Mobile Showroom Offers New Way to Reach Customers

Building a showroom is one thing. It can provide education, entertainment and even inspire a sale or two.

But it's the fully automated home that really gives customers a feel for the possibilities, says Houston-based Home Media Professionals founder Eugene Kesselman.

"It's all of those things together -- everything in the digital experience home -- that will give [customers] the opportunity to ask, 'is this useful?' and 'do I really need this?'"

"I don't believe that people buy technology," he adds. "They buy experience. And there's no other way to shop an experience than to see it, hear it, feel it."

While Kesselman feels the fully automated home does a better job displaying home tech options than a conventional showroom, there are some drawbacks to that as well.

Commuting through traffic to visit a showroom does not sound like an appealing way to shop for the automated home.

So, how could Kesselman and his home theater and home automation company bring the showroom to the customers instead?

Technicians Behind the Wheel

The High-Definition Mobile Showroom is a 40-foot RV now worth about $150,000.

Complete with home theater, home automation display, digital whole-home audio sound and other automation products, the mobile showroom is Home Media Pros' answer to the aforementioned challenge of bringing the showroom to the customer.

"The first step was to analyze what our customers want," says Kesselman.

"What they wanted was a media room, a whole-house audio system and security and automation. Our next challenge was to take those three fairly large components and integrate them into one mobile home and make it so that they can enjoy them more than just one at a time and still maintain the home feel."

That may sound like a tall order, but it wasn't the biggest challenge. Time was the biggest challenge. Home Media Pros received the trailer August 17 and was slated to be at a show September 12 with what would be the finished RV.

"We had to convert the system to work both with 12-volt lighting and 120-volt lighting," Kesselman said, beginning a laundry list of puzzles that had to be solved well before the installation itself. "Fully running, the system consumes 70 amps of power. We had to provide a generator."

To add to the time-pressured challenge, Kesselman also ran into a few financial issues. "Typically," he explains, "when you build something like this, vendors would assist with the equipment. But when you have an idea that is a little to the extreme, only very few buy into the concept."

In case you're wondering, the RV is fully insured and has a built-in tracking device should someone try to steal it -- but, as Kesselman himself added, "that's another story."

The showroom integrates a full computer network. "So, to have a fully running computer network was a puzzle of its own," Kesselman says.

"You have to have enough IP addresses. We use a Cingular wireless card ... and that was the puzzle -- linking all of this."

All told, the Hi-Def Mobile Showroom includes:

Whole-House Audio -- a Russound CAS66 system, "HiFi by HAI" and NuVo Grand Concerto. It also contains a Hitachi Hi Def TV, Apple TV and a Sonos wireless controller, all powered by a Denon Receiver. The room also contains a Sharp LCD screen. The shower sports a 19-inch waterproof LSC screen ("Don't ask me what they use it for," says Kesselman about that last item, "but I sold four of them at the show").

Home Automation -- an HAI OmniPro system with the new 5.0 7-inch touchscreen. That equipment is connected to all of the lighting, air conditioning and sound equipment. It also contains a gigabit Ethernet network, a media center PC and Smarthome Insteon dimmers and switches.

Media Room -- a Mitsubishi Hi-Def projector, a 103-inch theater screen, a Harman Kardon receiver, Sony PlayStation 3 with Blu-ray, a 55-inch Hi-Def Hitachi screen all surrounded by Infinity in-wall speakers and Jamo subwoofers. The remote control is provided via a Harmony 1000, Sony UX1 (a handheld PC) and the Universal Remote MX3000.

Outside A/V -- two 50-inch Hitachi screens fed through DirectTV Hi-Def receivers.

Thank You; Drive Through

So, was it worth it? Absolutely. It was worth it, Kesselman says. "I would dare to say that it has paid for itself."

And are customers receiving this novelty warmly? Yes, quite. At the Sept. 12 show, Home Media Pros stamped and counted 1,100 people that weekend alone.

"I don't believe you can get better traffic at any showroom in a metro," Kesselman says. "The customers are hesitant at first. They don't expect that much technology in that little space. But we get three wows from them once they're inside -- one for each room."

The Hi-Def Mobile Showroom is paying off for Home Media Pros, which is fairly new to the home theater category.

In home automation and lighting since 1998, Home Media Pros launched their official entry into home theater with their Web site, http://www.homemediapros.com, in October 2006. The RV was the company's next "big step."

What follows? A fully automated high-rise condominium in the city, Kesselman says.

As for the RV, it will be touring various block parties, homeowners' associations and open homes. The best news, though: Kesselman himself added, "We would allow certain customers to borrow it for the weekend."

Get your fishing pole.