December 18, 2009 | by Lisa Montgomery

2009 is coming to a close, so I thought it would be appropriate to look back at the homes I’ve featured during the year.

Surprisingly, I remembered at least one interesting tidbit about each and every one, and we’re talking dozens of homes—including many winners and finalists from our annual Home of the Year Awards program.

Read more…

December 18, 2009 | by Steven Castle

by Brent Butterworth

When you still need to run wire in a wireless age

We’re definitely in the wireless age. At the recent CEDIA Expo in Atlanta, numerous audio, video, and home automation companies showed off new wireless gear. Wireless networks now transmit all sorts of home entertainment all over our homes. Wireless lighting and HVAC control are making home automation systems easy to install even in historical homes where running wires can be a nightmare.

However, there are some situations where running wires through the walls is still your best option. And for one relatively new application, it’s essential.

The advantage of a hard connection

Anyone who uses a laptop at home through a Wi-Fi network knows that wireless isn’t perfect. As robust and reliable as much of today’s wireless gear can be, it’s still susceptible to slowdowns and service breaks caused by interference. The interference could be coming from other wireless devices in your home, such as cordless phones. Worse, it could be coming from devices in a neighbor’s home.

In comparison, a properly specified wire, competently installed, will give you a perfect connection for many years to come.

While wireless technology is catching up to wired speeds, the wire still has a performance advantage. A typical wired home network runs at 100 megabits per second, while a typical wireless Ethernet bridge runs at a maximum of 54 megabits per second under the best conditions. In some situations, that doubling (at least) of speed can make a huge difference.

Where you always want a wire—and where you might not

All that said, wireless works beautifully in many applications where speed isn’t a big issue, such as home automation and audio streaming. But there is one application where I strongly recommend running a wire if at all possible: video streaming.

If you’re planning on adding a video server such as Kaleidescape, or using an Internet video streaming device such as Roku or Apple TV, you need a wire connection to ensure the best picture quality. The Netflix video streaming available through Roku and several Blu-ray Disc players will still run on a fairly lousy network connection, but the faster the connection the better the picture Netflix will give you.

Even in retrofit situations where running wire may be costly, it’s worth it to pay your installer to run those wires to your video streaming device. Every time you watch a movie over that wire, you’ll be glad you made the investment.

by Bob Gullo

Due Diligence

What you need know BEFORE selecting your Electronic Systems Integrator

Most would agree that there are salient elements to look for when selecting a firm. What are the most important elements to you in the selection process?

While there is a litany of questions to ask, the following questions represent the key points to consider when selecting a firm.

Visit the Facility

Getting to know the company you are considering.  There are several things one should consider during the introductory “getting to know you” phase.  One way to get a good read on a prospective firm is to visit their operation.  The mission of this trip is to learn about their business processes; how they manage their projects from start to completion to servicing their clients afterward.  Here are a few fact finding questions to ask.

1. Ask to see and review technical drawings and schematics of a project of similar size and scope. They should include wiring schematics, rack elevations and connection diagrams.
2. Ask to see the production facility. What you want to see is Equipment Racks under construction and being tested. Is the wiring neat and organized?
3. Ask if they have programmers on staff, not outsourced. Ask to see their certifications from the vendors. Ask to meet with a programmer to review a current project of similar size and scope of yours.
4. Who Manages the Project?  Do they have a business Process to manage projects?  Ask to see it.
5. Who services the Project? Meet the Service Manager; he will be one of the most important people you know after the project is complete.

Financial Stability & Longevity

1. Run a D&B report. Make sure the firm has no law suits, liens, and IRS or State Tax problems. Do they pay their bills on time?  Do they have high credit limits?  Larger projects require larger credit lines.
2. Ask permission to contact their Banker.  Does the firm have financial strength?  I would ask to see their balances across all accounts, loans payable and lines of credit.  In this economy you can’t be too careful.
3. Ask for a reference of similar size and scope for a Project that was installed MORE THAN 5 YEARS AGO.   Of course, get recent references too, but older references are a good source to evaluate the company’s service.

Technical Prowess

1. Ask to see MORE THAN ONE PROJECT, of similar size and scope. Everyone gets lucky with a Home Run in their career, I’ve made my living focused on Larger, Complex projects.
2. Inspect the racks, the wiring closets and “head-ends”.  Are they neat and serviceable?
3. Review the Touchpanel pages; can you operate them without asking for instruction? Are they intuitive?
4. Has the firm won any nationally accredited technical awards for their work?
5. Has the firm been recognized for their technical prowess from the vendors they’re representing?

Multi-zone audio and video in this home were of the utmost importance to our client.

Hear how the transition from his previous “mom-and-pop” installer led him to experience

the “EDG Difference”.

Welcome to Electronics Design Group’s new blog. We’ll be using this space to talk about anything and everything related to custom electronics integration  and  design. We — and our guest bloggers — will be offering opinions of industry news, observations on exciting new technologies, thoughts of our philosophy about doing business in today’s evolving digital world, and more. Please feel free to add your comments to any post; your opinions matter to us and we welcome the dialogue.

This first post is a good time to discuss what we do here at EDG, because it’s not as obvious as it seems. On the surface, we’re a pretty high-tech operation, and could define our business as something like this: “The design and integration of custom home theater, wholehouse audio/video, lighting, and home automation control systems in residential and commercial applications.” Pretty geeky stuff, for sure, and it’s true that our day-to-day here is largely consumed in working closely with trade partners like architects and interior designers identifying our clients’ needs, creating engineering diagrams, ordering parts, and constructing the elaborate systems for which we’ve won so many CEDIA Lifestyle and industry magazine awards. Then, like any other enterprise, we’ve got the ongoing job of promoting ourselves and making sure that there’s always another project lined up so we can thrive and provide a secure professional environment for the 50 or so employees who rely on us.

But all of this misses the real point about why we continue to succeed in what is arguably the most difficult economic environment in our company’s 22-year history. That part can be best explained not so much in what we do, but in why our clients hire us. They do so because they’ve come to realize the import in their daily lives of the systems we design and implement. They recognize, though not always consciously, that there is an emotional element to using custom electronics that derives from the power of the technology to entertain them, to shift their mood at the touch of a button, to assure their physical comfort, to protect and secure their persons and property. And, above all, to simplify their lives so that these benefits can be seamlessly enjoyed at will. Few trades involved in building a custom home have the same power to so dramatically enhance — or foul up — the ongoing lifestyle of the homeowner. While our successes are great, so is our responsibility, and we take it very seriously. That commitment to our clients is what’s separated EDG from its competition since the very beginning.

So if we crow a bit when we win an award, or receive another testimonial or referral from a happy client, its not just because we’re proud that we’ve successfully maneuvered all these elements into place one more time. It’s also because we know we’ve given a very real gift to the families that have placed their trust in us, one that will last their tenure in their home. Unlike with some other businesses, our clients touch what we do every single day, and it makes for pretty gratifying work. Now, granted, this isn’t the only reason we do what we do. But it’s one of the best.

Bob Gullo is the President and founder of Electronics Design Group