Residential Tech Talks Podcasts

On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by two distinguished members of the CEDIA trade association leadership team, Global President and CEO Daryl Friedman (ceo@cedia.org) and Director of Government Affairs, Darren Reaman (dreaman@cedia.org). Friedman is relatively new to CEDIA, joining the association at the start of 2022, after a long tenure overseeing membership, advocacy, industry relations, and the technical wing for the 25,000-member Recording Academy, which is known globally for the GRAMMY Awards. Reaman’s advocacy work for the custom integration trade broadly and CEDIA members, more specifically, happens mostly behind the scenes but has been at the heart of protecting the trade from harmful legislation and ill-conceived municipal and state licensing requirements over the years. Friedman and Reaman are here to discuss a new event, called the Advocacy Town Hall, which will be held at this year’s CEDIA Expo in Dallas. Learn more at the CEDIA Government Affairs website (www.cedia.net/advocacy) and register for the CEDIA Advocacy Town Hall at cediaexpo.com/show/schedule/#the-cedia-advocacy-town-hall. Register for CEDIA Expo 2022 at cediaexpo.com Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Kim Parker joins from Austin, TX, where he was recently hired to serve as chief operating officer of Screen Innovations. Screen Innovations launched in 2003 by Ryan Gustafson as a garage start-up in Austin to provide projection screens for home theater and commercial video projector installations. As the industry evolved over the years, SI expanded its product mix to include window coverings, as well. Our guest today joined the company three months ago after 13 years with Control4 and Snap One, most recently as Snap One’s vice president of sales for specialty channels. He brings to SI not only his veteran experience with those two major industry brands, but also a diverse history with several other very familiar names in the industry, including Savant, Sonance, Netstreams, and GE Smart. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Jimmy Paschke joins us from Gastonia, NC, where he is settling into his new role as VP of sales and marketing for Apex Technologies US, the distributor of high-performance European AV brands. Jimmy is a hugely popular figure in the custom integration business, joining Apex from SurgeX, where he was director of sales for many years. His expertise in the custom AV channel runs deep, having previously held director of sales positions at prominent AV companies, including Core Brands and Panamax, as well as sales management positions at D&M Holdings and Kaleidescape. Jimmy also served on the board of the Azione Unlimited buying group. Now, he is working with Apex owner Ryan Donaher (best known for his long-time role at Meridian America), where he will work directly with sales reps to drive business, while Ryan continues to focus on dealer sales and support. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Patrick Hartman joins us from Reno, NV, where he is general manager for Technology Design Associates (TDA). TDA, which is owned by Ron Wanless, serves clients in Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. Patrick and Jeremy discuss how they worked together to help launch the CEDIA Business Xchange conference back in 2014 and have kept up over the years, talking tech and physical fitness (including Patrick’s passion for extreme trail obstacle races.) Patrick offers his industry veteran wisdom and insight into team building and solving business challenges facing the professional home technology integration industry and surprises Jeremy with how many well-known companies and individuals he has worked with over the years. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Eric Crawford joins us from Boise, ID, where he is owner of The Loop, a custom integration firm serving The Treasure Valley area of Idaho. Jeremy connected with Eric years ago to discuss his CEDIA class on the importance of having a great process for designing, building, installing, and servicing integrated home systems. Since then he’s always there for ResTech when they needed a quote in the magazine, but this is the first time they’ve done a deeper dive into Eric’s business and career. When Jeremy reached out to him recently, he found out that Eric was on vacation, doing a “digital detox,” completely disconnected from tech for 11 days. That’s where today’s conversation starts, but then we learn so much more about Eric’s unique path to creating The Loop and his mission to provide the best systems and service in the business. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Heather Sidorowicz joins us from Hamburg, NY, where she is owner of Southtown Audio Video, Western New York’s premier audio-visual company. Heather is a Residential Tech Today contributing writer and former CEDIA board member. Today, during her third Residential Tech Talks appearance, Heather shares her favorite discoveries from last week’s InfoComm trade show, a convention that is primarily focused on the commercial AV integration market. InfoComm is a great place for integration companies, like Heather’s, that do both light commercial installations and home projects to learn about new products and technologies that, yes, will fit into commercial-market-oriented projects, but also might someday make their way into high-end homes, as well. Heather is also our resident health tech wearables reporter, so we will also catch up on her latest experiences with that tech, as well. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, David Warfel joins us from Madison, WI, where he is founder of Light Can Help You, a lighting design firm that caters to the custom integration industry. David and his company step in as trusted advisors and collaborators for many home tech professionals who first gained their expertise in audio, video, networking and lighting control, but only recently expanded into actual lighting and lighting design. Through his insightful and entertaining writing on his own Language of Light blog and appearances on tech panels, David has become one of a handful of seemingly omnipresent lighting designers looked to for guidance in the CI channel these days. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Scott Stephenson joins us from Denver, CO, where he is the director of product management – motorization at Hunter Douglas. Scott and Jeremy have been collaborating a lot lately thanks to the generous opportunity afforded by him, his company, and his PR agency Caster Communications that led to six Hunter Douglas Gen 3 motorized shades being installed in Jeremy’s own home. Scott has been with Hunter Douglas now for almost five years, but his residential tech career also has included a seven-year stint as senior product manager, lighting & comfort at Control4, and before that nearly four years working for, Colorado vNet. In this episode, we retrace Scott’s path to becoming a motorized shades expert, talk about what makes Hunter Douglas Gen 3 shades better than Gen 2, and share some of things Jeremy has learned about motorized shades in the relatively short amount of time that he’s live with them in his house. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Avi Rosenthal joins us from Ashburn, VA, where is the managing partner of Bluesalve Partners, a company launched three and half years ago to help start-ups as well as established companies manage the Internet of Things business landscape. Through their deep connections with manufacturers, dealers, retailers, and users, Bluesalve and its team of consultants help clients with the insights and resources needed to develop, market, and manufacture products and services for the IoT Industry. Avi has held leadership roles throughout the IoT industry, including Nortek, Legrand, Evolve, and Superna. He also recently returned from the Integrated Systems Europe convention in Barcelona, Spain, where he caught up with some of the most important companies in home tech. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

On this week’s podcast, Jason Barth joins us from Carmel, Indiana, where he is owner, CEO, and lead designer of the Premier Group, a residential and commercial integration firm that he co-founded with two college friends back in 1999. Premier has a beautiful showroom in the Indiana Design Center that was completely renovated during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. Jason has experienced some firsts with new AV products over the past two years and his team pulled off an impressive showroom renovation that is worthy of discussion during the podcast. Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs.  Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!