The Master Integrator Podcast

Almost every integrator carries insurance. Far fewer are actually covered for the work they do. Insurance runs on occupation classifications, and the integration industry has never fit neatly into one. Call yourself an electrician, an IT contractor or an AV installer and you have described a fraction of the job, which is exactly the fraction an insurer will hold you to when a claim lands. Daniel W...

Master Integrator is evolving. What began as a podcast is becoming a dedicated industry body for residential, commercial and AV integration professionals across Australia and New Zealand. In this special announcement, founder Paul Skelton explains why Master Integrator has been created, who it represents and what it intends to deliver. The episode explores the challenges facing the systems integra...

The integration industry is full of technically gifted people who find the business side of their work uncomfortable. Selling feels like a word that applies to someone else. Marketing means spending money they are not sure they have. Leading a team is something they will get to once things settle down. Daniel Grozdan has spent most of his career watching that play out. After years in retail, natio...

For years, the Certificate III in Custom Electronics sat on the national register and looked, from a distance, like a pathway. Up close it had no registered training organisations delivering it and no students enrolled in it, and on those numbers alone a Jobs and Skills Council is obliged to remove a training product from the register. Two years on, that qualification has been rebuilt as the Certi...

Over the past year, we have written to dozens of federal members and senators. We explained what the smart home and integration industry is, what it does, and how many Australians it employs, and invited them to join us on the show. Almost none of them wrote back. Aaron Violi said yes. The Federal Member for Casey holds three shadow portfolios that sit directly over this industry's work: the d...

Andrew Gleeson has spent his career on the supplier side of the Australian integration industry, and he has watched more sales conversations unfold than most integrators have had. He is currently Area Sales Manager for South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria at ADI Global Distribution, and this year he is nominated for Best Sales Representative at the CEDIA Awards. Andrew is unusually clear about w...

It might be the most common question in this industry. Should I build a showroom? When Paul put it to Leslie Shiner, one of the sharpest financial and business minds working with integrators, her answer was not the one most people expect: "I do not know. Why?" That single question sits at the heart of this episode. Most of us start with the room. The screens, the speakers, the lighting,...

Three months out from the biggest week of the year in Australian AV and integration, Soren Norgaard, Event Director of Integrate Australia, joins Paul to walk through what is coming to ICC Sydney from 2-4 September. Integrate started at the Hordern Pavilion in 2009. Seventeen years on, it is the meeting place for the Australian integration industry, drawing somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000peopl...

David Ledermann is one of 3 certified Control4 dealers in all of Indonesia. He runs SGS Design and Integration from Seminyak in Bali, with a team of 15. He arrived from Switzerland 13 years ago for a hospitality job, ended up four hours into the middle of a national park managing a luxury resort, and started fixing the place using Raspberry Pis. One of those Raspberry Pis went on to run the resort...

For this episode, Connected Magazine editor Sean Carroll takes the mic and puts Paul Skelton in the hot seat on his own show. Paul covers a lot of ground: how the podcast went from a couple of hundred listeners to tens of thousands, and why the taboo topics are the ones drawing the crowd. Where the apprenticeship sits and the push to have it open to students by early next year. The 11 August censu...

Most integration projects are built component by component. A screen here. A speaker there. A controller somewhere in the middle. And then, somewhere down the track, it stops working the way the client expected — and nobody can quite work out why. Peter Milojkovic has spent his career thinking about why that happens. As Director of Zennio Australia and Tecport, he sits at the intersection of elect...

This episode is a special preview of the ADI A/NZ Expo and Training Tour 2026 — the region's largest multi-day training and technology event for professional integrators. In place of our usual single-guest format, Paul sits down with exhibitors from across the Tour to find out what they're bringing, who should stop by, and what conversations they're hoping to have on the floor. Guests...

What happens when an AV industry veteran watches a terminally ill child light up in front of a donated cinema system — and decides to do it again? In this episode of Master Integrator, host Paul Skelton sits down with Ian Morrish — founder of Together for Cinema and the driving force behind the new GivingBack. Tech platform — for a conversation about purpose, industry generosity, and what happens...

In this episode of Master Integrator, Paul Skelton is joined by Sarah Bradsell, Aftercare Manager at SMC, to explore how structured service and maintenance programs can transform integration businesses. Sarah shares her journey from reception desk to leading a 12-person aftercare team, and explains why aftercare must be designed, resourced, and sold with the same intent as projects. The conversati...

In this episode of Master Integrator , Paul Skelton is joined by Leslie Shiner , a long-time financial management consultant to the CEDIA channel, to unpack the real financial pressures facing integration businesses. Drawing on decades of experience, Leslie explains why many integrators struggle despite strong demand, how misunderstandings around margins, cash flow, and deposits quietly destroy bu...

In this episode of Master Integrator , Paul Skelton is joined by Amanda Wildman , integrator, business owner, and newly appointed Chair of CEDIA’s Global Board . Amanda shares her personal journey into the integration industry, the challenges she faced building confidence and credibility, and the mentors who helped shape her path. She reflects on imposter syndrome, representation, and the realitie...

In this episode of Master Integrator , Paul Skelton is joined by Jeff Sonnleitner , cybersecurity educator and long-time CEDIA instructor, to unpack what cybersecurity really means for professional AV and smart home integrators. Jeff explains why modern AV systems are increasingly targeted, how everyday smart devices create hidden entry points, and why integrators can no longer treat network secur...

In this episode of Master Integrator, Paul Skelton is joined by Adam Liddington from Smarta Automation & AV to discuss the current state of the New Zealand smart home and AV integration market. As a newer entrant to the industry, Adam brings a fresh and grounded perspective on consumer confidence, market conditions, workforce challenges, and what integrators need to do to ensure long-term viab...

In this episode of Master Integrator , Paul Skelton is joined by Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Jason Sayen , founder of I Am Sayen, to unpack why fast-growing integration businesses often feel stuck, chaotic, or overwhelmed. Jason explains why most integration problems aren’t technical — they’re operational. From unclear scopes of work to broken handoffs and owners becoming bottlenecks, this conversat...

Paul McLean joins the podcast to share how his journey from integrator to software founder led to the creation of Kolosseum—a platform revolutionising design documentation for the smart home and AV industries. We discuss the challenges integrators face with quoting and documentation, the business risks of poor systems, and how Kolosseum’s SPARK program is bridging the gap between integrators and s...

Taleah Pearson, Aleah Hill, and Kayla Hill join Paul to share the story behind Future Lady Tradies —a national movement supporting young women entering blue collar careers. From school programs to workplace accreditation, these three cousins are changing how the trades are seen, felt, and experienced. Topics Covered: Why FLT was created (and how it started in a recruitment agency) What’s inside a...

In this episode, Paul sits down with Professor Madhu Bhaskaran from RMIT to explore the emerging world of skin-like sensors, saliva-based diagnostics, and invisible health technology that could reshape the future of home-based care. Topics Covered: Wearables vs nearables: what’s the difference? Technology in aged care: safety without surveillance Saliva biosensors and non-invasive health monitorin...

What happens when your home gets smarter than you? And how do we make sure it doesn’t get smarter at your expense? In this episode, Paul speaks with Andrew Sispoidis, founder of Kynismos, about the urgent need to build AI systems that respect human rights, prioritise consent, and actively reject surveillance-based business models. This conversation pulls no punches—Andrew draws from his background...

Michael Short, VP of Marketing at Crestron, joins Paul to talk about the rise of wellness in smart home technology. From circadian lighting to adaptive automation driven by AI and wearables, Michael shares insights into how integrators can reframe their offering as one that genuinely supports human wellbeing. This episode explores the challenges of selling "wellness" as a concept, the sh...

What does it mean to feel safe in your own home, and what role can technology play in that? In this powerful episode of the Master Integrator podcast, host Paul Skelton speaks with Melody Gross , a domestic violence survivor and founder of Courageous SHIFT . Together, they explore how connected home systems can be both protective and harmful—depending on how they’re installed and who controls them...