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Worst DIY Installs Ever Part 7
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Tuesday, August 04, 2009
By Tom LeBlanc
Count me among those who enjoy Speakercraft's theatrics. I'm looking forward to what the company has in store for CEDIA Expo 2009
Not just what Speakercraft president Jeremy Burckhardt referred to as "the largest product introduction ever," which we now know is the Nirv IP-based 1080p multiroom audio/video solution, but also whatever whacky theme Speakercraft will create in its booth.
A couple of years back it had an Eastern theme, complete with geisha booth attendants. Last year, well, I'm not really sure what that was. Some sort of exotic dance thing that included nearly-naked women (and men).
CE Pro had a lot of fun with it, asking readers if Speakercraft's booth was "awesome or annoying?" and getting about 150 comments. Many of the comments were negative and fell into two categories:
High-performance speaker companies have always looked to reinforce their brand stories. The speakers and their stories are supposed to be unique and subjective. Not everybody is supposed to like every speaker.
Speakercraft’s brand story is that it’s the company that’s, you know, kind of out there. Some people hate it, some people love it.
As for CEDIA Expo 2009, Speakercraft has been coy about its booth plans. But an invitation to the Speakercraft press conference says:…
Not just what Speakercraft president Jeremy Burckhardt referred to as "the largest product introduction ever," which we now know is the Nirv IP-based 1080p multiroom audio/video solution, but also whatever whacky theme Speakercraft will create in its booth.
A couple of years back it had an Eastern theme, complete with geisha booth attendants. Last year, well, I'm not really sure what that was. Some sort of exotic dance thing that included nearly-naked women (and men).
CE Pro had a lot of fun with it, asking readers if Speakercraft's booth was "awesome or annoying?" and getting about 150 comments. Many of the comments were negative and fell into two categories:
- The near-nudity is offensive
- The company should be spending its money on dealer support, not showmanship
High-performance speaker companies have always looked to reinforce their brand stories. The speakers and their stories are supposed to be unique and subjective. Not everybody is supposed to like every speaker.
Speakercraft’s brand story is that it’s the company that’s, you know, kind of out there. Some people hate it, some people love it.
As for CEDIA Expo 2009, Speakercraft has been coy about its booth plans. But an invitation to the Speakercraft press conference says:…
By Robert Archer
Here are a few of this week’s Blu-ray releases:
Race to Witch Mountain
The Soloist
Stargate Atlantis: Fan’s Choice
The Waterboy
Sling Blade
Obsessed
Here are a few of this week’s CD releases:
Walter Trout: Unspoiled by Progress
The Doors: Soft Parade
Pick of the week: The Doors are one of the most popular groups in rock music history. The re-release of “Soft Parade” represents a new direction for the band with more of guitar player Robbie Krieger’s influence.
This new 24-karat gold release has been remastered by Audio Fidelity to coincide with the special gold-coating process, which is used to extend the life of the physical media disc.
Race to Witch Mountain
The Soloist
Stargate Atlantis: Fan’s Choice
The Waterboy
Sling Blade
Obsessed
Here are a few of this week’s CD releases:
Walter Trout: Unspoiled by Progress
The Doors: Soft Parade
Pick of the week: The Doors are one of the most popular groups in rock music history. The re-release of “Soft Parade” represents a new direction for the band with more of guitar player Robbie Krieger’s influence.
This new 24-karat gold release has been remastered by Audio Fidelity to coincide with the special gold-coating process, which is used to extend the life of the physical media disc.
By Jason Knott
What’s your breakeven labor rate? You should be able to recite it to me without hesitation.
If you had to think for a moment, then you are lost.
Without even including the actual hourly rate you pay your technicians, the typical overhead costs for a custom company can run as high as $96.76 per hour. That’s before you pay the technicians, and add in your profit.
Why so much? There are many reasons, but the biggest are allocation of costs from other employees and unbillable hours from techs in the field.
Working with several skilled industry professionals and peers, CE Pro's upcoming Webinar How to Calculated Proper Labor Billing Rates will give you sample template worksheets and specific examples on how to determine your breakeven hourly pay rate.
Don’t miss this excellent event on August 12 at 2 p.m. EDT.
If you had to think for a moment, then you are lost.
Without even including the actual hourly rate you pay your technicians, the typical overhead costs for a custom company can run as high as $96.76 per hour. That’s before you pay the technicians, and add in your profit.
Why so much? There are many reasons, but the biggest are allocation of costs from other employees and unbillable hours from techs in the field.
Working with several skilled industry professionals and peers, CE Pro's upcoming Webinar How to Calculated Proper Labor Billing Rates will give you sample template worksheets and specific examples on how to determine your breakeven hourly pay rate.
Don’t miss this excellent event on August 12 at 2 p.m. EDT.
By Julie Jacobson
Audio Design Associates (ADA) is offering a $50 credit for each legacy keypad you swap out for an ADA product. And you get $500 off an ADA multiroom audio system if you're replacing an old multiroom processor.
The offer is so compelling you just might want to design a marketing campaign around it.
I can see it now: Is your music system outdated? You could save $700 or more on a new system that lets you distribute all of the modern music sources throughout the house: digital radio, iPods, music servers and more. ...
ADA products work with most legacy wiring schemes so there's no need to hack up the walls.
Even if you're not using ADA, this type of marketing could be effective if the dealer foots the bill on a cash-for-clunkers rebate.
The Retrofit Market is one of the 6 Pillars of
EHX Spring 2010: The New Opportunities Show.
March 24-27, Orlando, Fla.
The offer is so compelling you just might want to design a marketing campaign around it.
I can see it now: Is your music system outdated? You could save $700 or more on a new system that lets you distribute all of the modern music sources throughout the house: digital radio, iPods, music servers and more. ...
ADA products work with most legacy wiring schemes so there's no need to hack up the walls.
Even if you're not using ADA, this type of marketing could be effective if the dealer foots the bill on a cash-for-clunkers rebate.
The Retrofit Market is one of the 6 Pillars of
EHX Spring 2010: The New Opportunities Show.
March 24-27, Orlando, Fla.
Posted by Julie Jacobson on 08/04 at 04:22 AM
Blogs, Retrofit, Distributed Audio, (0) Comments, Permalink
Blogs, Retrofit, Distributed Audio, (0) Comments, Permalink
Saturday, August 01, 2009
By CE Pro Editors
AMX's Peter York and Scott Miller with CE Pro's Julie Jacobson, CEDIA 2001
Remember this 70s-era bash sponsored by AMX at CEDIA 2001?
In honor of EH Publishing's 15th year in business, we're collecting the 100 Greatest Moments in Custom Electronics.
Send us your favorite memories -- thoughts, old cut sheets, photos, whatever.
We'll pick the 100 best and publish them on CEPro.com in September.
Please send to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
By Julie Jacobson
It's a trifecta
ReQuest servers with Netflix,
Hulu and YouTube
Home automation
Most popular subject on
CEPro.com
Niles chief Frank Sterns just
Released a brand new label
It's a cabernet
If Apple did come
To CES, here's what Bob
Would like them to show
More on FancyPants
Just cuz I like to say it
Fluffy spider, too
Goldenberg the spy
Blames Sapphire, whose servers were
Too easy to hack
Ex-AMX veep
Didn't know stealing emails
Might be illegal
Man wall with six screens
You know, for six games at once
His wife must love him
New Sonos handheld
It's nice, but still we'd like some
Integration please
What's new in remotes?
Haptics, motion, voice control
And battery-free
Off topic: Poor guy
Knocked unconscious by a cow
He's fine. How's Bessie?
Friday, July 31, 2009
By Jason Knott
If you’re looking for some data to throw out at consumers about why they need energy management, lighting control, etc., a new report from McKinsey & Co. concludes that elevating energy efficiency to a national priority could save American consumers $1.2 trillion by 2020.
That's about the same amount as the projected 2009 Federal deficit. The report also says it will cost $520 billion in upfront investment to achieve the savings.
McKinsey & Co. states that energy efficiency is the “single most promising resource” in pursuing energy affordability and security.
In addition to the tremendous savings to consumers and businesses, the report finds that elevating energy efficiency to a national priority could also create 600,000 to 900,000 sustainable green jobs and reduce overall energy consumption by 23 percent. That’s equivalent to the total energy consumption of the entire world for two weeks, according to the report.
That's about the same amount as the projected 2009 Federal deficit. The report also says it will cost $520 billion in upfront investment to achieve the savings.
McKinsey & Co. states that energy efficiency is the “single most promising resource” in pursuing energy affordability and security.
In addition to the tremendous savings to consumers and businesses, the report finds that elevating energy efficiency to a national priority could also create 600,000 to 900,000 sustainable green jobs and reduce overall energy consumption by 23 percent. That’s equivalent to the total energy consumption of the entire world for two weeks, according to the report.
Posted by Jason Knott on 07/31 at 08:37 AM
Blogs, Research, Home Automation and Control, (0) Comments, Permalink
Blogs, Research, Home Automation and Control, (0) Comments, Permalink
By Julie Jacobson
ZigBee just knocked Format Wars off the Top 12 all-time most popular stories on CEPro.com (track them at the bottom of the CEPro.com home page).
Bob Archer's story Big-Box Movers Ignite Format War Battles held the twelfth position for quite some time, but it was just overtaken by this one: Has Home Automation Standard Finally Arrived? ZigBee Pro with Control4 as ‘Anchor’, now up to 41,196 page views.
In all fairness, the ZigBee story has multiple pages and while the Format War story has one, so the numbers are skewed.
Interestingly, the most popular story on CEPro.com is also about home automation: Why H.A. Manufacturers Fail: Revisited, with almost 100,000 page views (come on, click the link, let's get us past the threshold.
What does the new status portend for ZigBee? Is CEPro.com like the well-known CE Pro Cover Curse?
Two of the featured products on the list are kaput: The AirRemote for iPhone and Alienware's high-end Media Center.
Bob Archer's story Big-Box Movers Ignite Format War Battles held the twelfth position for quite some time, but it was just overtaken by this one: Has Home Automation Standard Finally Arrived? ZigBee Pro with Control4 as ‘Anchor’, now up to 41,196 page views.
In all fairness, the ZigBee story has multiple pages and while the Format War story has one, so the numbers are skewed.
Interestingly, the most popular story on CEPro.com is also about home automation: Why H.A. Manufacturers Fail: Revisited, with almost 100,000 page views (come on, click the link, let's get us past the threshold.
What does the new status portend for ZigBee? Is CEPro.com like the well-known CE Pro Cover Curse?
Two of the featured products on the list are kaput: The AirRemote for iPhone and Alienware's high-end Media Center.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
By Robert Archer
Could Apple finally be coming to Las Vegas? The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple will exhibit at the CES 2010.
But even more exciting than the possibility of Apple exhibiting would be if Gary Shapiro could convince Apple CEO Steve Jobs to do one of his famous keynote speech's to kick off the electronic industry's largest trade event.
A Jobs' keynote address would surely upstage Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Intel's Paul Otellini. It would also be significant for Apple and possibly set the tone for a more robust electronics industry in 2010.
Here's a few things Apple could introduce at CES 2010:
Web Tablet Line: Apple finally introduces a Web Tablet line that has been talked about for more than a year.
More Powerful Apple TV: Apple TV products that include 1080p support, multichannel lossless audio, Blu-ray playback and greater content support from iTunes.
The Beatles Catalog on iTunes: Jobs takes a page from Bill Gates/Slash playbook, joining Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on stage to announce The Beatles catalog is available on iTunes. The trio then breaks into a medley of "Fixing a Hole," "With a Little Help from my Friends" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You."
But even more exciting than the possibility of Apple exhibiting would be if Gary Shapiro could convince Apple CEO Steve Jobs to do one of his famous keynote speech's to kick off the electronic industry's largest trade event.
A Jobs' keynote address would surely upstage Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Intel's Paul Otellini. It would also be significant for Apple and possibly set the tone for a more robust electronics industry in 2010.
Here's a few things Apple could introduce at CES 2010:
Web Tablet Line: Apple finally introduces a Web Tablet line that has been talked about for more than a year.
More Powerful Apple TV: Apple TV products that include 1080p support, multichannel lossless audio, Blu-ray playback and greater content support from iTunes.
The Beatles Catalog on iTunes: Jobs takes a page from Bill Gates/Slash playbook, joining Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on stage to announce The Beatles catalog is available on iTunes. The trio then breaks into a medley of "Fixing a Hole," "With a Little Help from my Friends" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You."
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
By Tom LeBlanc
While this is just an excuse to post a funny video, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer truly is an excellent choice for the 2010 CES pre-show keynote.
Not only did he do a fine job at 2009 CES, but he also has the credentials of an outstanding hype man.
2010 CES is sure to be crazy with Ballmer setting the stage.
Check out this video of Ballmer getting the crowd pumped up before a speech to Microsoft employees.
Not only did he do a fine job at 2009 CES, but he also has the credentials of an outstanding hype man.
2010 CES is sure to be crazy with Ballmer setting the stage.
Check out this video of Ballmer getting the crowd pumped up before a speech to Microsoft employees.
