Welcoming Utz
By Jeremy Glowacki
So what do I think of CEDIA’s pick for its first-ever CEO? Easy. I think Utz Baldwin is a great guy and will be an excellent “face” of the organization.I’ve known all of the past CEDIA presidents (now called “chairmen”) pretty well since Mitchell Klein’s two-year term in the late 90s. During this “modern era” of CEDIA leadership, all of these men had unique leadership styles and all had affable personalities. Over the years, the role of the top board of directors member seemed to be reduced in significance by the growing strength of the association’s full-time staff and the development of ...
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Retail AV Hit Hard by U.S. Economic Woes
By Jeremy Glowacki
There’s always been a Catch 22 for the custom installation channel when
it comes to mass-market retail competition. On one hand, most retail
outlets -- particularly the big-box stores like Best Buy and Circuit
City -- often under-serve customers looking to make big purchases like
flat-panel TVs, computers, and digital cameras, because of their lack
of product training or simple apathy. Even the “installation
departments” of these retailers typically provide nothing more than a
hang-and-bang attitude with no customer service to speak of. On
the other hand, retail does provide the ...
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Green is Good with New Control Product
By Jeremy Glowacki
To adapt and improve upon an annoying catch phrase from the eighties, I’d like to state that "Green is Good." And although business is rough for many of us, I think a new product that launches next week from Agilewaves can give you a Green story and a positive pitch to tell your clients who may be reluctant to buy more toys from you as their stock portfolios continue to tumble.A couple months ago, Residential Systems columnist Gordon van Zuiden wrote about growing "Green" opportunities in the custom integration channel. In that story, van Zuiden cited Agilewaves, a designer of a "Resource ...
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Call Me Mr. RG6
By Jeremy Glowacki
After my first two days of CEDIA Boot Camp course in Indianapolis this week, I’ve become so knowledgeable about the ins and outs of terminating “coax cable” that you can now officially refer to me as “Mr. RG6.” Just think, only two days ago I couldn’t have told you what RG6 was… or RJ45, 16/4, or 16/2 for that matter. Coax? Sure! Cat-6 cable? No problem! But that other wire and cable lingo used to sail right over my head. Now, with two-thirds of CEDIA’s version of installer basic training under my belt, I can confidently identify, pre-wire, label, and terminate cable of all kinds, with the ...
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Bush Enacts Pro-IP Anti-Piracy Law
By Jeremy Glowacki
In what could be another blow for companies like RealNetworks and even consumers and integrators involved with digital media, President George W. Bush this past Monday signed into law a bill designed to increase protection of intellectual property (IP) such as software, films, and music by raising penalties for infringement and creating a national "IP czar." The Business Software Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America all supported the bill.The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007, or PRO-IP ...
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CBS Affiliate Leaves Me in the Dark
By Jeremy Glowacki
Given all that’s happening with the U.S. economy, it seems petty to complain about missing a couple of football games in high-definition over the weekend. However, an on-going dispute between my cable provider and the owner of the Indianapolis CBS affiliate has reduced me to doing just that.The Indianapolis-area cable provider, Bright House, cannot carry the station WISH-TV or CBS programming without retransmission consent from corporate owner, LIN TV Corp. That consent expired at 11:59 p.m., October 2, leaving about 125,000 customers, like me, without the station or its other stations in ...
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My Disneyland Dream Home Experience
By Jeremy Glowacki
The Innoventions Dream Home is located in the heart of Disneyland's Tomorrowland section.As I sat there, my flight delayed at Chicagos OHare Airport I
pondered the carbon footprint required to get me from Carmel, Indiana,
to Anaheim, California. I was on my way to attend the grand-opening
festivities for Disneys Innoventions Dream Home, and the only reason I
was going was because of my respect for the folks at Exceptional
Innovation whose Life-ware brand was one of the core technologies in
the home and one that is increasingly more important to the custom
installation channel. ...
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Hot from the Show
By Jeremy Glowacki
The second-most-often-uttered question at trade shows is, What have
you seen thats hot? My answer this year at CEDIA EXPO in Denver was,
Not much, and thats a good thing.
For the second year in row, my sense at CEDIA was that while we were
once witnessing monumental shifts in technology on an annual basis, now
weve reached point where incremental improvements are the norm. The
reason that this is not a bad thing is that now we might finally start
to make things work for consumers, instead of frustrating and scaring
them with bleeding edge gear that has not been debugged.
Im sure that this is ...
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How was your show? Good show? Have a good show!
By Jeremy Glowacki
The most trite conversation at any trade show is the one about the trade show. Are you having a good show?Hows the show been for you?Great talking to you, have a good show!
Those same words come out of my mouth too, but for me trade show banter
is akin to talking about the weather; its generic filler conversation,
and a pretty poor excuse for real dialogue between people.
At last weeks CEDIA EXPO, however, this particular topic took on a greater sense of importance as we all tried to wrap our brains around
the current state of the economy. Everyone wanted to know the truth
about show ...
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How Many Studs Does It Take to Hang a 103-inch Plasma?
By Jeremy Glowacki
In his CEDIA cover story in the September
issue, Residential Systems contributor Michael Heiss noted that EXPO
would be the place to look for the latest developments in the mine is
bigger than yours race between flat-panel manufacturers. While my eyes
caught more "thin is in" products from display manufacturers and mounts
providers, I expect the race for largest panel to come back into view
at CES in January.
The topic of large flat panels came to mind again today when I was
speaking to Chief Manufacturing's Sara Schiffler who was on her way to
visit a photo shoot of the installation of a ...
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Economy Triggers More Innovation at NuVo
By Jeremy Glowacki
Not nearly as many Americans are building new homes as they were two
years ago. That fact, which has been lamented repeatedly within the
pages of Residential Systems magazine, is encouraging many
manufacturers and integrators of audio/video technologies to re-think
their strategies. Many have begun to focus on products that serve the
existing home (retrofit) market much more intuitively, a case in point
being NuVo Technologies innovative new idea.
A couple weeks ago, I was given an early preview of the new concept
that the savvy team out of Hebron, Kentucky, is developing for a first
quarter ...
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Getting to Know SE2 Labs
By Jeremy Glowacki
There was a full-size diagram that greeted me when I entered the W
Hotel meeting room to visit with SE2 Labs last month in Chicago. The
poster, which Im confident will be on display at next months CEDIA
EXPO, shows an AutoCAD drawing of a full Middle Atlantic Products rack,
stock full of gear. Next to it is an AutoCAD drawing of SE2 Labs
pre-built ITC One box that includes the same functionality as the MAP
rack, at a third of the height.The ITC One enclosure is much sleeker than advertised.
Before meeting SE2 Labs founder Mike Pyle in person, Id interviewed
him remotely for the magazine and ...
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A Faster Way to Buy Stuff
By Jeremy Glowacki
When I lived down South in the early 1990s I learned that instead of
saying that you were driving a friend to the store, you would carry
them there. You also said cut out the lights, mash a button, and
"fixin'" to do something, but I digress. I bring all of this up,
because a new deal between TiVo and Amazon may mean less carrying to
the store to buy stuff and more mashing of buttons on your TV
remote control, instead.
Mainstream America has never lacked options when it comes to buying
consumer goods. More than 100 years ago there was the Sears and Roebuck
catalog that enabled anyone in a ...
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The Big Unveiling
By Jeremy Glowacki
Last Saturday, my wife and I were asked to host our neighborhood
cul-de-sacs Fourth of July pitch in party and fireworks display. We
were the emergency replacement for our neighbor who threw out his back
hoisting sandbags for flood victims in the southern part of our state.
Even given the short notice, we were honored to be thrust into the
spotlight almost a year to the day that we first moved into our house.
Another perk of serving as host was that I finally was able to show off
my home theater to people other than family and close friends.
Although Ive begun to fine-tune my demo in recent ...
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Product Review: Fun with Boston Acoustics' SoundWare Speakers
By Jeremy Glowacki
Every once and a while I see a new product that I've just got to try out for myself. This happened last fall when I was privileged to tour the Boston Acoustics headquarters and first set eyes on the company's new SoundWare line of indoor/outdoor speakers.The SoundWare speakers were a close match to the reviewer's home's bricks.
Made of weather-resistant materials, the relatively small speakers are ideal for corner mounting, which was my application of choice on my deck earlier this spring.
The mounting hardware was intuitive even for a CI novice like me, and the "natural" color I picked was ...
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