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CEDIA 2016

Voice Control: Time to Jump In…or Wait?

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In Wake of CEDIA, Industry Debates How Hot Voice Control Is

Scene showing Alexa voice controlOne of the keynote presentations at CEDIA 2016, was from Amazon – the monster online retailer. Amazon executive Charlie Kindel introduced the custom integration attendees to the Amazon Echo, Tap, and Dot…essentially Internet appliances that all feature their Alexa voice control technology. Then, late in the presentation, Kindel announced the company has developed a way for Alexa to interface with home systems – and even forged integration partnerships with Lutron, Crestron, Control4 and others.

And just like that, CEDIA 2016 became the voice control show… [Read more…] about Voice Control: Time to Jump In…or Wait?

Jetbuilt – Not Just a Name, But a Description

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jetbuilt logoAt CEDIA 2016, Jetbuilt CEO Paul Dexter’s voice was holding out…but just barely. Between the loud environment and the constant talking, it’s amazing anyone can talk by the end of day 2. Yet when an intrepid journalist showed up to ask about his software, Dexter shifted into high gear and in only about ten minutes, we had a complete picture of what Jetbuilt is all about. And that’s when we realized the name, Jetbuilt, was not just a company name, but was also a description of the end product – a good looking, well designed, full project proposal – built insanely fast by a savvy software solution.

See more on Jetbuilt… [Read more…] about Jetbuilt – Not Just a Name, But a Description

Millson Custom Solutions Goes From Crawl to Jog in Just One Year

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Millson Custom Solutions Celebrates Its First Birthday

CinemaFrame photoMost new start-up companies like Millson Custom Solutions (MCS) choose to develop a new product concept and spend their first year setting up distribution, making sure internal systems operate smoothly as sales begin to happen, and in general scale slowly before they take that next step in expansion. It’s sort of a crawl before you walk – walk before you run strategy.

But not MCS – no sooner did they get their remarkable CinemaFrame launched, then the company rolled out a second product, their RSMS Roller Shade Mounting System and then a third product, the FutureFrame.

How did they pull that off?… [Read more…] about Millson Custom Solutions Goes From Crawl to Jog in Just One Year

CEDIA 2016 – Hot Stuff We Saw

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CEDIA 2016 reportCEDIA 2016, like every trade show, for us is like trying to get a sip of water from a fire hose. There is just so much going on. And since all stories interest us – we have to go into a kind of marketing triage, quickly sorting those stories that we feel are the most compelling.

So, in this post, we want to share with you some of the more interesting things – and people – we saw and chatted with on the show floor.

See some of the notable people and products we saw at CEDIA 2016… [Read more…] about CEDIA 2016 – Hot Stuff We Saw

Houzz Smart Home Study Results Offer Some Surprises

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Houzz title slideSecurity & Thermostats are Top Smart Home Priorities

Being the marketers that we are, when we heard that Houzz was going to present the results of their first ever Smart Home Trends Study at CEDIA 2016, well we put that on our schedule. At the appointed hour, we listened closely as Liza Hausman, Houzz’s Vice President of Industry Marketing and Dave Pedigo from CEDIA patiently went through and explained the results – and while the results were unremarkable, they were interesting nonetheless. And, there were a couple of surprises.

See details on what the results from the Houzz study were… [Read more…] about Houzz Smart Home Study Results Offer Some Surprises

Crestron Pursues Deeper & More Innovative Integrations with Partners

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Photo from Amazon keynoteCrestron Embraces Sonos, Amazon, & Others

At CEDIA 2016, one of the top themes we identified was companies seeking more and better integrations with other companies’ technologies. In most cases, this expressed itself with companies seeking to have their product lines properly interface with the major control companies. But at CEDIA this year, Crestron took that concept to new heights and in a new direction with their enthusiastic embrace of newcomers to the CI channel…Sonos and Amazon Alexa.

See more on Crestron’s innovative integration solutions… [Read more…] about Crestron Pursues Deeper & More Innovative Integrations with Partners