CEDIA 2018: Millennium Systems Design Takes San Diego

Some members of our team had the opportunity to attend CEDIA EXPO 2018 in San Diego this past week. CEDIA is the international trade association and central touchpoint for 3,700 member companies that represent every facet of the ever-evolving technology market. The association powers integrators’ passion by providing development pathways that move them to the next level by providing education, community, resources, and vision. Every year CEDIA hosts a large convention where dealers and vendors bring all of their new or updated products for CEDIA members to see and be trained on. 

We sent 5 employees to the show this year. They came back excited for the new year and ready to share their new knowledge and resources with the rest of our staff. They all agreed that the main focus this year was outdoor entertainment. This is great news for us being in Florida because we are able to take advantage of our outdoor spaces for the majority of the year. 

Peerless AV showcased their new 86" outdoor UHD TV at the relatively affordable price of $9,999. Samsung also had an ultra bright outdoor TV that impressed our team with quality and price. Origin Acoustics presented their new outdoor speaker collections that offer multiple colors and styles in a modern form. 

Security was also a topic of interest this year. Nortek showcased two new products with a security focus. A new smart gun lock sensor, which has a convenient manual lock but features a wireless sensor to alert the homeowner if the gun moves and new video door stations which will integrate seamlessly with ELAN to offer state of the art intercom functionality. Our team also reported that facial recognition is now fully functional on ELAN security cameras. 

Overall, our team had a great time and came back reenergized, more knowledgeable and better prepared to help our clients find solutions that fit their needs. Those of us who stayed are excited to get our hands on this new technology and share it with all of you! 

Why should you hire Millennium Systems Design when filing an insurance claim?

Insurance consulting is something that we have done at Millennium for nearly a decade. The more cases we handle, the more we are starting to see that clients and insurance companies alike submit claims without the proper evaluations done on their technology. The reason that this is a problem is because the equipment is not valued correctly or all losses are not accounted for because there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the AV system. 

Florida is the lightning capital of the United States, Central Florida is the most active part of the state. We work with insurance companies, independent appraisers, and consultants across the South East. Our extensive knowledge in home automation and integration systems has proven to be extremely valuable in cases of loss. Most clients don't fully understand what they have installed and most insurance companies are not capable of properly evaluating these systems for their clients. We strive to bridge the gap and work as a transparent, unbiased middle man to make loss claims easier for both sides.

Whether we are hired by the insurance company or consultant to do a "sanity check" on the claim, or hired by the client to ensure that the insurance company returns the system to a "before event" state we work as impartial mediators. We understand the hurdles that both clients and insurance companies have to overcome and we are experts at navigating that to simplify the process.  We can provide documentation, discovery, and modernization recommendations to insurance claims large or small. Please contact us if you are making a claim that you are uncomfortable with or if you are in the insurance industry and need help with a loss.

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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.