Transcript 0:00 Far, far too many vendors are pitching products that simply are not ready, and we are once again at this marketing hype stage, and there is more fiction than fact. 0:16 We are creating even more greater fear in buyer's mind. Products that have been pitched are not available when we need them. Okay, I get this. Stuff happens, you know? But here's the worst part. 0:31 This is the part I want to explain. We all know we had COVID. We get it. We've all heard about supply chain disruptions. We get it. We all know labor shortage. We get it. Now it's a war. We get it. 0:45 Okay, my dog ate my homework. We get it. Okay, how many excuses can these companies say? 0:53 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 1:10 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. Today on the show, I want to give you an inside peek into what's been going on into the Living Lab. 1:22 I will share my perspective on the state of smart home technology, and I will compare it to what once happened in manufacturing many years ago, and I will give my candid opinion about the hurdles we are going to be facing as we move forward into the more connected world. 1:43 Later on in the show, I'll be interviewing some guests, as always. I will be talking to Jeff Meredith. He's the chief executive officer of Chamberlain Group. And, uh, stick around. That's a great conversation. 1:55 I'm really excited about it. And then I'm gonna wrap up the show with Susan Dalton of Leadership Coach of Susan Dalton Coaching. So stick around. We've had some great conversations. 2:04 I'm looking forward to talking to her as well. So let's get started. Let me start with a bit of a background for everyone. We've been working on our Living Lab, I'm gonna say, for a little over a year. 2:16 We just started building, and I've been spending countless hours talking with dozens of vendors about the state of smart home technology and perhaps hundreds more at Constructek Magazine and Connected World. 2:30 And now I have to confess, I think the industry still has a lot of work to do. 2:37 In fact, it is terrifying to me to see the state of smart home technology today, which is why I suspect homebuyers are reluctant to invest if they don't have extra money to spare. 2:51 I'm going to say, many times I've said, you know, it's coming down and this is a state, uh, that's not just for the wealthy. 2:59 But I would suspect many vendors would admit if they were talking to me off the record, they would recognize this is not a new challenge either. 3:11 As I have said a minute ago, I've spent more than two decades talking about what was once called automated home technology and today is simply referred to as smart home technology. 3:23 And in the last two decades, we have still not found a way to make it easily interoperable, integratable with all this connected technology. 3:34 We have not found a way to make it seamless for the homeowner, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Let me make a parallel to manufacturing just for a minute. Years ago, manufacturers faced exactly the same problem. 3:50 The result was delayed adoption, growth, and prosperity for the Internet of Things, which was once was M2M. Now we are seeing the exact same crippling and chilling effect in the home sector. 4:05 This is delaying our ability to reduce energy consumption in our homes and ultimately saving our planet from unnecessary emissions and, and just costs. Now let me set the stage. 4:18 Connected and intelligent home automation systems should be as simple as the words coming out of my mouth right now. 4:27 We need to consider the evolution of the networks, and we need to capture much needed data about energy usage. 4:36 I think there might be a disconnect here, especially when we consider the maturity level of where we are today as an industry and the price tag from the homeowner's perspective. 4:49 There is simply no way any consumer could ever reasonably afford to achieve any measurable carbon emission reduction based on what the vaporware companies are espousing at this point in time. 5:06 Now listen to me directly as I state this. Let me be clear about this point just for a minute. There are some very promising potential smart devices out there, smart products out there. Not everybody's doing this. 5:20 But connecting these solutions can be very complicated. Many lack the ability for that seamless integration that we so desperately need, that I've been saying. Most of them require the expertise of a system integrator. 5:38 While this might be necessary, what do we need to do? It adds even more to the overall cost. Now let me be clear again. I believe in the value of SIs, in system integrators. 5:50 In fact, I see it, this as the packaging of the industry should be in some way, the way we do it, just like when we stream services. 5:59 All of this technology in the work of SIs should be bundled to protect the bad guys from doing any harm to any of these connected devices. So SIs out there, if you're listening, you should be a part of the package. 6:13 Sell the solutions bundled with an SI coming out once a quarter to check all these systems that are working well and the systems as they go. That's an important part of all of this. 6:24 But again, we need to set up and, and get back to this conversation.Again, let me be clear. Some advances have been made to recoup the kinda knockout punch from the initial investments in some products. 6:40 But you know, it, it's there. We're, we're kinda looking at. But sadly, very few products are available today and again that's where the rubber meets the road here. 6:53 Far, far too many vendors are pitching products that simply are not ready, and we are once again at this marketing hype stage, and there is more fiction than fact. 7:09 Let me say that again, more fiction than fact. We are creating even more greater fear in buyers' mind, and I have experienced this sleight of hand with the Living Lab. 7:23 Products that have been pitched that would be ready for testing in this home, my home that I'm talking, a media home, are not available when we need them. Okay, I get this. Stuff happens, you know? 7:36 But here's the worst part. This is the part I wanna explain. We all know we had COVID. We get it. We've all heard about supply chain disruptions. We get it. We all know labor shortage. We get it. Now it's a war. 7:51 We get it. Okay, my dog ate my homework. We get it. Okay, how many excuses can these companies say? Then do the ultimate. How many? Okay, here's what they say. What's the excuse? 8:07 You know, you can only outline so many excuses. But all right, we have excuses. Things happen. But here's the worst of it. They don't take your calls. 8:19 Then they become simply infuriating and maybe even more disrespectful. They go simply dark. W- these are the most respected companies in the world. They just don't respond. They don't take emails. 8:37 They don't take calls. I got it. We don't have the staff anymore. But suppliers, the... I don't care. You're the largest suppliers in the world. 8:46 You simply go dark, and what you're doing, you move on to the next unsuspecting customer. You're marketing. You're marketing these products, and right now can you tell I'm a little pissed off? 9:01 I guess you can tell I'm a little pissed off, but what I am is I'm more pissed off for the next customer that's going to be unsuspecting and think they're buying solutions that are not ready, and here it is. 9:13 It's not for the Living Lab. We get it. 9:15 We, we can get other products, but this is happening out there, and if it's happened to the lab, which is a media company, and I can go out and tell the world, I can use social media, I got lots of resources, it's happening across other people who aren't as fortunate and can't have a resource to go out and complain about it. 9:34 It's wrong. So here's my question. Who holds all these behemoths accountable? Who's gonna stop them? If they aren't, if these products aren't available, why are companies being able to market them as if they are? 9:50 And don't go, "Supply chain disruptions." How long are you gonna use that? How long did your dog eat your homework? How many times? 9:57 These same vendors are pitching partnerships with other construction firms right now even though these products that I know, that I'm telling you about, are still not available. So here's even more dis- concerning. 10:13 In today's market, it's simply a matter of caveat emptor. So I guess here's my opinion for today. 10:21 It seems the maturity of the electronic devices to be used in such networks are not yet where they need to be for this to have a measurable effect. 10:33 To achieve measurable carbon emission reduction for home automation technology, it needs to be extremely widespread. That's what we're seeing. It must be employed in a large number of households. 10:49 It's amazing to me how difficult a simple task such as this is, but it's not, right? It's amazing how difficult adding a new device to a wireless network can be for an end user to accomplish. We're seeing this. 11:04 It's not that easy. Some things are, but some things aren't when you wanna put multiple things together. 11:09 It's disappointing that it's so difficult to realize a heterogeneous network of a home automation devices that can interoperate appropriately. 11:19 In order to remedy this situation, both the industry for wireless home automation electronics as well as the standards institution for wireless technologies need to create sufficient standards that make this better. 11:35 Preferably, this will be done with backward-compatible interoperability protocols that we've been talking about. 11:43 But honestly, we also need to do a better job of educating the consumer as well and leveraging what I just said about SIs. We need them to understand the state of smart home technology. 11:57 We need them to understand there's a cost and there needs to-- understand the hurdles related to interoperability. Everybody needs to understand this. 12:06 We need them to understand all of this so they don't walk into a project blind. With all of this in mind, here's my tip for today, okay? In this market, we need to hedge all of our bets. 12:19 Get everything in writing whenever possible. Ask every question and be very clear on what you are asking. 12:29 Perhaps greater in the investment it is in making it in a SIs is worth the investment that we should be discussing.If you can't afford a connected whatever, this is what I'm saying, skip it right now. 12:42 There's a good chance they will make you wait for it, charge you the same or more for it, and when you do finally get it, it won't be integrated with all your other devices seamlessly, at least not right now. 13:00 You will thank me later. I can tell you based on what we're seeing. 13:04 Candidly, chances are something better will come along later and that will be less expensive that you can actually afford, and by the time you can, it will be integratable. 13:16 There's absolutely no need to order something that might not come when you want it and when you really need it. I'm curious, do you agree with me? 13:26 I want to know what others think about this, because what is your take on the state of smart home technology? Is it interoperable? You know, is the interoperable issue still a hurdle? 13:36 Some of you might say it's not, because guess what? It is. Is it cost? What else is standing in our way right now? I want someone to tell me why we haven't been able to get past this hurdle. Is it technology? 13:50 Is it egos like it was in manufacturing? If you're a vendor and you want to debate these points, my radio line is always open, so you can actually engage with me and have this conversation. 14:02 All right, as always, you can share your thoughts with me on Twitter. Send me a tweet. I'd love to hear what you want to say and what your thoughts are at Connected World. 14:11 All right, listeners, that's all the time we have for this first segment. But again, please check out our website at connectedworld.com, our show website at thepeggysmedleyshow.com. 14:20 All right, don't go away because we'll be right back after this commercial break. As always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world. 14:28 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back.
