I owe a big thank you to both the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for playing such a boring football game last night during Monday Night Football. It was such a yawn-fest that I started channel surfing and lo and behold came across the debut of “Smart Home Nation,” a brand-new TV show airing on the FYI network, which I admit I had never heard of and didn’t know I had on my Dish network.
Anyway, the Canada-produced Smart Home Nation show, which it seems to be from where many of the home-improvement shows are sourced, might finally be bringing custom home electronics and smart home technology to the masses for the first time since The Jetson’s aired back 50 years ago!
The premise of the 30-minute Smart Home Nation show has host Tanya Memme touring two smart homes in each episode. In the homes, the technology amenities are reviewed with a person acting as a guide, who could be a real estate agent, home builder, or even an executive from one of the manufacturers. During one of the two premiere episodes last night, Anthony Antolino, chief marketing officer from Delos, as the guide.
He took Memme through a beachfront home in Orange County loaded with wellness technology, including motorized shades and human-centric lighting, water quality management, indoor air quality and more. The home was also loaded with other tech, including a glass elevator and even a blast-proof wall that separates the living space from some of the utilities for safety purposes.
In another episode, Alex Capacelatro, CEO of Josh.ai, was showcasing a home in Beverly Hills. Capacelatro walked Memme through the voice control system for the lights, TV, coffee maker, garage door and security system.
A Star Is Born… Richard Millson
The other element of the show is the team of experts who are back in a studio discussing the various amenities in the home. One of those experts is well known in the custom electronics industry: integrator Richard Millson of Millson Technologies and Millson Custom Solutions based in Vancouver.
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Millson is joined by design expert Andrea McMullen of ADM Design, and builder Peter McCarthy of Hard at Work to riff on the various high-tech solutions in the homes. By far, Millson was the most eloquent of three experts and led the conversation. Indeed both the builder and designer were only semi-enthusiastic about the technology, but Millson was the “star” of the trio.
The Smart Home Nation show is very well done, with high production values, but more importantly, it is a nod of the cap to custom installation. While Memme did ask questions specifically about lesser-expensive alternatives in a few instances, Millson and the experts emphasized that most of what the viewers saw in the home was only able to be done by a professional.
Cool! This mainstream exposure is just what the custom installation market needs. Check your local listings… as they say.
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