The Never Ending Project

Builders know that the pace of home building changes from exciting and well-thought out in the beginning of a project, to narrow and focused nearing the delivery date. In preparing to usher homeowners into their new residence, the professional builder carefully ties up many loose ends. He then delivers the house and moves onto the next job. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work, right? But often, that “finished” job keeps coming back to haunt his dreams.

When customers move in and start using the components of their new home, they may find that certain devices don’t perform as advertised. As the main contact for the customer, the builder can expect to take calls from them when this sort of event occurs. All builders want happy customers, so they deal with these questions as professionally as they do everything else. However, the process gets complicated when the questions involve systems beyond his control, like the home automation and A/V systems. Now someone must chase the vendor who sold the components and get them to return to make things right. Further, builders often need to source an expert to help if a customer has ended up buying anything that the local vendor subbed out. Now, he's got to deal with another company another arm’s length further away.

All professionals servicing the building trades prefer to move cleanly onto the next job. Time spent fixing completed jobs eats into an already thin margin. No one wants to handle such situations; especially after already getting paid. But when the customer discovers that the DVD player can’t send an audio signal to the amp, someone needs to address the customer’s legitimate concerns. Getting that to happen can cause great pain (this must sound very familiar).


What can be done? Successful builders choose to work with a reputable, experienced ESC (electronic systems contractor). How can a builder be sure to partner with a reputable ESC? They’ll consult with the customer and advise them on solutions, rather than selling them gear. The best ECSs will tailor a solution to fit the customer’s needs, budget and the time constraints of the project. Then, once they’ve finished installing the equipment, they’ll stand by the job until the customer is totally satisfied that the entire system functions as intended.
Visit us at www.kiwiav.com to learn more about how a good ESC can ease the pain of the never ending project.

Keeping The Peace

Every neighborhood has one, the guy no one talks to. Whether it starts with an unkempt yard, a house needing paint for three years or constant dog barking, this family puts bees in everyone’s bonnet without even trying.

No one intends to become that family, but circumstances intervene. Last week, having just finished a new home theatre, our homeowner tries it out with an action feature with tons of explosions and loud effects. This would be fine, except the new outside speakers remained on all evening, broadcasting every impact and detonation for the entire neighborhood, which, due to the sound proofing of the home theatre, our homeowner couldn’t hear. Next up: that visit from the local PD that no one wants.

Our homeowner shouldn’t feel too bad; it could happen to anyone. Anyone, that is, except the family that engages a reputable and capable electronic systems consultant to start the home theatre project. Our family got it mostly right. They got a great audio system (including the now infamous outside speakers), a nice, big HD flat screen, and a control system that gives them fingertip command of the entire system.

However, omissions often matter more than inclusions. In this case, a component as simple as visual indicators, showing which elements of the system remain active, would have helped our homeowner avert becoming a local pariah. An electronic systems consultant would have suggested this, among other solutions, thus enabling peace to reign uninterrupted.