The Inside Chat - Smarter Installs, Happier Clients

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The gear keeps getting better, but the real win is making systems easier to live with. We start with a brutally honest installer moment (including a recording mistake) and then get into what actually worked on a recent outdoor upgrade: stripping back a complicated garden setup and rebuilding around simple zones, practical placement, and products the client will actually use day to day. If you’ve ever debated “best sound” versus “best experience,” you’ll recognise the tradeoffs immediately. 

We also talk new hardware that’s shaping premium home cinema and smart home integration. Procella’s P8 in-wall speaker sparks a broader conversation about real-world performance, dispersion, and why showrooms don’t always match living rooms. From there we jump to huge displays, including a Sony CLED wall seen at AWE, and what bigger screens mean for resolution, content quality, and the return of the 8K debate as LED video walls become more common in high-end projects. 

In the news, we break down Kaleidescape’s new Strato K player, Chowmain Soft’s Control4 IP driver for Sky Stream (goodbye IR buds on many installs), and ScreenX as a potential next step for immersive cinema. We wrap with Autolabs networking, training roadshows, and why industry events matter, especially after EI Live gets canceled for 2026. If you like practical installer insights with real product takeaways, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more integrators and home theater fans can find us.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Recording Mishap

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to the Insider CI podcast for Tuesday, the 14th of June, 2026. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and with me as always is my co-host, Mr. Simon Gregory. Simon, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

I'm very well, Stuart. Good afternoon. I'm a little bit hot because it's a very hot day out there today, but I'm in an air con office, so uh it's not too bad. So I'm trying to stay in here as much as possible.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah, well, I'm I'm not in an air con office. I am really hot because we've just done about 20 minutes of the podcast and realised I hadn't pressed the record button. So uh there is that. This is so I'm even more looking forward to getting out and jumping in my ice bath, which is now 20 minutes defrosted.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

It's it probably is melted completely, and uh that's what the heat does to you. Your brain goes a bit doolally.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah, so uh I'm not sure we're probably gonna start mounting, or I'm gonna start mounting as we do

Simplifying Outdoor Audio With Sonos

SPEAKER_00 1:00

this podcast. So uh so so what have you been up to? Um have you been up to any interesting jobs? Have you been playing with some new kit?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, so we've had some uh I think discussed that on the previous podcast, but uh we had some garden audio uh issues around a client's house, uh which we actually simplified completely. We actually brought that right the way back. Uh there was an outdoor sat sub system that we put out there about nine years ago and a waterproof TV system. Um, and the client is is a is away quite a lot of for uh works abroad. Um so we actually scoured it back to quite a big, big, big, big issue, really. So we we kind of wanted to make it easier for the client. We listened to what the client's needs and requirements were, um, and just went back to sort of the old school customer service. So that's what he wanted, that's what we were gonna do. So what we did was uh ripped speakers out, um, they'd sort of been eaten by ants, and the kids had kicked them over as well. So I uh I was told by the gardener the other day uh the client denied all knowledge, but uh the gardener's like, Oh, I saw the kids kicking that speaker, so the satellite speaker had been destroyed. Um, and we yeah, got uh uh a Sonos amp, uh which uh had some in-sealing speakers, uh, which uh worked really well, and then two uh move twos. So we got those out there as a stereo pair, put the meaver side of the uh of the swimming pool. The client was more than happy, sounded pretty good. Obviously, didn't get the bass levels as as you would with the uh in-ground uh sub, but much easier to use. The client could bring them in and out, they're pretty much waterproof. When we did do it, it was the hottest day of the year at like 35 degrees. So even my arms were sweating. Um so I did actually bring them back undercover after after a while, but uh sounded really good. You put them into the group, so the the the pool area and the bar area, and uh yeah, got it got it sounding really good. Um we swapped over the uh waterproof TV um as well, which again done nine years, so done fairly well, and we put uh an inch level, well not an inch level, I think it was an RGB um uh LED in there, but uh uh from high synths.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Oh, okay, yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

So it was a 55-inch high synths, had all the built-in app, so for the for the for the World Cup, BBCI player ITVX, really bright as well. It I think the brightness went up to 1600 nits, so from 500 to 1600 nits. So we changed the settings for that. Also had a bit of anti-glare as well, which obviously helped outside, even though it was under a bar area. Um, but yeah, pitch was really good. Um, sounds great. It's even got a subwoofer bill in the back of the telly, which uh I didn't realise. And I was setting it up and I turned it on and pressed Netflix, and I I was making sure that her fingerprints were on the screen, so I went quite close to it to do that, and the Netflix sound went up. Oh my goodness, it made me jump. So uh, but yeah, clients really happy and uh yeah, it works a treat.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Well, I think I think that's it. I mean, we've got a client that we've just had. I mean, it was earlier this year we had a control system's uh their own uh matrix go wrong. I mean, job's probably nearly 10 years old, so you know it's been been good. Uh and you know, and I looked at how she works and lives in the house, and and we just looked at it and went, do you know what? I'm just gonna put I'm just gonna put four zones of Sonos in. We're a little bit too early for the app multi, so yeah, that's September, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

I believe. September time.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think yeah, I mean we've we've been we're talking with Sonos at the moment about doing some publicity around it on Inside CI, so but I'm still waiting for them to come back to me and announce it, really. Um, but no, I mean we've put those in there. Um, because one of her main things was she wanted integration between uh Amazon A and Apple Music, and I know the integration between Apple and Sonos is is really good. So because we we did a I did a friend sort of neighbour sister around here last year. It was only a couple of like their portable speakers, but you know, she just walks in there and says, A play Apple Music Classical, and and it just works, it just plays. So I think there is definitely a feeling within the industry at the moment that some people are just they go for the not the easier option, but something that might you know be less hassle, maybe cost a little bit less than a full-on multi-system matrix type thing. Uh, and also the fact is that you know, if one amp goes wrong, it's only gonna send you only got to send away that one amp to be repaired. So, yeah, and I mean, and Simon, who works with both of us, I think he put just put some of the new moves, the smaller ones, in the garden, and and he's loving them.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah, they're they are really great for their size and for their money, you can't go wrong, and uh they're a little bit more cost-effective for the uh for the client, and uh so especially at the moment things are pretty expensive, so yeah. Say save save money where you can, and uh say if the client's happy, then uh yeah, we're we're happy. So, and uh yeah, hopefully get more work out of it, really. That's the that's the bottom line of it.

Brisella P8 And Real-World Testing

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And and I hear you had a guest yesterday, you had uh Mr. Ben Lancaster for Brisella over.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yes, Brisella Ben come to see me, so I haven't seen him uh for a while since his health scare, but no, he looks really well and uh yeah, fighting fit, which is really good, and uh brought over the new P8. So uh obviously we saw them at IC uh for their 20th anniversary, but this is is is new new. Actually, the speaker that he showed us was a was a prototype, but um, so we couldn't actually listen to it, but they are available now. So the new P8 is completely uh in in sealed case as well, so it's completely molded and it looks stunning. So brand new drive unit, um, and yeah, it looks looks really really good, and the depth uh of that is is is is really good as well, so it's easily mountable behind uh sort of false baffled wall and things like that. Um, but he came over to see me. Uh I'm just gonna read you a little bit about that as well while we're here. Um yeah, so uh yeah, 20-year anniversary, as I just said. So the P8 is the heart of the Priscilla line. The P8 is capable of stunning reproduction of the full dynamic range of 96-24-bit music and film soundtracks. Um, it comes with customer forms 8-inch mid-bass, so they are brand new. It's one of the the the the guys at Priscilla have been listening to lots of different drive units, and this is brand new out on the market, and this is one they preferred. Um, so it's got like it's got like a little um drawing on the on the front, so like a little cymbal kind of thing going on, so it looks quite sexy. Um, but yeah, so really good uh good identical uh voice crossovers for the price, uh sort of precise tomba matching. Um and yeah, THX certified as well. So uh you can't go wrong.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Yeah, I remember when we were out obviously at IC doing the video with them, and they were sort of we were talking about how they they sort of get the different drive units and they get the different woofers for the subs, and they just test the ones they like and then go back and tweak it, and then eventually, you know, with lots and lots of RD, they come up with the finished speaker, which obviously Ben brought to show you yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, so the the off-axis dispersion is really good as well. They're actually what was quite interesting, actually doing the testing as we speak, to what the speaker is capable of. Um, but what they're actually doing is doing it in real-world scenarios, and uh that could be really good or it could be really bad depending on other manufacturers' uh designs and specifications. So, as we know with RP22 and the top faces versions and and everything that the speaker can do, not every single uh situation is the same. So if you've got it in in your dedicated showroom, it's gonna sound fantastic, but in the client's room, does it sound the same? Are you getting the same reading? So um they're actually doing it in sort of real world scenarios and uh they're just waiting to see how that compares to to what's going on. Obviously, it would sound fantastic, but if the levels are down compared to another competitor, do you see what I mean? It's do they then okay, if you can't beat them, join them kind of thing. They're trying to do it as a as a as a most realistic natural environment possible. So that was quite interesting to hear. So they will be out very soon. Um, and uh yeah, you'll get to see and uh and hear those uh specifications as soon as we know.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Well, I'm hoping I know we're trying, we sort of spoke at IC about potentially going over and doing a video with them around um the immerso um system.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah, that's been installed now as well. So that's that's just outside their main demo room, um, just on the left-hand side as you go in, so that's uh that's ready to go. I think they're still tweaking it to be fair, but uh yeah, that's uh gonna be a big thing for the that, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Well, it's definitely it's definitely something that is sort of the

AWE Press Day And Sony CLED

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I mean getting onto one of my bits and pieces. I was went to the press day last week, I think it was as we record. Uh I went to AWE Expo's Press Day on the Monday, and um, you know, they've had a hut, I think it's a hundred and sixty-five-inch um C-LED uh Sony uh wall put in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

And that thing is that did look very stunning.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

It's it's amazing. I mean, we what you didn't see was uh I think the photographs that a lot of us took at where Wednes Stuart was talking and they were showing you some sort of like obviously some 4K rendered images, but uh once the sort of press day finished or people are sort of finished around the screen, um they turned on, I think it was Skystream, and they put on like what would have been yesterday's um Grand Prix at the time. They put on the F1 on it, and like everybody's like, I know the result because it was yesterday, but this is bloody amazing.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Oh, really? Wow. What's what's the heat generating from that? Because every time I've sort of encountered a media wall from Samsung or whatever, the heat is pretty intense.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Uh yeah, I mean, we we redid a room which had a Samsung wall put in it. Okay, it was very early, and it was for a certain premiership ex-premiership footballer that played for Chelsea. Uh, funny enough, the the company sponsored didn't, didn't they? I think. Um, so and that that kicked out some heat. I mean, that's that's getting like this office now. Um, but uh uh no, I mean I don't really know, I'll be brutally honest with you. I mean, we're trying to get back there in a few weeks to do a video with with James and with Sony because I want to sort of talk about it and do an example of how it goes together and things like that. Uh I mean, I was by the screen quite often during the day, and never did I sort of walk past it and think, Blimey, that's got some heat coming out of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Um, so I don't think not back in like the old days with plasma when uh was it Andy Peters kissed the screen and burnt his lips. Please don't don't try that though, Stuart.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Um, but no, it was uh yeah. I mean I I'm hoping to get back up there in a few weeks, do that, but obviously also because I do the uh the gaming podcast with Stephen as well and Anthony, uh I might actually take my uh Xbox up there and uh put on a bit of Forza Horizon uh six and uh a bit of Call of Duty or Fortnite or something like that, and gat gather some footage for that. Although uh Yadib did tell me you can't bring a so you can't bring an Xbox and put it on a Sony TV, you've got to bring a PlayStation. And I'm like, no, no, all my all my content's on an Xbox, I'm not bringing the PlayStation.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

No, I don't blame him, but uh yeah, no, that'd work really well with either either console to be fair. And uh yeah, Forza would look uh look stunning.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, so watch out. I mean, obviously, we'll we'll discuss it in a on a pod uh future pod, and then we'll also put it across social and bits and pieces like that. So so no, I mean I've been sort of out and about really. I mean, uh

Hospice Cinema Room With Together For Cinema

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Monday just gone. I was with Deget for Cinema down at the Oak Haven Hospice in Lemmington. Uh so that was a nice uh drive down to the West Country on Monday morning. Um that was a nice, nice room. It was uh, I think it was I want to say it was 75-inch Sony TV, uh monitor audio surround system, um, in like a media wall style setup. Uh that was uh done by um uh Adam Art of Integration. Um he's he sort of did the install with that. Um and uh yeah, that was just a nice little room. I think where they were still waiting for the grant to come through for the chairs, but it was nice because it's again, it's these little these little rooms or these bigger rooms, they just provide so much uh respite for the for the patients that are in there for the day or for the week or or whatever, and they can go in there and watch a film or play some games and bits and pieces like that. So uh we got as normal, we we did the videos, we did the photography. So you'll probably see those trickle in out if you follow Together for Cinema on all social medias um over the next week or so. You'll see that coming out, Teresa and Ian putting that up. But no, it was a fantastic day.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Oh nice, it's a nice, nice, uh say nice respite for the whole family as well, isn't it? Really? It's uh can't get to the cinema, so uh they're really worthwhile calls, and uh, I'm sure not an easy uh thing to see, to be fair. So uh I think Ian always says that he always comes away in tears sometimes, but uh it's uh so so beneficial for the uh for everybody involved.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Yeah, I think they're just I remember when I went to my first one last year, and like my wife said to me about you know, this is gonna be very different, you're you're not gonna like this. And I came away from it and I was like, was chipper because uh you know we met one of the young kids who uses it to play for uh to play FIFARon. Uh we met another one of the girls who uses it all the time to watch Titanic, and yeah, if you look past the elements, if you look past the the reason why they're there, it fundamentally they're kids who just enjoy it, and if they've got to go there for whatever reason, if there's something like a cinema room there to take their mind off of whatever they're doing there, treatments or whatever like that, or or or daycare, it's just just escapism. And I go, I said this, we said this the other day. This is why I love cinema, this is why I love gaming, it's escapism. You escape for however long it is into your own little world, and uh yeah, I don't I think this is what they find those rooms to be.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah, no, it's definitely uh great,

Online Smart Home Academy Returns

SPEAKER_01 14:48

great for the kids and uh the whole family without without a shadow of a doubt.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, so uh obviously that AW Expo, uh AW Expo was really, really good. Uh they launched the online smart home academy. Um, so they used to do the Smart Home Academy in person, but obviously because of COVID it sort of stopped. Uh they've now developed that along with the uh a lot of brands to actually be an online academy now, which is I think they're planning to launch it this month.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

So, how how's that how's that going to work? Obviously, dealers would log into to the academy and be trained or on the on the products they're selling, or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

So so basically it's like I don't know, uh, I'm trying to uh I suppose it's like I did a PCNA course with control four years ago, and you in this case you got sent a bundle or you bought a bundle of stuff, you put it on your test bench at the office, and then you just followed what was going on on the screen with the kit, what was in front of you. Now I think what AWE have done is less about the kit, it's more about the product, so learning more online learning about the product, so then online training on certain scenarios where you could quite easily learn it without someone standing over your shoulder. So um maybe not like advanced programming of a URC, but you know, you know, how do you set up a one-room system or how do you um you know lens shift a Sony projector? You know, how do you, you know, uh timber match a set of speakers and things like that. So uh they announced it. Um they were sort of like saying it's gonna come this month. So yeah, I mean it uh but I yeah, it's gonna be a login, a login and have a look, really.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah, no, exciting because sometimes you do need that. I mean, I I I was doing a lot of that during COVID and it sort of seemed to have been forgotten about since COVID has finished. So bringing that back is probably a really nice idea. And and some people don't like that environment. It's uh I was speaking to one of the guys and he he was dys dyslexic, so he got really nervous about sort of typing things in and doing all that kind of stuff. Um and you said somebody looking over your shoulder is always a bit like, well, have I done this right, or somebody's always better than me, and it's almost going back to school, isn't it? When you you're doing an exam or somebody asks you a question and you don't want to put your hand up. But uh yeah, no, it's uh that's a really uh hopefully that works well for the guys at AWE.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, I mean I I'm I'm I think they could call it a kinesthetic learner. So I'm always one of those people that if you send me stuff and I get to play with it and and install it in my own time, you know, at my own office or even in my own lounge. I mean, much to my wife's annoyance, many, many, many times have I refitted the AV rack in the lounge with uh a new network or a new CCTV or a new streaming system. Because for me, I want to, you know, okay, so not much so much now, but uh in my integration days, I wouldn't sell it to a client unless I had a chance to play with it myself. Um so to be able to log in. Uh I mean I think it was control four, they did a thing called Smart Skills, which was like, you know, five, ten, fifteen, twenty-minute courses where you could say, Oh, do you know what? I've got half hour free before X, Y, and Z. I'll jump in and learn a skill on something. And I think those type of platforms will work really, really well. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

I mean, I I was I was I was similar to you, but it was Crestron Prodigy. If you remember that when uh it came out all those years ago, and I I got it and I brought it back to the office, spent two days trying to program it. I was like, right, I've got this, took it to clients. Uh it was a the 12-seated cinema we did, put it into that, nothing didn't work. So, what's going on? So, as it was brand new for the Prodigy from Crestron, the uh the guys come over, even he couldn't do it. So, even he was struggling, he must have been there for like two days trying to get it to work as well, which kind of made me uh feel a little bit better about myself. But I'm like, hang on, I've just wasted two days on this trying to work out what it's doing, and even one of the pros can't do it either. So uh, but it's nice to know in the ins and outs of a product, don't say if they do go wrong or or whatever, but uh sometimes think, oh, what was the point?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Well, I mean, even being in this industry for 20 years, you know, uh up until I sort of stepped uh more away from integration just recently, I was always doing some courses, I was always going. I mean, I mentioned one in the news, but you know, I went on a networking course just a month ago to look at a new network. So uh I think there's so many new products out there, so much new stuff to look at. I think if you could look at it at the comfort of your own home or your own desk or your own office, and then if you like it, go and learn a bit more about it. I just I can't see there being a negative to that.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

No, and there's

CEDIA Summit And EI Live Cancelation

SPEAKER_01 19:10

always demo demo deals, isn't there, going around? So they try and get you uh to uh to buy that product, and uh the more you know about it, the more you're gonna sell. So yeah. So win wim.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Definitely. So uh so yeah, the other thing was yesterday, as we recall, this was the senior uh tech and business summit in London. Uh that was a very uh hot, sticky affair. Not so much in the summit, but coming back out of the summit later on.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

It was a hot was a hot day. It's uh I knew it was in July, but I didn't realise it was so early in July. And then Ben had said, uh, oh, can I come and see you? I was like, Yeah, no problem. I thought, well, if he's coming to see me, then nothing else is going on, but even he didn't realise either.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

So no, I mean it was a great day. I mean, I think uh I think there was about 40 vendors there, and uh there was a good turnout of um integrators, uh, there was a mixture of people there, fellow professionals, integrators, uh, a few sort of like I think they had some students come around like before as well, which is which is quite good to see the inside of our industry. But um, no, I mean it was really, really good. I got to have a some good conversations with people, got to see a few new products. Anything new, anything exciting that you saw? Um so there's lots of nice new bits and pieces, you know. Andy and Nikki there from uh Moss who were showing off uh motif, uh the Nico stuff that we looked at at IC. Oh yeah. The guys at Crestron were showing off the new uh switches, the new wall switches, which I think we've just in well, I think the guy that we've been helping on a Crestron job, he's just installed those, and they are stunning. They look really, really swish. Um, but no, I mean there was you know um uh Janus uh technology were there, they were showing off their um building uh management system, you know, the energy monitoring, which uh we've recently done a video with Richard uh for awards entry that he's putting forward. Um, so you know, we had a quick bit of a I mean that that place I went the other day. I mean, I can't put it on the screen at the moment because it's it's footage of theirs, but I will put it up at some point. I've never seen so many pipes in a house doing like solar uh so what is it? It was solar, it was bore heating, uh, and then it was um uh you know air conditioning and and just just this whole wall of pipes. It was an it was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Mario would be very happy with that.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah, and then obviously then uh um Jason August was there showing you know the the Swiss Army knives of all of his collection and uh yeah they've got some cool stuff coming up there's new HDMI uh units and things that I saw the other day.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

They look they look pretty special for uh any uh problem solving, but uh yeah, no, they do some cool stuff there.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, and I think that's what it was. It was just for me, it was just always a nice place to go. Obviously, I I went there with a slightly different hat on this year, um, but it was still nice to go along and see the products, talk to the people, see some of the faces that you Joe gen. See everywhere like Zach from Mega. I only ever really see him at senior awards or a business summit, but it's always like, How you doing, mate? How you going? You know, because you see each other's social media posts. So it was a it was a great networking.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Well, that's the thing, isn't it? It's social media, you see their faces on social media, you're like, Oh yeah, I saw you the other day, and I was like, No, no, I'm not seeing you since I don't know, I see you or something last year, but uh yeah, that's the problem with uh with social media. You see people's faces and you think you bumped into them a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah, which which again sort of brings me on to my next uh subject, really, which was the fact that the EI Live has been cancelled, uh or you know, for for 2026, which is uh 2026, yeah. Yeah, which is uh which is a mass a massive shame because it's uh I know they're the guys who are trying something new, but uh you know, talking to Ian and David yesterday, they had some really interesting people like reserve as in visitors to come in rather than exhibitors, but um there just didn't seem to be the the the call for it this year or people committing to it, and it's uh it's a shame because I can remember when CDS stopped the expo in the UK and then we went for several years without a show, and uh and we're in that position again. You know, this is the last tech and business summit for 2026 London, so technically we've not really got a uh a non-distributor-based show. So, I mean, obviously, people like AWE and all the others are gonna have those shows, but somewhere like the expo, uh sorry, somewhere like the summit yesterday, where you can go to see different vendors, you can go and have a chat, you can go and have a laugh, and uh, and that was always the highlight of September. And it's uh, you know, just a bit uh to be honest, it was a bit annoying for me in respects of that you know, we have the expos, we have the summits, and people don't go to them rightly because they want to earn some money for their business. But if we don't go to these things, these things will get cancelled, and then we just won't have them. Uh, and and it's a shame because you know, the the point of the case is EI live this year, we've not got it now.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

No, it's a great shame for the industry. I I think it's uh when I when I read the reports, I kind of wasn't surprised, but it was a was a was a was a shame that it's not happening. Again, I remember as you were saying when Cedia stopped theirs when it was in XL and we were talking to uh to the guys at uh essentially install and uh yeah, I thought, well, I was thinking about doing a show. I thought that's a good idea. Because it was literally after Brighton, wasn't it? It was in Brighton for for a bit, um, and that was that worked really well. Then went to XL, um, and then David stepped up to the plate, so which which I think has been really good. But say going going up to uh Birmingham wasn't it NEC, I know they tried to mix up the electrical uh retailers as well, which for me personally I thought it diminished it a little bit. Um I wasn't planning on going to be fair. Um, I know people up north probably would have done because obviously down south it's it's it's a two-hour journey for me. So a little, and I think uh Mel uh took like five or six hours to to get to the show uh last year, so there's quite a lot a long way. And a lot of a lot of the um distributors have got really nice showrooms. You say you went to the AWE one, that's a beautiful showroom. You've got the Pulse Guys, they've got a nice showroom as well. So obviously they're trying to spend more money on doing those rather than a show. I know you're gonna get different um uh clients from that, but it is you see somebody that oh you catch up with them. But for those bigger companies, you want new dealers, really, don't you? You want new new customers and clients to to to sign up with you and see what you what you sell. Um, so that that I think will be a bit big loss for them all. But hopefully it's not the last. So uh next year, who knows where we'll be and what we will be going on. Um the world might be a different place by then. It could be also worse, so we shall see. But um, yeah, that somebody else might step up to the plate. Somebody else like C Dia might say, Okay, we're gonna do a show. I know they're obviously involved in ISE, but uh I'd be interested to see how many UK uh distributors actually go to ISE. There's got to be a number out there somewhere. Um how many CD members in the UK actually go, how many people within the UK are uh distributors and sort of end users and things, how many of them go as well? So um if CD could step up to the plate and do a show here, uh not just the tech summits, which I know are popular, but um yeah, something on a bigger scale for everybody, I think, could could be really good.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah, I think I suppose I like analogising our industry of cars, and I suppose if you go to if you go to a BMW dealership, you're gonna see a BMW car. Um if you go to the British Motor Show or you go to we got Goodwood coming up this weekend, you go to Goodwood Festival of Speeds, you see lots of cars. So for me, you know, I love going and seeing like the the distributors like AWE or Monitor Audio or Habatech or or um um CAVD or someone like that. But you see the brands they do. What was good about the tech summits, what's good about EI, and what you know, what is also good about ISE is that you you could just peruse around many different speaker brands. Um, I mean I did speak to someone yesterday saying that they were toying with the idea of moving Resi into Hall Zero, which is across the other side of the road.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah, that was being built, wasn't it, last uh well, at the beginning of this year. But again, my my concern would that be is out of the way of everybody else. Yeah. So how many people actually walk over that bridge and go in there, at least when it's in the in the main one of the main halls, you're kind of walking past or walking through, and you'll get you'll get people who want to go there, but you also get other people who are like, oh, what's that, and go and have a look. But if it's in hall zero or what the hell it's going to be called, I I think that could be uh game over for Resi at ISE.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Well, I think I think it's well, because I mean like when you walked through from I think like from when when you walked through from the main entrance, you walked into hall two, you had uh, if I remember rightly, you had like control four or snap, and then you had like uh you had the group that the uh Steinway, Lindorf and Lessendo, and all those people were in as well. So even if you were walking into hall three and hall four, you walked past Resi and you were, oh okay, what's that? That looks quite interesting. But if now if it's the other side of the road on a flyover, um, it's almost like hall eight where we went. It's almost like it's the other end, it's it's out the way if you're not gonna get those passing trades.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

No, you're not getting those passing trades, and uh I think less Resi people will be inclined to do it, to be honest with you. And uh yeah, it could be uh the beginning of the end, but let's hope not, because it's the only show we've got. So uh that's obviously next year, 2027. So we'll should see what's happening. But it'd be interesting to see how many people have signed up for that from last year. I know people do sign up pretty quick and get their spot, as it were, but uh 2028 could be interesting to say the least.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Yeah, I've booked my hotel. Well, actually, I technically I've booked our hotel because I've booked your room. We've just not paid for it yet. Um so I I will be there with my my publisher's shoulders on. So I'm definitely I'm definitely going uh to do some bits and pieces of some networking. I really wanted to go to Denver in September, but I just don't think that's gonna work. I thought Denver had finished. Was that not the last one last year? Or was it this year? Well, I know it's at Denver this year, I'm not sure, but it's definitely at Denver this year because I was looking at it literally today.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

All right, so that that will be the last one this year then.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

I might jump over to do IFA. I've always fancied going to EFA, so I might just jump over to do EFA this year, which is a bit more consumer electronics, but uh I thought I think that might be quite interesting. Just jump on an easy jet over, do a do a couple of days. I think they have a press day before it, so try and get into the press day, have a bit of a wander and go and see some of the the EFA stuff. So that'll be quite interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

EFA's fantastic. I I've done that uh with uh another previous hat when I was doing Cine Now and uh yeah, Sony took us out there, and it was uh yeah, it was amazing. So 11 halls, so it's big. You have to get a bus or shuttle bus to get from one to the other. Um, but it it is like a massive airport. You think IC is big, EFA is even bigger. Uh really. But yeah, you got you got lots of white goods there and things, but um obviously you've got the the main the main players there as well. So and obviously Germany's pretty cool. We actually did a bus tour and uh had some nice food at the museum and stayed in a very posh hotel on the courtesy of Sony. So uh yeah, Sony, if you're listening.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I think you've uh you've put me off when you said it's bigger. I don't think my knees can handle it. They they generally they barely handled the Celia summit yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Yeah, get those knees sorted out. I was uh I would not do uh EFA with your knees, not at all. And I'm not I'm not pushing you around uh in a wheelchair like uh like uh little Briton.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah, no. Uh I'll get myself well, I'd get myself an e-scooter and I could just zip around on a Segway or something like that, put me L plates on it.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Could see an accident waiting to happen there, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Excellent. So uh yeah, so so that's um what we've been up to. But yeah, just just one thing from me. Just like, look, guys, you know, whoever's listening to this, if you get invited to an expo, if you get invited to a summit, please go. Because if we don't go to these things, then they won't bring the numbers in and these the people will cancel them. So uh I know we need to get out there, we need to earn money, we need to look after our clients. But if we could just get out and support these expos and these summits and these exhibitions, uh, it means that they're there for us in the years that we don't go, the years that we do go. So uh

Reviews, Fan Mail, And Listener Questions

SPEAKER_00 31:25

I'll get off my preaching perch now and uh we'll we'll jump into the news. But before we jump into the news, uh if you're enjoying listening to this very podcast or watching this very uh podcast, uh please comment, leave a review and subscribe. Uh we do have a link within uh both the video and the audio, which is a fan mail link. So you can write in and send us some questions. If there's any subjects you want us to talk about, if there's anything you want to comment about, then please send it over. Um we sort of do some uh listeners' questions on the other podcast, the gaming podcast I do, and it's uh it's brought about some really interesting conversations. Like the one completely gone on the tangent, the one we had this week, which was really, really good, which was like, is it cheating to play games in easy mode? And and it just brought some really, really good conversations. So if anybody's listened to this, you've got some interesting conversations like you know, why use Kaleidoscape against streaming and things like that? Just just write in because there'd be some good conversations and we can get some people in to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

If you don't ask, you don't get, and the answer to your question is yes, it is cheating.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

No, it's not cheating. It's yeah, I played, I'm gonna go and damage. I played Doom this morning on easy mode, and I was sweating after an hour. So I'm not playing that on nightmare mode. I'm too old.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

It's there to challenge you. You're never too old for gaming, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

See, there you go. We've had a gaming conversation on uh Inside CI podcast. That's how well it works. But uh, right, so on

Kaleidescape Strato K And 8K

SPEAKER_00 32:49

to the news. So, Simon, the first story is uh with you, and it's about Klidoscape and their new Strato K movie player.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, so Klidoscape uh all of a sudden brought out a new new player. Uh say the Strato K supports 4K cinematic uh uh movie formats, but as well as 8K. So uh 8K movie formats. It I believe from what they've what we've read is they the 4K will be upconverted to 8k um to give you that really crisp, crystal clear picture. And obviously we know the sound quality of the cloud escape, it's uncompressed, sounds amazing. Um, but yeah, looking forward to to to seeing this. It's uh yeah, Cloud Escape uh is well known for its high high fidelity movie ecosystem combining dedicated hardware with a download-based movie store that delivers films with lossless audio and reference quality video. Uh the platform offers thousands of movies, TV scenes, and concert recordings available in formats ranging from 2k and 4k through to 4K cinematic options and 8k should it gain traction, which I quite like, uh, alongside Dolby Atmos and DTS immersive soundtracks.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah, I think for me that the the one thing that really stood out well for me, just looking up at the article was uh according to Kaleidoscape, the 4K Cinematic, it was the new 4K Cinematic format, uh, which they basically say according to Kaleidoscape, the 4K Cinematic provides high bitrate supports, full chroma reproduction up to 444, delivering greater colour information, image detail, um, than exist in 4K video formats. I I know a lot of people are gonna listen to this podcast and go, oh Jesus, they're going back on about 8k again. But actually, point and case is the big screen that we saw at Sony, the uh sorry, uh the Sony screen we saw at AWE the other day, the big screens that we saw at ISE from Priscilla, uh from Barco, they're all the the screens are getting bigger and bigger, and they're large format LED screens. So actually, if we can take a 4k signal, sample it uh up to 8k, then we will have more pixels per square inch and we'll get a bit better picture on these bigger, bigger screens.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Yeah, you're definitely getting much bigger screens. Uh so we've been quoting 116-inch TV screens. Um taking out projector and uh screen with that, and with 8k on a projector, or even 4k, a lot of people don't realise when you've got a a microperf or a woven screen, you're not getting that full 4k resolution because of the woven, the actual screen you're you're you're using. Um obviously woven screen is a lot better, but as you said, with that Sony C LED um screen that you saw, 4k will look good, but 8k you'll get the full benefit of that. Whether you get the same kind of benefit on a on a on a projector screen, I don't think you do. I really don't. I I do believe those bigger screens will will need to look the best they possibly can, and from what I've seen so far, they they definitely will. Um I thought a lot of TV companies had stopped doing 8k personally. Um I thought they'd given up with that, and I wasn't too sure the human eye can actually see 8k. But if it looks better, who cares?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Well, I think I think initially when like your main brands, your Sonys and your Samsung were all sort of dishing them out, I think they were saying that it really was 75 75 or 85 inch and above is the point of reference that you really before you really see any gain in 8k on a screen. Um and and and we're that I mean I've got a 77-inch uh OLED downstairs, you're talking to a client at the moment about 160 an inch. You know, a few years ago we did a 100-inch Sony. Okay, that or I know it was a 4K screen actually, uh, because it was one of the professional ones. Um, but so our screens are getting bigger. Our standard size now is is 55-65 inches. Where if I go back 20 years ago when I first started in this industry and I was hanging and banging TVs for Sony, 46 was a big TV, you know. Forget about 55 or 65 was freaking huge. But now you can go to Costco and pick up a 77-inch, you know, LED TV for 1500 notes, probably not even that much in some circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

No, even that, no. Some some of the highest in tellies and um that they are almost too cheap. I I refuse to sell the ones that are too cheap, but uh yeah, even this that one we did in the outdoor bit, the uh it wasn't a proper uh glass screen, let's say that. It uh the picture looked fine and it's sounded great, but uh the screen itself wasn't uh the best quality that uh I've seen. The picture was absolutely perfect, don't get me wrong, but uh the build quality was I could pick it up quite as a 55 inch and I could pick it up quite easily with uh with with my little middle muscles that I I don't have. Um but uh we we have a price also on the on the Strato K. Oh oh oh oh wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait there wait there wait there wait there go on here so the price I heard rumors is about five and a half thousand pounds but the actual price that I have seen recently is five thousand three hundred and ninety-five pounds.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Okay, that's that's good. I mean, and uh and looking at the looking at the screen in front of us, uh it comes with a one terabyte solid state drive, so that's a a a good memory. I mean, I've I think I've got I can't think what I've got downstairs now in my one, but uh uh you also can pair it with one or more of the Terra movie servers. So uh yeah, you know, you could start off with a one terabyte in an upgrade and then get all your movies on there. So uh that that seems to be quite a good price.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah, one terabyte is is is is pretty good to be fair. Um, but for 5395, uh 4K, awesome uh uncompressed audio, and the possibility of uh 8k, I think it's a great, great solution, to be fair. I think getting that into a client's cinema, dedicated cinema, I would say, or big screen um media room. Um I think uh yeah, that that's pretty pretty pretty impressive, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

And if you'd come to the summit yesterday because you weren't seeing Ben, you would have seen it there because it was sitting on the desk and uh I got all touchy feely with it.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Was it tiny?

SPEAKER_00 39:07

It looks quite small, it looks quite uh it's about if I if I look at my strato S that I've got downstairs, it's probably a third, a third of the the third, it's probably about a similar depth, but about a third of the width. So uh yeah, I mean, okay, that's got a six terabyte hard drive in it, I think, but solid state, so it's still small. But uh no, I mean you could easily get you know the 8kk uh in one side and get a Terra server in the other side, and you're probably just taking up no more than about one U in a rack, uh two Utops if you want some bit of ventilation. But um, yeah, no, it's a it's a it's a great little player, and uh hopefully I could uh uh tear one out of someone's hands at PulpVision and uh we can get one in the showroom and have a have a little play with it. I'm looking at you, Cyber Gibb.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

You need to do an unboxing video, Stuart. They're the best. But yeah, Clidescape are now accepting orders through its authorised net dealer network. So uh I don't know when they're actually out, to be fair, but uh it's uh out very soon. And uh yeah, get get those orders in if you're interested. Or even a demo. The best thing is to do those is a demo. That's that's the bottom line of it. Take it to a client's house and uh show them the difference, and uh yeah, they'll be blown away.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Well, I know I've sold, so when I when obviously when I got rid of the showroom or moved across the road, uh I a few of my clients that obviously I knew very well and they'd already spent money with me. I gave them my strato S for the weekend and said, Look, it's full of movies, just play with it what you will, uh, and I'll come back and get it in the middle of next week. And literally every time I did that, one of them bought one of it. So it's uh it's certainly worth getting a demo. And obviously, if you've not got a showroom, uh reach out to the guys at Pulse, uh, give Simon or Tom a ring and uh get up to Stanstead and go and have a look at it in their showroom if they've not already got it fitted or when they get it fitted. So, what other news you got then, Stuart? So uh so the next one was uh something that I saw come up on socials yesterday, um, but I forwarded it over to our editor Steve to put it up on the website because uh, you know, as an integrator or an ex-integrator, uh for me it was really, really bloody important.

Control4 Sky Stream IP Driver

SPEAKER_00 41:17

And uh the uh uh amazing guys, Alan and his team uh uh Chowmang Soft uh has introduced a Skystream IP driver uh for control four. At last, hooray. I mean, I think I think we previously mentioned him, Zach, I think, commented on my Instagram post earlier, which was like finally. So um, so anybody who doesn't I thought you were gonna say something else there. So I didn't think we swore on this podcast. No, no, no, we don't. We're a family-friendly podcast-ish. Um so no, so so they've now finally been able to do an IP driver, a control four at the moment, control four IP driver for Skystream. So you can get rid of those little buds off the front of your Skystream boxes. Uh, the new driver has been developed to provide full IP control of SkyStream boxes, eliminating the need for the infrared emitters on most installs, whilst delivering a faster, more reliable operation across the local network. The driver supports navigation, transports controls, and menu functionality. The only thing just to point out is the driver also supports wake-on-land functionality on compatible Skystream hardware, enabling a network to wake it wake it up on LAN where possible. The uh in here, somewhere I've lost it now. Uh Chow Mainsoft cautions that some earlier Skystream devices were unable to wake reliably on IP because the hardware limitations. In these cases, an IR emitter can be still required to do the power on and power off, but then the IP control can take over subsemental control. And even better news is that if you're an existing user of the Sky Plus HD, Sky Q driver from control 4, the SkyStream driver is a free update. All you need to do is head back over to Alan's website at ChowMangsoft, download the new version of the driver, swap that out on your control 4 system and within your projects. And Bob's your uncle, you've now got SkyStream driver for your Sky customers. You can get rid of the IR buds.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Fantastic news. That's what you want. And what what is uh as some comfort is it has worked with all the other Sky boxes, as you said, Sky Q and Sky Minis and things like that. Um, but what is interesting about this the the hardware that Sky seemed to be doing, I'm sure they're pushing more out than uh recently than than ever before. Um well I was watching the the the football during uh during last week, I think it was actually the the the England game, and bought my Sky Mini box in from in the house into the uh into the cinema room that we've got here, um, and didn't work on 1080p. The high res. UHD. Uh D, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Didn't didn't work. So it it the screen was a beautiful picture. Went blank. Come back on. Went blank. Went back on. And I obviously got your friends around. I was like, uh Simon, what is going on? So dropped the resolution down to 1080p and it was fine. But previously it's worked no problem at all. So I don't know what's going on there, whether it's an ED issue or an HTCP uh issue going on, um, but did not like UHD at all. Oh, that's interesting because through a projector. That was a project and uh that was through an anthemamp and Sony projector. Um also had a client with the same a similar issue. So uh we were gonna get him uh a Blue Stream MC11, I think it's called where you did uh little box uh to try and sort those issues out. But again, I said look, drop the resolution, trains the HDMI cable. But in my office it had worked before, which was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Well, yeah, I always thought I always thought minis were 1080 only, I didn't think they supported 4K. I thought it was only the sky cues that supported 4K.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

So I'm talking about the stream boxes.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Oh, sorry, stream boxes. Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

So the stream the yeah, the no the mini boxes, you're 100% correct. But the the the the stream boxes uh obviously do do H do HD, which is great for obviously us guys because you can have it in the main house and having a dedicated cinema room and have 4K in there as all around the house. So that does work. But I do believe they've been doing quite a few hardware updates on those boxes recently, hence why they're probably saying about the LAN and uh obviously the older legacy uh boxes not not working. So but if all the others work, then uh you know they're gonna work with those. But to do it for free is pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Well, I'm I'm we've got our Sky Q box downstairs, keeps on like pooing the bed without swearing. Uh so uh I have toyed with the idea of going Skystream, but always what's put me off is the IP and not having IP. So I have was literally on Sky's website today looking and going, do you know what? I might just order one of the boxes on a I think it's a 30-day rolling contract, and you can take it out so and and have a play with it on the control for system here with the new driver for 30 days and see what I get. So uh we'll see, we'll see, have a play.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

It's not as good as Sky Q though, it's definitely not, and obviously the recordings, people like that, and the interface I think is better. But uh for instance, if I'm going through movies, which is on 301, um, and then you press up to go to 302, but if you get uh like a pin, so I've got the older uh movies obviously pin protected. So you press back up and you're gonna press up again, it goes down. So when you press up, it goes down, and when you press down it goes up, very annoying. I don't know what's going on, but it's a big bugbearer of mine to say the least. I'm like, because you're pressing up, you're going 302, 303, 304. Um but then as soon as a pin comes up, you press back up, press up again, it goes back down to 303, 302, 301. So why that is, I have no idea. So good luck with uh control four. If if I can't do it on the remote, then uh control four might struggle.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

So Simon, the uh the next story is with you about Screen

ScreenX Brings 270 Degree Movies

SPEAKER_00 47:08

X.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Yes, I'm very excited about this. I've said this for a long time. Something like this will be the future of home cinema and cinemas in general. So Screen X is the world's first multi-projection cinema with an immersive 270-degree field of view. So basically, what it does is you have your big screen at the front, not as big as IMAX, but pr pretty big, um, and it expands the the viewing frame so you get screens either side of the the actual main screen. So you're fully immersed, um, and the and the audience are directly in the center of the story, creating a visually immersive viewing experience, unlike any other. So you're completely, you know, with Atmos, you're immersed with sound and everything like that. What they're trying to achieve is you've got the big screen at the front, but also the sides can incorporate part of the movie. So, what I saw was uh a Spider-Man, the new Spider-Man film that's coming out. There's a big scene that I think you've probably all seen. Spoiler alert, you've all seen the uh the the trailer of that where he's in prison and uh he's fighting some uh I can't remember what they're called, but they're fighting the guys with the swords, but actually they are in front of you and round the side of you as well. Um, so I I think it's gonna be pretty big. I've I've said this a couple of years ago, I think, on another podcast or magazine, that I do believe something like this will be the future. And we're talking about earlier, you've got the big screen, so 116-inch screen. You imagine pretty much what you saw, similar to what you saw at the warehouse. I think they had screens all in the ceiling and that something similar to that, but obviously they're trying to keep it with um uh keep the interior designers uh happy. But I think if you had the immersiveness of a big screen at the front and screens around the side, if your room can can can can cape cope with that, obviously, I I think that's gonna be pretty, pretty impressive. And I I I can't wait to go and see something like that in a in a dedicated cinema or dedicated home theatre. Um but yeah, I think that'd be really good. But yeah, screen X.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

Yeah, I mean when when I saw the story earlier, I was like, what is this he's put up? And then I sort of saw the screen and I thought, okay, is this another um is this another oh uh sphere? Is this another sphere where it's almost it's gonna be concerts, it's gonna be, you know, flying through space or deep under uh the sea. And then I, you know, I go to what's it screenxtickets.com and you've got Toy Story 5, you've got Supergirl, you've got Minions and Monsters, and then you've also got, as you said, Spider-Man Brand New Day, and the live action version of Moana. Oh, so yeah, I mean it it's it's quite interesting. It'd be interesting to see uh to date there are over uh 370 Screen X auditoriums around the world in four 40 countries.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Yeah, so it's pretty good. I mean, it's bit I I've only just heard about it to be fair, and uh obviously you mentioned the sphere, which I would go back to Vegas in a heartbeat just to go and experience that again. And that's what I think cinemas need, they need something different, though. And people aren't really going to cinemas anymore because they get a bit bored. Um, but uh yeah, with Screen X, I think that just it's gonna immerse you so much and it's gonna be something completely different that you've not really experienced. And as they say, their their their tagline is where moments unfold. So you imagine that wrapped around your uh your eyes, as it were. Um, and I assume they've got Atmos in there and things like that. But yeah, I think uh we should go and do a trip.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Yeah, I mean I'm trying to find out where we do a trip to, to be honest, if I'm gonna be like a bit it off ish, but I mean I can see here that there's well if you're going to Denver, then uh probably you're probably in Denver or somewhere in America, but uh they've got images here on their Instagram page of minions and uh and Moana, and they've got uh I mean they could be renders. So I'd be I'd be interested to find out where the local ones are because their their website doesn't actually say uh locations or what I could see on their website.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

So Manor Park, I've just clicked on Toy Story and it's Manor Park um in the US. Right, okay. So I do think it's more US to be fair, but uh if you're over in America, then uh yeah, go and go and pay a visit, definitely and let us know what it's like. Uh and uh I assume they would be coming to the UK sooner rather than later.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Yeah, I've got looks like you're in Warrington. I'm not, and this page is for US uh people only. So uh so yeah, so need to get me VPN on. Yeah, so uh so uh uh I'm reaching out to the guys at the home tech.fm podcast. So Seth and the guys over there who are US and Canada based. Uh if you could go and do us a little review and come on our podcast and tell us what it's like, that'll be uh that'll be phenomenal. Thank you very much. Um you know, you know where to find us. Uh email hello at insideci.com.

Autolabs Network Platform And Training

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Um so uh the last story is uh with me and and it's sort of like touching on um a few months ago I went to uh uh I can't even think where it's based now, but I went to Jason's pub, Jason from Order Systems or the owner of Order Systems. I went to his pub and uh we had a day training with the uh Auto Labs software, and I just wanted to basically just uh sort of raise that a lot of people out there are doing networks, a lot of people out there are doing sort of price conscious networks, shall we say? And I was really, really, really impressed with Autolabs when I got to have a little play with it where we did this training. Uh and the and the good news is um that on the 22nd of July they're putting on another one of these events in crew, uh, followed by on the 30th of July in London and on the 26th of August in Scotland. So uh do go along. I mean, Jason's just sent so what is Autolabs?

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Can you explain that to the people who don't know? Is that uh something about Unify, old Unify uh guys, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Yeah, so so Autolabs is basically created in 2022 uh by uh a number of people from very different uh scenarios, but few of them were from Ubiquiti. They they were responsible with the Unify networks. So if you do put Unify in your clients' projects, as in just the network side of it, they don't do the door entries, they don't do the CCTV side of it, it's the pure, pure network side of it. Um you basically it's a very similar product product. Uh you have sort of like the cloud hosting, you have the ability to dial into your say dial in, we don't dial anymore, but dial into your client's systems remotely, monitor remotely. Uh and and it's just a very similar but very different product, which you know, if you're an integrator who is using that type of product, um, you know, I thought it fitted in really well. They've got a good range of products, uh, they're APs, they've got a good range of APs. They're also more of a um, they're gonna kill me when they see me. It's more of a tic-tac shape. So they're more of a sort of uh rather than a round shape, they're more of a sort of an oval sort of tic-tac-y shape. Got some more curves to it, bit yeah, bit more sexy. I don't know if you have tic-tacks in America. The Americans are probably listening to now, what the hell's a tic-tac? But yeah, so it's gonna be um it's gonna be on those three dates, all the information is on the inside CI website, but uh do have a lot. They they they do have um, I cannot for the life of me remember remember what it's called now. Um, but they do have like a uh a starter kit that you can buy at a discounted rate. Um so Jason and Damien have sent me uh kit here. So it's got the router in it, it's got a PoE switch in it, it's got two of the APs in it, and then I've also got a I think I've also got a 24-port switch downstairs, and I've also got a 16-port PoE switch downstairs. Because what I'm planning on doing is I'm still, I'm still building my studio. Um, but what I'm planning on doing is uh I'm planning on doing like a few videos of unboxing of setting this up for them, um, but also I'm planning on doing one about a video of installing it in you know in the new studios within the system or how to set it up, why we use it, and and those type of things. But I I say I was really, really impressed when I saw it. Um, and I'll be honest with you, I went along the training as a favour to Jason and Damien, and I came away from the training thinking, oh, if I was installing more networks or if I still was installing networks for clients, and I didn't need the CCTV and I didn't need the door entry side of it, it's definitely a product I'd go to because it's uh it's got a very good backburne, it's got a very good history, and it's at a very good price point.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Yeah, you get so by what I've read and seen, you'd get the guys behind uh obviously ubiquity and stuff and know what they're doing, but I also believe you make some decent margin on like uh some some ubiquity and unify stuff. So uh obviously a lot of client dealers do uh add a bit more for to installations and things like that. But when you can make some margin out of the actual products, then uh and they're nice and reliable and then work well, it's uh a big benefit um for uh everybody really.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Well, I think I think as some people, you know, some of the integrators say is that we've got to make margin on products because the margin we make on products is almost uh counting for a few I don't know, TV issues you might have. So if you've made a bit of margin on a product and you've made obviously your margin on your labour, if you have a problem down the line, then you don't mind going back and seeing that client if they're around the corner, you know, free of charge. Okay, I'll pop in to see you. It's probably just a such and such. Where if you're making no money on the uh the products, you've got no support on that product within reason, and all you're making is your money on your uh installation. You've either got to inflate your installation price to the point that you're not then gonna make and get the sale, or you then have got to charge a customer every time you go back to do a service call, which obviously, if that's only two, three, four months old, six months old, the client's like, Well, I just paid you three, four, five thousand pounds. Why are you charging me for a service call?

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Yeah, that is a bit tricky, that's for sure. So, yeah, if you don't if you don't don't have to do that, then uh that's a big, big bonus and uh make some uh money out of the products itself. That's really handy.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Yeah, and also going back to our earlier comment, they have a they have an online platform called Basecamp. So uh you can you can take the entry-level system, you could have a uh a play with it, or and uh you could do Basecamp. So I think I registered for it, I haven't done it yet. Uh it's I think it's about an eight-hour course that you do, which takes you through the fundamentals of programming or what it's all about. But to say on the course that I went to, which I believe these are a mirror image of that, it it was pretty simple. It's if you know how to install a network, a unify network, uh an Arachnis, a Ruckus, a Dreytek, anything like that, these this is pretty, pretty simple. So uh so yeah, head over to head over to the Inside CI um uh website, click on the news story, which at the moment is literally right at the top, and then down there you'll see a little link. Click on that link, and then you can go and register. Places are limited on a first come, first serve. As I say, it's in crew, it's in London and it's in Scotland. Um, so that's it for the news we're gonna talk about. Um, but also don't forget that we have so much news on the Inside CI podcast. Uh sorry, the Inside CI website and the Inside CI podcast. So pop over to um the Inside CI website, uh insideCI.co.uk. And on there at the moment, for example, we have uh lots of stories from uh monitor audio amplifies the new museum of youth culture,

Inside CI Daily AI News

SPEAKER_00 58:30

senior smart home awards, head back to the natural history museum. Our friends at Cinema Lux, who obviously we did a podcast with last year, they've not only expanded into India, but they're now expanding into the UAE as well.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

They are worldwide, the Cinema Lux now. Um I was speaking to Max about it, and uh yeah, no, it sounds really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Yeah, and I think they've just literally saw I apologize, I can't remember the company that did it, but literally just saw, I think they've just done their first installation out there. Someone was posted about it yesterday. Uh and then you've also got yeah, you've also got loads of inf loads of stories like uh Clarity Alliance boosts hi-fi retail support with Beer of Business backing, and even down to Shelley Group brings an intelligent leak detector and to smart building projects. So we've got so many different stories going up there almost every day. It just keeps me so busy. Also, actually, since we did this podcast last, I had a quite a few people turn around to me and say, Where have the AI podcasts gone? Uh and if you if you've not listened to this podcast before, before I see this year, I started dabbling with some like AI podcasts, so written by humans, voiced by AI. And then when I sort of took over Inside CI and we started doing this one virtually, and then I started obviously we were sitting down with Barry from AVA, and we were sitting down with I didn't want to sort of devalue this podcast. So literally after the CD of Bristol Tech Summit uh a month ago, a few weeks ago, I sat in my premiere in and created actually created the Inside CI Daily podcast. So what happens is that so what generally happens is Steve writes up the new story which goes on the website. I then take that new story and then put that into a piece of software that voices it. Uh because I did try and do a solo podcast in between the two, and it was terrible. So I can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:26

So is the AI your voice or just a general AI?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

No, it's just it I've just gone through it and obviously found a British voice and just one that you know understands the words like it understands Kaleidoscape and understands unified, understands Autolabs. Um, so because some of the I mean there's thousands. I mean, I could do I could pretty much do this podcast in every single language across the world if I wanted to. So so yeah, so fundamentally we've got we've got the website, we've got the YouTube channel, and then we've got two podcasts now. We've got Inside CI Tech Talk, which is this one, the one that me and you are talking, or we're talking with people from like Brisella or AVA or AWE, and then we've got the Inside CI sort of daily podcast, which is exactly that. It's every morning, 7am, um, there's a two, three, four, five-minute AI voiced human-red podcast just about the latest news story. So I think this morning's one was the one about Chowsoft, was the one about the Skydriver. So I had a few people just say to me, like, oh no, I loved it, because what I'll what I used to do was go into the whatever room I'm building, press play, put my ear pods in, and it just run me through all the news that I'd not not really read. Um, and then I sort of looked at it as an ex integrator and went, Do you know what? Actually, yeah, that's a really good idea. So uh so yes, we have two we have two podcasts now.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Yeah, you can be multitasking and listen to uh uh the news at the same time, which is uh is pretty pretty handy. So especially some sites you've been on and uh the the music's being played if it's a proper building site. So uh yeah, get your pods in and uh yeah, listen to the AI uh inside uh news.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Well that's what I always like about the days that I spent in cinemas, because I was always in the basement. Generally, no one walks through the room. You could at some point you could just shut the door, put a decent podcast on, and you're down there for eight hours apart from lunch, no one disturbs you. So uh so yeah, so so please have a listen. Please pop over to

Closing Notes And Contacts

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

your website, uh, sorry, your podcast platform of choice. Search InsideCI and you should see both podcasts come up. So uh so that's it for this week. Uh, but hey, don't forget to pop over to the Inside CI uh website, listen to the podcast, pop over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment on this channel, uh this podcast if you've got any questions. Uh Simon, thank you for spending the time with me tonight. Uh, where can people find you if they're trying to find you on the internet?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

So, yeah, we're uh the website is uh cinema hyphenrooms.co.uk or cinemarrooms.com. So uh you can find us on either of those. Uh Instagram and LinkedIn. So uh we generally come off the other ones to be fair. So uh yeah, Instagram is our main one, and then obviously YouTube and uh and LinkedIn. So uh yeah, no, thanks, thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Yeah, no worries, mate. Um you can find me personally across most platforms as uh at Mr. Stuart Burgess. Uh other than that, it's inside CI. So inside CI News or Inside CI across most platforms. You'll find us mainly on uh pretty much all of the platforms, Instagram, Facebook. And to be honest, Twitter still works really well for the brand.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:27

Really? I got I got rid of Twitter. Twitter and TikTok, like they're out of here.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:31

I still still get quite a lot of stuff. I mean, TikTok works really well for the other podcast, the gaming podcast. Um, but also I've started having a play with uh uh Substack, um, which actually, if you're if you're the person who likes to write, you're the person who likes to do blogs and things like that, um, look at Substack. Substack's really good because it's a platform where you can put up daily posts like we do, but you can also write articles and blogs and uh and just get a bit more, you know. I suppose it's a blog website, so you can write full-on length blogs, which you know, if you haven't got a website, then you can put them up. Again, we're looking at doing them for the gaming podcast because uh I don't want to go down the route of paying for a website on a passion project. So um so yeah, so for me at InsideCI News across for for InsideCI and at Mr. Stuart Burgess. But uh, but Simon, thank you much very much for your time. I am gonna go and open the door and get in my bathing trunks and I'm gonna go and get in my ice bath. There's a picture for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:28

What a what a picture. And uh I'm gonna go outside and get really hot and uh support England when we play on uh on Saturday. So come on, England.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

Yeah, hopefully the next time we uh we pod will be in a couple of weeks. So will it be over in a couple of weeks? It will be, won't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:42

It will. Yeah, England France final. Yeah, watch this space.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

So if if in two weeks, as you listen to this, in two weeks' time, if you go to the YouTube channel uh or we're on Apple Podcast Video as well, if you flick on and see Simon in an England shirt, we won. If you don't see him in an English shirt, then we know we failed.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

Yeah, exactly. We won't mention it. There's always next time.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:05

Excellent, buddy. Well, look, thank you very much for your time. Thank you for everybody who's listening and watching this, and we'll see you on the next one. Cheers.