Why you should hire a CEDIA-level installer...written by the man who brought Amazon Alexa to the market.

It is easy to order an Amazon Alexa, have it at your door in two days, plug it in and BAM! you have a smart home! Well, not exactly. Read below to find out why you should always hire a CEDIA-level installer if you are looking for a true home automation system. 

The following is a blog post from the man who brought the Amazon Alexa to market, Charlie Kindel. 

"I had written the following in my blog post announcing my departure from Amazon:

I am hiring a CEDIA-level installer to completely refit my home automation system and I will project manage that.

A few weeks ago someone at Control4 tweeted the following, which I replied to with a tweetstorm. This post expands on the idea I presented in that tweetstorm…

This is true. Even though smart homes are finally taking off, after decades of fits and starts, I still think most of the do-it-yourself (DIY) smart home products are too hard to use and too fragile to actually depend on. There’s still a HUGE gap between a home professionally outfitted top-to-bottom and a home with a bunch of DIY gadgets cobbled together by the home owner.

Not everyone can afford a professionally designed, installed, programmed, and monitored smart home. 

Yet. 

If they can afford it today, I recommend to friends they go the “Concierge” route: Hire a professional home technology integrator to just do it all for you, correctly. Life is too short to spend futzing around configuring and programming your home. 

This not only applies to useful gadgets like lights, media, and cameras, but to the network infrastructure that needs to be in place for it all to work. Ask yourself this: How much of your own personal time would you budget if you decided to replace your home router? The last person I asked this said “At least a weekend.” 

If you react to this by saying “Oh, I use Foo Co’s product and it’s so easy it’ll just take an hour” you are either…

1. Lying,
2. living in a one bedroom apartment,
3. have no idea what it means to have a fully outfitted smart home, or
4. extremely lucky for now, try adding 10+ more diverse devices.

The infrastructure in my home is dated (we designed and built the house in 1999-2002) and I’m going pay a pro to refit everything in the next few months. By everything I mean home network infrastructure, lighting, whole home music, televisions, security, cameras, irrigation, HVAC, and intercom/telephone. There will be some DIY products involved, but the infrastructure and automation system will be designed, installed, programmed, and monitored by a professional, not me.

I currently have over 250 ‘devices’ controllable by Alexa in my home. 152 of those are lighting loads. 47 are keypads. Some are virtual devices like scenes. Some are devices like the air compressor in my workshop which only powers on when I’m there. We have five TVs with associated media players and speakers. There’s an 8-zone whole-home audio system. Plus the security system and cameras. It took serious work by me to program it and maintain it over the past 17 years, all as a hobby. It works, but not as well as it could and should. Part of this is because some of the tech is old, but it’s mostly because I’m not a pro. I don’t get paid to do this.

I do not want to spend my time programming my home anymore. I want to spend that time on my cars . I’ve lived in homes with professionally outfitted systems, similar in scale to mine, and the stability, refinement, and ease of use really does deliver on the dream many of us in the industry have been working towards for decades.

However, not even the high-end stuff (or industry) is perfect. Some old-school incumbents have intentionally made their products complex to artificially support dealer networks and protect crazy margins. Some do a horrible job interfacing with other companies’ products. There are not enough skilled installers and programmers, which is limiting growth. And it’s all pretty expensive – everyone in the value-chain wants their fair share and the value-chain is deep.

Part of why I want to have a pro do it this time is to see how far away we (the collective smart home industry) are from the ideal. The ideal being a world where anyone can afford a completely connected smart home where professionals design, install, program, and monitor the infrastructure, devices, and system so customers can just enjoy the benefits. I call this “Concierge Home Technology”.

Concierge Home Technology is real today, and is big business. Technology companies like Savant Systems, Control4, Snap A/V, Crestron, and Lutron are the players you’ve probably heard of. They are supported by tens of thousands of dealer/integrators around the world who do the design, installation, programming, and monitoring. If you are considering making your home truly smart, in order to have music everywhere, reliable voice-controlled lighting, great security, and automatic behaviors find a local dealer/integrator and ask them to show you an ‘experience-based’ demo home (Control4 just launched a cool initiative where at least one of their dealers in every major city has a certified showroom).

The Big 5 are all investing big time in smart home products. A few of them are actually making real money at it (finally). Their focus is on DIY products, and they generally believe smart homes can be self-organizing (by software). I don’t buy it. No household of any size, with more than few family members, is ever going to have the level of refinement and sophistication mine has without some custom programming. I’m eager to see how this plays out."

View Charlie Kindel's blog post here

30th Annual MCBC Golf Tournament

We participated in the 30th annual MCBC (Master Custom Builder Council) golf tournament  yesterday. This is our 7th year supporting the MCBC and we are happy to be sponsors for many reasons. The MCBC gives back to many charities throughout the year, they support their sponsors and members and they provide multiple opportunities throughout the year for networking opportunities. 

The golf tournament specifically raises money for the Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families. This charity is near and dear to Millennium Systems Design as we are yearly sponsors and have attended and hosted a tour at the center. If you are unfamiliar with the Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families here is an excerpt from their website:

The Central Florida area is a vibrant, thriving set of communities. But children and families in our neighborhoods still face challenges, such as child abuse, sexual trauma, developmental disabilities and lack of access to medical care. The Howard Phillips Center helps combat these obstacles by delivering children and family services to support and advocate for those at risk.

The day started off cool and windy and there was a chance of rain but it ended up being a beautiful day at The Golden Bear Club at Keene's Pointe. MSD had a very successful day! We got to talk to our colleagues, eat and drink our way through the day and enjoy a day of golf at one of Central Florida's most beautiful courses. This year we had two employees in the tournament, Taylor Barry and Christian Nacke. We also had a client join us on the course, Mr. Mascaro. Mr. Mascaro is the owner of the award winning golf simulator/home theater that you can read about here. 

Speaking of awards, we won first place for food at the tournament. We cooked our famous 'Breakfast Fatty'! Low in fat and calories and recommended by cardiologists everywhere (KIDDING) the Breakfast Fatty is a layer of weaved bacon, a layer of sausage, then a layer of cheese, hash browns, eggs and maple syrup all rolled up and smoked on a grill. We like to serve it hot off the grill on sliced Hawaiian sweet rolls. 

The final perk of the day was introducing all of our colleagues to Rayva, the world's first turnkey home theater solution. Rayva is an exciting new partnership for Millennium Systems Design, by teaming up we are able to offer builders, interior designers and architects a very simple solution to what can typically be a very complex part of designing a home. Be on the lookout for a blog about this new and exciting partnership soon. 

It was a great day for Millennium Systems Design, The Master Custom Builder Council and The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families. We all left with full bellies, full hearts, and a lot of great memories. We are counting down the days until next year! 

To learn more about Millennium Systems Design click here

To learn more about The Master Custom Builder Council click here

To learn more about The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families click here

To learn more about Rayva click here

Spring is here, revamp your outdoor space!

It's the first day of Spring and it's the time of year when everyone starts to focus on getting their outdoor areas ready for the warmer months. We are fortunate to live in a climate where we can enjoy outdoor entertainment almost all year. Revamping or installing an outdoor entertainment area not only adds value to your home, but also gives you more living space in your home. There are many ways to enhance your space and projects can range from a few dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Outdoor speakers are the most common way to include technology in your outdoor space. New and exciting options allow us to provide even coverage of music that flows effortlessly no matter the size of the space. While performance is always important, we know that our first step is working to preserve design. With this in mind, our outdoor audio systems are completely concealed in your landscaping. We accomplish this by using multiple small speakers for the highs and an in-ground speaker for bass. Outdoor speakers come in many different price points, sizes, colors and some even look like rocks to blend seamlessly into your landscaping.

Installing an outdoor TV can add many options for entertaining. Watching a movie from the comfort of your patio or pool float or catching a sporting event while having a drink on the porch, adding an outdoor TV adds value to your home and to your lifestyle. Today, outdoor TVs combine incredibly elegant designs with the most advanced technology, weatherproofing, unmatched reliability, and the sharpest, brightest picture in any lighting.  Whether the ideal location for your outdoor TV is in direct sun or shade, we have versions that are optimized for direct sunlight and others for shaded environments. If you are looking for that 'wow-factor' we also have a full outdoor theater screen to create a complete outdoor theater experience. 

Outdoor lighting, automation, security and surge protection are all also important to create the ultimate outdoor entertainment area. Contact us today for a consultation to determine how we can get your outdoor space ready for the warmer months! 

Mark of Excellence Award

On January 10th, Millennium Systems Design was presented with an award at the Mark of Excellence award ceremony at CES 2018. We are proud to announce that we won first place in the category: Home Theater/Media Room Project of the Year, $150,000+. Our President, Michael Barry, and CEO, Mary Kaye Barry were in Las Vegas last week to attend CES and accept this award. The project that won this award has received national recognition in the past months since its completion. This project was not just a traditional home theater, there were design challenges that allowed Millennium Systems Design to prove our knowledge of the field and creativity in finding solutions for our client.

“We were grateful to be recognized as the winner of the Home Theater project of the year. We were up against great competition and to be the recipient of the award was truly an honor.” – Michael Barry

This project was a team effort between our staff at Millennium Systems Design, the staff at Goehring and Morgan Construction and the clients. All of the parties involved are very excited to be recognized as a Mark of Excellence Award winner. They all understand the caliber of the competition and we are all thrilled to have been chosen as the recipient.

Our client, an avid golfer, wanted to convert a standard exercise room into a quality multipurpose cinema room that doubled as a professional golfing simulation system. However, neither him, nor his wife, liked the look of the typical golf simulator. His vision was a room that could be used for both purposes but did not look industrial. He asked that his picture and sound be exceptional, yet unseen when not in use and he expected the acoustics in his room to be superior to any other theater he had been in. 

Designing this theater took a lot of calculations, trials and creativity. There were many challenges with this room and even after 10 months of working with the client to design this room we knew that a lot of what we were doing was not part of any standard system and we had to re-engineer parts on the spot to create the finished product. It takes a special kind of home owner to accept all of the challenges that go into creating such a special room and we consider him a part of the team.

“My wife and I could not be happier regarding how the project turned out and how pleasant the process was. The project was a constant and fluid evolution, starting with an idea or concept, and facing challenges even as it was being built that we could not anticipate during plan/design. To Millennium’s credit, they accepted the challenge of combining two no compromise ideas and combined them into a world class theatre with the best of both worlds in simulation and audio/video. Throughout the process they were utmost professionals, communicative, and most importantly fun and excited about what we were doing. My wife and I are eternally grateful for their work, and anyone from their team is always welcomed at our home.” –Sebastian Mascaro, Homeowner

To view the details of the project click here.

Your Home Network: The Backbone of Today's Smart Home

With the growing complexities in today's home automation landscape, the residential network is seen as the foundation for a fast and reliable smart home. Far too many Homeowners underestimate how important this is and simply accept the cable company provided all-in-one WiFi router or do not realize there are better performing options. This couldn't be further from the truth, especially when you have devices and systems that rely on the strength of the network on a daily basis. What was considered business/enterprise grade networking equipment years ago is now commonly being used in even the most basic of home automation systems. This is due to the fact that many key components of these systems rely on the network for streaming services, communication, remote management, and much more.

As technology grows at an exponential rate, today's smart home equipment is becoming more and more IP based. This means that the main function of a device is rooted in the network in which it resides. You can view the home's router as a traffic cop. It determines where to navigate all data and communication between all networked devices in the home. How many items do you think are using your network at any given time? Phones, Laptops, Tablets, Televisions, etc. The average smart home has roughly 30+ devices on the network at one time, so you can understand how important it is to have a high quality reliable router. Each additional device can drag down the speed and performance of your network system.

The two types of network equipment that allow your devices to access the Internet and talk to other devices on the network are Wireless Access Points and Network Switches. Both have a very similar task, however one connects to your devices with a wireless connection and the other requires a hardwired connection. Wireless Access Points produce a 2-way wireless signal that most people refer to as WiFi. Having a qualified company engineer a wireless network system that meets both you and your home's needs will prevent many headaches in the future. Likewise, the network switch or switches (depending on your home's requirements) need to be of high quality and performance to ensure you get the most out your hardwired devices. If you’ve been watching Netflix and it pauses or the picture deteriorates then you have experienced a poorly designed network system.

The days of going to RadioShack and buying a $99 WiFi Router are long gone. The level at which today's smart home depends on your home network is at an all time high.

Written by: Christian Nacke, Sales & Design

ELAN Transforms a Golf Simulator Game Room into a Home Theater with the Touch of a Button

PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA, December 12, 2017 — Why have two separate rooms for a home theater and a golf simulator when you can combine them into one? That was homeowner Sebastian Mascaro’s thinking while renovating part of his 7,000-square foot home in Kissimmee, Florida. To make his dream a reality, Mascaro reached out to local integration firm Millennium Systems Design (MSD) to turn his former home gym into a dual-functioning entertainment room that can change from a home theater to a golf simulator, and back, with the touch of a button.

"We recommended ELAN as the home automation system for this project because it can integrate with many different technologies to operate in distinct customized modes,” said MSD President Michael Barry. “Plus, ELAN is very user-intuitive. Despite how complicated the integration is on the back-end, the system enables Sebastian to change the room with no effort at all.”

MSD installed one ELAN gSC10 Controller paired with an ELAN g1 Controller to anchor all of the home theater and golf simulator technology, accessible through an ELAN gTP7 in-wall touchpanel, ELAN gHR200 remote, and the ELAN Mobile app on his smart phone. The sophisticated system was configured into two simple modes: “home theater” and “golf simulator,” both of which incorporate screens, motorized shades, lights, projectors, decorative displays, and speakers that turn on or off automatically.

“During the design process, we quickly realized that we’d need two separate screens. A golf simulator needs at least a foot of space behind it so that the ball can hit the flexible display and bounce back on the floor,” Barry explained. “Meanwhile, a home theater screen needs to be sturdy to support 4K content. Therefore, we built a dual-motorized system that, through ELAN, can be instantly changed to suit Sebastian’s desires at any given time.”

For the golf simulator, MSD installed a floor-based Short Throw Projector that sends the image upwards onto a ‘porous’ screen, which avoids the risk of creating a player’s shadow from behind. MSD then installed a 138” Custom Vision X motorized diagonal screen that drops down immediately in front of the golf screen during “home theater” mode. In this mode, the Short Throw Projector will shut off, and a 4K SXRD Home Cinema projector will also drop down at the back of the room from a Mini 6 Scissor Lift, and two Sony HDTV 40” displays will display old movie posters of films like “Some Like It Hot.”

“It’s quite amazing how everything happens at once. When I click ‘home theater’ on the ELAN App, the theater screen comes down, the lights dim, the speakers power up, and the movie theater posters appear,” Mascaro explained. “When I click ‘golf simulator’ mode, the theater’s motorized screen lifts up, the golf simulator turns on, and all of the room’s motorized shades open to show the greenery outside. The mood totally changes along with the designated function.” 

MSD also installed powerful audio to accompany the room’s displays, including four Sunfire Dual 8" Active In‐Wall Subwoofers paired with four Sunfire Amplifiers. “Sound is a huge component of creating a realistic home theater,” Barry added. “Details and acoustics were put into it to create a true theater experience. Sunfire is the strongest subwoofer with the smallest enclosures. It also easily integrates with ELAN. In addition to turning on or off in certain modes, Sebastian can easily adjust the volume from his remote or the phone in his pocket.”

MSD also installed two Furman PL-PRO DMC 20A Power Conditioners to protect all of the entertainment room’s tech. “With every client, we always stress to protect the equipment rack with Furman power conditioning,” Barry explained, “especially when the functionality of the room is entirely contingent on how well the products work. It’d be a shame if ‘dirty’ power was responsible for glitches after Sebastian invested in the best-of-the-best.”

During the five-month renovation process, MSD worked closely with builder Bo Morgan of Goehring and Morgan to transform the space from an exercise room into what it is today. “It was a unique experience to retrofit a room previously built to be a home gym,” Morgan said. “Despite the challenges we faced during the re-design process, MSD was an absolute pleasure to work with. As we see more clients ask for smart technology, we always turn to MSD for their expertise. It’s becoming increasingly important to implement smart automation at the onset, during the building process, to maximize how it can be used to better the home-owning experience.”

Mascaro is thrilled with his new entertainment room, which fits right in with his whole home ELAN automation system which integrates the entire property’s lighting, climate, irrigation, audio, video and security integration. “I would recommend MSD’s services and ELAN’s automation system to anyone looking to turn their home dreams into a reality,” he said. “ELAN is so easy to use. It’s helped to turn my ideas about a unique entertainment room into a reality!” 

For hi-res images, click here. To download a word document of this release, click here.

About ELAN

ELAN, from Core Brands, develops an award-winning line of whole-house entertainment and control solutions distributed through a comprehensive channel of select dealers throughout the United States, Canada, and countries worldwide. The new ELAN 8 update was honored with the “2017 Human Interface Product of the Year” award from the Consumer Technology Association’s Mark of Excellence Award Program Committee at CES 2017. To learn more, visit www.elanhomesystems.com.

About Core Brands

Anchored by the ELAN Smart Home Control Platform, Core Brands combines the strengths of its iconic control, audio, power management, connectivity and video distribution brands – ELAN®, SpeakerCraft®, Gefen®, Niles®, Panamax®, Proficient®, Furman®, Sunfire® and Xantech® – to deliver a portfolio of connected home and commercial solutions to its channel partners and end users. For further information, visit www.corebrands.com.

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