The custom integrator used networking and education from the CE Pro Summit to teach consumers about the smart home.
Many guests at the CE Pro Summit value the event for the ability to develop new relationships and learn business practices they can implement at their own company. For one guest at last year’s Summit, that is not all he took home. He also walked away with plans to write a book.
Ryan Herd, the owner of 1 Sound Choice, has been a multi-year attendee of the CE Pro Summit and says he kept coming back because of the learning and networking the event provided. But, this time, it left even more of an impact.
“I love going to the Summit because it’s the next level,” says Herd. “You get into the room with business owners and people you can chat with from different parts of the country. You can figure out issues or problems or realize that other people are having the same type of issues as you, and it definitely is a great place to have those kinds of conversations.
“So, the past couple years I’ve been going to that, and I’ve always had an idea for a book in the back of my head. And, the last time was the time that really cemented it for me that it’s time to get this done and write it.”
Specifically, Herd says it was conversations with his peers at the Summit that helped him develop topic ideas for the book. He says many of them agree with him that the consumer still doesn’t truly understand the smart home.
“We’re still explaining to them that we’re more than the TV or the speaker guys,” he says. “We do all of this amazing, cool stuff. But, the consumer doesn’t understand it. Even the big boys aren’t articulating it correctly.”
That’s why Join the Smart Home Revolution was written. Herd interviewed many people both in and outside the industry to get their perspectives on the smart home. He combined that with the knowledge he has developed during his 28 years in the audio-video world to clearly illustrate to the consumer what exactly the smart home is and what it can do.
He delves into topics like how a smart home can help a homeowner be safer, why a smart home is much more than just a cool home theater and the different types of products that make up a smart home. For people like those who attend the CE Pro Summit every year, a lot of the information in the book is well known. But, he says it also serves as a reminder that it’s important to make sure the consumers they each work with are able to understand what the smart home really is.
“When we talk to people outside of the industry, they think what we do is amazing,” he says. “But, we do it every day. So, we think driving up to a house and having the garage door open and light a path through the kitchen and up to your master bedroom and put on the news is a bit of programming language. We figure it out by black boxes and wiring. But, to the consumer, that’s wizardry. And, I think we tend to forget that as an industry. We have to remember we do really amazing stuff. And, this stuff can improve a consumer’s life in the real world.”
Join the Smart Home Revolution was released on June 1st, and is available for purchase on Herd’s website, as well as Amazon.