Residential Systems • April 15 2019

The Integration Guide to Networking Services & Products

The scenario is familiar: you and your family have gathered in the family room, popcorn freshly popped and lights suitable dimmed, to watch an agreed-upon film on one of the popular streaming services. Just as the movie is getting good, the screen is filled with a gray spinning circle.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

The Integration Guide to Touchpanels, Remotes, and Control Apps

Control systems, as imagined 10 years ago, are steadily coming into their own. Arguably this newly raised profile is due in large part to the custom integration industry promoting and pushing the benefits that these systems can provide in making homes not only more efficient, but also fun.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

Home Security Adapts To Latest Technologies

It’s no secret that security systems have been a gateway to more consumers adopting home automation systems in the past few years, a trend that Park Associates also confirms in its “Smart Home Devices: User Experience” research.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

Integration Guide: Delivering 4K Video Reliably

The Smart Home as it currently exists can be thanked for many of the innovations we have seen in the custom integration channel.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

Preserving Aesthetic Integrity with Architectural Loudspeakers

Recently, Kevin Burnley, owner of Creative Audio Video and Automation in St. Louis, MO, got a dream project: a large, new construction home ready to be kitted out with 14 zones of high-quality, high-output audio.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

Integration Guide: Budget, Landscape, and Usage

In popular cultural references, the backyard is often a sun-drenched, bee-buzzing, flower-booming respite, with a hammock-swinging napper and an enthusiastic barbeque master with a spatula at a restaurant-size grill.

Residential Systems • April 15 2019

How Do You Distribute Audio?

When it comes to customized distribution and management of audio in the home, you can forgive the layperson for instantly thinking about the numerous wireless audio solutions filling up electronic stores’ shelves.

Residential Systems • August 2 2018

The Integration Guide to Automation Solutions

To read the plethora of reports about the rising profile of home automation in the consumer sphere is to be inundated by references to Google, Apple, and Amazon and their popular devices that do seemingly everything.

Residential Systems • October 26 2017

The Integration Guide to Mounts

With lighter televisions (and an increased demand for networked home entertainment) has come smaller components. Subsequently, racks, mounts and enclosures, too, have moved away from their clunky roots to embrace lighter build materials and designs that acknowledge the shrinking of the electronic components they lift, support and hide.

Residential Systems • April 3 2017

The Integration Guide to Multiroom Control

If there is one channel in custom home integration that keeps home technology professionals on their toes, it’s multiroom control.

Residential Systems • January 10 2017

The Integration Guide to HDMI Distribution

The AV distribution ecosystem, comprised of its associate cables, matrix switchers, and extenders, has revolutionized residential integration.

Residential Systems • July 29 2016

The Integration Guide to Lighting and Window Treatment Control

Arguably, beyond brewing a cup of coffee from the bedroom, IoT has generated the most buzz about the practical possibilities of remote management of lights and interior environments, including the use of voice control to achieve overall home automation.

Residential Systems • April 25 2016

The Integration Guide to Cargo Vans & Fleet Services

Getting from here to there is a basic aspect of every custom integration business, large and small. Beyond the initial installation service, cargo vans and trucks are needed to maintain and manage projects epitomized by the classic “truck rollout.”

Residential Systems • February 26 2016

The Integration Guide to Outdoor AV

Sponsored Feature: Wireless technology continues to push the boundaries of where consumers can enjoy audio and video entertainment, but in the custom integration world, concerns about cable runs, product and installation durability, and future-proofing projects still dominate the backend conversation.

Residential Systems • August 29 2013

Chris McLaughlin Sees Customer Service as the Saving Grace of Custom Integration

One of 15 children, Chris McLaughlin spent his childhood between Greenwich, CT, and North Carolina. Excited about model building, drawing, and taking things apart, he would often spend hours alone in his room with Legos or a book.

Residential Systems • May 2 2013

Kyle Steele Brings Young Blood to the CI Channel

As a child growing up in Portland, OR, Kyle Steele once turned his bass drum into a speaker using magnets. This kind of innovation wasn’t totally surprising coming from Steele–the only musician in what he describes as a “very competitive sports fami...

Residential Systems • February 23 2009

Q&A: Peter Wellikoff, CEO, Meridian America

Last December Meridian acquired media server innovator, Sooloos, then led by Peter Wellikoff. Over the last couple of months, as the companies have coalesced, roles have shifted and efficiencies have been streamlined, including last week’s announcement of Wellikoff as Meridian America’s new CEO.

Residential Systems • February 2 2017

The Integration Guide to Architectural Speakers

Minimalism, as a design concept, has continued to dominate the aesthetic choices of homeowners across the country. Everything from furniture to televisions have slimmed down to create larger interior spaces that highlight color and a few, key visual objects to define various rooms. This paring down, however, has not slackened the demand for more technology and entertainment devices.

Residential Systems • April 3 2017

The Integration Guide to Multiroom Control

If there is one channel in custom home integration that keeps home technology professionals on their toes, it’s multiroom control. Often guaranteed to elicit a “wow” when done to a high standard, multiroom control taps into consumers’ desire for single gesture or unified orchestration of many of the more often-used actions in the home, including control of lighting, security, and AV...

Residential Systems • May 10 2017

The Integration Guide to Networking Services & Products

The scenario is familiar: you and your family have gathered in the family room, popcorn freshly popped and lights suitable dimmed, to watch an agreed-upon film on one of the popular streaming services. Just as the movie is getting good, the screen is filled with a gray spinning circle.

Residential Systems • May 31 2017

The Integration Guide to Commercial Crossover

Home integration is experiencing a renaissance that is difficult to ignore. From shifts in how consumers are using technology expressly created for their living space to the expansion of home technology professionals’ knowledge and skillsets in answer to growing networking demands, residential systems integration remains a potent and viable sector, even as achieving...

Residential Systems • July 27 2017

The Integration Guide to Touchpanels, Remotes, and Control Apps

Control systems, as imagined 10 years ago, are steadily coming into their own. Arguably this newly raised profile is due in large part to the custom integration industry promoting and pushing the benefits that these systems—honed by the likes of RTI, Savant, and Crestron—can provide in making homes not only more efficient, but also fun.

Residential Systems • October 26 2017

The Integration Guide to Mounts

With lighter televisions (and an increased demand for networked home entertainment) has come smaller components. Subsequently, racks, mounts and enclosures, too, have moved away from their clunky roots to embrace lighter build materials and designs that acknowledge the shrinking of the electronic components they lift, support and hide.

Residential Systems • December 27 2017

Home Security Adapts To Latest Technologies

This past October, technology research firm Parks Associates, in its “Home Security NUMBERS” report, revealed that more than 26 million U.S. broadband households will have professionally monitored security by 2021, with total annual revenue for that sector to exceed $14 billion by 2020.