Residential Tech Talks

Tayloe Stansbury was just your average home entertainment consumer when he first met the Kaleidescape team. Their mission and commitment—and product—ultimately won him over to the point that he became Chairman and CEO of the company. We sat down with Stansbury to dive into the brand's newest product and learn more about how the commitment to design excellence, which was recently rewarded with a Re...

Azione Unlimited Executive Director Patrick McCarthy is just about half-a-year into his new role, but the messages he's imparting onto the members of the group sound like someone who's been at the helm for half-a-decade. Having served in the shadows on an industry legend, it's fair to assume he's picked up a thing or two, and now with the reigns in his hands, he's continuing to steer the group and...

CEO Alex Capecelatro has steered the ship for Josh.ai since the company launched 10 years ago this year. In that time, Josh has evolved from a piece of forward-thinking software into a full-blown home automation platform. We sat down with Alex to reflect on the past decade, discuss how far AI has come—and how far is still has to go—and how custom integrators have leveraged the platform to help the...

Fresh off the news that his family-run company had agreed to acquire RTI Control, AVPro Global Holdings Founder and CEO Jeff Murray sat down with us to talk about the deal and so much more. We get into the company's 10-year history, how they've grown so fast and so quick, lessons learned from their AudioControl acquisition, and what the future could hold for this newly combined entity. With InfoCo...

Every integrator has a unique backstory for how they got into the business. But once they've made the decision to jump into this industry, they tend to face the same challenges and obstacles as their peers. That's why it's always enlightening to sit down with someone like Ann Johnson, co-owner and principal of Premiere SAV, and talk shop. Ann's background and path into the business is unique, but...

It had only been a few weeks since Kathleen Thomas took over as the head of custom integration for Sony when we sat down for this interview, but having spent many years preparing for this moment, and with the support of the team around her, she's clearly more than up for the challenge. We dive into her plans and expectations in the role, explore Sony's lens to livingroom approach to entertainment,...

Shortly after the association's second-annual Smart Home on Capitol Hill Day – and on the heels of the "Liberation Day" announcements – we sat down with CEDIA to talk about the issues that are impacting the custom integration channel. Daryl Friedman, global president and CEO, and Darren Reaman, director of government relations, recap the event, talk tariffs, and much more on this week's episode.

Awareness around energy storage and energy management has been something like a wave, as Bryce Judd, Chief Revenue Officer at Savant, put it. The California kid explains in this episode how our industry is right at the point where the wave begins to swell. The challenge for integrators, then, is whether they can spot that wave coming, and whether they plan to ride it when it starts to crest or let...

Ever since fully investing themselves in the CEDIA channel, Lighthouse Design Studio has had a series of lightbulb moments – pun absolutely intended – in how they can help with integrators become more effective and efficient in their outdoor lighting efforts. Tim Ryan, Executive Director and Principal Designer at Lighthouse, joins the podcast to talk about the many similarities between outdoor lig...

Had you told Scott Stephenson at the start of his career that he’d someday know the know and understand the lighting qualities of different shade fabrics, he’d have told you to go pound sand. Today, as Senior Director of Product for Hunter Douglas, it’s his job to help custom integrators – and the team at Hunter Douglas – make sense of how the worlds of home automation and custom window treatments...

Today's consumer cares more deeply than ever about their environmental impact – or, at the very least, the ways in which their energy consumption directly impacts the environment as well as their wallet. That's why we're hearing more about technologies like what Airzone brings to the table, allowing integrators to help their clients take control of their environmental impact through one of th...

It took a few years, but the work is finally paying off for HTSA and Tom Doherty, director of technology initiatives for the group, when it comes to the major emphasis on the lighting category. During their recent Spring Conference, we sat down with Tom to talk about the results the group's dealers are seeing across the board because of their commitment to – and investment in – lighting.

In his early days as an integrator and self-proclaimed networking nerd, Avi Rosenthal saw the potential in a fully connected and automated home. He took that passion and hobby and turned it into a career that now includes serving as the Chairman of the Board for the Z-Wave Alliance – among many other roles at highly impactful and important organizations. We tap into Avi’s networking knowledge to g...

Just a few short weeks ago, Residential Tech Today welcomed CI and communications industry veteran Rob Stott into the fold as our new Executive Editor. Before he steps behind the mic to take over the podcast, we’re putting Rob in a spot he’s slightly less familiar with – being the interviewee. In this episode, Charles Warner, CEO and Editor in Chief of IPW, the parent company of RTT, sits down wit...

On this week’s podcast, Larry Dashiell joins us from Santa Rosa, CA, where he is owner and CEO of Summit Technology Group, a team of more than 60 professionals who provide smart home technology, electrical, and renewable energy solutions across California’s North Bay and the North Idaho area.  Back in 1986, our guest today was thrust into a leadership role in his father’s electrical company a...

On this week’s podcast, John Palser joins us from Omaha, NE, where he is president of Denizen, a custom integration company with locations in Omaha, Kansas City, Dallas, and Austin. From a complete home that you can walk through in their HQ Experience Center in Omaha to regional domination across 14 states from north to south in the middle of the country, Denizen is re-defining what transformative...

On this week’s podcast, Josh Willits joins us from Mechanicsburg, PA, where he is COO of Portal, the proposal software and product/pricing database for integrators. Although you’ve seen him wearing the Portal orange pants at trade shows going on 11 years now, Josh’s career has also included a tenure in the custom integration trade, as well as several years with a well-respected Crestron programmin...

On this week’s podcast, Bert Herrero joins us from Pompano Beach, FL, to discuss his career in custom integration, including his new role as a franchise owner with Daisy, the national smart space installation and services company. Our guest today founded First Priority Audio in Pompano Beach back in 2001 and led that CI firm until a few months ago when it was acquired by Daisy. Then, just a few we...

On this week’s podcast, Modern Atomics co-founder Michael Braithwaite joins us from Austin, TX, to discuss his 30-plus-year career as an innovator and inventor of smart home and commercial AV technology. Mike and Jeremy recently re-connected, prior to his new company’s launch at CEDIA Expo last month in Denver, and that chat was so insightful, that Jeremy wished afterwards that he’d recorded it fo...

On this week’s podcast, our contributing editor Michael Heiss joins us from his home in Los Angeles to talk about his experience at last month’s CEDIA Expo, including the biggest trends, biggest surprises, and most over-hyped and most-under-the-radar introductions. This is our third podcast this month featuring a CEDIA Expo focus, but without the perspective of today’s guest (Jeremy’s fellow CEDIA...

On this week’s podcast, John Sciacca joins us from Myrtle Beach, SC, where he co-owner of Custom Theater and Audio. Whenever John is on the podcast, the conversation is sure to drift away from smart home tech topics toward he and Jeremy’s other favorite topics such as Taylor Swift, the latest movies, and pickleball. Our host and today’s guest connected in person last month at CEDIA Expo in Denver,...

On this week’s podcast Kyle Steele joins us from Burbank, CA, where he is president of Global Wave Integration and founder and CEO of FutureCare Solutions Group. Kyle and Jeremy connected recently during John Sciacca’s pickleball tournament at CEDIA Expo 2024 in Denver. CEDIA was a busy time for Kyle, as he participated on a panel about his company FutureCare’s aging in place tech solution, toured...

On this week’s podcast Hagan Kappler joins us from Costa Mesa, CA, where she is co-founder and CEO of Daisy, the national smart home integration brand. With a career spanning service brands like Starbucks, Carrier, Trane, Club Car, Terminix, Merry Maids, and ServiceMaster, our guest today has navigated corporate life, solving, challenges, building teams, and seizing opportunities. Her goal since l...

On this week’s podcast Richard Charschan joins us from Long Island, New York, where he is president of AcousticSmart Home Theater Interiors. Richard founded AcousticSmart for more than 25 years ago and has worked on some of the world's finest custom theaters and developed his own home theater seating and star ceiling products, as well. But just as interesting as that, he also helped create a new c...

On this week’s podcast Arnaud Laborie joins us from Paris, France, where he is CEO of Trinnov Audio. Over the past 20 years, Trinnov has earned a reputation for developing advanced sound processing technologies, including proprietary loudspeaker and room optimization, four-element 3D mapping technology, and, most recently, WaveForming Technology. WaveForming promises to improve low-frequency repro...