Hi all -

My name’s Will Brocklebank, based in the UK (London). I am a founding partner in a converged AV & data business that aims to give design, installation, advice and support for all aspects of digital equipment in the home and small office. We believe that there is no real distinction between the traditional AV world and the data/IP network in today’s homes as each shares so much (or should share so much) with the other. Equally we aim to take the pain out of digital products for our clients by emphasising face to face contact (hence the name of the company: Face to Face Digital) to make technology more approachable and understandable and also to offer support packages for the whole of a house’s digital content on an annual basis.

I hugely appreciate the excellent resource that is CEPro and am very interested in all the trends etc Stateside. I am hoping to really professionalise the level of long-term support for affluent households and 1-10 person businesses here in the southern UK.

Am grateful for any advice etc from the other forum members!

With best wishes and good fortune to you all!

Will

Thanks Jason, Julie, and crew for continuing these forums!
I’m Grant Olewiler, General Manager of M.D. Manufacturing.  My entire adult life has been spent with central vacuums and I love using forums such as this to answer any questions related to the industry.  I have built the units, designed them, sold, marketed, installed, and serviced them.  Realizing that this is one of the most un-attractive aspects of the industry, it is also one of the most profitable and involves the least amount of tweaking.  Our website http://www.builtinvacuum.com contains over 7000 pages of information and is revered by the industry as THE place to find answers on the industry.
Feel free to save my contact info and call on me even if you aren’t selling our MD brands!

Hi everyone
I have 23 years in the electronics industry. I am based in ohio.

Thanks
J.Todd

My name is Fred Harding

I’ve been involved in the electronics trade since 1979

I currently work for Capitol Sales Company, a supplier of custom audio video equipment

Jason and Julie have been kind enough to allow me to write a monthly column for CE Pro magazine called Fred’s Fundamentals

Joe Paone - 22 May 2008 09:49 AM

Hi! I’m Joe Paone, and I’m a longtime reader and fan of CEPro.com.

I am (or rather, was) a lifelong Philadelphian, and I will always remain head over heels in love with Philly.

That could have come from me too, except that I grew up on the South Jersey side of the Delaware, and have been living in Germany for the last 16 years.  If it wasn’t for the internet it would be difficult seeing how all my Philly teams are doing (I even look at the 76ers every once in a while, what a surprise last season...).  We rule - the regular season…

I now live near Regensburg, Germany, about one hour north of Munich.  What started out of necessity (buying a Panasonic DVD player to watch movies in English) became a hobby, and is now slowly developing itself into my future career - home theater.  But, in order to make it into a financially worthy job, I am now doing my homework in the home automation field, to be able to offer a full package to home builders, mostly targeting turn-key solutions.  But that’s my “to-be” state; at the moment I’m working as a project engineer as a six sigma black belt, learning everything I need to learn about my weaknesses: financials.

I’m glad to be here, and I hope to be blogging often with everyone.

Servus, Charlie

Hello I’m Jez Hildred, Brit now transplanted to San Francisco.

I ended up in this industry through chance, evolution and personal interest. I worked for a looooong time in the UK Apple Mac industry and ended up following their migration from straight IT products to home media products. I had represented a number of specialist netwroking brands in the UK and realized the internet spelled death for many of them. As an avid music fan I watched the rise of MP3s and the iPod. I introduced Sonos and Roku to the UK market before moving stateside and joining Slim Devices. After their acquisition by Logitech I stayed a hile before moving to VUDU.

As you may be able to deduce from that I’m a strong believer that the future is IP, Baby! I believe that the internet and home networks will form the fabric for moving any and all forms of content in the foreseeable future. Whilst this spells doom for many old proprietary methods for distributing audio, video and control signals, I firmly believe it opens up many more doors for what can be offered to the discerning home owner.

Aside from being so opinionated, I like music, TV and movies (although I seem to havee no time for them anymore). I love classic cars and historic racing. I love Formula 1 but just can’t get my head around NASCAR. I’ve even turned into a beer drinker since jumping the pond, so I guess there’s hope for me yet.

Hello, my name is Tony Eppright.  I’ve been involved in Consumer Electronics for over 20 years.  I got into this industry because of my passion for electronics, and that has grown over the years and I’m happy to still be involved.  I worked for a higher end retailer for 15 years until deciding to branch out on my own last year and start my own website, and more recently launch my first product.

My experience over the last few years has led me to design and manufacture a product called (patent pending) hd EZ lock(TM), which I designed out of my frustration with HDMI installations.  I had a lot of problems with HDMI connections coming loose, which resulted in phone calls from frustrated customers and a lot of problems. I thought I was the only one having this problem, until last year when I started really thinking about it and reading more and more complaints and articles highlighting this as one of the problems with the HDMI system.

I came up with a design, filed for a patent, and began the engineering and manufacturing process.  We’re in the final stages now(final testing and completing our new website), and will soon (August 2008) release the first universal locking adaptor for HDMI, the hd EZ lock(TM).  It’s an adaptor that is designed to work with most HDMI Cables on the market, and work with most HDMI components (with various fixing screw locations, as well as using an adhesive adaptor if your component has no fixing screw).  It’s also reusable as your system changes.

We hope that we can make all of our lives easier with our adaptor, giving us all one less thing to worry about If you’d like more information, you can submit your email at the url below and we will be happy to keep you posted.

http://www.hdezlock.com

I should add that I’d love to hear opinions on this as well (good and bad). 

Take care,
Tony

Morgan Harman, The Tech Source - Simi Valley, CA (Los Angeles & Ventura Counties).

I am one of the industry cross-overs.  I started in IT after getting my degree in Astrophysics.  Was presented with a unique opportunity to consider starting my own business and gladly accepted the challenge.  (When the internet bubble burst, an industry that was so easy to bounce from job to job in suddenly fell silent.  The company I was with closed and unlike previous “transitions” there was not another job waiting.)

When the company was formed, I had the following lettering added to my work truck:

Residential & Business Technology Solution Provider

After struggling to get traction, after several lessons learned, after listening to people, this is now the tag line:

Home theaters and more in Southern California

I’m still a geek and hard to understand if you ask me to explain something technical, but am enjoying spending time in the real world with real down to earth people who haven’t got a clue how to setup their TV. 

But when the time comes and Dr. Flick is ready for his first orbiting theater, I volunteer to help with the install!

Was in the same (now sunk) boat as Morgan.  !0 years as network admn/programmer when the bubble burst.  Since i put myself through school doing construction and remodeling, it has been a good fit.

We have been in business now for 6+ years, and things are moving along.

Hey Morgan and the DR.  Invite me along, and I’ll bring the chips and beer.

Dirk

HI, My name’s John. Originally from the UK now living in Ontario. I have worked in the financial industry for a good few years, but have always been interested in home automation and custom installation.

All my experience in the AV industry, or custom installation (or whatever buzzword you want to attach to it) has been personal. When my house was being built I planned, pre-wired and installed a Niles whole house audio system (yeah, I know the Niles is easy to set up but you’ve got to start somewhere, right). I always wanted to build my own home theatre too. So I obtained the relevant construction permits and planned, constructed and finished a home theatre in the basement. A built in cabinet hides the components for the whole house audio and the theatre components. Of course I put a wet bar in too.

Anyway, I’ve finally decided to take the ‘bugger that’ approach to following the masses into the office and start a small business in the custom installation area. So basically, I’m here for all the advice I can get from the wisest people around. And in case you ever come over, the beer’s always in the fridge.

John

Greetings CEPro community.  I am Jeff Haynes, VP Sales and Marketing at Zektor, here in beautiful San Diego.  I joined Zektor in February to establish a formal sales and marketing effort for the company.  Zektor is known by some of the large and talented integrator base that visits CEPro.com.  I look forward to meeting many more of you next week at the CEDIA show.  As we are developing and releasing new products, we always welcome feedback and appreciate hearing about features that you would like to see in our A/V switches.  My contact information is:

Jeff Haynes
VP Sales and Marketing
Zektor Inc.

858-748-8250 office

http://www.zektor.com

Wishing you success and prosperity during these challenging times.

Hi to all of you. My Name is Julie Rice and I moved from Europe to the US last year. This was my first CEDIA Show
and I am very exited about this industrie. I look forward sharing experiences and information with fellow industry professionals.

Thanks,

Julie

I’m Xeven Zorza with ArchiTechKnowlogy Design Group, an award winning Design and Documentation services firm based in Laguna Beach CA. We support numerous AV Integrators across the county in becoming successful in delivering top shelf installation of Integrated Home Solutions for their demanding clients. Check out our website for examples of our custom Visio content.

Xeven Zorza
ArchiTechKnowlogy
Design Group
Laguna Beach CA 92652
949.285.9787
http://www.ATKDG.com

Hello, friends.

IÕm Melanie Warner, principal and graphic designer for Hotiron Creative. We bring complete brand design to manufacturers of custom electronics, including identity, print, web and user interface design. Attending the 2008 CEDIA Expo was an absolute treat, and weÕre thrilled to be welcomed as a preferred and much-needed resource to serve such a passionate niche.

Innovators are on each other’s heels with cutting-edge technology. The challenge lies in positioning, brand awareness and speed to market. Nothing cuts through the masses like a solid presentation of your company, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A strategic, unified approach - from product development to marketing collateral - is what distinguishes the most credible brands, regardless of their level of genius.

Specialties:
- identity: logos, business cards, taglines, brand guidelines
- print: stationery, brochures, white papers, publications, direct mail, advertising
- interactive: GUI, information architecture, web design and development
- hand-picked talent to serve each client’s specific needs
- brilliant, targeted concepts and rock-solid execution

Awards:
CE industry:
- 2008 CHIP Gold Award for Media Control Server interface (Mirage 2.0) by Autonomic Controls
- 2008 Finalist, EHX Multi-Room Award for Music Port interface by NuVo Technologies
Graphic Design industry:
- 2007 AIGA (the professional association for graphic design) Design Origination Award for Hotiron Creative logo
- 2007 Neenah PaperWorks Gold Award for Storybook Homes identity
- 2006 IPPY Award for A Financial Minute book design

Partial client list:
Autonomic Controls | NuVo Technologies | Kodak | Canon | Epson | Procter & Gamble | Chiquita | MeadWestvaco | SeaPak | Cincinnati Bell | Ogio | Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | Ogilvy & Mather | Dentsu America | hyperQUAKE | GJP Advertising | HOW Magazine | WriterÕs Digest

Over the past decade I’ve designed hundreds of dynamic and broad-reaching projects for a range of industries across 18 different states. Personally, I’m an audiophile and design junkie - I love music, technology, and design of all disciplines. In my studio, I stream more than 20,000 tracks through Harman/Kardon SoundSticks on an all-Mac network. Perhaps my involvement with CE Pros will one day turn into a *real* system for my staff to enjoy!

Ping me about ways to get your ideas off the ground most effectively, or link in: http://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniewarner

Cheers!
mw