bazinga!!!!

also, you guys are acting like most interior designers are just bumbling stumbling idiots! I work with some pretty damn competent designers. just because the are concerned with aesthetics over technology doesn't make them idiots, that IS what they are paid to do!!!! Just because they make a suggestion that sounds insane to us doesn't make them stupid, it means that they do not have as much knowledge as you about A/V, which i hope would be true. if they knew as much as you about A/V you wouldn't be there because they would be doing interior design and A/V. when you prove to this designer it wont work because of optics, lines of site, light behind 2-way mirror etc.

i can almost promise you they wont make that suggestion again. if they did, now that would be stupid.

on a side note, the designer on my current project has sold a future automation through the floor lift for $17k, that does not include the entirely custom hand built mounting system and rustic reclaimed beam it will sit on when risen.

we also have a motorized TV on covered porch. she wants a system built for the Crestron V-24 Touch Panel/HDTV to pull down from above the Miele cappuccino maker so it can be at a more comfortable height for touching/home control. she took us from a very selective hybrid centralized/local lighting control system to a 100% centralized system with 70+ circuits, 30+ keypads. so... im loving my designers!!!!

eric,

It sounds like you have a relationship with a interior decorator most of us could only dream of. And if we did have a relationship like you do we would probably be sticking up for them as much as you are doing (which is totally cool)

I have worked with quite a few decorators in my time and everyone i have had to work with have been miserable to deal with. They could care less if we have solutions that would make both parties extremely happy. It was their way or the high way, of course with my input the customers let some things slide but she won out the majority of time.

I am an extremely easy guy to work with and dont walk into a meeting thinking that they are retarded. I wouldn't expect them to know what we know and visa versa (i sware sometimes i would be a better decorator then what someone them have come up with but i digress :)

Eric, How did you find the interior decorators? or did you work on a project that happened to have them and you guys worked together?

in 19 year i have worked with some amazing designers and some amazingly bad designers... when it comes to integrating and supporting technology

in my personal experience it breaks down like this

25% amazing
75% amazingly bad

Sig, these are designers already on the jobs.

The one i referenced above is a family member of client.

Yes. I love it.

Let's not involve his Mee Maw!

+1

Some designers forget the creed that "form follows function"

And at the very least, good design means "form and function meet in the middle".

But most (possibly more than Ed's 75%) practice the idea that "form stomps all over function".