Monthly Archives: November 2022

Episode 122: Dennis Lister and His Unique Path to Custom Shades



This week, Dennis Lister joins us from Philadelphia, PA, where he is president of DEL Motorized Solutions. His career began in the early 90s working in his father’s custom furniture upholstery business. In 1996, that company morphed into his current motorized blinds and automated shades custom fabrication and wholesale company. Today, he is Lutron’s top-selling shades dealer in the world. He was recently invited by Lutron president Ed Blair to serve as the featured speaker during a groundbreaking ceremony of Lutron’s recently announced 145,000 square foot shades manufacturing addition in Ashland, Virginia. Dennis’ business is a fairly unique one, as he serves as both a window shades subcontractor to custom integrators in the New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey markets, and also a manufacturer of extremely custom shade solutions to integrators throughout the U.S.

Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. 

Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

 


Episode 121: Paul Williams on the New ‘Nice’ Brand and Products



This week Paul Williams joins us from Salt Lake City, UT, where he is chief product officer for Nice North America, the global manufacturer of smart home, security, and building automation solutions. Nice, which was founded in Italy by current owner Lauro Buoro in 1993, acquired Nortek Security & Control from Melrose Industries back in October of 20 21. In September of this year, the company announced that it would be sunsetting Nortek Control as a company name and absorbing several of its custom integration brands into the Nice brand. By integrating ELAN, SpeakerCraft, and Panamax into the Nice brand, the company says, they will progressively leverage their full portfolio of solutions for home and building management. Williams, who spent a lot of his career at Control4 and more recent years at Savant’s GE Lighting brand, explains the changes and talks about new products that were introduced at CEDIA Expo this fall.

Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. 

Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!


Episode 120: Eric Harper on Snap One’s Newest Tech



This week, Eric Harper joins us from Charlotte, NC, where he is senior vice president at Snap One, the provider of smart living products, services, and software to professional integrators. Like many on the manufacturing side of this business, Eric started his career as a custom integrator. But his switch from CI to manufacturer, back in 2001, was especially notable in that he helped launch Onkyo’s high-end Integra and Integra Research audio brands into the specialty retail and CI channels. Prior to his current 12-year-run at Snap, Eric also held marketing and product development roles at Sunfire and ELAN. In this week’s conversation, Eric reviews new product introductions from CEDIA Expo 2022, including Control4 Halo Remotes, Control4 Vibrant Lighting, the Episode Radiance Audio & Lighting System, Luma x20 Surveillance, and the Araknis AN-820 Wireless Access Point.

Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. 

Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!


Episode 119: Chris Lehnen on His New Role at Luminii



This week, Chris Lehnen returns to the podcast from his home in Portland, OR, after his fairly recent hiring as business development manager, AV, for lighting manufacturer Luminii. Chris last joined us about a year ago during his time at iRoom IO, the Apple-certified manufacturer of Premium iPad Docking Solutions. On this episode, we’ll talk about what it was like taking a new role in a completely different technology category, get his take on the exciting opportunities in architectural LED lighting for the custom integration channel, and how he’s helping his company transition from commercial to residential lighting.

Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. 

Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!


Episode 118: Keith Cottrell Gets Pulled Back into CI Channel



On this week’s podcast, Keith Cottrell joins us from New York City, where he is vice president of operations at Electronic Environments New York. Keith and Jeremy have known each other since the early 2000s when Keith was working as director of operations for Jeff Hoover at Audio Advisors in West Palm Beach, FL. Keith was pivotal in the development of CEDIA University’s Project Management Track and has worked on the commercial integration side of the business and for a security software company. Now he’s back, working as a residential integrator again, helping industry veteran Kim Michaels grow his already-successful NYC operation. Jeremy and Keith crossed paths recently at the HTSA buying group, and Jeremy suggested that they use the podcast to fill in the missing details from Keith’s career path and find out what pulled him back into the custom integration channel.

Today’s episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. 

Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!