Features
- Builders & Retailers: A Fruitful Marriage?
- Most homeowners know little about home technology, and many fear it is largely beyond their means. That makes it hard to sell home-tech features that buyers can't see and experience. To overcome that challenge builders are forming closer partnerships with established consumer electronics retailers and custom installers to better sell home-tech.
- Home Tech Goes Mainstream
- There is plenty of information available on the types of home-tech features builders are offering today. There isn't as much good research on what consumers ask for and want. We take a look at what the latest industry research says about consumer desires.
- Mastering Marketing
- Don't kid yourself. As a builder, the selling of home-tech should not be left to your sales staff. Selling upgrades and options is everyone's business, starting with you. So you need to know a lot more than what trends are taking place in the installation field. You need to know how to market and sell as well.
- TBX Gets Back to Basics
- Builders have no shortage of electronics and software products competing for their attention. What they lack is good old fashioned information on what to do with it all. The TecHome Builder trade show will help builders make sense of what is current and emerging in the markets.
- Creating Connected Neighborhoods
- Builders are increasingly using community intranets to help package telecom with lower phone, high-speed Internet and cable TV rates. In the process they are selling units faster, getting higher prices, and creating more loyal customers.
Departments
- Embracing IT
- The building industry has been very slow to embrace technology, according to Ross Perot Jr., president of Perot Systems and a developer himself. Perot shares his thoughts on why the lag in technology among builders, what it means to the bottom line, and what is in store on the IT front.
- CEA Pushes Wiring Standards
- With multiroom audio gaining in popularity, the CEA is trying to develop new wiring standards to eliminate confusion on how to properly wire for the feature. Peter Hoagland of the Multiroom Audio Council explains what is driving the effort.
- Where's that Sound Coming From?
- Wiring and framing for in-wall or in-ceiling speakers should be based on the homeowner's listening experience. We explain what builders need to know about acoustics and sound control to make that experience memorable.
- Standards Should Be Free
- The soon-to-be-released Consumer Electronics Association Multiroom Audio Video Council's audio wiring standard is intended to help builders properly equip homes with wiring. Will it achieve that? Not if they can't see it.
- Good Systems Do Come in Small Spaces
- Good music systems can indeed come in small spaces, as American Systems Integrators proves in this mini but multi-purpose room.