Hi. I'm an electrical contractor getting into RF Lighting Control, Distributed Audio and Home Theater. I've programmed a couple of RTI Remotes and Processors and integrated them with Iphones and ipads. I'm currently working on a new house where I want to integrate RTI remotes, Lutron Shade Control. RADIO RA dimming (which I've done a bunch of), distributed Audio and Home Theater (which I've done a bit of). I want to cut my teeth,. so to speak, on this job. I notice that Polk Audio can be expensive so I'm looking at Niles (for in wall and in ceiling speakers). Any other rec's on speakers? What is this community's take on RTI Distributed Audio Amplifiers and their compatible RKM1 wall controls they make? Should I stay with RTI Distributed Audio or try to incorporate Russound or Niles DA? I'm going to try and see if my local distributor offers help in design and equipment choice. Does anyone have any ideas on obtaining design help? Thanks.

What type of design? Are you just referring to overall system design? Some disty's offer design help now.

I would however ask that you take a serious look at your speaker options. Polk which is crap is no where near expensive. Over priced for what you get yes, but there are far more expensive products out there.

Are you running a low voltage company with the electrical contracting? If you are doing RTI already then you are well on your way.

RTI AD-4 and AD-8 are decent. In that range they are as good as anything else. The Control Bucks you earn push it over Russound, Elan etc.

Not a fan of Polk or Niles both are ok. We do Triad, Monitor, and Paradigm, but I think Boston Acoustics is a decent line. It has enough name recognition to make it an easier sell. They also have just about every type of speaker you can think of.

You might also look into SnapAV. I am looking to move our business that way in the next year possibly.

The best advice I can give you is to hold the line on your margins. You are probably used to marking things up 10%, and making money on labor. Which works for an Electrician because they almost never need to service the product. About the only thing in our industry as reliable as what you are used to is speakers.

Prepare yourself for endless hours of HDMI frustration, run conduit, and an extra Cat5 or two at rough will save your ass.

you may want to team up with a local CI for your project and learn thru them. They will also be more usefull than any distributors free design service. If you want to go another way you can hire a company such as firefly http://firefly-designgroup.com/

I agree that polk is over priced for what it is, so is bose. Niles is a nice product depending on which model. Neither company has very expensive product.
If you want a very simple and easy to program DA system look at niles intellicontrol.
Unlike the electrical industry, the best products are not sold thru distribution. They are sold dealer direct only.

I was in your position once as well, moving first from electrical contracting to lighting, then making the jump to AV & control systems.

When I landed my first big job with DA, DV and lots of control integrated with lighting, I brought on a great local CI and it was the best decision I ever made. There are a lot of elements to a large job that you may not have considered.

The industry is a lot different than EC and it would be terrible for both you and your client to learn this at their home. I found it quite difficult to settle on product lines that seemed to cover the needs of my clients in their price range.

You are going to want to do a lot of research, and know them all inside out so you have a trick in your box for every problem.

Anyways, good luck!

http://www.medesign.tv/
http://www.k2dealerservices.com/
http://www.processdsg.com/
http://firefly-designgroup.com/
All of these provide design services.

A good option for help would be (mentioned above) to contact a CI and hire them as a consultant. They will save you lots of money/time be telling you what products to use and how to wire the project. They can also help you take your RTI programming from functional to awesome.

If you can't find someone local you could try using someone like Vincent from Total Control Remotes. He is well versed with RTI and offers a wide range of services for other custom installers. [Link: totalcontrolremotes.com]

I applaud you for attempting to expand your business but please partner with a local CI firm.

+1
Kevin is your man. Especially when you start talking lighting control.

This is all GREAT advice, and you should follow it. I'd like to add that once you've got a trick for every problem, keep your mind open, especially when your client says "this might be a dumb question, but...." See, I now know that I have a solution for everything, but for a while that attitude was like a set of blinders and I could not see other ways to do things. Clients don't know so much, so they're not limited in what they can imagine and can really expand your abilities by asking you to solve problems you would not even consider.

For more on this, go to [Link: remotecentral.com]. There's a question no adult in his right mind would ever conceive of, and the answers, and approach to answers, actually involve knowing less than we know as adults.

The first is to keep things simple . Use products that work don't swap out a 2k piece of equipment for a $500 piece . You will spend a ton of time getting it to work. Try to use more of the same brands because it will be easier when you call tech support . Work with good manufactures that will help you like zektor or rti . Make sure you and the client are on same page on what the system is suppose to do .since you don't a stock program sitt down with Clint and make sure he know what the programing is including and not . This is a big factor when the job is all done or so u think and he asks for 2 weeks worth of programing and wants it for free . This could make or break ur profit .

One thing I wanted to add. As an electrical contractor we have never presented a scope of work to a client. Even in complex custom residential, things are pretty cut and dry. Most problems can be solved by fishing in power, adding a switch, etc. This is not the case with A/V & control systems.

With AV systems if you're not on the same page as your client about the feature set of the finished product there will be confusion on both of your parts at the end of the job. What level of control is he looking for with these remotes? You might find the client and yourself answer this and similar questions very differently.

We have been presenting a very detailed scope of work, written pretty much the same way as the system has been sold, and described initially as a document to fall back on later when the guy pulls some request, or feature out of his ass that was never discussed.

Anyways, good luck.