I think it's pretty funny that you made judgements against certain comments for there misogyny and then you turn around and make a comment about her personality. I don't believe your comment is unjust but I think it's human nature to judge. We all have different reasons and I would suspect that some of the comments come from the constant battle in the industry over salesmen vs. technicians. Techincal people hate when people don't get every single item or term right. It drives them nuts! Salesmen are usually more conceptual and only care about big picture stuff and not whether someone said PTZ correctly. I commend Janna for being able to sell a vision and it appears Roberts can deliver that vision.

I apologize for starting the hot talk. She's good looking and I don't have a problem stating so as she is the host of a TV show. She should be pleasant to look at but I do feel saying anything more is less than professional.

Yes, Oliver Stones project was sub par in a few areas but there could have been reasons for making those decisions. I'm certainly not worried about a customer asking me to install an LCD instead of a plasma because they saw it on DIY.

And yes, I had to look up what misogyny meant!

I'm not sure it's her personality or not, that's why I asked. I don't know if it's a method of communication that is encouraged by producers or maybe that's just how she is, but I guess 'bug' is even too strong a word. I have noticed on many other programs that hosts 'overly emote' and use the most extreme adjectives available to describe positive outcomes or situations. Maybe these people are like that and that's why producers choose them. I imitate them to my wife for a little cheap mockery fun.

It does somewhat correlate with the salesman vs technicians paradigm: some salespeople play the role of idealist and champion, sometimes cheerleader, leaving the details for the rest of us to figure out. And those details matter. We technicians catch all those little details that are otherwise bypassed in the conceptual orgy of overly emoting adjectivity and have to be the adults if cold hard facts pop the balloon.

As for whether the show hurts or helps 'the biz' it probably does a little of both: warping practical expectations but raising interest in home technologies. It's a somewhat shallow show at 30 mins but 60 would lose most people's interest. The producers really play up Janna being the 'home technology expert' to promote the show and that ruffles some feathers, it irks me a little too, but they're trying to get people interested in the show. Instead of having her do 2 min commercial break blurbs about headphones at CES, I think the show would be a lot deeper if they had 'guests' on that really are experts: Grimani or Toole talking about acoustics on a build out where they used acoustic paneling: Kane talking about video: Stewart or Joaquin talking about screens: Holman giving a short blurb about what THX really is and why in 'surround sound' you don't hear sound from all speakers all the time.

But really, most people would rather see Warburton, Stone, and even Janna talk than a 'real' expert. And every new speaker described as 'phenomenal.' At some point I don't hold it against the producers or even Janna: it's what people want.

Either way we are supposed to be professionals. Commenting just seemed to focus a little too much on her attractiveness (or not) and had a tinge of misogyny to it and I though to comment the other day but quit reading the thread. I'm glad JGrif showed up to speak about the show and give us the 'inside' scoop: has anything he said really surprised any of us? Janna is a player in the show too, not really calling the shots.

JG thanks for coming in and posting. If you notice I made the thread title "Hollywood Hi-Tech Critique" and not "What was Rxxxxxs Company Thinking". I know that the company you work for probably had the very last word on what went on with any of the installs. The producers, sponsors, clients, and Janna told you all what to do. Us CI's get that.

I was going to volunteer my company to do an Extreme Makeover Home Edition that's going on right now but I didn't want to have to take shortcuts and cut corners. I bet it was hard for you to be there and see things that happened.

JG if you and your company don't mind, and it's allowed by your NDA and whatever other restrictions the show put on you, could you stick around and give us some insight on the installs?

I dont know about you guys but 93% of my customers are not the type to watch DIY. I agree that this show sucks, and doesnt make our industry look good but think of the clientele that watch DIY, they certainly are not my target customer.

Thanks for the insight. But did anyone notice this? Or did you see it the same time we did? If someone did notice this, I would hope than all kinds of hell was raised about it.

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|There were episodes I liked quite a bit (Patrick Warburton's comes to mind), and episodes that I found a little hard to watch.

But a Harmony? I found that a little hard to watch. While some of you have clients that are very high-end and don't watch DIY, there are probably a bunch of you that do and you have to justify why URC or RTi are superior to the Harmony's that your client can get at BB. This sure didn't make that task easier.

I'm sure the producers push the over-the-top attitude. I was working one of these past weekends and Design Star (or one of those shows) was on and it was a key point the host brought up to one of the contestants. The usual adage is the camera adds 20 pounds and I'm sure it makes you look a little duller as well.


I started my business with a partner 7 years ago and it was one of the major sticking points that I had to get over. He is a salesman and I'm not. That would cause some internal friction with me because he would be on the phone while I was doing all the dirty work. What I've come to realize is that most customers will trust your techincal expertise but really only care about the big picture stuff. I rarely have a customer who wants to question what I know or volley talking points back and forth.

People need to realize that, like it or not, we need to have salesmen (or women) who have dynamic personalities and we need to have technicians who can think their way through the job. I would imagine most people on this forum are technicians first.

The only thing I can think regarding the Harmony is that he really wanted to be in control of his equipment. I will get a handful of customers who simply want to be able to program the remote themselves. They could be the AVS types that switch out their gear every 6 months or someone who doesn't have the money to pay for a truck roll a couple of times a year. Warburton clearly likes to do his own wiring which was evident by how everything looked before the project started.

I'm more than happy to share what I know. However, as previously stated, there were large swaths of the production process (namely all of pre and post) that I was not privy to. In fact, I only found out that I would even be involved a short 2 weeks or so prior to the first shoot. I don't fancy myself a TV star, so that gave me a good deal of trepidation. But I figured what the hell, let's give it the ol' college try. You don't see an opportunity like that come along too often. And I have to say, despite some insane hours of ball-breaking work, we had a great time with it.

In regards to the harmony remote in particular, and equipment selection in general, there's something you guys should know before any criticism is levied. All of that equipment was donated by manufacturers in exchange for the exposure. Although I cannot say this with absolute certainty, my assumption is that the primary reason much of that gear was chosen came down to which manufacturers were willing to spot a few pieces of gear in exchange for some camera time.

Although a good portion of the brands featured were those that we use a regular basis (namely Crestron, Runco, and Integra), a lot of the brands were not (namely Harmony, Klipsch, Genelec, etc...). My intention here is not to compare one to the other, per se, but namely to point out that during the process I was often working with equipment that I was not previously familiar with.

Also, considering the fact that this aired on the "Do It Yourself" network, the Harmony remote was perhaps one of the more appropriate pieces we featured during the whole process. We can go back and forth all day bantering about why RTI's and URC's are superior. But that's not really the point. In other words, we are not the target audience.

Even ignoring that, we have to learn to contend with the fact that Harmony is not going anywhere any time soon. If you're worried that your prospective clients may be more inclined to ask for it by name after seeing it featured on TV... then hold on tight because there are rough waters ahead. Commoditization is here to stay.

Although I hear there are still good margins to be had on solar panels, I'm not much for heights...

*EDIT - Slight change to some wording, sentiment remains in tact