The Integrated Home

Smart home integration is an attractive sector for many business owners and entrepreneurs who may already be active in a related sector, such as, electrical, security or IT contracting. In this episode, we explore how you can make a successful transition into the professional home integration industry. We look at what research and training is right for you, which events to attend, the skills you’ll need and what support is available if you decide that this is the sector for you. We’re joined...

Home cinema is the focus of this episode, recorded in front of a live audience at the Sony screening room in Basingstoke. We take a look at the fundamentals of home cinema and media room design in the company of two champions of the experieince, Ian Bolt from Custom Sight & Sound and CEDIA award-winning integrator and judge, Guy Singleton of Imagine This. How is business changing for integrators and what's important for customers today? We're also joined by Chris Mullins from Sony for news...

Welcome to our very first episode recorded in front of a live audience! In this specially extended edition, we've assembled an expert panel, drawn from the worlds of prime development and integration, to address how developers can improve prime property yields with thoughtful investment in home automation. Alex Isaac, Director of Design, EcoWorld Harri Williams-Jones, Associate Director, Super-Prime Residential Development Consultancy, Savills Jon Cooper, Managing Director at The Next Level...

We’re looking at control in this episode with industry guests, Robin Courtenay of SMC and Jeremy Aston of Channel Smart Buildings. Why have a control system? What are the benefits that a control system brings and do consumers appreciate them? What are the integration challenges, especially when you move beyond AV into lighting, blind, security and HVAC control? We’re also asking who is accountable when things go wrong on a system. Does the buck always stop with the integrator, and how do you...

With the help of Custom Electronic Design's Nick Moore and Nicolai Landschultz of integration firm, IndigoZest, we explore the home network. How important is the network to the experiences we create for customers? Where are the business opportunities and what training is out there that can help you deliver robust networks for your customers? And, how should you deal with that frequently asked question: isn’t everything wireless these days? We also hear from Nicolai, a Copenhagen native, on...

We take a look at digital marketing, social media and branding for integration businesses in the company of self-confessed social media junkie, Ben Davies from Inspire AV, and Nicola Fulstow of CEDIA-award winning integrator, SONA. How should integrators present themselves to customers? What social media channels work best? Is it all digital these days? Or, is there a place for old school marketing tactics? We also take a look at the related topic of how integrators use social media when...

We turn the spotlight on all things audio with the help of Pip Evans, the main man at London-based NV Integration and Barry Sheldrick, Sales Director at Meridian Audio. What are customers looking for when they listen to music in the home? Is it all about convenience or is quality making a comeback? What role does content have to play in the discussion? And, how can we persuade customers about the benefits of great sound in a media room and home cinema set up? We also look at two demo options...

We examine the big issue of lighting in the company of Homeplay’s Managing Director, James Ratcliffe, alongside Nic Black, Principal of The Pyramid Group. We ask how integrators can bring lighting design and lighting control into their business. What's involved and how will embracing lighting change your business offering for the better? As the CEDIA Awards open for entry, we also talk to James and Nic about taking part in Award schemes. What does it take to win an Award and is it worth all...

In the company of two experienced industry practitioners, David Graham of Grahams Hi-Fi and Steve Moore of SMC, we cover two important issues facing integrators - how do you run a smart home project in another country and what can you do to generate recurring monthly revenue from service and after-care? We’ll be asking what steps you should take to deliver on projects overseas and finding out how you can make a success of this kind of work for you and your customer. Then, once we've figured...

In the warm and comfortable surroundings of the cinema showroom that belongs to Bespoke Home Cinemas in the fine city of Leeds, we're joined by Mel and Giff Malcolm, the husband and wife team behind Bespoke Home Cinemas, and from across the Pennines, we have Oliver Hall from CEDIA award winning firm, Ultamation. Together, we explore the question of image rights and passing off. What happens if you find that a photo of one of your installations has popped up on the website of another...

What’s happening in home cinema? Is the big screen business going to get even bigger, and more immersive, now that we have IMAX Enhanced? What will this mean for dealers? And, what’s going on with content? At the recent CEDIA Expo in San Diego, keynote presenter, John Penney from Twentieth Century Fox painted a picture of IT companies taking over the entertainment industry and fighting amongst each other to deliver content directly to consumers. Meantime, Netflix and SkyQ have announced that...

Whatever Earth Wind & Fire might say, we all know that September is a busy, back to work month. The holidays are a dim and distant memory, the kids are heading off to school and it’s time to gear up for show season - a time that's full of innovations, new ideas and education opportunities. From the 15th until the 23rd September, London is taken over by the London Design Festival, so there's no better time to talk about interior design and home technology. We welcome two special guests to...

In this month's show, we're joined by Rob Sutherland, Principal at London-based integrator, Inspired Dwellings, to look at how his business has evolved to meet technology changes, customer expectations and market opportunities. Then, as BBC Radio's "The Archers" namechecks multi-room audio as a technology 'must-have', we talk about smart homes in the media with two experienced, consumer-facing journalists - freelance writer extraordinaire, Chris Haslam and Jonathan Margolis from the FT How...

On the road in Bristol, we're joined by Matt Zachrisson-Smith, Managing Director of Total Solutions and Owen Maddock, Principal of Connected Works and co-founder of the HomeTechGallery hashtag. As £1 million plus properties surge in Bristol and elsewhere around the country, we examine what the integrator's life is like outside of London. We also take a look at the recent media obsession with smart home security and ask if this is a problem for professional home technology integrators. Then,...

In the company of special guests, Gary Lewis, Sales Director of Cornflake and Chris Knight, Managing Director of Perfect Integration, we take a look at Mega Basement Conversions to find out if this is a declining market for London-based integrators. We also invite Gary and Chris to give us their opinion on National Smart Home Week and explain its relevance to the integrator channel.Then, we talk about the future of the industry, and ask the big question, does it actually have one? Recorded...