Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
Home audio and Video Services in Matthews, NC.  TV installation, Surround Sound, Home Entertainment Systems
Philips Pronto is ‘Not Dead at All,’ Distributor Says

Custom Installation Services - Charlotte's Source For Home Electronics!Sources say Pro Philips Pronto will re-emerge within 60 days, with “the same name, new owners,” and controllers announced at CEDIA will ship on time.

The buzz in Europe is that Philips Pronto is well on its way to a new life with “the same name, new owners,” sources tell CE Pro in confidence.

The news comes more than a week after Philips announced it would close its remote-control and home automation division, rather than sell the assets.

Philips had claimed that “no suitable partner was found for the acquisition of these [Pronto] activities,” even though major U.S. vendors told CE Pro that Philips never approached them about a potential acquisition.

It appears, however, that a partner has indeed been found.

CE Pro has obtained a letter, dated 2 November, from a major Philips Pronto distributor in Europe, telling dealers (translated), “As you can see, the future of Pronto is already on its way with new players. For you, for us, no worries, nothing changes.”

The distributor claims that the new Pronto Edit Pro 3 (PEP3) programming platform is still scheduled to ship this month, and that the Philips TSW9500 in-wall touchscreen will be delivered in December, as originally planned.

Furthermore, a new central controller (the Pronto CRX?) is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2011, according to the distributor.

Reached today via email, another European source familiar with the Pronto business tells CE Pro, “There is a deal in process” and Philips will make an official announcement within 60 days. “Dealers and end users will not see the transition to new ownership.”

The comments affirm what CE Pro learned last week from a U.S. manufacturer that had inquired about purchasing some Pronto assets from Philips. The manufacturer shared with CE Pro some correspondence that indicated Philips was pursuing other partnership opportunities.

Meanwhile, a CE Pro reader in Europe tells us, “I did contact Pronto. None of the employees have been dismissed as of today.”
So Why the Announcement of Pronto’s Closure?

Why did Philips announce in the first place that it was closing its Belgium-based Pronto business and that it could not find a buyer, even though U.S. manufacturers told us Philips never even approached them?

We have heard that Belgian and/or EU regulations prohibited Philips from selling its assets to a company that would send manufacturing overseas. We know for sure that Philips had attempted to move its manufacturing to Asia, but was unable to do so.

Our distributor source in Europe points to the “Renault law” — named after the sudden announcement of the closure of the Renault plant in Vilvoorde in 1997 — which requires that companies with more than 50 employees make a public announcement prior to business closure or impending layoffs, allowing time for employees to respond.

According to the International Labor Organization:

Further to the Renault case (related to the sudden announcement of the closure of the Renault plant in Vilvoorde in 1997), some changes to the procedure for collective dismissals were introduced by the promotion of Employment Act of 13 February 1998 clarifying the obligation of employers to consult with workers’ representatives and creating an obligation on employers to analyse and formally respond to any proposals from workers’ representatives. In addition, sanctions for non-compliance are strengthened to include the reimbursement of any subsidies paid by the federal Government to the employer to create jobs.

So Philips dealers and distributors are optimistic that the Pronto will rise again.

Meanwhile, competitors are banking on the uncertainty. For its part, URC is offering training for Philips Pronto dealers, helping them to convert them to URC’s CCP programming platform. Training begins this week.

UPDATE

Philips posted this notice to Pronto dealers today, indicating that PEP3 programming software will be released this month, and the new TSW9500 in-wall touchscreen will be distributed on a “best-effort basis.” In the U.S., call center support services will be offered at least through 2011.
Dear Pronto Dealer,

This letter is intended to clarify the consequences of Philips’ decision to close our Pronto business unit in relation to support, warranty, product and software availability.

Although Philips will stop selling Pronto products, we will continue to offer product service and support for the Pronto products. The intent of Philips is to make sure all warranty and service obligations will be honored by Philips.

For the United States, Philips will continue to offer call center support services (888-773-7384) until at least the duration of 2011, and the Pronto repair center will remain operational throughout that time.
Outside the USA, all warranty obligations will continue to be honored by the present Pronto distributors. Philips will ensure that a sufficient stock of spare parts will remain available to service product repairs.

Regarding products and software, all current Pronto products are still available for purchase by Pronto distributors throughout the month of November. Dealers are advised to order any additional products from their distributor immediately to secure their required product quantities.

The recently announced ProntoEdit Professional3 (PEP3) will be released as scheduled this month. The TSW9500 product will be distributed on a best-effort basis, depending on the received orders and availability of components and resources to manufacture the unit. It is also Philips’ intent to put forth a best effort to make firmware for all TSU and RFX devices available to be fully compatible with PEP3.

We hope to have informed you sufficiently and would like to thank you for the loyalty you have shown to the Philips Pronto products.

Sincerely,

The ProntoTeam

By Julie Jacobson

http://www.cepro.com/article/philips_pronto_is_not_dead_at_all_distributor_says/?utm_source=CEPWeekly&utm_medium=email

Custom Installation Services, LLC – We specialize in fixing the $99 TV install by our “competitors”!

Posted in Automation, Home Theater, i-Pad, lighting control, Media Rooms, News, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


Do iPads Belong in a Wall?

i-Pad Integration - Charlotte, NC

Call Custom Installation Services To Discuss How You Can Integrate Your i-Pad Into Your Home

It may be irrational, but even the wealthiest homeowner may find it wasteful and just plain wrong to mount an iPad semi-permanently behind a wall.

Where does an iPad belong? On a countertop? Coffee table? The couch? Your lap?

Or should it be Velcroed to your dashboard, mounted on the wall like a monitor, moved from wall station to wall station via plastic tabs or snap-on discs, or mounted permanently behind a bezel?

Custom electronics pros are debating this very topic on dealer-oriented forums, and the opinions are mixed.

In our world, the iPad is so cheap compared with most traditional automation touchpanels that you may as well buy several of them and lock them into the walls like those old-fangled touchpanels we used to sell for $3,000 apiece.

But our world has changed!

Homeowners may no longer say, “I want a home control system, and I would like to be able to use it with an iPhone and iPad.”

Instead, they say, “I love my iPad. Design a home control system around it.”

By that time, they’re already used to toting their iPads around the house, from room to room as needed. Maybe they have a few scattered around the place. Mobility is one thing they really love about this lightweight, skinny screen.

So won’t they balk at the idea of forever locking an iPad into the wall? It may be irrational, but even the wealthiest homeowner may find the idea wasteful and just plain wrong.

Bethesda Systems in Maryland has a nice blog post beseeching clients to do the unthinkable: tether their iPads.

iPad was designed to be held in your lap. And it’s proven itself to be a truly revolutionary mobile device. And now we’d like you to consider…letting go. Literally.

He shows some nice examples of iPads embedded in clever cases such as an old Mac classic, and in convenient places like a kitchen cabinet.

At the end of the blog, Bethesda shows an iPad with shattered glass, warning:

Don’t let this happen to you! With your in-wall mounted iPad it’s always safe, it’s always charged, and it’s always right where you left it.

Clearly, the right solution for homeowners who can afford it is to have multiple iPads mounted in convenient places around the house.

What do you think?

 by Julie Jacobson

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/do_ipads_belong_in_a_wall/apple

Custom Installation Services, LLC – ”We may be a few dollars more than the competition, but we are a million times better”.

Posted in Audio Systems, Automation, i-Pad, Multi Room A/V, Music and Movies, News, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


Why Energy Efficiency Starts at Home

C.I.S. is the Carolina's #1 Authorized Retailer/Installer of Lutron & HAI Energy Saving Devices

C.I.S. is the Carolina's #1 Authorized Retailer/Installer of Lutron & HAI Energy Saving Devices

It’s time we took energy efficiency personally.

Consider the following stats:

-Over 70 percent of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal, petroleum, or natural gas, all fossil fuels that emit carbon into the atmosphere when burned. Coal alone provides 44 percent of U.S. electricity and the majority of greenhouse gases. Source: DOE

-Homes and commercial buildings use 72 percent of U.S. electricity, and homes use 51 percent of that. Source: EPA

-There are approximately 126 million homes in the United States, which equates to an annual emission from homes alone at approximately 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon. Source: US Census Bureau 2006

-According to the National Home Energy Efficiency Program (NHEEP), the U.S. housing stock wastes more energy than any other sector in the world.

So why are environmentalists, policy makers and others focused on reducing the energy output of industry, transportation and the commercial sector? It’s true that we can make huge gains by making our power and manufacturing plants, cars and commercial buildings much more efficient. But many of us forget to include our homes in the energy efficiency equation. And this, I am convinced, is the primary reason why we are not seeing the efficiency gains we’d like in these other sectors.

A recent New York Times article, “Doing More While Using Less Power,” throws around a bunch of conflicting energy efficiency projections. And other articles on the subject typically state projections in the billions and trillions—collective numbers that few can comprehend, not to mention the fact that wildly varied projections stretch into 2020 or 2030 or 2050—times few us can comprehend, especially when most of us are trying to survive in an economically scary 2010.

The Times article also laments the fact that some businesses, while they could save millions on energy efficiency initiatives, remain hesitant to do so. “Perhaps the biggest barrier to maximizing energy efficiency is the natural reluctance of people to try something new,” the article opines.

That may well be true. In both business and politics, anything new poses risk, and risk is not typically welcome in economically troubled times.

But maybe, just maybe, the hesitation people have with all this energy efficiency stuff is that they are not personally invested in it. And of course they are—if we continue on our wasteful ways we will all have stakes in inflated energy costs and a deteriorating climate. But people don’t feel they are invested in it—and that is the problem.

The sad part is, people have reason not to be personally invested in energy efficiency: We throw incomprehensible numbers at them—billions and trillions—as well as incomprehensible terms like BTUs and kilowatt hours—and dates that extend far into the future, which more likely inhibits a sense of urgency in the matter. We say we should set policy in industry and in the commercial sector and in transportation—and soon the entire matter is in someone else’s hands—not our own. The problem becomes so much larger than each individual. Instead, we need to personalize energy efficiency and give everyone a stake in it.

The numbers above prove we should start our energy efficiency efforts in the home. So why aren’t we doing it?

The Real Prius Effect

Say what you will about the Toyota Prius—I say you can do the planet better by turning lights off in your home—but the hybrid electric car does one thing amazingly well: It puts energy efficiency in the face of its driver, with a large screen-based readout that makes saving gasoline like a video game. The Prius may not be the best choice for saving the planet, but it manages to personalize energy efficiency and gives its users a real stake in it.

And here’s another story, which for many actual people may be far more convincing than a bunch of incomprehensible numbers. I was at a Little League game this summer, the day an energy-efficiency appliance rebate program ran in my state, and the very blue-collar, probably not so energy-efficient granddad in front of me said, “Yeah, we bought a new washing machine and a new refrigerator—and you know what? It’s going to use half as much electricity as the one we had!” He was as excited about the energy efficiency as he was about his rebate—if not more so. And the funny thing was, the scene repeated itself the very next week with another person who suddenly started thinking about energy efficiency. That is personalizing it. And that is why our energy efficiency efforts should start in the home—with real people and not vague corporate or government entities. Involve real people in energy efficiency, and we will start to get real results.

by Steven Castle

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/why_energy_efficiency_starts_at_home/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – ”We may be a few dollars more than the competition, but we are a million times better”.

Posted in Automation, HAI, lighting control, Lutron Radio Ra II, News, Structured Wiring, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


Custom Installation Services, LLC | P.O. Box 132 Matthews, NC 28106 | 704-400-8701 | dmiller@cis-nc.com
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