Residential Systems Design: Programming Partner

While some integrators constantly expand their scope of services to bring in more revenue, Residential Systems Design (RSD) opts, instead, to do one thing and do it well.

Programming and design is its story, and it's sticking to it. With good reason, too. Its specialty is serving the company and its customers (many of whom are integrators) quite well.

Based in Exton, Pa., RSD provides certified AMX and Crestron programming for residential applications opting to avoid the tribulations associated with product margin and installation labor.

According to RSD, its programmers are true programmers, well versed in today's cutting-edge technologies, and savvy in professional lighting design, installation, and user interface design.

The company prides itself on providing clients with eye-catching touchpanel control over lighting, HVAC, security systems, audio and video and more. Therefore, all staff programmers are proficient in more than the typical automation languages, such as AMX Netlinx and Crestron SIMPL+, and are fluent in more complicated languages like C++, Perl, JAVA, as well.

Vice president Kevin Busza explains that RSD uses its experience with challenging languages to benefit clients.

"We provide AMX programming and development of utility modules -- advanced modules which deliver more robust services -- directly to a touchpanel. Examples include weather look-up, live traffic camera feeds, and stock tickers."

Since RSD began in January 2001 it has always touted itself as strictly a programming and design firm. The company is the brainchild of brothers Bradd and Brett Fisher.

Both have a background in high-end A/V and were offered positions working for AMX. They noticed that it wasn't only hard for dealers to find programmers, but also, to keep them.

Often, when a programmer leaves a dealer, all the "standards" that had been used up to that point in programming often leave with them -- sometimes along with backup copies of code for each client.

"Programming is only as good as the intuitiveness of the graphics that accompany it," Bradd Fisher explains. "We saw that there was literally no attractive or intuitive panel designs in the market. It was also clear that a majority of dealers who have programmers on staff believed that a programmer was capable of creating 'attractive' panel designs. While there are rare exceptions, the typical programmer's mind is not cut out to be a graphic designer. We believe that an attractive touchpanel is just as important for many reasons."

Those reasons, Fisher asserts, include that if a touchpanel is attractive to look at, it's more inviting to use. He also says that the touchpanel is really the only item in a system that the client should need to see and interact with.

Many clients will gladly pay to customize their graphic user interface (GUI), much like they customize their cars, landscaping, etc., notes Fisher.

"Dealers cannot sufficiently deliver AMX and Crestron programming because their staff programmer isn't comfortable with the project, is too overloaded with other work, or the outsource programmer used up to that point was not reliable enough because they were a single-man operation."

Dealing with Dealers

According to CE Pro research, approximately 40 percent of custom integrators use an outside programming service. Why such a high percentage?

Strictly dollars and cents ... when you calculate the high salary a programmer can often command, and the fact that integrators usually can only directly bill customers for about half of a programmer's time, it can be very costly to maintain your own staff programmer.

As an example, a programmer being paid about $47,000 per year in salary has an actual base operating cost of $108,000 in a small five-person company. That means his operating cost is $54 per hour. To make 20 percent on that, you need to charge the client $65 per hours.

Therefore, RSD says many dealers -- both large and small -- recognize what a strong programming company can do for them. "Many dealers realize the benefit our company provides, and bring RSD into projects very early in the quoting process," says Busza.

"Because we provide programming and user interface design every day of the week all over the world with hundreds of dealers, we have a distinct advantage in providing more reliable programming, more impressive and intuitive user interface designs, and more experience on which products interface well with AMX and Crestron."

When the company first formed, the thought was that it would mainly serve smaller dealers that didn't have a programmer on staff. Today it provides programming, touchpanel design, and system documentation services for small dealers and some of the largest companies in the industry.

"It's interesting to see the model that has developed," says Busza. "Many times, our dealers choose to keep a programmer on staff to do some projects and expedite the code on projects coded by RSD. This model allows the dealer to keep a low, fixed cost for the often expensive salary of a programmer."

According to Busza, RSD entices larger dealers with its ability to reliably handle many projects simultaneously. He terms those processes and standards as priceless to a larger operation on several different levels.

The company can customize the bells and whistles a client may want, and provide the programming staff that many large dealers have a hard time keeping. It doesn't hurt, either, he says, that RSD's participation in the project often results in them up-selling their projects by thousands of dollars.

RSD does go onto job sites and has learned over the years that it must be "hands on." It meets with the end-user to consult on possible solutions and make recommendations. Most integrators are very up-front with their customers and actually use RSD's name. Like most integrators, RSD often asks the end-user probing questions to get to know their lifestyle.

It needs to know who will be using the system most, where, and for what purpose, which allows it to suggest things in the system that the client may not have even thought of. Among them, for example, are information modules or iModules RSD creates that allow a client access to things like stock tickers, email, recipes, eSommelier wine management systems, and grocery lists.

RSD's programming projects range from $1,500 to $200,000 jobs, varying from a day or two to many weeks. Systems also run the gamut from the most simplistic like a simple home theater with one AMX, or Crestron panel, to dozens of touchpanels in whole-house systems (i.e., multiroom audio, security, HVAC, lighting, shades, cameras, pool, etc.).

The company prides itself on being able to program a system 30 percent to 50 percent faster than the average dealer's in-house programmer can. Since the programmer is the last person in the house and the client is often excited to see the job come to completion, that speed can be appealing to dealers.

RSD aims not to step on dealers' toes. Busza points out that it doesn't offer direct hardware sales or installation services because it would mean competing against its own customers. This would go against the company's one-hand-washes-the-other philosophy.

All About Interface

Because RSD employs a full graphic design team, its dealers have a lot of panels to up-sell to clients. "Every interface that we put together goes through a rigorous process to ensure its quality, both in its look and feel and usability," says Busza.

"Our goal is to make sure that anyone can walk up to a panel and be able to use the system while being moved by the panel design itself. We also create completely custom designs for those who want to maximize the impact of their home automation system. By incorporating blueprints, interior design elements and details unique to the home, the home automation experience is brought to a new level."

All RSD designs, by the way, are put through an in-house quality assurance process whereby one designer reviews a design created by another. Through its programming teams, the company can also extend beyond A/V and control system programming into the expansive alternatives of software development.

A key area it focuses on to complement control system programming is hardware communication protocol development. This is the communication protocol in which a hardware device communicates with other electronic devices, such as a PC, modem, control system, etc.

It has a proprietary IP-based protocol to communicate with weather data services from the National Weather Service and a proprietary Macromedia Flash interface protocol to control systems.

Capabilities also include protocol translators (middlemen) to enable existing control system code to communicate with non-standard protocol interfaces of functionally similar devices.

Fisher notes that RSD rotates staff with changing jobs to keep things fresh for them. Different staff at different times are assigned protocol development.

"This is an integral part of what we do, simply because relying on modules written by others is not always an option for us, being that they are not always reliable. And we guarantee quality of work to our clients, and are often the first ones dealing with newer devices and technologies."

RSD, he says, has modeled itself to be the largest and best programming firm in the world as it relates to control systems.

"Our success comes from spreading our resources across the U.S. and abroad, which justifies our having a design team, sales team, project management team, documentation team, and programming team and we offer a level of service that no dealer can do himself without losing tremendous money."

RSD gets a lot of referrals, often from consultants, homeowners themselves, and dealers. It has worked with famous clients, customizing touchpanels that reflect their celebrity.

"We work with prestigious clients in the same way we work with non-prestigious clients," Fisher states. "The client may be a movie star, professional athlete or CEO. They all have unique tastes and requests. But a football player, for example, may not want footballs on his touchpanel. He may want it to be representative of his car collection."

Regardless of the specific designs requested, RSD, says Busza, takes the term "automation" and pushes it to its limits. It does this with 10 programmers, four salespeople, four designers, one draftsman, one administrative assistant, and an authorized subcontractor program that adds a good amount of programming capability.

The most rewarding aspect of the business, Fisher and Busza say, is the cutting-edge automation that results -- the user interfaces being created from scratch to match a specific user's preferences, working with almost 200 dealers across the country.

That must be why they stick with what they do best -- programming.

Expansion by Design

Residential Systems Design's (RSD) design services have expanded recently into providing system consulting and design beyond just the control system and panel layouts.

It now offers a full A/V system design that will develop a scope of work as well as CAD drawings for dealers who may want to step up their offerings, and represent a more professional appearance while maintaining a limited staff.

RSD maintains that its goals have always been to offer services that increase the value of the project, while at the same time giving the dealer an added level of professionalism. This is often just the edge it needs to land a project over a larger competing company.