Home Integration vs Smart Home | What’s the Difference?

Home integration, home automation, what that means, dispelling some rumors and myths. What do you want out of your home? What do you expect your home to do? Aperture door that opens and makes a sound. Like I we get those requests and the answers like, "Yeah, trying to help you design your kitchen or your renovations." We can do a lot without ever cutting into your walls. Test it. What do you want it to do? How can we make it work? You can drag your hand along the wall and things will happen. The water will ripple. and they said, "Well, that sounds crazy, but we can try." Pretty impressive. Really cool technology. I think you're going to really enjoy this one.

Hello, welcome back to another podcast, Let's Build with Armada, our podcast here. I'm Charlie Carter with Armada Design and Build Belleview, Washington. And we have a guest with us today, Dan Peterson from IHI, Integrity Home Integration. I want to make sure I got that right. You got it. Thank you, Dan. We appreciate you coming in. Click, like, subscribe, rate, and review, all the stuff. Share, pass it on, you know, the whole thing. We appreciate your time. We appreciate you being here. We hope that you're going to learn something. I think I'm going to learn something today. Spend some time with Dan talking about what IHI does, and I'm really excited to share it with you guys. This is today we're talking all about home integration, home automation, what that means, dispelling some rumors and myths, talking about where the technology is and where the technology is going. I'm really excited about this one. I got to go out to their showroom shop office in Isiqua, um, one of the suburbs here in Seattle, and was blown away by all the stuff they have out there. They have like a whole house that they've converted into their office space and all the things that they have and um pretty impressive, really cool technology. I think you're going to really enjoy this one. Dan Peterson is manager of system design and project manager with Integrity Home Solutions out in Isiqua. They have offices, a satellite office in Miami. They work in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Arizona, Montana, Hawaii, Florida, New York, and other places as needed. So don't be afraid to call them. Like you can't call me. I can't help you in Hawaii or Florida, but Dan and his team can. So if you no matter where you are, we've had people call us, hey, come build with us and they're in Washington DC or Atlanta and we can't do it, but Dan and his team can help you. So you know, this might be a plus for that. The IHI team doesn't simply install a technology. They engineer complete technology ecosystems designed around their how their clients live. Seattle is a very techdriven market as many that live here know and people that don't would assume I think with all the stuff that we have. So this is going to be really interesting. I'm looking forward to it. So thank you very much for joining us Dan. Welcome sir. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. So one of the first things that I want to talk about here is a little bit of vocabulary kind of establish the groundwork. So smart home, [clears throat] people hear that term, throw it around like how smart, you know, I have a smart home or I want a smart home or whatever. And then you guys are more on the home integration sort of vocabulary or term. So can you help me understand that? Help the the audience understand a little bit. Give us a little sort of lay of the land in your world. Absolutely. First [clears throat] of all, thank you for having me. Absolutely. This is going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. Um yeah, so smart home. Uh what a smart home is is generally something that is sort of client-f facing meaning that this is something you could buy off the shelf, you can buy it online, you can buy the parts and pieces for it and you generally it's a DIY uh often. Okay. So this would be things like Alexa, the Google stuff, some of that stuff. I mean, you you could walk into any, you know, any from from Best Buy to Home Depot to where wherever you want to go and you can just walk in and you can find items that are smart, right? Intelligent, whatever. Um, you'll see things that speak Alexa or, you know, work with Alexa or some version of that. Um, these are things that you can buy, put it in your cart, take it home, unpack it, set it up yourself. Um, and by and large, those can be really cool systems. They can be really helpful in your life. You can do all kinds of automations with it. You can do a lot of stuff just kind of off the shelf. So all systems, whether they're integrated or smart or whatever, they the the base of that systems a network, right? So you have to have some kind of decent wireless and hardwired mixed ideally uh network to build on. But once you get there, you can you can build a smart home yourself. Okay? Okay. You don't need us. Okay. Yeah. So, it can be done. So, smart home is anything that really is technologydriven that turns on a light or security or the doorbell or garage door open. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. You know, dimming your lights from your phone or, you know, that kind of stuff. Audio, music, Alexa, turn on the thing, you know, all of that. Okay. All right. And then home integration. And the difference there would be is that right is that's a professionally designed right is that how you would distinguish [clears throat] that that smart home something you can kind of do like you said off the shelf from a little to a lot. Yes. Right. And then home integration gets into another level. Right. Would you say that kind of that it's just part of the same curve? It is part of the same curve and um it there is a gradient there. There there is a point where smartome really starts to kind of uh kind of phase out because it can only do so much, right? And then integration kind of picks up where that leaves off, right? But of course, integration is like the sky's is the limit, right? Sure. Uh the the real distinction though is uh design and um engineering. Okay. So when you when you come to us and you say you want to do this some some project at your home that's uh that is uh about automation and things like that. We take your notes, we take your hopes and dreams. We take all of your best ideas and see how we're going to make that happen. Okay? And I say this all the time. The answer is always yes. It's just how do we get there, right? Whereas with a smart home, that's not the case, right? The answer is not always yes. There's some things you just can't do. For us, um there really isn't anything we can't do. Um and we have a whole team of engineers, right, and designers and we have a great network of of of subcontractors and stuff that we resources in. Yeah, I've got a really good story I'm going to share with you a little bit later when I saw some stuff out at their place. So, you're going to like this one. So, [clears throat] so how does one let's talk a little bit for a minute go back for a second. So smart home, home integration, the engineering, the design, kind of that curve like so how how do how did you [clears throat] get into it because this is sort of a an emerging still right kind of technology. Sure. And then so how did you personally wind up there and then sort of what's the history with IHI you know integrity home integr like how does that happen because this is like I mean is it what's the equivalent is this the the PC industry in the 80s like where you guys are like where are you on the on the developmental stage for this industry compared to something else like the cell phone industry where like in the history of the cell phone where would you guys be on that curve of you you know, maturity or something like that. So, all of that in one, your personal and then kind of the whole thing a little bit. I think I got you. Okay. Um, yeah. So, personally, uh, I started this work in 1998 in Dallas, Texas. Okay. Um, and it was very much about home theater. Okay. It was kind of one one room systems um, but very, uh, very high-end, right? So, um, you were doing like these sort of stereophonic systems that were these really esoteric, you know, speakers and these, uh, tube amps and these really interesting sort of, uh, two speaker buildouts where you're just listening to, um, a record or you're just listening to like a really high quality CD or it's a home theater environment where, you know, you're you're taking a room in your house and you're converting it into a theater, something like that. Um, so that's kind of how I got started. So, that was the start, right? And we've done a number of those. I've done a number of those, participated in, you know, where we've built the home theater. So, you've got the audio, you've got the seating, we've done the stadium seating, then you've got the video component, you know, and like the the sound absorb, you know, like designing the sound and the lighting and all of that, you know, but that is interesting that you say that in terms of that's a single room solution, right? Right. Like we've never done much of where that expands out into the rest of the house. It's like you walk in that room and there it is. Right. Type of thing. So that was your start. Yeah. And automation certainly predates me and and uh I mean it goes way back. We can get into that too. But um the what really the real big break where you had some some groups that were doing some interesting distributed audio, distributed video automations and things like that to what we see today was the internet, right? Just networks. Okay. being able to communicate with devices um and to uh have access to your devices on like on uh on like an iPad or something like that from your phone. The the internet really created that. And so if it and that that's why all these systems that we're going to talk about, they're all based on a solid network. And that's kind of where integration really starts to take off. But yeah, so that once once we had the internet, once we started wiring houses, that's where the term smart home came from, right? Is before we were wiring homes with cat five, right, for for, you know, network drops, we call them, you know, just a place to plug in a laptop. And this is kind of before wireless was even really that that around that much. Um, that was the smart home. So all these these uh Ethernet or, you know, category wires were going back to some central location. You throw in a router and a switch there and boom, now you have a smart home. That's kind of where it started, right? I remember in the I guess it would have been in the late 90s, mid to late 90s, we were doing projects and we were doing these massive structured wiring. Uh, and by structured wiring, what I mean is it would be one big wire that would have like two coaxs and a couple of cat five, I don't know, cat six, like sometimes a fiber. Yeah, fiber. fiverr and and then like a phone line or two in there. It's a big wire with a bunch of stuff in it and you'd run it to the places around the house and then you could have your plugins all over. Yeah. And then it would go back to a central spot like a breaker box kind of thing that you could distribute. But that didn't last very long because Wi-Fi came in, right? And then the wireless happened and that whole industry fell apart. Like there was nobody was doing it anymore. It's like it just it was two three years and gone. Yeah. Right. I mean is that am I remembering that? Yeah, I would say that that world of of you know those big you know roping those huge you know heavy wires to a central location that's probably around a decade. Right. Okay. Right. So it it probably lasted a pretty much a full decade. Uh that stuff still exists and sometimes it's useful. Right. Um but by and large yeah the the the wireless sort of revolution web is is the is the deal. Okay. So then so then the history with IHI like so 2001 been around 21 year or sorry 2005 been around 21 years and so how does like what does Rick start with and then how does that evolve and then you join and then the team grows kind of what's the background there? So, so Rick Consis, the the owner of Integrity Home Integration, um, you know, when when he started, he was doing a lot of the kind of same stuff that I was doing at that time was just a lot of home theaters, a lot of, you know, single room solutions, a lot of this smart home wiring, you know, where you just you're wiring up, you know, whole neighborhoods, right? And that's kind of where a lot of the companies like us kind of got our start, right? That's what he was doing. And then uh he just had the courage to push much further into this world and he started getting uh uh he he he he did a thing that a lot of people don't do is he got engineers, he got designers and he got a lot of management on board under one roof. Um so a lot of shops will try to limit that. It's just overhead and things like that and it's it's a it's a lot of catch to juggle. Yeah. Um, but it's really the only way to deliver the kind of systems that we deliver is you have to have that all under one roof, right? Um, you have to be able to to have the I need to be able to get to my engineer right away. Uh, and so I walk out of my office and go into his office and we have a conversation without that versus sending an email and you know it's an outside person and they've got 20 clients and you're just on the list kind of thing. Exactly. We we we [clears throat] need that um that collaboration to so you guys are integrated from the beginning the engineering design concept stuff through installation programming and even ongoing maintenance and monitoring everything all the way. The only thing you're not doing is you're not making the stuff with an asterric. With an asterisk, right? Correct. Generally speaking, you're not making Generally speaking, we're not building the equipment with an aster. We'll talk about that coming up. Right. in terms of that. But so for the most part, you're buying off like, you know, I need that box and this thing that somebody else is making. You take it and now you guys are to the point that you're starting to modify that stuff to get it to do more, better, correct, quicker, blend this, whatever. So that's now becoming a starting point. Yeah. I mean, that's that's the my philosophy of we just say we say yes to everything. It's just how do we do it, right? Um we can't do that um without the collective that we have. Right. right under one roof. Okay, so integration automation, we talked about that, right? The Alexa stuff, the Google stuff. Um, now Crestron, right? Let's talk about them. They're the they're the behemoth in the marketplace, right? And they are the standard bearer, would you say? Absolutely. All right. Now, do they have competition? Crestron's a company that makes like What is So, Crestron, they're the one. Talk about them for a second. And you guys use a lot of their stuff. Yeah. So, Crestron, Crestron, what they um do best is they marry software and hardware kind of under one roof. Okay. So, there any of their competition does one or the other um more than the other. So, so some are more software focused and not so hardware focused. Some are kind of hardware focused, not that software focused. A lot of them are are depending on other companies that build stuff that work with their systems, you know, right? Um, but Crush on by and large is kind of a one-stop shop. You can you can build just about any system with largely on their platform. Okay. And their devices and their Now, is that a US-based company? Is that Europe? Like where are the US, but it's worldwide? Worldwide. But it's a hu this multi-billion dollar. Oh, yeah. And yeah, they're well, they're they're based out of uh New Jersey and they have they have a so their east coast is kind of New Jersey. Their sort of middle America is uh based out of uh Plano, Texas. And then they have a their west coast is out of um shoot I can't remember in California. California probably. Yeah. Um I've been there. It's the one it's the one I've been to and I can't remember where it's at. Um but um but yeah and then of course they have worldwide but one of uh one of the programmers uh that works in our company Alexi he's from Russia and he worked for Crestron in Russia. Okay. Uh so so they're everywhere. They're everywhere. Okay. Huge. So they're the they're the platform on which or from which most all of this kind of technology springs. Yeah. For for us. Yeah. And like you said they do have competition. Um but it's it's there's nobody close though unfortunately. Okay. So that integration of the hardware, software and then a lot of that platforming is based on that for us to do what we do. We need them. You need them. And so networking, you're talking about the network. So just to dig into that a little bit more like okay, so like I understand, you know, the network like I have obviously a Wi-Fi network at my house and we have a Ring doorbell and I have um [clears throat] some smoke detectors that you know are integrated. You have a smart home? Yeah, I have a little bit of a smart home, right? I don't have I have the the Nest thermostat, but mine's not like it's all kind of like each one is sort of a separate thing, right? Type of deal. So, the network though is just the ability for all these individual things to communicate with each other or to a central place that I can talk with. So, that's what you mean when you say the network, like you can kind of see all of that in one place. Well, like anything, there's levels to it, right? And um to to build out a smart home, you don't need much. You just need a decent wireless network to do the integration you need uh you need to take a few steps. Okay. Up in network uh something that manages technology. All right. So the history the last thing. So then a little bit about the the industry the history there. So you were saying before we started about the first distributed audio was in the 1800s. Is that right? you didn't tell me anymore, but like that was it. So, so do tell me a little bit about that history there and kind of that evolution through like, you know, where did how did that how did we get here? So, I'm not a historian and I probably get some of this wrong, but I the but I have the the cliff notes are basically this. Um, the first distributed audio systems were essentially tubes ran to vents in the floor in the wall down to like a basement. Okay. And in that basement would be musicians playing into basically a big horn, right? Uh and they would play into that and then the sounds from that from those musicians would then flow through the tubes and out into the common areas uh and these big castles or you know where they're having these big events and these big balls and things like that. So that was distributed audio. the talking tubes that you would see in movies or whatever, like they would talk into the thing and it would you know someone could hear it on the other end. Yeah. And they they would they even uh figured out that they could have multiple uh you know of these tubes that that that you could play into um that would combine into one tube so you could spread out your musicians. They wouldn't have to all crowd around one, right? I mean they got I mean they were really got pretty good at it. Yeah, it was really cool. And um they figured that out a long time ago. And again, back then the answer was yeah, it was just how do we do it? Just build a bunch of tubes. We'll figure it out. Figure it out. Yeah. Okay. And we're still doing that today. That's very cool. Very cool.

[music] So, if someone comes to you and they say, "Hey, you know, we want a smart home." Or like, you know, how does that conversation start typically? [clears throat] It's a great question, right? And I I try to listen a lot at first because I really want to know what it is that what what their desires are because if I just start selling them everything that I can do, right? Um then I'm not really doing my job because I need to listen. I just need to know what do you want out of your home? What do you expect your home to do? What have you seen? Um is there something that that you've seen at at one of your friends homes that it does and you really like to have that same thing too or expand on it? like what are you really trying to do or something they saw in Iron Man that like they want their house to do that kind of thing. Yes. By the way, I'm glad you said that. A lot of the the notes that we get are kind of like that. They're like, "Hey, can you guys do a thing where, you know, we have this like aperture door that that like opens and make a sound?" I mean, we get those requests and the answer is like, "Yeah, yeah, we can do it. We can conversation." The answer is yeah. So, so how do most people find you? Are they coming directly to you? Are they coming through an architect or like what's that? How does that get going? The answer is yeah. Right. The answer is yes. It's just kind of um generally it's going to come from just we've been you know, Integrity's been doing this for 21 years and of course they've built the client list and you know that's you kind of get your clients through other clients. Um, but we also have great relationships with builders and architects and designers and uh, it just kind of comes from all different areas and we can't say yes to every project. Um, and so we kind of have to we kind of have to spread our resources, you know, efficiently. Uh, so when somebody comes to us and they say, "Hey, we want to do a project, you know, what can we do?" Um, it really is just, you know, tell me what you think you want. Tell me what you hope, right? And then we can start building off of that and we can we can feel it out pretty fast. Is this something that we can deliver um this is kind of offtheshelf stuff, right? Just basic restaurant, basic network, kind of just deliver some distributed audio, maybe some distributed video, some shades, maybe some lighting. That's kind of that's a that's a pretty quick easy thing to do. Or are you coming to us with some really wild ideas and really wild uh stuff? Or you're just saying like, I don't like anything I see on the market. build me something special. Well, then okay, that's a [snorts] different conversation. Different conversation, but the answer is yes, but type of deal. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Time and money. So then once you start that conversation with people, what is that timeline for development like? Right. I mean, and [clears throat] and how do you characterize your projects? Like for us internally, you know, we have like sort of what we would consider kind of a simple project, a sort of a medium project or a big complicated project, you know, kind of groups. Do you guys sort of have that type of structure as well? Sure. Okay. And then what's what's your normal? Like ours is kind of the middle, right? We have the simple, we do less of those with the the middle sort of average project and then we have the big complicated projects which I guess everything's a bell curve, right? And so Sure. But I know what you're asking me and I would say our projects probably start where um a lot of integrators kind of kind of where they're kind of maximum. It's kind of where we start. Okay. Um which is nothing to say against those other integrators. They're they're just providing a service that is very useful, but we we kind of start where they leave off. And there's, you know, and we're not afraid to do some smaller projects, especially if it's for a client that we've already done work for. Sure. We're happy to do that. Um, but yeah, we are kind of in that large to infinity. Yeah. Is kind of Okay. Yeah. So, let's just talk about then just quickly kind of run down sort of all the individual components of things that would sort of fall under your purview, right? So the networking and structure wiring stuff, lighting control, lighting fixtures. So managing lighting. Yes. Right. Distributed audio video. Whether that's in that theater around the house. Would that also then be like the security cameras would that fall under that? So for the audio video stuff. Okay. Absolutely. Home theater, motorized shades, shades, right? Wind blinds treatment kind of thing. HVAC integration. Absolutely. um security cameras and access control. That's like door locks and getting in and out of the house, right? Gates, things like that. And so is that the group or is there anything not included or [clears throat] there like a big like what did we you know what would be you add to that? Like what's missing in that? Yeah. Like the things that you guys touch like you're not you know you're not doing anything with you know doors and windows and sighting or any of that stuff. It's more of these system things like what? Correct. Is that the list? Does it have a wire? Is a pretty good indicator of something that we we are likely capable of playing. Okay. Right. Oh, here's one that we do a lot, but this is kind of a standalone is the EV chargers. Yes. Right. So, if you're doing someone has an EV charger and then this stuff like then that gets baked in or can be baked into your stuff so that you don't have to pull up my special Tesla app. I can just see that [clears throat] in my integration stuff. Yeah. So those uh Tesla was kind enough to open some of those uh APIs to the inte integrators. So yes, we can integrate. Although um it doesn't come up a lot. Their app is pretty good. Yeah. And a lot of times um even if somebody comes and says, "Hey, I want this." We can say, "Well, yeah, we can do that, but quite honestly, not going to get much better. You're not going to get much out of it, right? and you'll you'll probably find that you don't use it. And we we want efficiency. So just because we can doesn't mean we should, right? And so we'll try to and and and the the Tesla chargers are one of those things. We we generally go like, "Yeah, we can do that, but you're not going to use it." Not a lot of benefit. Let's not let's not waste CPU, right, on that. Okay. Right. So yeah. All right. So that so that's the the group. Now, one question that I I did have was just kind of going through this list here is the light fixtures themselves. Can they be any light fixture essentially or? Yeah. Control. Yes. Right. So, yeah. So, again, there's levels to it. Um, a decorative lighting, we can certainly, you know, turn it on and off. We can dim it. We can automate it. We can put it on schedules, things like that, but it's still a decorative light. It's still something that's chosen by a designer. It's it's been chosen for its beauty, for uh the aesthetics, fitting the space. Then there's the architectural stuff. Those are like your your can lights, uh your you know your LED strip lights, all your linear stuff like the the the task lighting, all that kind of stuff. Um we can actually provide that those fixtures. Um we can provide what's called circadian uh rhythm tuning, tuned lighting. Talk about lighting. Yeah. So, so tunable lighting is not just dimming it, but it's also changing the color temperature of it, right? So uh as well as the the dimming it and then circadian takes that a step further and just says we we know um that bio bio-ythmically we have sort of a built-in circadian rhythm where our body responds to light temperature. It has to do with the rising and the setting of the sun. Okay. We can mimic that and that's called in the house. In the house. Okay. So then it flows. Yeah. And we can we can do it in in such a way where it's just kind of following the time of day. We can use light sensors outside of the building to actually uh mimic the light that's outside versus guessing just based on the time of day actually. Yeah. And taking a sample of what's actually happening and then integrating that. Yeah. Exactly. And so yeah, if you if you want to feel more awake at certain times of the day, we can provide the correct lighting, the correct lighting temperature for that. If you uh if you want to uh if you want your party to have a a very like natural uh sort of circadian feel to it so that it matches the lighting outside, we can do that. Um and that's all based that's that's lighting fixtures and programming. It's kind of all it takes a lot to get that to work. Then the next step past that is kind of RGB. So you start getting into red, green, blue, like all the cool colors and stuff. And it's now obviously you don't put that in a a living room, right? But you can put it in a theater, you can put it in a kids room, you can put it in a specialty room, you can put it in a bar, you can do some really fun stuff with that. Now you're now you're taking circadian, you're taking color, and you're just playing with it all, right? And you can do some really really cool stuff with that. And that's just lighting. Just lighting. Yeah. Just lighting. Yeah. And then we start getting into the the, you know, automated audio, automated video, automated, you know, all these different things that we can tie all that in. It's pretty incredible stuff that it's if you're around, you should go to their place. You know, they're going to start having to do tours or something, but it is such a cool to show you that to see kind of that live, you know, like what you can do. And it's it's one thing to talk about it. It's one thing maybe to see it on a video, but when you stand there and watch Dan play with it and show you the thing and what you can do, it's it's pretty impressive. The the speaker thing that you made that you guys have is a that coffee table. Yeah. The coffee table speaker. It's just it's unbelievable. So, one thing I want to talk about really quick just to go back and I a lot of people probably understand this, but the lighting temperature thing. Yes. Right. So, there's this it's it's measured in Kelvin. Correct. Right. And like 2700 Kelvin is kind of a low run, right? Lowish. And then up to five, six. And that would be considered warm. Yeah. Right. Down. Yeah. Down at the low end, the lower number like 2700. And that's a 1,800. And that's a more yellowish. Is that what you would call it? Yeah. It's sort of candle light and below. So like as like a like a like a warm flickering like fireplace, right? is kind of in that 1800 to, you know, 2000 realm. And then you get into sort of the uh like a candle light starts to get a little bit above that and then you get into the old incandescent lighting that we're that we all grew up with. Where would that live? Uh it's in that sort of two 25 to 35 range is kind of in there. And then you get into sort of your your your daylight and beyond and then super white light and and I mean there is a use case for just about all of it. Although in a home you really don't get past that 4,000 range too often. Yeah. I mean because most people most of the time especially if you're talking with designers, architects, they really want to see um those sort of natural light the brighter the light the whiter light. Well, just natural or or the sort of incandescent, we still our brains, any of us that have a little bit of gray in our beards are, we still think of just a little we still think of incandescent light, right? Which is what we grew up with. It's what most people uh think of when they think of, you know, general lighting. Like the lighting in here, I mean, we're we're past probably a little bit past 4,000 uh at least. The like these lights here, that's pretty bright. necessarily want that in your bedroom, but you might. Or you might want the morning or here's a fun one. I can I just have a button just for if you if you have like a cleaning crew that comes in and cleans your house, you want them to be able to see what they're doing. You have a button just for that and boom, you just light the whole place up. Now, do you want to live in that? No. But but if if you are doing some major projects or some major cleaning and stuff, you really want to see every little nook and cranny of your house, that's the way to do it and we can create that and then you can go away. I and I talk with people about that. Like look, it's like we don't have all these lights on, but if you're doing a clean or you really want to do something, you bring all this stuff up and you know, then you can really see. Now, one thing that's interesting is that a lot of basic LED little can lights because they're not the big cans anymore. They're just a little pancake and you see the thing. But when we install those now, a lot of those have an adjustable click click click of the of the Kelvin level, the warmth, coolness, and then but they're [clears throat] kind of a set it and forget it thing cuz it's inside up in the ceiling or in the wall or whatever. And so those are adjustable. But what you're talking about is something that's adjustable on the fly. Programmable adjustable on the fly. Yeah. Exactly. Now, is that a special light that requires that? Okay. So, that's not just an offtheshelf. I mean, it is someone's making that. Are you guys No, I mean there there are manufacturers that make these lights uh that are tunable that are really pointed at our industry. Right. Right. So, that's not something that you just go put that in without the backend component to to be able to run that. Right. And that's why it's so important to talk to us as soon as possible. Sure. in your build because those things often get overlooked and right and that's exactly where I wanted to go next right is that is that integration so if you're doing a major renovation right so this is kind of like okay now how do I so we understand a little bit of background now like I want to apply this right so I want to get in then so you've got essentially at least I can think of sort of three scenarios right you've got new construction where someone's building a new house then they want to integrate [clears throat] this as part of the build, right? Probably the easiest on your part, right? Definitely. Then you've got someone who's renovating or doing an addition, some kind of, you know, level of significant project or whatever, but we're doing something, right? And then you've got the ones where people don't really like we're not doing a kitchen or an addition or anything, but we just bought this house and we want you to come and retrofit, right, this system or a system to this house, correct? with as little impact as possible. Right. So with that I mean is that kind of sort of three slots? Absolutely. Right. And so then let's talk about that. So, if it's if it's new construction or a significant renovation, addition, something like that, you want to be in as early as possible. Quite honestly, even before design almost, right? Like you could start like before we start drawing anything or before your architect starts drawing anything, let's have a conversation to understand where that homeowner wants to be, what they're looking for. Start talking numbers. Can you start to give them some ideas? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We we we can come up with ROM numbers all day long. And for for a builder, we use that ROM rough order of magnitude, right? How much is this going to be? Oh, this is a 300 to 400. This is a million to 1.3, you know, kind of get some rangy component of or group of where that cost is going to go. Yeah. And if you can't bring us in that early because you can't always having if you're working with a a new client, but we lean on uh you guys to say we need to consider technology. You don't have to say integration. You don't have to say smart home. Just say at some point we need to talk about technology. And then your client might go oh like what or like oh yeah we do need to talk about that or yes we have some thoughts on that. You'll get some version of that. Or you might just get like, "Well, we don't really want anything technology wise." Well, too bad. There's going to be some technology in your home, right? I mean, there just is. I mean, yeah, if you Yeah. If you put in a network or Wi-Fi, I mean, like that's the kind of the minimum minimum anymore, I guess, right? Would be some Yeah, the the minimum technology is some kind of network and that's yeah, I mean, that's kind of it, right? Just some kind of network for when it comes to technology. Uh, and then it's just going to expand from there. But I mean, by and large, most people have seen automation because of smart homes, because of Alexa, because of all these things, Nest, they've seen it now, and they want they're going to probably want some version of that. Um, and then and then just just to bring it up, make people and then designers, architects, they tend to be very skeptical of it because they're like, "Oh, this is going to make my my my work of art. It's going to mess it up, right? or it's going to add a bunch of grief that you know I'm gonna be back and forth with these guys so they could be resistant to adding another cook to the kitchen maybe almost in the way that they might be thinking of it. Yeah. And a lot of times they think that we're going to come in and go like, "Oh, we want to put these big black boxes everywhere and set them on top of your beautiful counters." Like, no. That's [laughter] that's the thing. We We are very Can we surface mount this? Exactly. Yeah. Can I just run some wires across your wall? Yeah. Um No, it's they're neat, you know. Don't worry about very straight line. Yeah, don't worry. But no, we uh we are very very very focused on design. We think about design on every project and we look at a designer and an architect as a partner, right? And we also want them to know right away that um we are very sensitive to your vision and we want them to tell us what their vision is and then we go to the client say okay so you want something in this environment that's that's that's technology how can I provide that to the client but also not mess up the vision of the designer because that's what they were hired for. So that's an interesting way to doable. Yeah. So you want to you're trying to create a capability that the homeowner is looking for, whatever their list is of things they can do and whatever, but in almost an invisible way. Yeah. Oh, from an architectural designer standpoint that you don't want to I got to mount this big thing here. I got to like you don't want to. So that's you're trying to hide essentially all the stuff you're doing and it's just it's almost like magic. It is right. You know, engineering to a certain degree. I mean, even we would experience that if someone showed up with a 150year advanced technology that even though it's just engineering to them, to us it would appear almost as if magic. Correct. Right. Like if you took an iPhone and gave it to somebody from the 1800s, they would think that that's just that's magic. There's no way that's a thing. Yeah. We've done our job really well. If you walk into a home and you just do not see any of our stuff, right? But you see it when it's working, right? See what it can do. See what it can do when the when you have these circadian rhythm lighting playing in the background and you just and you just and and you know, you have your friends over and you're like, "Hey, you notice how the the lighting is kind of matching outside?" Like, yeah, that's that's our system. What do you do at night when it's dark? Because you don't make it dark inside, right? you've just getting it just closer and closer like how does what do you do there? Well, not not no two homeowners are the same. Sure. Right. So, so you really need to lean on uh their input and say, you know, what do you like your house to be like at night? If you sit my wife and I down in a room and you ask us what we like, it's two completely different things. So, we have to figure out how to make them both happy. And we have to when we know that some clients don't use a lot of light and just their day-to-day lives. Others every light in the house is on and it's so we just have to it's just conversation. Everything starts it's just a conversation, right? How do you live your life? Now I heard some rumors. I have no way to verify this but it was a big thing when Bill Gates was building his Mondo house and the technology [clears throat] and stuff that was going into that. And I've talked to some people that worked on that house over the years and whatnot. And one of the things that I heard was that there was almost like a Star Trek like communicator or badge that was put on and programmed for a person. And then like when that person would walk into a room like the lighting and the music and the art even on the walls would be set to sort of their thing. Is that I mean do you know anything about that? Is that capability real? Yes. Can you go that far? Sure. Sure. again. So like gave the example of you and your wife have different lighting needs or desire, you know, whatever preferences. So then if you have your badge and you walk in, then the lighting adjusts to you. And if she goes back in the same room in a little bit, then the lighting would adjust to her. You could go that far. Oh, easily. Okay. Now, what happens if you're both in the room at the same time? Who wins? [laughter] That's a good question. And we do see that. At my house, it would be my wife. like so the lighting would adjust to her, you know, as long as I think what we have to do is we just have to make sure they they both have the option to have what they want and then they can figure it out from there. Okay. Right. So, but we just want to make sure no one's left out. So, what is your process like? Like how long do you guys need or take or like what is your evolution through that? You know, new construction, big renovation. What does that look like from early conversation to execution? Or are you do the builders typically go faster than you and you're trying to keep up? Are you guys typically ready in permits and other design work like you're not there's no pressure. It just flows right along kind of the same. Yeah. Um we we hope that and we always strive to flow right along with the uh the builder schedule. Um and by and large we we're able to to make that happen. We we've we've done this. We've rinsed and repeated enough times on 90% of the work that's being done that we can do that. Uh the only thing that slows us down uh is just when you get into really custom stuff. Sure. And you start having to sort of go back to the drawing board over and over again with the designer and the architect and the builder. And you know, everybody wants something, you know, to to make this thing work, right? As a collective. It just sometimes there's a few different reviews and design reviews and things like that. that it can slow a room down or something like that. Um, but by and large, uh, we we can stick to a builder schedule pretty easily. But yeah, it kind of starts in that, you know, in that design world. We're talking the back of a napkin kind of stuff, goals. Yep. Just hopes and dreams. And then we get into the builder schedule. We, you know, when did they start wiring the house? When are they going to start doing this and doing that? and that we want to make sure that we're there and that we're prepared for that ahead of time. Um, and a lot there's a lot going on there. There's contracts to be signed. There's budgets to be agreed upon. And it takes, you know, it takes a lot of just background effort to make sure that we're following that schedule, right? And so you guys are essentially in twice. You're in at a roughin stage and then at a trim stage like electricians, right? Like we have electricians, they're coming in doing the line voltage stuff at the rough in after framing. They're running all the stuff that's going [clears throat] in the walls, right? Are you there for part of that? Yeah, we're there a lot. Okay. Yeah, we're we're really we kind of we're there in the roughin stage and a little bit before that. Um we are part of a lot of the big walkthroughs, the the MEP walkthroughs, right? So we want to be uh involved with all of those and then we start pulling all the wire at the same you know a little bit after the electricians have started pulling all their wire and then we get all that done and then there's uh there's a there's a few generally there's a few gobacks right where something gets redesigned something changes um some new decisions been made we need to go back and touch that up uh and then we get into the trim phase that's really we're just we're just filling holes right so you know keypads on walls, you know, speakers in the ceiling, lights, things, just filling holes. That's kind of that trim phase. And then there's a a finish phase. That's where we actually are going in and making all these systems work. That's generally like, you know, programming configurations, that kind of the network build kind of happens at this time. Uh, and then and then past that, you really are getting into just pure programming and then you're getting into the customization part. Generally, the the client's already living there. They're already experiencing their home. They're seeing the things that they like and that they don't like. Um because you're never going to get it right the first time, right? Hey, they call you or send you any, hey, can I do this? You know, I like, oh, this is can I make it do this kind of and and because of how we set up our systems, um we can do a lot of that remotely. So, I can I can you if if this is your home and you give me a call and I'm sitting at my desk, you say, "Hey, I I wish I wish I had this lighting scenario. I just wish it was different." and you say, "Okay, test it. Try that." Oh, that's pretty good, but can you tweak this one other thing? All right, tweaked. What do you like? Ah, it's perfect, Dan. Thanks. That's it. Done. Very cool. Right. Um, and we also can empower the client uh to do some of that themselves. So, there's there's again it evolves into how much do you want us to do? How much do you want to do yourself? We have a client right now who's really tech focused and is doing a lot of it himself. Like literally almost all the programming is being done by him. He's just something he loves to do and he's doing some really cool stuff. Stuff where we are like um we're learning some stuff from him. He's got some really cool ideas. We're going to copy that idea. Yeah. Yeah. We we met the other day at an event. He pulled some electronics out of his pockets and was like, "Hey Dan, there's that thing I was talking to you about." I was like, "Oh, that's great." So, we went off in a corner and we talked about it. Um, so yeah, I mean, we're we're we're all our eyes are wide open all at all times. And so, this particular client is going to do some really neat stuff and I'm really excited to do it. And that's just another thing another local here Seattle area. Yeah. In Seattle. Okay.

All right. [music] So, we're kind of running on time here. This is we're like barely scratching the surface, too. So, we definitely going to have to come back, but couple things. So what is sort of an average project for you guys? Your cost like from a client standpoint like what are they spending? What are your clients sort of in the bell curve? Like this is kind of our average project. This is sort of extremes, you know, what is that? Are these people spending 500,000? Are your people spending three? Are they spending a million? How would you describe [clears throat] that? Because you now you're at the upper end. You start in where most people finish. So I would everybody be prepared. These are bigger, more scopy projects. Sure. Sure. Sure. Um, we can do some pretty some pretty interesting things. We can we can do that in the sort of the 500 to $600,000 range and it kind of goes up from there. And we have projects and this is gear and labor. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of the turnkey system, right? But maybe not the light fixtures or some. It depends. Depends because you you may we we may not do every room in the house. We may just do common areas and then we leave it up to builder to do the rest. We won't control it all, but actual providing light fixtures. Yeah. May not do everyone, but So 5600 is kind of your low end. It's a very low end. Okay. And generally it's going to be above that. And then you know, we've got projects that are in that sort of $4 to5 million range. Um and your piece of it. Yeah. Not the house. You're talking about your your stuff. Four to five million. Now is that at the big side or is that more middle of the road for you guys? Well, I mean, in our industry, sky's is kind of the limit, right? So, certainly um but for us right now, that's kind of our high-end. Okay. Um but, uh you know, there's there's a use case to go much higher than that. Sure. Yeah. Okay. All right. Now, what about retrofitting or remodeling or you know, putting stuff into an existing space, existing home? Someone bought a house. We're moving in. It's there. The house is generally great. we don't really need to do much, but I want you guys to come and do your stuff. Does that make your life more difficult? You know, honestly, it really depends on what they're asking for, but because wireless technology has gotten so good and because uh our IT team knows how to build a network to make that work because if you don't do that, it may not ever work. Um, but because we can, we have the skill set and the brain trust to make those work, we can do a lot without ever cutting into your walls. Okay. So, it's possible. But yeah, but again, it just really what do you what do you hope what are you hoping to get and what can you live without? And if you can't live without it and we got to cut into your walls, well then we'll figure that out. So, two things. So, the first thing I would want to kind of cover quickly would be for a homeowner who's sitting there watching this, listening to this, intrigued, like where where would you tell them to start their mental preparation prior to contacting you or someone like you? Like what do they need to know or do or have in their brain before they pick up the phone or send you [clears throat] that email and say, "Hey, like what would you say come to the meeting with this? What have you seen? What have you had in the past? What what what do you what do what is it that you already know exists? Um just and what what is it that you're hoping to get out of your home? What can what can what can you live without? What is it what are the things that you that you really desire? And uh and also come to come to us with with things that maybe you're not sure about. you know, don't be afraid to ask us anything and because we we can we can at least educate you and that even when it comes to budget, I mean, don't be afraid to to talk budget with us. I mean, we're we we really are just kind of a blank slate at first and uh just come to us with an open mind and uh just lots of questions. Okay. Yeah, I know. I know that's a really broad, right? Well, it's it's a little bit the way that we have to talk to people when they're talking about, you know, remodeling, renovation or something. It's it's very similar. It sounds like the questions that I have is like, what does your home do for you well now that you want it to continue to do? Yes. Right. What does it not do well that you want it to do better? Right. Like, oh, we have a big family and people come over and we really all can't be in a room, you know, kind of a thing. Like, we I want to be able to accommodate more people more easily in this space, you know, type of thing. or what does your home not do for you at all now that you want it to be able to do? You know, is kind of the way I like to get them to think about it. Like what's the pain point? What's the problem? Why am I here? What is the issue you're trying to address? Right? You know, because you didn't call me and take this time and have me come out to say, "Hey, look, my home is amazing. We love it." Right? You know, I'm there for a reason. We're there for a reason. There's an issue that you want to address. And so, I try to get them to think about it that way. Sounds like a little bit of the same same thing. I would I would say uh I would like to expand on one thing. Okay. Um many of our clients have actually had integrated homes before. Okay. Some of them did not have the best experience even with the brands that we work with. Um something I will say this to the camera. The system in your home is only as good as the team that puts it in. the name that's written on the black box has very little to do with how well it's going to work, right? How how well it works. You your your integration team, your integration experts are going to be what makes or breaks that system. So if you have had a system in the past and say you've had a crush on system and you're just like, well, I I'm never going to have crush on again. It was terrible. Awful. Awful experience. Okay. Well, for sure that happens. But it's not that it's crushed on. It's that the integrators that you worked with just didn't do the job to the level that it needed to be done. Right? And so, um, just because you've had this before in the past and it didn't work well for you, still talk to us. Let us let us prove to you that it can be done. It can be done well and it can work. Um, and it really is just what is all the stuff you do at the in the very beginning, the base stuff, the the network build, the wiring, and then the the programmers, the engineers, all this this this group. You know, if you don't have that and you don't have a an a wellestablished process to make all that work, you're going to have a system that doesn't work very well, right? So, um, just because you've had it and it doesn't work doesn't mean it can't. Right. That's I would think that sounds to me a little bit like, um, like, oh, I had a bad experience with XYZ car brand. Yeah. Right. And that might have been the people that you were having maintain it. Exactly. You know, like the car is fine, but the mechanic wasn't necessarily great. Right. And so then in your mind, that blame goes back to the car itself, not to the person that was like you take the same car to a different person and wow, this is great kind of thing. That makes total sense. Yeah. Okay. [snorts] So then last thing. Oh, so I guess I do I did make this promise that it was going to talk about. So two more things. Um so I did promise that wanted to tell you a little bit about the super secret thing that he I was very impressive. I think was another day at the office for for Dan and the team. But that you guys that switch that you were that you were essentially making for that client like you were develop it was a switch, right? Well, it's it's a it's a keypad. Keypad. Okay. [clears throat] It's a keypad. It's a keypad. So, it would be on the wall into like something the homeowner would interface with. Right. So, tell that story a little bit. Right. Yeah. So, um we have a great client here in uh the Seattle area that um has a crush on system. Um it's uh it's system that's been working for about eight years. Seven figure system. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And and as good as it gets, it's Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty pretty darn good. And one of his uh requests was he doesn't like any of the keypads that are on the market. And there's some keypads on the market that are just gorgeous and bespoke and and yet still he was like, "Man, I don't like them. I just don't like any there's no one keypad does everything that I wanted to do and and has the right aesthetics." So he goes, "Let's build something. Let's just build something from scratch." And I'm like, okay, well, we can, but uh there's there's some things we need to consider. There's the DNA side, so design and engineering. We have a contract for that, and that's just pure development. So, we started in that realm, and we went to uh different uh subcontractors who build small electronics, and we went to them with this idea, and they said, "Well, that sounds crazy, but we can try." Okay. And then we started working on it and over with our programmer and then the a third party um that just does small electronics, we came up with a prototype and uh that price tag is very high just to get it to to a picture of one. Proof of concept, right? Proof of concept. And then now we're in the phase where we can actually start we're going to start building them and we'll get to the install. Well, you were testing one. Yeah. They had one on the He had a little one kind of stripped down out of the box and had wires plugged into it and whatnot, you know, kind of testing it. Yeah. And our our programmer built a program to be able to integrate this thing. I mean, it's literally from the ground up. Uh I mean, from the software side, the firmware side, the these these things, nothing is offtheshelf. Everything is handbuilt. And uh you know, you're sweating through the whole thing because you you really want to deliver for your client. You're terrified that someone someone in that chain is going to come back and go, "Oh, man. This is not working." But we didn't we didn't have that experience. A few little bumps, but but again, the answer is yes. How do we get there? And what um [laughter] how how much uh I mean, how brave are you to get the thing that you want? And uh how much do you want to invest, you know? Exactly. But man, we're going to we're going to give him everything he asked for, right? So, so that's the capability to essentially make something that doesn't exist really fulfilling or working on not yet there, right? Fulfilling the the desire of that client in terms of capability and aesthetic. Yep. What it can do and then while it's doing what he wants it to do, what it looks like, right? Exactly. and they were and it was cool looking, you know. So maybe later you can we could see that in Yeah, I'm going to I'm certainly going to have one made just for us so we could have one. Uh you got to have a spare, you know. Got to have a spare just in case, right? Yeah, we're very proud of it. And uh but again, it is something that we're totally capable of doing. And now this is a new thing for you. This is the first time you guys have gone that far. Or have you done this in the past? No, we've done that. We've done this stuff in the past. Um, again, it's it's very much just we're here for the client. We're here to make things happen, right? As as Yeah. Like you can the answer is yes, but you know, how long are you willing to wait and how much are you willing to invest into achieving that deal? A a more simple version of that, much more affordable. Um, it's just we I I have a designer that I've worked on a few houses with and she hated everything on the market that uh for linear lighting channel. It's none of it's very interesting. And so she was just kind of going back and forth. I don't like this and I don't like that. And she finally just said, "Dan, can you just build me something?" It's just literally just a piece of metal for linear light to just sit in to put the put the LED strip in. And it's this is for an exterior uh for covered these two covered patios, right? And I said, "Yeah, I got a guy." So I went to my metal guy and I we we hand drew it, went back and forth out a little bit. Do you like this? do you like this? Like, yeah, you know, we and we made a few design changes along the way. And then he [snorts] built it, had it powder coated, we delivered, and we installed it, and it looks fantastic. Looks great. I mean, it's that simple. And that wasn't like super expensive, right? By and large. Like, and again, don't be afraid to ask us for stuff like that because the I can almost always I have a guy for everything and Rick has a guy for everything, right? and our our engineer knows somebody that does something or has or they know somebody who will know somebody, right? It doesn't take long to get to it in that like I'm sure you it doesn't take long to get a pretty big web no of people that you're touching for for resources. No, that's the fun part of the job for me. That's what keeps me coming back to this industry and staying here and enjoying and waking up every day excited to go work because we're doing cool stuff. That sounds very cool. All right. So, along that line to kind of bring it home and wrap it up, two things. Is that a is there anything specifically, we got pages of stuff here we didn't get to. So, but is there anything specifically that you think that we didn't talk about that you would want to put out there for people to know? I'll give you both and then you can kind of go from there. So, what did we miss that you think should be out there, talk about that people should be aware of? And then the second thing would be where do you see this going? What's got you excited about future stuff? Like what's what's around the corner? Do you have another hour? We could definitely do another hour. What's around the corner kind of thing that feels like it's oh boy, when you know obviously something AI, I would assume like what does that look like or whatever. So those two things, [laughter] what did we not cover yet that you think for sure we should put out there? And then what's the the near-term future stuff look like that's got you kind of excited? And maybe it's a boring answer, but I think we just we didn't dive deep enough on uh home networks. Um there's there's a lot to know and there's there's actually interesting very very fun things to talk about when it comes to networks. And then um lighting. I think there's a lot more to talk about. So much in lighting. So much in lighting. I think we should do just a a video or a couple of videos and base them maybe at uh at your shop. Come out and shoot some stuff there. Yep. Right. And then maybe go to an actual home. Go to Rick's house. Go to your place. Go to one of your clients places. Something like that. You got some great uh clients and go shoot some stuff there and just show people and we could bake in a couple. Maybe we should try and plan that and show some of that like nighttime, daytime, you know, show some of that kind of stuff. So I'm I think we should do that. We should definitely do that, right? And then So what else? I agree. Networking and lighting. Huge huge things. And then anything else that we should have talked about or leave with people. And then future. Yes. Um one of my favorite things is art walls. Um video art walls. We are doing we're being asked to do more of them and we can do some really fun stuff. But imagine you just have some screen on a wall uh of any size or shape, right? Um of any format that is showing um art. [clears throat] And it could be static art. It could be art that moves. Uh there's a lot of artists out there. I mean, a lot that are creating art just for video monitors and visual art kind of Yeah. visual art. And now there's and there are a lot of uh companies that are getting involved in the software electronic side and the integration side of it. And uh we're doing a few of those right now. Um the same guy that we did the keypads for. We we've got some really cool video uh art wall. How how big are these? Like you know I mean oh I have a 100 inch TV. I've got a 10 foot projector screen. You're talking about you know like could be a 15 by 10 foot wall. Like the whole thing, right? Well, yes. Yeah. The reality is we can do just about any shape, shape or size. Yep. Okay. Yeah. And and um you know, you can if you if you're curious, I mean, you can look up uh Ventana by Megapixel. You can look up Black Dove. Um if you guys are just wanted to jump online and look at that, look up look up Ventana by Megapixel. VR V I N T- N A V. So V- N T A N A. And then uh Black Dove is another cool company that's doing some really neat stuff. So what's the what's the deal? Is it the is it the TV the projector part of it that's like or is it the management of that? Like what where's that? Yeah. What makes it special? So it's a lot of it's just the actual panels themselves. So uh Black Dove really just works off of uh existing sort of uh uh technology for for like flat screens, right? But they make some different shapes and stuff that you can that and lots of different sizes and stuff. Then you get into ventana which is these these very very thin little panels and you can kind of mix and match them to create all kinds of crazy shapes and stuff. And then what's and then what's behind that are these like video processors that um basically whatever you want to do uh video-wise um we can scale it on these processors and make it do it's kind of a it's a deep conversation. It's it's hard to cover it in like a few minutes. Um, but it's sort of essentially like like in a PC like a gaming PC like everyone's like what's my video card like? how like how good is my video aspect like right but but to a tremendously you know exponential scale is essentially what you're talking about the capability to manage that to manage it to integrate it um because it's just a huge amount of data right is that really what's happening is it's a lot of data it's a huge amount of data for one image because you got all these pixels that all have to be set to some whatever right that each each like a million of those and there's a direction for each one of them correct right so that's a huge amount of data that's flowing every, you know, 20 frames a second or whatever it is, right? And you have instructions for every pixel, for every frame, for the whole thing, right? And um again, it's it just gets to you like moving pictures and and and we can share walls and you can have the same you can have an image that starts over here and continues over there and you can wrap walls and corners with these panels. I mean, you just really cool stuff, right? I I think just to cut it short, just again, if if you're interested, just look up these companies uh online and check them out and you'll see what I'm talking about. This is really hard, but these are big investments right now, so this is still new stuff. I will say I will say some some of it's not that expensive. It's it's it's surprising how uh that now some of it I mean again sky's is the limit for a lot of the stuff. Um the DNA side of it can be pretty complicated, but for some smaller like one wall systems, it's not that bad. Not not a huge thing. So is this is this an outgrowth or the result of you know decades from bump jumbotron? You know, like when the original jumbotron is this like sort of trickle down a little bit of when the first jumbotron started appearing at stadiums and they were very pixy and massive investments for these and then that's now kind of that's worked its way down. Is that a fair? Yeah, you can you start a lot of the commercial spaces uh you know like stadiums and stuff and you walk into these rooms and there's these you know these beautiful video walls with all this like moving art and stuff like that and people were like I want that in my house. like the Microsoft store and the Apple store. Like I see those in there like with all the way around or Time Square. Yeah. Yeah. The one that wraps around. Yeah. So, so yeah. So, you see that this is the way it goes in this industry. You see it out in the wild and you go like, well, now I want that in my house and over time it becomes more affordable so that you can get it down to an individual investment level. Yes. Exactly. Okay. So video walls you would say is the thing that I think most interested in what's coming and becoming more accessible and the possibilities we can even do some touch walls where you you can you know you can drag your hand along the wall and things will happen like the water will ripple or something like that. We can do some really fun stuff, right? Uh so so there's a lot of that and there's just a lot of interactive things uh where you know when you walk into a room you have pressure sensors in the floor that can can read that you're in the room and what direction you're going and it can learn using AI what your patterns are and it can guess what lighting you want at any given time. Yeah. Yeah. Getting getting really deep into the future. Yeah. A lot of it's AI, a lot of it's pattern recognition and things like that. And picking up on what you pick and then it starts to do it for you or anticipate or predict. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. All right. Well, I think we're going to have to call it for today, but I look forward to more. Really fun. um you know, want to come out to your place and go see some houses and we'll do some more videos and and have you know like maybe do another podcast where we really get into that networking stuff and then you know like limit it to the lighting integration. So thank you for joining us Dan Peterson with IHI Integrity Home Integration right out in Isiqua but all over all the multiple states. You guys can reach out to them. We'll have a link down below. Um they work a lot like we do. you know, what is it that you want to know or do? What do you how do you want this to function? We ask the same questions at Armada when we're trying to help you design your kitchen or your renovation. It's like, what do you want it to do? How can we make it work? What do you want it to be like when it's finished? Go through those preliminary designs, preliminary budgets, ROMs to help you understand, okay, this is kind of where you're headed [clears throat] moneywise. This is where you're headed timelinewise. And, you know, just keep working through it and get to a point where we have a solution. So yeah, it's all very similar and love to integrate that into the project as well so that you can get as much or as little of that as you need when we do the project. So give us a call, give Dan and his team a call, check us out on the web, come into the showroom, like, share, subscribe, rate and review, all of those things. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you joining us today, taking the time, and we'll see you on the next one. Have a good one. a lot of fun. A ton of fun. Thank you. All right, we'll see you guys next time