The system functionality is pretty much the same for all price points , but the quality, size, finish, services/programming and specs are different for each price category, i.e. like a car it has four wheels and goes from point a to b, but can have different trim, features, options and service levels such as 8 cylinder vs… 4, cloth vs.. leather seating and/or free loaner with service.  Capacity, size, quality and service are all properties that scale up for the more expense offering.  I did not create a matrix of quality to scale (meaning cheaper components for a larger installation, e.g. lower quality components in a higher quantity)

The dollar amount is a onetime cost, the services are bundled into the cost.

Here are the core features:

• Home Automation – Control Lights, HVAC, surveillance cameras, appliances plus programming
• Digital Entertainment – PC based DVR, multi room sound, digital picture frames, multi room video, projector and large screen plus other features
• Surveillance – Multiple cameras, still photo and video, motion detection, remote monitoring and alerts plus more features
• Training, Programming and Help Desk Services – Hosted WWW site, Backup/Restore, Digital archives (all assets, pictures, dvd’s, cd’s, etc..), help desk, training and programming assistance

Here are the survey questions:

Overall results

The distribution here very much supports my plan’s business model and demographic that I am targeting in both my go to market effort and bill of materials (Product blend of hardware, software, programming and content).  The 23% “interested but needs more info” is encouraging as it indicates to me that I will get the same distribution for price points if we can convert interest into a sale.  The 19% “Not interested” makes perfect sense to me and is also encouraging as it indicates that 81% of the respondents are interested in the offering. 

By Job Title

This graph is even more encouraging as the sweet spot, the $15,000 offering with 1 year of service appeals to the small business owner and professional managers – that is the biggest market.  But even more encouraging is the distribution amongst C-Level & VP’s, as that is the executive sale and thus a customer that can afford a higher priced combination of goods and services.  The most encouraging trend here is that 29% would opt in for the $25,000 systems with 2 years of service and %29 percent expressed interest, thus they could be converted into customers.  This result surprised me as that indicates %60 percent of the potential customers in this income bracket would buy the higher priced system with a longer term service contract.  My business plan actually projects that we will make MORE money on services year over year than what we made year 1 on margins from the initial sale and implementation of the solution.  The spread in “All Other” is an indication of a  finding that stands out  in the next graph, “By Age”, which indicates that a large percentage of the 24-35 age group know what they want, will buy, but are straddling the fence about the services component of the offering.  The correlation I am making here is that the 24-35 group makes up the bulk of the “All other” silo, and thus the reason for the 60% distribution split between “Interested” and “Not Interested”

By Age

Finally this distribution is very interesting as it tells me that in the 25-34 year old age silo, the high number of “not interested” confirms three things for me:

1. That the 34% “Not interested” indicates that there is probably a high number of “DIY’s” or “Do it yourselfers” in that category. 
2. It also tells me that these folks already know what they can do with PC centric Entertainment and Automation systems, or know that they can purchase the goods and piece them together on their own, but are tempted by the offer and want to know more.  Content is what will be the tipping point here to close the sale.
3. Finally it is clear that the remaining %66 percent are all price sensitive, but will move on the $15,000 system. 

If you draw parallels to other big ticket items that are purchased in this group at that price point (ATV’s, Watercraft, Snow mobiles, household appliance upgrades, traditional A/V equipment/ furniture/content/installation), you can also postulate that they would make this purchase on credit, thus financing is an important component of the business model.   Lastly, the market strategy to get to these consumers will be very much based on psychology/perception, value and savings, so working the whole “Wow, this a way cool and a must have, get rid of your cable, reduce monthly cash burn on telecom costs, reduce insurance costs, decrease power consumption, etc.. lends itself to making the sale and rolling that “savings” into monthly payment for the $15K solution with recurring content update fees amortized into the payment.

One other thought here is that I now understand why the Life|Ware – Best Buy – Microsoft Entertainment and Automation offering at this price point failed in its first iteration (i say that as if they listen up, dust it off and re package/market tactically it will succeed as the numbers/demand support it).  Here’s my litany of the why not and how to :

1. Why not (First Iteration)
   • They relied on Geek Squad to deliver and that is NOT the right demographic for a Geek Squad branded service given the DIY nature of the 25-34 age group
   • That they never rolled out an “Experience Center” to show case the solution and they relied on the existing channel and media vs. “boots on the ground”.  Best Buy has PC show rooms and Magnolia, but nothing to target or showcase the synthesis Plus (Plus being the automation, entertainment A/V combination) of the product offering.  ITS A BIG GAP THEY DID NOT FILL/SPAN
   • That Geek Squad is delivery and NOT sales.  And Best Buy Business services do not sell direct to consumers
   • That Best Buy, Magnolia sales cannot/do not sell to the 25-34 group as that group knows better to get Big Box deals online and or shop for value
   • That they failed to do effective multi-channel marketing in this demographic as they were too focused on the custom installer channel and the 35-54 age bracket, and tried to market and woo their way into a tapped out, dysfunctional channel that is wrestling with change they are not equipped to manage.
2. How to (Second Iteration with or without Best Buy
   • Dust off the Best Buy RV loaded with Life|Ware, Media Center, Home Server and Xbox and do what Red Bull is doing all over the country – Market/Co Brand at the X-Games, Nascar, Music Concerts, Burning Man, College sporting Events, Winter Resorts.   Look at the big ticket items these folks are buying and then go to the events where this items are used.  Also, target the events attended by the 25-34 year olds
   • Get kiosks at malls (Hp and Dell do this) or better yet create Kiosks within Retail stores and man these kiosks with IDEAS (Innovative Digital Entertainment and Automation Specialist) who are local dealers or advisors, much in the way that a Lancôme Beauty Advisor works a section of a cosmetics counter at Macy’s or Marshal Fields.
   • Invest in showrooms or Experience centers in key demographics for the 25-35’s,  New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta (Hmmm… exactly where Microsoft has MTC… what do you know? And staff then with partners (the “young Turks” revolting against the status quo, the CE industry and Cable monopolies) who do not have the capital to make these investment, but who have the shared vision and the three “P’’s” – Plans, Passion and Persistence to promote this cause/agenda
   • Bundle the solutions with content to showcase not just features and form but foresight, meaning content is the king going forward.  And each system will be pre-loaded with content and affiliate hooks into a legitimate alternative delivery and supply side (the internet or the “ether” via regional/metropolitan hot spots, like Baltimore and soon Chicago).

Now some of this is neither novel nor untried, but let’s do it again.  The numbers that I collected and trends derived beg for a second go at it, but this time with new hope and fueled by hunger.  Like me – I AM HUNGRY!

As for the 35-54 age bracket – green fields.  The 42% piece of the pie, the $15K sale is a no brainer, and the rest is undecided or ready for the up sell.  Here however the delivery channel is much more complex as it is the battle ground for existing custom integrator that are trying to make the transition from black box custom to PC centric.  I am not even going to comment on that silo for now as it really is a mess.  What you will find however, just like with the morphing phenomena going on with generation merge in social networking sites, everyone, regardless of age will flock into the Experience centers.  So from that perspective, if the experience centers work for the 25-35, then so to will they work for the 35-54 group, just like an Apple store.

So there ya go.  My rant on the topic.  email me at ray.casey@arestar.com if you have questions, or if you feel compelled to correct my grammar.

Stop, Look both ways (A/V centric and PC centric) and Choose wisely

If you have not taken note the A/V industry is getting flanked by the allies in a classic “pincer movement”, meaning there is a flanking movement by Telecoms and Cables companies which are running set top boxes with robust OS’s and the Computer Hardware/Software companies promoting the PC as a TV.  Their combined forces are assaulting the standing CE/Black box, Old Guard A/V industry.  Signs of this onslaught are evident in the  Audio/Video boutiques that are going out of business and the Big Box stores positioning themselves with content providers and companies providing alternative conduits into media (that internet).  Even the CE industry is scrambling to get into the games with HDTV and content widgets hardcoded into their platforms.  Lastly we are going all digital with the impending conversion to all DTV and Digital Tuners and cable companies are wooing content providers like YouTube and Hulu.

The digital conversion is the beginning of the end for A/V as we know it.

The death of A/V started way back in the early 90’s on Wall Street where most notable "Consumer/Business" technological advances occur.  In the early 90’s Wall street traders had multiple, analog CRT’s (cathode ray tubes) on their desk hooked up to a keyboard switch that in turn was hardwired to a big, ugly and expensive rack of A/V stuff and lots of cables.  

A/V was the "state of the art" in the 20th century. 

Then along came the digital delivery age, where Market data feeds started to come in packets over the wire through private networks and the internet.  At first data was fed into RISC based SUN workstations, but then the PC burst onto the scene, with Windows and Viola! Bye, bye big ugly A/V racks and key board switches.  Again, that was the 20th Century (LAST CENTURY)

Now Listen

Now all this stuff is run on PC’s.   So Wall street (and military technology) made traditional A/V technology obsolete in the 2000th century.  And now that we are in the 21st Century you should look long and hard at HP, LIfe|ware, Niveus, Microsoft and others and think twice before you buy a single black box Consumer Electronics device from Best Buy and others as things have changed.   If it is not PC based or at least is running Windows, Apple OS or Linux.  THEN DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.  there is a much better value out there and you may already have the assets in place.   All you have to do is upgrade your OS or redeploy your resources.   Be smart, Be tactical and Get strategic…  Give us a call at

(888) 50-IDEAS or send us an email at info@88850ideas.com if you want to learn more through a free consultation.

Arestar (R*), LLC is setting up shop in Chicago and is focused on Commercial Automation while still maintaining it presence in South Florida where we are basing our Home and Assistive Technology businesses

 Arestar (R*), LLC opened a Chicago office that will focus on high end and customized PC based automation for high rises, both commercial and residential.   Ray Casey, Owner of Arestar, LLC announced today that they will begin a "go to market" campaign featuring Exceptional Innovation’s Life|ware and Microsoft’s Communications Server as the platform for a turn key, PC centric presentation system that ties together, Environment, Lighting, Presentation, Communications, Automation, Application Sharing, Collaboration and Video Conferencing tightly integrated into an Windows Vista Ultimate/Windows Server 2008 client/server solution bundle.

"This will revolutionize the way business people and their clients interact with, within and amongst their board and conference rooms. For much too long businesses have called their strategic conference rooms a War Room, yet the technology in these rooms is archaic and mostly inoperable or hard to understand. That is hardly what one expects when we think of a technically state of the art War Room, and we are about the change that radically…", states Ray Casey, founder of Arestar (R*), LLC. He purports that the synthesis of automation control, media editing and playback and audio/video communications (VoIP and IPTV) into a Window Vista Ultimate Media Center control consol is the "Killer FUNCTIONAL application" that will finally transform the corporate board room and/or Master meeting room.

Life|ware, an automation control software with a very robust scripting tool, from Exceptional Innovations, is a "plug in" for Microsoft Vista Media Center (32 and 64 bit version).  Life|ware uses a Media Center PC as a hub for controlling, managing, displaying and automating lighting, cameras, HVAC controls, and various other appliances (like screens/projectors/touch panels/etc). Life|ware also completes the coupling between Microsoft Vista Media Center, Windows Home Server and Xbox 360 based media extenders by integrating control, feedback and presentation of content and services offered by all three product sets. In its commercial incarnation, the Life|ware software will perform as the same HUB but this time connecting Commercial Automation components and completing the client server connection between Vista Media Center and industrial strength media and application/collaboration services such as those available on Microsoft Communications Server.

"When you bundle a Microsoft Vista Media Center (client) solution with a standard remote control, Microsoft’s Communications Server (server)  and the Exceptional Innovations, Life|ware automation software (software) you have a platform that makes as much sense as chocolate combined with peanut butter… Two applications (hardware/software) that work great together but up until now they have been separate, and we plan to change that."  The R* vision for complete control of a board room is to bundle a virtual remote control that can run on a Windows PC, PDA or smart phone that will allow you to easily manage all aspects of the automation, presentation and communications solution.  Additionally the system will be coupled with a real time Assistive communications options that will allow a technician to act as a conference/meeting concierge/operator always on standby before, during and after a meeting/event.

Arestar (R*) professionals synthesize, integrate and manage: audio/visual, Computer, Internet, security, automation, entertainment and educational media and applications across your primary residence, vehicle, boat and business all via your PDA/cell phone.  Information and control at your fingertips.

For more information about Arestar (R*), LLC contact Ray Casey at ray.casey@arestar.com or call him at 561 596 1505.

With Web 2.0 we can take back control from all that we learned from Web 1.0 and start creating and hosting services, content and applications ourselves on our home PC’s  and/or business computers (The grass roots video production phenomenon has yet to hit business at critical mass, but it will soon)

THIS PHENOMENON IS TRULY PROMETHEAN!  Meaning users are now truly empowered to create, publish and review/judge content without “chains” and constraints. 

So from that perspective the WWW is just a conduit for collaboration and the real power of the medium starts at home and within the individual, ala PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT.  And all of this can be done on your home PC.

Thank you Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes for facilitating this RENAISSANCE!

With a cheap clone PC and Microsoft software I can create films, music, images, content, etc… So the magic is HERE in my PC, my personal blank score on which I can compose and publish whatever I want for all the world to see.  This is creativity and freedom at its best.

THAT IS WHAT WEB 2.0 is really about.  It’s about PEOPLE CREATING CONTENT TO MOLD THE WORLD AND EXPRESS THEMSELVES WITH THE TOOLS THEY ALREADY HAVE IN THEIR GRASPS – THEIR HOME PC!

That is why I am amp’d about my new TV Station as it is all hosted here in my home on Microsoft Technology.  I can create, edit, refine and publish content right here.  So that to me is the magic, not some slick content www site that is just going to suck us into someone else’s environment where we will not have control over our content and where we have to watch someone else’s advertising that we cannot control (vs. having to change the channel all the time).

People (PC owners) and the content they create and publish is the next great thing on the Internet.   And finally leveraging the tools they have in hand today is what will make that so.

Look at what you have on your computer today (Windows Vista/XP) and possibly Home Server and think to yourself "Wow did not know I could do that".

Choose to pick up your tools (the metaphorical fire of Prometheus) and affect change but know there are risks and rewards or cause and effect!  Choose with reason!

So that is that…   Stay tuned in for the content.  I will be creating it using a new suite of products from Microsoft called Expression.