Neat-O
Organizing A/V equipment wins praise from Neat-O!
When Mark Laine first saw the equipment closet in this high-end Florida
home, “I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” he recalls. “The shame of it
was, there was half-a-million dollars of A/V equipment in there, and it
was all good.” Laine’s 17-year-old company, Cincinnati-based M. Alan
Associates, always builds its own custom racks inhouse, but they did not
have that luxury with this job. “We sent the homeowners out of town on
vacation tore it all down and redid it.”
Unfortunately, the previous installers provided no documentation and, worse, had not labeled the wires, so Laine and project manager Steve Samson, a local installer, spent two weeks “ringing out and tracking down every wire in the house,” he says. “That’s over 16 zones of audio, control panels and touchpanels throughout the house that weren’t labeled.”
Had the wires been labeled, Laine estimates he could have saved 60 manhours, “easily.” Needless to say, the gang got the electronics working—something that had eluded the homeowners since the beginning. “The original system was so frustrating that the clients literally wanted to sell their home and move,” says Tom Doherty of Indianapolis-based Doherty Design Group, LLC.
Just as Laine and Samson brought simplicity and standardization to the A/V and wiring, Doherty did the same with the Lutron lighting controls, cleaning up the programming and reducing the number of buttons on the keypads. Cleaning up and simplifying the systems contributed to the effectiveness of the technology—it worked, after all—but just as important, the various integrators brought a level of professionalism that renewed the client’s faith in home systems.
As Laine tells it, “Even the uninitiated understand the difference between right and wrong. If it’s neat, it looks like it runs.” M. Alan’s policy is to perform installations that can be taken over by any other company, which is especially important if you’re working on homes that are thousands of miles away. “With our documentation and clear labeling, we could die today, and anyone else could take over,” says Laine.
Congratulations to Steve Samson and Mark Laine for a Neat-O! installation. They each will receive a RhinoPro 3000 labeling system. To submit your Neat-O! installation, look for the Neat-O! link on the www.ce-pro.com home page. We’re looking for the tidiest racks, vans, warehouses, documentation and other displays of neatness. Or use the link in the left hand menu
Unfortunately, the previous installers provided no documentation and, worse, had not labeled the wires, so Laine and project manager Steve Samson, a local installer, spent two weeks “ringing out and tracking down every wire in the house,” he says. “That’s over 16 zones of audio, control panels and touchpanels throughout the house that weren’t labeled.”
Had the wires been labeled, Laine estimates he could have saved 60 manhours, “easily.” Needless to say, the gang got the electronics working—something that had eluded the homeowners since the beginning. “The original system was so frustrating that the clients literally wanted to sell their home and move,” says Tom Doherty of Indianapolis-based Doherty Design Group, LLC.
Just as Laine and Samson brought simplicity and standardization to the A/V and wiring, Doherty did the same with the Lutron lighting controls, cleaning up the programming and reducing the number of buttons on the keypads. Cleaning up and simplifying the systems contributed to the effectiveness of the technology—it worked, after all—but just as important, the various integrators brought a level of professionalism that renewed the client’s faith in home systems.
As Laine tells it, “Even the uninitiated understand the difference between right and wrong. If it’s neat, it looks like it runs.” M. Alan’s policy is to perform installations that can be taken over by any other company, which is especially important if you’re working on homes that are thousands of miles away. “With our documentation and clear labeling, we could die today, and anyone else could take over,” says Laine.
Congratulations to Steve Samson and Mark Laine for a Neat-O! installation. They each will receive a RhinoPro 3000 labeling system. To submit your Neat-O! installation, look for the Neat-O! link on the www.ce-pro.com home page. We’re looking for the tidiest racks, vans, warehouses, documentation and other displays of neatness. Or use the link in the left hand menu
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