typical clients home, we are able to save 15-20% on electric bills simply by adjusting what lights are on, when and lowering the dim level of these lights when on. In addition, we can very easily adjust the HVAC to not come on when no one is home, saving a great deal more. Thus, we are in the energy management business.
We have now designed our own in-house BMS (Building Management System) which can control almost any aspect of a building from access control and security to A/V, lights and hvac. Furthermore it ties all of these systems together which creates an extremely efficient, controllable and easy to use and maintain system to control a building's energy consumption, among other things. We looked at some existing BMS systems which focused mainly on HVAC systems and had little to do with actually managing a building, so we looked at what we could offer, based on the various systems we've installed in the past. It worked out to be relatively easy to create, easy to install, retrofittable and 2 years into it, profitable. Hence, we are in the BMS business.
Finally, well, not finally, but on todays list (as there are, I am sure, a plethura of other ideas, products and things that we can integrate and control), we can look at the emerging Home Health Care market. First off, this is an emerging and fast growing industry and demographic. Baby boomers will make up the first of those starting to utilize some sort of home health care system. Ideas I have seen working or those I have heard discussed range from systems to remind someone to take thier pills each day, to toilets that analyze your urine to systems that monitor your health via sensors on your body that read back to Bluetooth or other receivers. Our industry is based on reading information from sensors and other input devices, then formatting that information for easy review or to send on to someone else. This is simply a different application of things we've been doing for, again, decades. So, various sensors are placed in the house, on the person, etc, and this information feeds back to receivers around the house, which then formats that data to send on to a doctor or remind the owner to do something. That's home health care in a nutshell. There are a ton of additional ideas and active models for this including home health monitoring, communicating the data collected to the appropriate facility (Dr, Hospital, EMR, etc.). As you can see, our industry is better positioned than any other to meet the many technical needs these systems will require.
I think it is time we actively and aggresively stear this industry into its next phase of growth and not stifle our members growth by self limiting simply by waiting idly by, while things happen around us. We've had great success at being proactive in guiding our industry for the past 15 years or so and our focus has tightened as the industry required. Now it's time to think outside the box, look at what is evolving around us and immerse ourselves into learning to integrate these new sub-systems and products and for our manufacturers to begin producing products that help our integrators and industry not only enter these new markets, but begin to dominate them.
I feel American ingenuity is alive and well, but it is time for us to re-establish our technological prowess and lead the world in these emerging areas. The alternative could be we are watching someone else dominate any one of these huge markets, which is probably not a good thing. Energy and Health, think about it.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
2010 CES (Part 2)
Well, turns out this years CES Show was actually larger, by a few thousand, than last. Last years reported attendance was around 113,000, while this year is sporting around 120,000 attendeees. In addition there were 2500 companies exhibiting and launching 20,000 new products and a record setting 330 new exhibitors. Pretty amazing for a down year.
In my opinion, this shows that the CE industry in general is expecting an economic turn-around.
From the show floor, a few more technologies seem to be the talk of the show, and this year, they are larger more broad based technologies. We'll start with Googles new Android OS. With the release of the new Nexus One, we see one of the first real competitors to the iPhone and it's large base of applications. The new OS offers a lot of similarities to the iPhones, in addition, it has the possibility of being adopted by and have as many applications as the iPhone. I hate to compare everything to the iPhone, but as far as unique and customizable phones, there's nothign else to compare too, other than a small laptop. Looks nice, seems cool, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
Another new technology in final development is Microsoft's Natal add-on for it's XBox 360. This device will allows users to interact with the Xbox, without any remote controls and is supposed to function in a similar way as the Wii and it's remotes do, but without using any remote or needing to touch anything at all. It reports to read your bodies movements and respond accordingly.
On top of that, there were many releases of new electronic book readers and netbooks, which were extremely popular last year. In addition, the thin TVs are really starting to show their own. We've sold several of the new thin LED TVs (about 1.2" thick)with super fast refresh rates that look really great and are ultra-thin and ultra-light. This years models will prove to be even slimmer, ones at the show were 0.3" thick from Samsung, which is a thin as a pencil. Another new feature in many TVs our company has been installing commercially is the built-in internet access or even computers. Many of the Samsung TVs with a built-in PC (designated by an "i" in thier model #) are designed specically for and around digital signage. This makes putting up a basic digital sign for the average small business, cost little more than the TV itself and some software. For more advanced digital signage, you will most likely need something more robust. The PC feature can also be used for an obvious number of other features and functions. Some TVs even have the ability to pause and rewind TV shows, similar to a DVR might.
Klipsch speakers, who's products we have installed and sold for years, have come out with a new speaker/LED light kit combo. We have not tested this unit yet, but it seems to have promise. It utlizes a 10W LED bulb, and puts out the same light as a 65W incandescent bulb. Pretty neat little item that fits in existing light cans. You can see more about the CES show and it's high-lights at our website or check our FaceBook page (Fultech on FB) or our Twitter page (Fultech) which are both linked to CES and CEA pages and blogs. Until next years show....
Seriously, we'll be back sooner to update you on the latest and greatest in new technologies.
In my opinion, this shows that the CE industry in general is expecting an economic turn-around.
From the show floor, a few more technologies seem to be the talk of the show, and this year, they are larger more broad based technologies. We'll start with Googles new Android OS. With the release of the new Nexus One, we see one of the first real competitors to the iPhone and it's large base of applications. The new OS offers a lot of similarities to the iPhones, in addition, it has the possibility of being adopted by and have as many applications as the iPhone. I hate to compare everything to the iPhone, but as far as unique and customizable phones, there's nothign else to compare too, other than a small laptop. Looks nice, seems cool, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
Another new technology in final development is Microsoft's Natal add-on for it's XBox 360. This device will allows users to interact with the Xbox, without any remote controls and is supposed to function in a similar way as the Wii and it's remotes do, but without using any remote or needing to touch anything at all. It reports to read your bodies movements and respond accordingly.
On top of that, there were many releases of new electronic book readers and netbooks, which were extremely popular last year. In addition, the thin TVs are really starting to show their own. We've sold several of the new thin LED TVs (about 1.2" thick)with super fast refresh rates that look really great and are ultra-thin and ultra-light. This years models will prove to be even slimmer, ones at the show were 0.3" thick from Samsung, which is a thin as a pencil. Another new feature in many TVs our company has been installing commercially is the built-in internet access or even computers. Many of the Samsung TVs with a built-in PC (designated by an "i" in thier model #) are designed specically for and around digital signage. This makes putting up a basic digital sign for the average small business, cost little more than the TV itself and some software. For more advanced digital signage, you will most likely need something more robust. The PC feature can also be used for an obvious number of other features and functions. Some TVs even have the ability to pause and rewind TV shows, similar to a DVR might.
Klipsch speakers, who's products we have installed and sold for years, have come out with a new speaker/LED light kit combo. We have not tested this unit yet, but it seems to have promise. It utlizes a 10W LED bulb, and puts out the same light as a 65W incandescent bulb. Pretty neat little item that fits in existing light cans. You can see more about the CES show and it's high-lights at our website or check our FaceBook page (Fultech on FB) or our Twitter page (Fultech) which are both linked to CES and CEA pages and blogs. Until next years show....
Seriously, we'll be back sooner to update you on the latest and greatest in new technologies.
Monday, January 11, 2010
2010 CES (part 1)
This years CES Show was probably a little smaller than last (still over 100,000) people attend this event.
Although a there were a few less vendors, I am told it was not noticeable. I wasn't able to attend this year (too close to holidays and with kids and all I am saving my time for my fav show is EHX in Orlando in March), but I had some help from friends Ian Hendler of Leviton who was on the floor and also Ray Casey (IT Consultant) who attended and checked out the GREEN and other electronics.
The "coolest" item unveiled at this years show, was something by a Bluetooth company called Parrot, which is thier new AR.Drone. This, from someone who played with the AUVS (Autonomous unmannned vehicle society) in college, is pretty exciting. Basically a high-tech remote control helicopter (meaning it can hover in place) with a camera mounted on it that you can watch real-time on your iPhone.
They have at least 2 varieties of WiFi controlled aerial vehicles with tiny cameras you can fly using your iPhone or iTouch device. I think you will also be able to control with other devices and PCs on the same network as well. Pretty cool. No word on price yet. You can see this at thier website;
http://ardrone2.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en/index.html
This years big push was 3D TV, which actually debuted at last years show, with less fanfare. I checked out one of these TVs at that time, these devices still require the glasses. The technology was still being edged out a bit, but it was pretty interesting. Sports were really excellent to watch on a 3D Plasma screen.
The big difference to me in this new 3D technology, was that although the image was in fact 3 dimensional, it was deep as opposed to what you are used to seeing at the movies. In other words, it looked to have and be related more to the depth of objects from you, than them being in your face close. So instead of really popping out at you, the videos I saw, all looked much deeper than even the best HD image. So your football field looked like it almost would from a 50 yard line seat, on the field. Pretty nice. I prefer this over things popping into my face.
I am guessing if you played a 3D movie that was designed to "pop-out" at you, which I find kind of annoying anyway, it would look like the 3D movies most of us have grown up with (mostly dissappointments in theatrics), nonetheless did pop out.
I hear from the grapevine that Plasmas offer a much better 3D image than LCDs can offer at this time, although I am sure that will improve. I couldn't yet get a reason why that is, but will do soon.
I'll report more later as more goodies appear.
Although a there were a few less vendors, I am told it was not noticeable. I wasn't able to attend this year (too close to holidays and with kids and all I am saving my time for my fav show is EHX in Orlando in March), but I had some help from friends Ian Hendler of Leviton who was on the floor and also Ray Casey (IT Consultant) who attended and checked out the GREEN and other electronics.
The "coolest" item unveiled at this years show, was something by a Bluetooth company called Parrot, which is thier new AR.Drone. This, from someone who played with the AUVS (Autonomous unmannned vehicle society) in college, is pretty exciting. Basically a high-tech remote control helicopter (meaning it can hover in place) with a camera mounted on it that you can watch real-time on your iPhone.
They have at least 2 varieties of WiFi controlled aerial vehicles with tiny cameras you can fly using your iPhone or iTouch device. I think you will also be able to control with other devices and PCs on the same network as well. Pretty cool. No word on price yet. You can see this at thier website;
http://ardrone2.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en/index.html
This years big push was 3D TV, which actually debuted at last years show, with less fanfare. I checked out one of these TVs at that time, these devices still require the glasses. The technology was still being edged out a bit, but it was pretty interesting. Sports were really excellent to watch on a 3D Plasma screen.
The big difference to me in this new 3D technology, was that although the image was in fact 3 dimensional, it was deep as opposed to what you are used to seeing at the movies. In other words, it looked to have and be related more to the depth of objects from you, than them being in your face close. So instead of really popping out at you, the videos I saw, all looked much deeper than even the best HD image. So your football field looked like it almost would from a 50 yard line seat, on the field. Pretty nice. I prefer this over things popping into my face.
I am guessing if you played a 3D movie that was designed to "pop-out" at you, which I find kind of annoying anyway, it would look like the 3D movies most of us have grown up with (mostly dissappointments in theatrics), nonetheless did pop out.
I hear from the grapevine that Plasmas offer a much better 3D image than LCDs can offer at this time, although I am sure that will improve. I couldn't yet get a reason why that is, but will do soon.
I'll report more later as more goodies appear.
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