Tuning into the home front. Written by Vawn Himmelsbach Thursday, 12 July :29

Transcription

1 Home automation has largely been a wish list item for many homeowners, since the complexity and high cost of things such as home theatre and automated lighting kept it out of reach for most consumers. But today, prices are dropping, making the concept of an automated home 1 / 5

2 more feasible for the mid-market. This means that home theatre and custom audio can be integrated into the home, along with lighting and heating controls and, of course, security. It s a rapidly developing market, but there s a requirement for skilled installation and that s where security dealers can step in to fill the void. The margin of profit that can be earned in security has eroded, so security dealers are being forced into expanding what they re doing and some are evolving into the role of low-voltage specialist. If all you re offering is security, the value has diminished over time, says Peter Garnham, president of PG Security Associates based in Brampton, Ont. However, if you include security as part of your low-voltage package, which includesstructured cabling for telephones and data communications and cable TV or satellite, then you can probably increase your profit margin. Some security dealers are leery of residential systems because they don t know how to drill and conceal wiring within walls. There are certain things that are totally unrelated to security that if you don t have knowledge of, you run the risk of really screwing up somebody s home, says Garnham. Most distributors, such as ADI and Burtek, are providing education in this area. In Toronto, a company called Media Dynamics offers seminars on home automation, and the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), based in Indianapolis, IN., is regarded as the organization that brings all the low-voltage pieces together; it offers three-day boot camps, as well as certifications based on technical standards. Complexity requires different skills A lot of security dealers have not really looked at home automation in a comprehensive way, says Marilyn Sanford, president of La Scala, a company focused on home cinema and integrated media based in Vancouver B.C. Sanford is also treasurer of CEDIA. The organization has started thinking more about internal processes, she said, because home automation creates more complexity and requires different skill sets. We ve all seen there s way more convergence, we ve seen IT players moving into this market, using the media centre as a place to springboard all of the automation, she says. As part of this shift, we re seeing technology vendors such as Apple and Microsoft make a foray into the home. As soon as we ve dealt with the bandwidth issue, we re going to see major growth, which will impact this group, she says. (Dealers) need to understand these technologies, get their minds around signal paths, and it does require skill sets. The audio/video side is much more difficult than security, with more moving parts, so there s more troubleshooting involved and a higher learning curve for security dealers. Sanford recommends they get certified, which not only covers the technology but how to run a business in this area. 2 / 5

3 AVAD, a distributor based in Van Nuys, Calif., will also be offering education and training in home automation to security dealers. AVAD is made up of 12 regional distributors in the U.S. that banded together to provide a one-stop shop for custom installation, and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of high-tech distributor Ingram Micro. AVAD Canada plans to establish training centres in Toronto and Vancouver by September Each centre will include a warehouse for product distribution, a classroom for training and a showroom, where reps can walk security dealers through home automation and let them play with the products. We believe there s a ton of potential in the Canadian market, says Deena Ghazarian, director of Canadian expansion with AVAD Canada. Down the road, the distributor will consider opening more locations across Canada. Every supplier out there does pieces of this puzzle, she says, so AVAD learns how these pieces fit together, and works with suppliers to ensure their engineers build products that plug and play with other products. In the past, a home automation system consisting of a full custom implementation of home theatre, audio, lighting, air and heat, could cost anywhere from US$100,000 and up. And every time you had a problem or wanted to make a change, you d have to call up a technician because the technologies were proprietary and didn t talk to each other. You d have to have a full-time programmer attached to your hip, says Ghazarian. But today the technologies know how to talk to each other and prices have started to come down to the US$20,000 to US$30,000 range and that will continue to decline. People want to be able to drive up to their home, touch a button and security lights come on, she says. And while a lot of security dealers may not be savvy with areas like home theatre, this will be their ticket through the door. Reaping the rewards Orca Security is one dealer that has successfully made this transition to home automation. The Vancouver-based dealer focuses on the new construction market, providing pre-wire work such as security alarms, phone, cable, lighting, heating and home theatre basically anything the electrician doesn t cover. Having one central keypad or interface to work with is making convergence a reality, says Brian Pozzolo, general manager of Orca Security. But there isn t a single cookie-cutter solution out there. There are still a few different trains of thought on lighting, for example and this will change the way you pre-wire for the system. Don t underestimate the amount of programming time you re going to be putting into it, he says. Home automation is different to every person, he added. It s a preference thing. We ll run some extra cables in strategic locations we try to think ahead that way, he says, so that homeowners can upgrade or add new capabilities down the road. With the systems of the past, you were locked in. New products are also making this area more relevant, rather than just a luxury. One such product is a USB key called Snap-Link, which can be attached to your key chain. 3 / 5

4 You plug it into a computer, wherever you happen to be, and log onto your home systems through the Internet. Using a virtual keypad, you can adjust your security settings, lighting, heat and audio, or even view the security cameras around your house. When you unplug the key, it doesn t leave anything behind on the host computer. Most automation systems are coming out with something similar, says Pozzolo. Many traditional security dealers are looking to not only diversify their customer portfolio, but find more high-value opportunities to up-sell security, says Christopher Geiser, global leader for custom electronics with Honeywell Security and Custom Electronics. But there are a lot of networking issues involved, such as configuring products to work behind firewalls and working in a PC environment rather than a security panel environment. I don t think those are unique to the residential automation market you see the same thing happening with IP-enabled cameras and DVRs, says Geiser. So I think [security dealers] have been able to leverage some of the skills they may have had to bring in-house to be able to work on the residential side. In the past, dealers had no other option than to buy a complete proprietary system from one of the high-end automation manufacturers. Today, with the emergence of standards, they can integrate products from multiple manufacturers. Because of that we see a lot of adoption and a lot of new applications to extend your basic security system or structured wiring solution and not really have to go and buy into an entire solution, he says. That has also brought price points down. A lot of dealers have done this kind of thing before and have been burned from some of the unreliable technologies that existed in the past, says Geiser. You now see a much more reliable, cost-effective type of solution, and dealers have really been waiting for that. Where possible, Honeywell is making its products backwards compatible, which allows a security dealer to go back to customers and add some simple automation functions onto an existing product or renew a service contract. There s definitely interest on the part of security companies, such as Honeywell and GE, to offer more than security, says Reza Raji, president and CEO of icontrol, which provides a platform for home automation to security companies, telcos and service providers. We offer a perceived daily value off of that security system by webenabling it, he says. Now you can have alarm verification using pictures and video. You can have SMS and notification. The platform will basically monitor and control the status of any device in the home, including security cameras, motion sensors, thermostats, water and heat. Your alarm maybe goes off twice a year you hope to God it doesn t go off and if it does it s probably a false alarm, he says. We re changing that model by making it a content play our users use the system every day, multiple times a day. And this makes it a lot easier for a security dealer to justify a $35-per-month monitoring fee. 4 / 5

5 icontrol of San Jose, Calif., has a partnership with GE, where its service rides on top of GE s traditional security panels, keypads, sensors and devices. We have something [security dealers] can readily take, brand and offer without having to invent anything, he says. Our expertise isn t security we leverage third-party devices to really enable our service to come to life. A homeowner can set up notifications through the web portal so, for example, every time the front door opens between 2 p.m and 3 p.m., they get an with a photo attached so they know their child came home from school that day. Or, they can set up a rule so that every time a door opens, the light turns on and a photo is taken. A security system can t do any of that stuff, says Raji. This will help them expand their market faster. But homebuilders in the new construction market don t usually know much about home automation, and therefore don t tend to sell it to homeowners. So the initiative has to come from the low-voltage specialist, says Garnham. If that relationship isn t there, then the homebuilder is less likely to do anything. While relationships are key to getting a foot in the door, proper training and certification can help you keep it there. For people who want to get into installing this, make sure you do your homework because if you miss a key feature it could cost you a lot of time and money and a lot of aggravation for the customer, says Pozzolo. It could be something as simple as one wire to a device. And while homeowners might live without their security system for a month, he added, God forbid their TV be down for a day. Vawn Himmelsbach is a Toronto-based freelance writer. 5 / 5