I got some flak on a story about Sony’s NHS (New Home Solutions) prebuilt rack systems.

Sony has been offering these solutions for a few years, but in the newest iteration, the company incorporated Control4 into the mix, giving integrators an alternative to the oft-derided controllers that accompany the NHS system.

“Jim” was the first to comment: “Do dealers really buy this stuff? A one size fits all rack?”

Later, “Jon Doe” remarked, “So what good is an integrator if a builder can plop one of these pre-programmed racks into all new homes?”

Yawn.

These are the same unreasonable objections that dealers have raised for years, pooh-poohing hard-working integrators who prefer to make money the cookie-cutter way, terrified that easier-to-install systems will put them out of business.

My apologies to “custom” purists who insist that every button on every touchscreen be the exact color and texture that a customer demands, and who deride integrators that offer only a few options (and say “no” to potentially over-taxing customers), but you are snobs and need a reality check.

There’s more than one business model in the custom (yes, custom) industry, and my hunch is that the vast majority of integrators believe the best path to growth and profitability is to say “no” to overcustomization.

Certainly, a large chunk of manufacturers believe this to be true (Niles with its ICS, SpeakerCraft with Mode, Control4 with everything and on and on and on).

Now, consider Crestron and AMX. Even these stalwarts of ultra-customization are saying “yes” to cookie-cutter possibilities.

Crestron introduced Adagio a few years ago as an entry-level multiroom audio system that practically works right out of the box.

Sure, you can add some bells and whistles from the Crestron portfolio, but the gist is to provide a quick-and-easy solution for dealers that savor those $10,000 jobs.

And AMX just rolled out AMXhome, which seems to go against every principle of the granddaddy of custom.

AMX’s Scott Norder boasts (he boasts!) that “a job that would ordinarily take two to three weeks to program can now be done in two or three days.”

Is that blasphemy?

Just as these manufacturers are creating solutions with fewer options (and, therefore, fewer obstacles to selling and installing), integrators should also embrace the notion.