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591 episodes

Episode 51 · February 16, 2015

ISE 2015 Wrap-Up

We sat down to record this show on the evening of Thursday, February 12th. If you are wondering why we point this out it is because that date marks exactly the 1-year anniversary of us publishing our very first episode of HomeTech! With that in mind, and before we get into the specifics of this week's show, we wanted to reiterate our sincere appreciation for your listenership! We have had a great time getting this show off the ground over the last 12 months, and we look forward to many more years of growing the HomeTech community! Thank you for being a part of it!

Episode 50 · February 9, 2015

Perverted Robots

In what we suppose could be considered a miniature milestone we bring to you show number 50. Seth returns from the previous week's travels to join us for an all-news episode. As the CES hangover begins to dissipate the industry's collective gaze has begun to shift towards ISE 2015 in Amsterdam. ISE, the literal lovechild of CEDIA and INFOcomm, is a massive show that we at HomeTech hope to attend someday. For this year however we are stuck watching from afar. We look forward to sharing our thoughts on episode 51 so be sure to tune in next week to get the HomeTech take.

Episode 49 · February 2, 2015

Connectile Dysfunction

In our latest episode we depart from our usual format on a couple of fronts. First and foremost Seth had some unexpected travel come up. As such Jason is joined by a good friend, fellow Integrator, and industry podcaster Nate Schneider. Nate and Jason work on together a monthly podcast called AV Shop Talk that, especially for the integrators in our audience, we would encourage you to check out.

Episode 48 · January 26, 2015

Now That's a Home Theater!

On this week's episode Jason shares some of his experiences managing the installation of a very high end home theater in Los Angeles. The conversation ranges from technical topics, such as the inclusion of Auro3D audio, to the logistical challenges present when building a room such as this. These high end theaters require an immense amount of planning and a high-level of execution from multiple trades. We thought it would be interesting to share a sneak peek of what this process looks like with you.

Episode 47 · January 19, 2015

Chris Pinder of HDAnywhere

Episode 47 of HomeTech brings to you a conversation with Chris Pinder of HDAnywhere, a manufacturer of unique HDMI distribution solutions. As the video landscape continues to evolve, and 4K displays and content become more ubiquitous, it's become increasingly important to have an array of video-solution options in your tool belt. To that end if you're not familiar with HDAnywhere, you should be! This company initially came to our attention via our fans in the UK (Shout out to the #LiveInstall community). Recently HDAnywhere has made inroads into the US market. Their modular distribution solutions warrant special attention. Although only half of the HomeTech team (Seth) was able to conduct the interview, we are excited to present this episode!

Episode 46 · January 12, 2015

CES 2015 Wrap-Up

With the gaze of gadget lovers worldwide fixed on Las Vegas this week for CES 2015, it was not difficult for us to pick a topic for our show. In fact the challenge lay in separating the wheat from the chaff. As usual, the massive trade show brought about a plethora of stories, some worth noting others good for little more than a laugh.

Episode 45 · December 29, 2014

HomeTech's 2014 Year In Review

In our final episode of 2014 we decided we'd do what every other tech-news show and blog on the planet do, and take a look back at the biggest stories of the year. What we lack in originality we strive to make up for by giving our own personal take. Specifically offering our thoughts as home automation professionals and systems integrators.

Episode 44 · December 22, 2014

The HomeTech Holiday Show 2014

It's the holiday season and this week we sit down and chat about what smart home devices we hope Santa brings this year. So sit back, grab a glass of eggnog, enjoy the show. If you have more ideas leave a message on our feedback form, Twitter, or reach out to us using SpeakPipe and leave a voice message for the show!

Episode 43 · December 15, 2014

A Chat with Linear's Duane Paulson

We were pleased on this episode to be joined by Duane Paulson, Senior VP of Product & Market Development for Linear. Duane is a long time technology veteran whose background lends him a very unique perspective on the industry. We were eager to get his take not only on what Linear has been up to, but also on current trends in the smarthome at large. We close the conversation with a discussion of what we can expect form Linear at CES2015, where Duane surprised even us by breaking some news right here on HomeTech! But you'll have to listen to the end if you want to know more about that!

Episode 42 · December 8, 2014

A Single App Home with Tim McInerney of Savant

After a week off the HomeTech team is back in action. We are excited to present a new episode featuring Tim McInerny of Savant as our featured guest. As discussed on our recent CEDIA Wrap-Up Special Savant managed to steal the show this year with the unveiling of their new app. Completely re-designed from the ground up, the so-called "Savant App" is a very modern, clean, and extremely intuitive user interface. Not only is the new app easy for integrators to deploy, but in keeping with current industry trends, it also empowers end users to create, edit, and modify their own scenes. In our conversation with Tim we cover the new app extensively. We also discuss Savant's history as a company, and what differentiates their product offerings in an increasingly crowded smart home space. We have been looking forward to sharing this conversation with you. We hope you enjoy!

Episode 41 · November 24, 2014

Printing the Week's News with Mike Wolf

Jason takes some time off for daddy-duty and Seth sits down with Mike Wolf of The Smart Home Show to discuss the week's news.

Episode 40 · November 17, 2014

Baby-Watch 2014 Continues

We did not book a guest for this week's show, primarily because Jason wasn't even sure he'd be able to participate. As it turns out he was able to join the show this week because his wife is still (very) pregnant. That's right, for those of you who have been listenting, no baby yet. At the time of this typing we are 5 days past due. Baby-watch 2014 continues...

Episode 39 · November 10, 2014

Kēvo Smartlocks with Phil Dumas of UniKey

We opened the show this week giving our thoughts on the very sad news of Crestron founder George Feldstein's passing. George was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. Through his work he did volumes to push the systems integration industry forward. Without his passion and diligent efforts it is hard to say what our industry would look like today. We want to extend our deepest condolences to his family.

Episode 38 · November 3, 2014

Button Calisthenics for Crestron Pyng with Evan Ackmann

This is an episode that we have been excited to bring you for quite some time. Ever since CEDIA 2014 there has been tremendous buzz in the industry surrounding the announcement of Crestron's new home automation platform Pyng. This product represents a major evolution for Crestron in that the entire system can be programmed and configured using only the app, no laptop necessary. The price point of the system is also garnering attention, coming in at a low starting point of only $599. This week we bring in Crestron Technology Manager Evan Ackmann to dive deep into the new offering, covering the key points and hoping to clear up some of the misconceptions around the product.

Episode 37 · October 27, 2014

Revolv Acquired by Nest

This week we are bringing you another news-only episode, and there was no shortage of big news to talk about. On the personal side of things Jason discusses the continual process of readying his home for the 'new addition'. That's right, if you haven't heard, Jason and his wife are getting ready to welcome to their first child (a baby girl) in a few short weeks from now! And like any true gadget geek, he's been looking for ways technology can help. In fact at the time of this posting he just finished installing a new Ecobee3 thermostat to help more accurately monitor the temperature in the nursery. We look forward to sharing his thoughts on the product in a future episode. Seth also has big news brewing with the pending purchase of a new home. In fact he's looking to make some HVAC-related upgrades of his own. Which led to a discussion of Ecovent, a previous show guest of ours, who is now taking pre-orders. Lots cooking on the home front! More to come, so stay tuned!

Episode 36 · October 20, 2014

All Quiet on the HomeKit Front

Another Apple event has come and gone. And sadly it's all quiet on the HomeKit Front. While many of their recent announcements are indeed exciting, new iPads, new iMacs, and new Mac Minis (finally!), we're not an Apple show, we're a home technology show. So we have to admit to being a bit bummed about the lack of public news since the initial announcement of HomeKit back at WWDC.

Episode 35 · October 13, 2014

Ted Schremp of SmartHome Ventures

On this episode of HomeTech we were joined by Ted Schremp. Ted is the CEO Smarthome Ventures, the recently formed company behind the Peq Home Automation line of products. Peq is intriguing to us for a number of reasons, and we were very excited to welcome Ted onto the show to discuss.

Episode 34 · October 6, 2014

The Box Formerly Known as Doorbot with Ring Inventor Jamie Siminoff

This week we were excited to welcome Jamie Siminoff to the show. We have been working behind the scenes to get Jamie on for some time now. It had been proving difficult to make our schedules line up, and now we know why! Jamie and his team have been very busy.

Episode 33 · September 29, 2014

Slow News is Still News

Some last minute scheduling conflicts precluded us from having a guest on this week's show. But no matter! We instead took the opportunity to focus on a weekly smart home news wrap up.

Episode 32 · September 22, 2014

The Unified Smart Home with Revolv Co-Founder Mike Soucie

As a listener you're no doubt aware of the pace at which the smart home landscape is evolving. It seems that literally every week there are new solutions coming to market. As we've discussed at length, the clear problem this creates is segmentation within the home (one app for the lights, another for the temperature, and so on). It will not come as news to you that this segmentation is problem that many players are looking to solve through the creation of so-called smart home hubs.