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From higher performance, smaller-aperture, designer-friendly architectural speakers to installation-friendly structural enhancements and higher performance components, manufacturers of loudspeakers in the custom integration channel are working hard to stand out from [...]

Residential Systems named its Best of Show winners for CEDIA 2017 in San Diego last month, honoring outstanding products exhibited at the show. Manufacturers submitted products for nomination prior to [...]

CEDIA 2017 saw strong growth in attendance in San Diego, with more than 20,000 home tech professionals participating in the event. Major exhibiting brands, including Lutron, Control4, SnapAV, Z-Wave Alliance, [...]

Residential Systems named its Best of Show Awards for CEDIA 2016 in Dallas this past September to honor outstanding products exhibited at the show. Manufacturers submitted products for nomination prior [...]

As in any technical trade, continuing education is critical to maintaining a workforce of trusted advisors for end-user clients. This is especially true in the custom integration channel, where technologies [...]

We've been doing stories similar to this one for several years now, and the same thing usually happens. We ask an industry manufacturer to reflect on their biggest success of [...]

Last fall at the HTSA meeting in Chicago, veteran AV retailer David Wexler, owner of The Little Guys in Mokena, IL, was reminiscing about his early years in the audio [...]

At last month's International Builder's Show in Las Vegas, a new company founded by custom integration industry veterans George Walter, Theo Kalomirakis, and David Rodarte, presented a fully functional luxury [...]

Installing the greatest projector, the most capable matrix switch, or most intuitive control system means little if there's no one around to answer questions when something inevitably goes wrong. With [...]

by Jeremy J. Glowacki No disrespect to veteran integrators that win CEDIA awards and avail themselves to the trade media, but some of the best custom integration companies in the [...]

This story is part oral history and part business start-up tutorial on how to revive once-mothballed audio brands using only U.S.-based design, engineering, labor, technology, and materials. More specifically, it's [...]

When homebuyers in Houston, TX, are considering Taylor Morrison as their developer, smart home technologies are just as important a part of their discussions as wood flooring, granite countertops, and [...]

For some custom integrators, the road to business improvement has involved applying lessons learned about setting employee performance standards at CEDIA Business Xchange. For others it has meant joining a [...]

For years, innovative AV products have drawn integrators and their customers to the custom installation channel like proverbial moths to a flame. But, if responses from leading industry professionals are [...]

Media servers may have evolved into something unrecognizable from five years ago, but their 'offspring' represent a vibrant product category. Here's a thumbnail sketch of some of the latest developments [...]

Most product categories that were once the exclusive domain of the custom installer have eventually migrated down market, into the mainstream and far away from price protection. Fortunately for CEDIA [...]

Premier Designs CEO Jason Barth wanted to create a truly custom experience center for showcasing his company's electronics integration services. After forming product partnerships with 30 local artisans, focused on [...]

In the CEDIA channel's 20-year history, two technologies have served as the foundation upon which much of the residential AV integration industry has been built. In-wall speakers are often considered [...]

In Madison, WI, one of America's quintessential university towns, a small college sits in the proverbial shadows of the much larger and more well known state university. This diminutive college, [...]

The beginning of the year is a good time to assess what worked and did not work from the previous year. While admittedly there is no great panacea for every [...]

When Puls CEO Eyal Ronen and president Itai Hirsch started discussing the idea for the company they co-founded three and a half years ago, the pitch was very simple: 'Can [...]

The era of buying groups as 'line collectors' is over. The leaders for the three main organizations within the custom integration channel have become training and education partners for their [...]

LumaStream's CEO Eric Higgs believes that LED is the future of lighting... and that a low-voltage, wired infrastructure is the future of LED lighting in homes. His company's patented system [...]

All technology companies must diversify to survive. This is equally true in the projection screen category, where Screen Innovations moved into the window shades market for the first time at [...]

In my very early days with Residential Systems, Harmony sent me my first programmable remote control. In those pre-smartphone days, all of the programming was done via the Harmony website [...]

During Crestron's three-city CTP Summit tour this past November, the Rockleigh, NJ-based AV products manufacturer previewed many of the products that it will be introducing by the end of the [...]

Residential Systems' fifth-annual Stellar Service Awards reader poll honors manufacturers and distributors for their exceptional customer service and communication, sales and marketing support, training programs, warranty policies, and websites in [...]

There's a small AV processor and amplifier company, whose story you probably don't know much about, even though its audio brands have familiar names. The company, Indy Audio Labs, is [...]

The impact that tablets, smartphones, and apps have had on the dedicated touchpanel market was seismic. But what started out as absolute disaster in terms of lost sales for control [...]

In this age of nearly ubiquitous streaming media access from the internet, consumers now expect to have all their subscription and purchased content available instantly--wherever they are--without manually moving files [...]

For manufacturers of in-wall and in-ceiling architectural speakers, aesthetic details as essential as ever, but many of the major players in the category also have begun turning their attention toward [...]

Energy management was seen, for a time, as the custom integrator's great hope for renewed relevance in a post-recession, increasingly DIY-centric, app-based home automation market. Although this so-called green movement [...]

App integration has become a fundamental requirement for any home integration client with a smartphone and/or tablet. In the past few years, all control systems manufacturers have learned to meld [...]

'Staying relevant is like breathing. If you don't, you will die,' stated veteran custom integrator, Scott Fuelling, when describing the products and technologies that help keep his business competitive in [...]

Improvements in the median salaries of pulp and paper employees reflect overall industry growth, according Pulp & Paper's 1995 reader compensation and opinion survey. The median salary for pulp and paper workers increased from $60,000 in 1994 to $62,000 in 1995. Downsizing and corporate restructuring have contributed to low job morale among pulp and paper employees., THE NORTH AMERICAN PULP and paper industry remains in a slow growth pattern that began in 1994 when production and prices increased across all grades. Industry salaries reflect this pattern [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency has selected Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co to participate in its Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) to help pulp and paper manufacturers better comply with environmental protection requirements. ELP plans to develop incentives for companies to lower pollutant emissions, promote quality environmental self audits, and a 'adopt-a-supplier' program to increase collaboration between paper mills and their suppliers on environmental issues., FOR NEARLY A YEAR, SIMPSON TACOMA KRAFT Co. has been actively involved in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pilot project that could shape the way industry works with regulating agencies [...]

Great Lakes Pulp and Fibre (GLPF) is scheduled to start operations in June 1996. The $220 mil Menominee, MI-based mill will emphasize its status as a pulp supplier, rather than simply as a deinked pulp producer. Mill financing includes 60% limited partners and 40% general partner local investors. Wastepaper availability and quality will be key concerns for GLPF as nationwide shortages continue., LIKE A HANDFUL OF DEINKED PULP FACILIties that have come online recently or will start up this year, Great Lakes Pulp & Fibre in Menominee, Mich., will help reshape the [...]

Dr. R. Gary Thurman, a senior research scientist with Union Camp Corp., expects that pulp and paper mills will continue to use a combination of online and offline testing. Online testing provides immediate process correction, while offline laboratory testing can improve quality and accuracy of results. Most laboratories are still using manual tests, but use of automated instrumentation is increasing. Some tests now commonly performed may be unnecessary, while new sensors are being developed., WITH AN INCREASING NUMber of mills turning to online instrumentation to provide accurate pulp and paper testing data, mill laboratories soon will be forced to become much more proactive in [...]

A survey of 'Pulp and Paper' readers indicates that the median salary for the group has increased from 1993 to 1994. Median salaries increased from $58,000 to $60,000, and bonuses and overtime amounted to $5,000 in both years. Job morale has not improved much, as approximately 47% of those surveyed ranked their job as average to bad. The highest salaries were found among those in the chemical byproducts division, which outpaced even the corporate level in terms of median income., THE NORTH AMERICAN PULP AND paper industry has increased production across all grades and pushed through several major price increases in the past year and a half. As a result, [...]

The pulp and paper industry has long used basic sensing technology, but mills and sensor suppliers have sought to use online sensors to monitor all salient product characteristics. A table lists available sensors. Supplier companies are listed alphabetically. Information given for each listed product includes trade name, area of use, and basic features., ALTHOUGH STANDARD SENSORS (FLOW, temperature, level, etc.) have been used extensively in the pulp and paper industry for decades, the desire from mills and suppliers has always been to apply [...]

A total of 24 paper companies in North America had new chief executives installed between Jan 1, 1993 and Dec 31, 1994. These new chief executives are profiled. Information about their education, work history and business goals for their firms are included. Their growth plans, business strategies, management techniques and market plans are in the initial stages of implementation., WITHIN THE PAST TWO YEARS, THE POWER structure of the paper industry's top management has shifted. At some companies, the change has been minute. At others, it has been radical. [...]

Located in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods of Seattle, the Station at Othello Park is a large 420,000-square-foot, mixed-use facility offering 351 luxury studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments, in [...]

Pulp and paper mills spend a significant amount of money to maintain capital machinery with process support equipment, such as pumps, lubricants, valves and chemicals. Suppliers of process support equipment are listed by various types of equipment. For example, manufacturers of motors are listed and the types of motors they supply are also listed., AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF THOUGHT AND STUDY is spent when a pulp and paper mill prepares to purchase capital equipment. Big ticket items usually require approval at high levels of [...]

The Paper Industry New Technology Show Tour for spring and summer 1994 made appearances at more than 50 pulp and paper mills in 11 states and British Columbia, Canada. Exhibitors presented technology requested by paper mill personnel that was transported in two 48 ft mobile showrooms. The majority of visitors were mill maintenance specialists and also included personnel from mill quality control, purchasing and safety departments., THE SPRING AND SUMMER 1994 editions of the Paper Industry New Technology Show Tour attracted personnel from more than 50 pulp and paper mills in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest [...]

One of the trends to come out of the most recent CEDIA EXPO was a proliferation of HDBaseT products designed to send high-definition digital video long distances over a single [...]

AV mounts and enclosure products may never be the first item on the agenda when selling a potential new client on the cool gear that you have to offer. But [...]

When the new home construction bubble went bust, the in-wall speaker category took perhaps the biggest hit of any product in the custom installation channel. That fact, however, did not [...]

A goal for any integration company should be to establish best practices and repeatable processes to drive sales and to increase profits on every project. Part of that mission involves [...]

I'm fortunate to have grown up with parents who were great role models. My mom instilled in me a sense of self-reliance and compassion for others, and my dad's work [...]

The DaVinci Group has been thinking outside the box when it comes to forming partnerships to distribute its high-end audio products. We reached out to the company's president, Jeff Francisco, [...]