This is more a rant on the state of builders in this country.

My girlfriend's dad buys this 8,000 sq ft house with like 10 bedrooms on the outerbanks, NC. I have not got up the nerve to ask what he paid for the house. But everywhere I look there are all these new houses built buy some company named Tweedy.

This house is beautiful, wood work is a great. Marble in the kitchen, awesome stone fireplace. Fridges with beer all over the place, something like five of them so far that I have found.

But the low voltage and lighting here is a joke. By the front door there are 3 banks of 4 switches, one on top of the other. Two banks of 3 in several other places. They have went throughout the house with a label maker labeling everything. What a shame... Aparently they were never given any options.

Then for each TV, something like 20 of them, there is only one coax to each location. No phone or data. At least in the back of some of the rooms I have been in there is phone and date on the same plate, just standard plates, not even Decora style. Basic cable everywhere with lines throughout the picture, a Noresent (??) Plasma in the family room with basic cable, looks like dog doo doo...

Then the theater, looks like they kinda tried. Theater seats, very cheap to say the least, but at least theater seats and a riser. Those JBL little ball speakers, and a Denon very low end receiver (AVR 995 maybe ??) and a Hitachi 60 something display. Looks okay with DVD. A Tosbiba DVD/VCR combo that I know does not have discretes, I made my partner return 2 of them ealier this year. And a HTM 600, Hold down M1 for 2 seconds to turn on, Hold down M2 to turn off, hit home and hold DVD for 2 seconds to have DVD come on.

Pathetic is an understatement, remote blows. But so does the equipment and maybe even the programmer. Maybe this is the best he ever worked with. I have had to turn off the whole system and wait a minute or 2 and turn it back on just to watch a DVD. Not quite what I would consider acceptable.

And the whole house audio in this beautiful party house, well there is none, never even wired for it. No security or camera provisions either. WTF. For a place that rents out for almost $10k a week , yes a week, in the prime season.

Anybody in this area have a clue, you might want to bring a card along and pass it out, this place is begging for someone of any kind of skills.

I am trying to be polite and keep my mouth shut because my girl's dad had to of dropped a couple mil into this place and I don't want to tear it apart and make him have doubts. Plus I get to stay here for free, did I mention there are at least 5 fridges here full of beer, wonderful beer...

Had to get that out,

rant off

Let him come to you. Till then, drink beer and recon.

I'd say this has as much if not more to do with the builder than the AV guy... that is if there was even an 'AV guy' involved. It sounds like the electrician did it, and the builder 'designed' the system and told the electrician what to do.

That is why I was specific to the builder's name and not the electrician. I am just a familiy friend who is enjoying myself at the great hospitality of my girfriend's parents. I have a rant to share with the group and hopefully someone who is near by could read this and start to make a change in the area. I was in here for a couple of days and leaving tomorrow. I might be back sometime next year or who knows when, if ever.

I really do doubt there was a low voltage company involved and made a coment in regards to someone with a card to contact the builder. I am pretty sure the builder has no idea of what should be done in respect to a house like this. I can pretty much guarantee he has no idea what a Vantage/Crestron/Lutron lighting system could do for a project like this. Let alone whole house audio and video, this has electrician written all over this place...

Yeah...you can't even blame it on the alarm guy!

I resemble that remark!

Seriously, this sounds like it was done with maximum profit for the installer in mind, and little regard for the owner and performance of the system.

The real crime is that someone okayed it without a knowledgeable person overseeing the equipment selection and wiring plan.

Are you sure those aren't Anthony Gallo speakers?

I doubt that is was the electrician that did it....

I recently did a fix up job in Myrtle Beach, SC which was of the same vein. And it was done by the local "AV" guy (if you could call this idiot an AV guy).....

The builders in these coastal areas are stuck with what's available in the area...

Shame too, these are homes that run from 1m to 5m easy...

Pretty sure they are JBL, like I said there are some 5 fridges with beer so I could be wrong. Pretty sure though that was the JBL emblem with the red background, I am familiar with the Gallo product.

No offence Larry, that was a generalization statement. Unlike SteveTO I do believe you are very competent and do not include you in that kind of statement.

Hate to say, but this is ever so sad if this was done by an AV guy, there is no whole house audio, only one surround system in the theater (very generous statement here).

Think I will just have to have another beer and look at the awesome view of the ocean on the deck with no sound system.

Edit,

With a closer more sober look there is not a JBL emblem on the speakers, it does have the red emblem without the name on the product. Not quite sure what they might be, with the whole set up, is less than impressive. But that hard to blame that specificly on the speakers.

So are the fridges high end? GE Monogram or Thermador?

Not sure, but when I open them they are full of beer and the beer is cold. So I guess that is high end enough...

I don't know. Beer is beer. If it were Johnny Blue or Chivas 18yr...I would say it was high end.

Did the beer come with the house as a selling point? :P

Roddy,

The other thing that I see in the coastal areas is a client base that isn't really ready to spend the money to get it done right.

"Well it's only a part time residence so I don't want to have all that".

Much more common than you'd think. Especially with the cost of a pretty basic house (read that as SMALL) running up in the 1 miilion range if it's near the ocean...

How about a 1000 SF condo for 3-5 million?

It better after that shitbag AV install

Sure is, like I said this a 8,000 sq ft house across the street from the beach. Figured out there are 10 bedrooms.
People are stopping by and taking pictures and some have even asked for tours, its worth at least a couple mil. It is the biggest house I have ever been in. And lacking everything that I prevoiusly mentioned. No sound for a party house is just baffling to me...

Fridges are made by Whirlpool and GE. I guess there are 2 sides to every story, but this appears to be in the builders court and I don't believe the builder has been educated.

I still feel what I am seeing here is a shame and anybody with any experience on this end of the country has a very wide door open for their envolvement.

I live in Richmond, and Nags Head is only 3 hrs away and my wife's family lives down there, and I have been going to the outerbanks since their was only one stop light and one grocery store...and I will say that the pool of selection for low voltage tech firms does not exist...they have ONE company promoting LV services and I cannot vouch for the quality of their work...but I do know they lines they carry, and it ain't Crestron or Levinson!

From what I have seen the builders use the electricians alot. If it is a home being built for the specific purpose to be rented out ( as you have read above their is alot of $$$ to be made) those homes get just enough to make it a selling point on an ad.

If it is a custom home the builders seem to either say no to the client or the client brings it up too late for any real company to get down their and do the work.

I have done a few nice jobs down on the outer banks but most people that do look into it find that per diem makes the job too costly, no matter if the A/V firm is from Richmond, or the VA Beach area, or as a last resort the Raleigh area, and at least from the Richmond/VA Beach area the client only has to choose between maybe six to ten REAL A/V firms (I am not counting new upstarts, with no experience or our good ol' lectrician...and lets not forget the alarm guys)

I have thought about moving to the outerbanks and making a go at it, but the real issue comes down to having enough REAL business to keep a REAL A/V firm going, most of the time the work is done by whomever is the cheapest. Truely ashame though if you go through the Duck/Corolla area you will find many, many million dollar beach homes and countless multimillion dollar pads, most are rented out!

If anyone knows of a friend or family in need of work in the outer banks and they want a real system...my firm is for hire and do travel...all we ask is regular rates and per diem.