John Deering Theater Design provides state-of-the-art audio, video and home automation systems to the most demanding clients in the Twin Cities of Minnesota and beyond. Operating out of International Market Square in Minneapolis, the company also owns a loft next door that serves as its model showroom.
The space features a complete home automation system and plenty of bells and whistles. And while clients might need a lesson on how to operate the lights and shades, they can easily and intuitively control the TiVo entertainment system.
“I just pull up the user interface,” says company principal John Deering. “And then all they need is a simple remote. Just pick it up and it works.”
Deering says clients do the “driving” during TiVo demos. With remote in hand and minimal guidance, they navigate through recordings, the programming guide and “what’s hot” on TV right now.
But “where the rubber meets the road is always the search,” he says. “This is where the magic happens.”
TiVo combines TV and streaming services into one unified search experience. No matter what show, series or actor a client wants to watch, they can find it from one easy query, known as TiVo OneSearch™. It doesn’t matter if the content comes from a cable provider, DVR recordings, or streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, VUDU and more. It just takes one simple search to find it all.
“If you want easy to navigate, easy to use, and something that just works … nobody else has this and I don’t believe anyone else can do it,” says Deering, noting the entanglement with studios and broadcasters that limit what the cable and satellite companies can provide on their own. In addition, TiVo’s exclusive features remind clients they’re getting advanced controls that truly distinguish the TiVo experience. For example, TiVo’s popular SkipMode™ feature lets viewers skip entire commercial breaks in many recorded shows with the press of a single button. Features like this boost overall satisfaction.
Real-World Solution
Beyond its unrivaled feature set, “In the real world, there is one problem TiVo solves all the time,” says Deering. “How many people have a DVD player, Roku, Apple TV and multiple remotes in a room and they’re struggling? Drop in a TiVo BOLT™ and everything is all there. The clouds are lifted!”
And now each box goes a whole lot further with the TiVo BOLT+™ introduced this year. TiVo BOLT+ comes with a whopping 3TB of storage, which will come in handy when cable providers ramp up their 4K Ultra HD offerings.
“TiVo BOLT+ is a 4K machine,” Deering says.
What he especially appreciates about the new product is the addition of two tuners – a total of six – that ensures everyone in the household can watch and record anything they want, anytime they want it.
“You can run more rooms than you could in the past,” Deering says. “You can record more.”
While the extra tuners are great, at the end of the day it’s all about the ease of deployment for integrators and the ease of use for clients, according to Deering. Plus, the TiVo Mini provides an easy and economical solution for a multi-room setup, as it requires no additional monthly service fee, no matter how many of them you add.
His company currently is working on a project in which they’re dismantling a very high-end, very complicated home-control system from another integrator that the client no longer used.
“We are providing a simple solution for frustrated clients with out-of-date automation systems,” Deering says. “TiVo is the heart of this solution. It works every time.”
He adds that the company provides a cheat sheet for operating TiVo and the remote: “It’s not a big booklet,” he says. “It’s just one page.”
TiVo BOLT+ and the other products and services provided by John Deering all conform to a principle highlighted on the integrator’s website: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
