Home Automation and AV Distribution

For the past 3 years I have been arguing with AV equipment vendors about their chosen method of AV distribution (extremely expensive cables).  Their argument has always been “Users want the best quality and CAT5e can’t deliver it!”.

My thinking has been good enough is good enough.  In the front room I want the best quality on my huge TV.  In the bedroom, other rooms, I only have small TV’s and I am, generally, not settling down to watch a film or some such.  In these other rooms I am doing other things and the TV is background (such as sleeping).  If I am watching YouTube or standard television the quality, as long as it is reasonable, is not paramount.

I want to be able to use my laptop to view, or pretty much any device I have to hand that is capable of displaying video.  I also want to be able to control the devices in my house using the same device.  Why do I have to pay a huge amount of money for touch pads that have less functionality than my laptop.  I am not saying that these devices do not have their place, just that I want the option.

My TV (all of them) should be capable of connecting to my LAN, as should other devices (but one step at a time), all using standard IP protocols.  Slowly some OEM’s have been listening and there are now TV’s with CAT5 sockets and wireless adaptors built in.  I can now browse to my media server and play a film!!!  I even have a cheap device (£100) that allows my non-IP enabled TV to do the same!  I can’t control it, but we are heading in the right direction.

Imagine my surprise to see in the April edition of HCD (Home Cinema Digest) an article entitled “The IP Crowd”.  I am shocked to see that they are starting to swing to my way of thinking.  There is money to be made integrating and future proofing a house.  Software (as in control systems) is important, the current slew of software controls for iPad etc are basic and non integrated, but early days.  I do detect some resistance from the existing cable based installers, but hay ho.  They will learn and bend to my will!!!

I am a very happy person today.

ISE, In conclusion

So how was it?

Well we made it back in one piece, weather was grotty but never mind.

The show.

From our perspective the show was very good.  Lots of great interest in our iPhone apps and some interesting potential opportunities.  We will have to get our heads down and work hard over the next few months to make the most of them.

The fun and Games Continue

Day 2

The day has started with a potential Cypriot distributor here so I had better go and say hello….I shall return

So it is now Thursday, what happened to Wednesday? Well..

It was manically busy. Basically we had nonstop traffic from start to finish. Which is great. Lots of potential projects ranging from single home installations to full hotel complex’s.

The TV’s seem to wow everyone as they look great and there is nothing else out there like them. As always people are impressed by the Bath-O-Matic.

We had quite a few people interested in the interfaces and, since we interface to just about everything, they all went away happy.

The stand seems to be holding together well, with no major disasters (Touch wood). We had a bit of a leak, but managed to fix that (not bad considering the whole thing was brought here in the back of a van and constructed on site.

On a slightly different note I have been looking longingly at the Optoma Pico projector. It is a palm sized projector that would be a perfect companion to my N95 8G for travelling. Ho Humm… I dropped loads of hints to the guys on the stand, but they do not seem conducive to giving me one. Not surprised really as they do seem to be selling like hot cakes.

We have collected about 100 cards and contact details so now we have to convert them into business.

Onwards and upwards…

The End is Neigh

Day 3

Having survived 2 days we stagger in to the final day exhausted.  I have no Idea how teachers do it as talking for that amount of time just leaves my head buzzing.  Also you get stuck in “Demo” mode so you find yourself trying to extol the virtues of our products to everyone you see.  Seriously not cool.

It is now 10:47 and, thankfully, it seems to be very quiet today.

Did I mention that I had a surprise visit from a chap called Phil Beck and his son.  We went to school together and I have not seen him in 20 years+  Apparently he is now married and owns an AV Integration firm in Hayward’s Heath.  A pleasant blast from the past, and nice to see that old friends are in a similar business to myself (I thought I was the only nutter!).

I have twittered some images of the Optoma Pico and they can be found at http://twitpic.com/cosmap or http://twitpic.com/1c5sw

Guess I had better sign off for now and get on with the process of talking.  I will take some more walks later to see if anything else takes my fancy.

Update from the ISE

Day 1…

A good day with a steady flow of visitors to the stand. There seems to be a large Greek and Greek Cypriot contingent here. This is good as it allows me to practice my Greek and also could give me an excuse to go Cyprus for work. Just need them to sell a few Bath-O-Matics. J

Fredy had several meetings with potential distributors in various places. Guess we will not know how good that was for a few months.

Took a walk round the show and discovered 3 halls that I did not know existed! This place is HUGE.

Seen a great little projector. It’s called a Pico and it fits in to the palm of your hand. They had it hooked up to a Nokia N95. I want one! (oohh! Shiny).

After the show we went and had some drinks with New Invor our Belgium distributor. They seem keen do shift some product.

The evening started as trip so get some diner, so I decided to dress in my trampalike costume to keep warm. As we wondered around Amsterdam we stumbled across the Extron party and managed to get in (as loyal Extron clients).

Very nice. Lots of free booze, some music and even some video games to play. A good time was had by all.

Let’s hope that tomorrow some one comes to order 100 units and make our week. I should really go round the show and do lot’s of product reviews, but I am here to demo the Bath-O-Matic so it really does not give much time to wonder. Shame the wireless facilities (and internet access in general) is so rubbish. They want to charge a fortune for access to the RAI wireless for the 3 days and I cannot seem to find details for what the “Pay-As-You-Go” charges. The internet Café in this area is too slow for words and 3G roaming is extortionate.

Enough moaning. All is good. The weather is wet and a bit snowy, but (touch wood) does not look too bad for the trip home. I guess I will post this when I get to the hotel tonight.

Snow and the ISE

Well, Well, who would have thunk it?

We saw the snow last night (http://twitpic.com/1afem) and decided to leave earlier than planned. Struggled out of London at 12:00am (http://twitpic.com/1ahs0 actually it was not much of a struggle but it sounds more exciting that way) and found the roads quite clear past the M25.

Pesky Channel Tunnel was buggered due to a frozen train, but they saved the day by putting us on the Freight Train (http://twitpic.com/1ak9m).

France rushed by as did Belgium but we had to stop by The Netherlands for a coffee (http://twitpic.com/1amad).

11:00 found us at the RAI for the ISE. A lot of hard work had the stand starting to look presentable http://twitpic.com/1ar1q by the end of play. We need to do some tweaking, but not a bad effort. Not as grand as some, but we do our best J.

On the plus side our products are innovative and certainly different. http://www.uniqueautomation.co.uk

I did take a few walks around the show to get a feel for the contents and it looks good. Looks a bit smaller than last year, but still very interesting. Tomorrow the whole place should look miles better as they will have laid the carpets and cleaned up. For that matter so will we as it has been a long day and we definitely need a clean up.

Enough wittering for now. I will try and post some more interesting info from the show over the next few days. Do come over to Hall 4 Stand PP19 and say hi to us. If nothing else you can watch Ice Age on the Bath-O-Vision.

Integrated System Europe

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week I will be at Integrated Systems Europe.

Follow my activities on twitter by looking on the right hand side of http://cosmap.blogspot.com/ or by going to http://twitter.com/cosmap

Better still come to the Unique Automation stand and say hello. Details can be found here...

Unique Automation at ISE

I may do some blogging from there, if anything catches my eye (and if I can get an Internet connection).