QQQ-Did you hear about all the midnight openings retall stores had for Vista...and like 5 people showed up to them?
SC-Although I am unaware of the opening night events, I do know that hundreds of thousand of vista machines were sold on opening day.
Tvisser-think we should look at market trends and market share after Apple TV is released and see what it does well and where it fails.
SC-Agreed, our approach is not only to be hardware agnostic, but if and when other platforms of open standards media management become mainstream, we will likely port lifeware on to those platforms, in the ultimate world we would have apple, Microsoft, and linux machines that all operated through a standards based interface. Right now MCE is the only one that encompasses everything from pics, movies, live tv, music, and other video formats.
AHEM-Steve, you mentioned that you were a MCE skeptic, but tried out an EI product, became a believer, and 14 months ago, joined the company. Since MCE hasn't been out all that long, why did you become so convinced, over a short period of time, that it was all that and more?
SC-First off let’s not make this personal, we all love and believe in the same industry. Why else would be doing blogs on the weekend. MCE has been out for nearly five years. I personally used the system for six months before relocating to Ohio from Colorado. Having not been able to program AMX and other systems, I was extremely excited that I was finally able to automate my own home with my own skillset, no expensive out sourced programmer. I had a very complex AMX system and frankly my wife steered away from it and would rather walk to the wall to turn the lights on than use the “unreliable a__ touch panel we had” Upon installing lifeware and having the MCE’s running in our home, it was the first time that my wife actually seen value in what I call my career. The system was easy to use, did everything she wanted, and didn’t have a lot of the problems that had previously caused her to dismiss it. She now controls the lights, security, hvac, audio, and cameras on a daily basis. I travel 175 nights a year and it nice for me to call in after a dinner on the road and not get a grumpy voice, of this isn’t working. I know Microsoft has a bad wrap and yes if you don’t buy a good PC, there can be problems, this is true with amps, speakers, and just about everything else that is electronic. TO me the facts are with proper educating and training, it works, it works well, and your customers will appreciate and enjoy their system more than anything else that I have ever personally experienced.
AHEM-Since EI and Control4 are both Best Buy lines, Do you see the two being able to coexist over the long haul?
SC-One Control 4 is no longer at BBY, don’t know the story, and frankly don’t care. EI’s approach is to be hardware agnostic versus C4 has tried to build the best lighting, hvac, audio and kept it all proprietary, all your eggs are in the C4 basket. EI has chosen to embrace every brand of lighting, audio, security, hvac, and more. There are a lot of good products in the industry, obviously different strokes for different folks or what is needed on a job, but we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Where we come in, is we help those companies bridge their communications on to IP using and open standards, WSD, web services for devices, this can run on linux, Microsoft, thread x, and more. It is basically like usb type discovery of devices, but over a network. Then once the devices can communicate in an open standard, we just create a software app that currently is on the Microsoft platform that allows the user to have a great integrated experience that make those product more than products, but an integrated solution. In our go to market, we do sell a version of lifeware to BBY, like windows XP home vs windows XP pro we can limit features and what products integrate with our software. The version BBY sells doesn’t work with lutron homeworks, B&K audio, and the list goes on and on. BBY does there own install. We see this market opportunity as a great way to get customers feet wet in realizing that home automation is real and works very well. If a homeowner wants to do more with their systems than the basic BBY package, they actually get referred to a CI dealer. I personally have seen as many as a dozen folks buy a connectedlife.home system from BBY and then call in to upgrade it and we have fit them up with a custom dealer. Keep in mind there is no wiring or programming to inherent. Lifeware is the programming and their solutions is no new wires, using powerline technology. BBY doesn’t want to do anything that includes design work, only a cookie cutter systems that gives the homeowner a great experience. They appreciate what you guys do and they know that they can’t scale that, our view is give the customer enough to wet their appetite and next time they will end up buying a fully blown home system that is custom designed by a CEDIA Professional. If you look at the evolution of Home theater, you will find that things like in wall speakers and all the screen and projector companies were born only after home theater in a box was launched at retail , and the customer DIY installed it and realized how much better than his TV speakers it was and the next time he had 20K or he built a new home he called you and wanted you to design something for his house. EI actually has what we call lifesupport, dealers and BBY alike can sell our call center services for tech support and it is a reoccurring revenue, remote tech support service that allows you guys to have enterprise based tech support for your customers from dedicated professionals with out having to constantly be tied to your cellphone. It is totally your option to use but we have a team of techs that all have industry experience, mainly crestron and amx and all have pulled wire and understand IP networks, MCE, and more. You can now tell your customers that you provide round the clock phone and remote diagnosis of their system for XXX dollars a month. We then notify you at the point we realize it is something that would require a truck roll.
Anthony Z-This statement raises two issues. One, you are unfamiliar with the remote capabilities of dedicated servers. I am an Xperinet dealer. Remote diagnoses is not only possible but, were a hard drive in the RAID array to go down, I get an email and show up at my client's home with a replacement and they would never even know there was a problem. Two, you openly bring up what is ultimately one of Microsoft's biggest problems. Security. It's not only vulnerable but a clear hacker target....Ping.
SC-Very aware of the remote site tools for request, experinet, lutron, and more. In essence brother, your whole scenario is taking place on your mircosoft machine and you are using a piece of software to remote in to their box and do diagnosis. The only difference from mine is there are more powerful tools built for PC’s than the linux piece you are using. Either way Microsoft and software are involved.
Netarc-the beta release of vista that you had probably did have some improvements, software is always evolving and improving. I agree XP properly installed is quite stable.
SC-I did spend some time at vNet and think highly of what they are trying to do. It is not a easy road to plow, but they are dedicated. What I will say is that having worked for a two channel shop in high school that also sold old tube big screens, I left the the industry for 5 years and when I got back in to custom, not a lot had changed. I do believe the industry needs to evolve and that evolution will create greater profits for CI dealers and better experiences for home owners.
The most important piece is that we believe in the CI channel and we have specifically tailored our product to give you guys something that is different. One big form of differentiation actually falls on the vendors that you chose and the channels that they sell their products in. You will never see Lutron Homeworks in retail, or Vantage Infusion, Extron, B&K in BBY. Also we have a large sales and technical sales team that only services CEDIA dealers. Our hardware products that are just coming into the market are only available through the CI channel as well. The reality is the channel that you service today will always need a system properly designed, installed and customized for the needs of the high end user. The guy that would buy a retrofit 15K system from BBY is not your core customer, but with a good experience and a little luck in his career, he will become your customer.
I am probably going to be in trouble with both my staff and the folks that I report to, as my emails are typically one line. As you can see I am very passionate and believe in our product and the CI industry. Please feel free to call me or email me and we can have a lengthy conversation. I am bothered by the lack of factual information on our company, our product, and most of all or dedication to you the CI dealer. IF you are attending EHX, come by our booth, it is the largest at the show, all though money won’t and shouldn’t impress you, it does show our dedication to this space. Lastly our CEO’s background is in software for POS systems based on Microsoft platform. If you bought your wife or significant other something for Valentines Day last week, from say Victoria’s Secret, they used his POS software on a Microsoft computer to complete the transaction, credit card info and all over a network. THink of the billions of dollars, multiple locations, and simplicity that these systems operate on daily, not to mention the clerks aren't PHDs. Parallels are 24/7/365 reliability, security, ease of use for clerks and Microsoft. Guys it can and does work, yes there are some trick to the trade, but you guys are used to excelling by knowing the trick of the trade. I can’t name a large business in the US that isn’t running an IT network and Microsoft on PCs to do everything from email to multi billion dollar stock transactions. Let us help you learn the future of this industry. We all ready have a lot of dealers and a lot of installs. Big dealers with big projects.
