The Guys Who Get Design

As technology becomes more and more deeply woven into the fabric of the home environment, the need increases for professionals who can integrate it not just seamlessly but with some flair. But while architects and interior designers will turn to custom integrators to supply the required wire and gear, they tend to cast a wary eye in their direction when it comes to anything involving design, seeing the integrator’s efforts as more a necessary evil than a desired complement to their work. The upshot is that integrators tend to find their involvement in the overall creation of a home minimized, and postponed in the process for as long as possible, which often leads to major changes and delays that can bring construction to a frustrating and expensive halt.

Josh Christian is working to change all that, using his organization, the Home Technology Association (HTA)—which was created to separate the custom integration wheat from the chaff—to not just help integrators become more design savvy but to urge architects, designers, and builders to engage those HTA integrators who have their design act together from the very beginning of the planning of a home. Below, Josh talks about how this effort arose from his own early years as an integrator in the LA market and how he and his organization have made some headway but still have a ways to go.

SAV Editor’s note: In this interview, Cineluxe’s Michael Gaughn chats with HTA’s Josh Christian. Bolded text indicates that Michael is speaking, while normal text indicates Josh.

Is it fair to say that integrators are often left out of the design loop until it’s too late to have any meaningful impact?

Typically speaking, yes, that’s a big problem for integrators. Bringing them in too late leads to all sorts of problems. It means a lot of the client’s technology wishes will be compromised, which often leads to having to do a change order or an expensive retrofit and other delays with the project.

Is there a subset of integrators who have figured out how to ensure they’re in there early, and do they have any strategies that are the equivalent of waving their arms and saying, “You’d be crazy to start without us.”

My guesstimate of all the integrators out there, less than 3% have figured this out in any meaningful way, where it’s a serious goal of theirs to improve their working relationships with architects, designers, and builders. The successful ones are just doing really great marketing business practices. They’ll join the associations for those trades and use them to meet up with the builders, designers, and architects in their community. They’ll also reach out and connect on social media.

Where many integrators fail is that they talk all about “me, me, me”—Oh, we’re the best integrator in town; we do this, we do that; we do home theater, we do home automation—but they don’t talk about their process so much and show that they respect what their trade partners do. Because it’s really important for an integrator to be able to think like the people they work with. Those other people typically aren’t interested in audio, video, or controls, and because of that they think their clients don’t care either. So integrators shouldn’t talk about those techie things when they introduce themselves but should instead present themselves as a solution to their client’s technology needs, because the truth is that there’s going to be technology in every single home their trade partners are working on, even if a client’s not a techie person.

At a minimum, a home needs to be pre-wired; it’s probably going to have a network and the client is probably going to want robust wi-fi, and they probably want a security system or a surveillance system. So it’s best for an integrator to say, “Hey, I’m a solution provider. No matter how simple or how complex, I’ll help design the client’s technology needs into your plans and make sure everything gets installed in the best, most aesthetically pleasing way possible. And if any of our products will be visible on the structure or in the interior, I’ll get your input so you’re OK with the way they look.” The trade partners love that, because they’re been included in the process.

Do you find that there are many integrators who have a strong grasp of design?

The awareness still needs to come up with that quite a bit. When I started with the Home Technology Association, I expected to find that many more integrators are doing this than they are, so we’re providing guidelines to help the ones that aren’t yet performing at that level to show what the architects, designers, and builders want out of them. It’s slowly getting better but it has to happen a lot quicker.

Interior designers used to want nothing to do with technology because they saw it as just gumming up what they were trying to do, which frequently led to tension between them and the integrator. Younger designers and architects seem much more comfortable with the technology and are more willing to accommodate the integrator. But what’s your recent experience been like? Is it still a battle to get designers to accept the tech?

It is a bit of a battle but it is getting better. It’s important to remember that back when I got my start in this, the technology tended to be a lot more obvious, a lot less flexible, a lot more expensive, and wasn’t as central to people’s lives.But now everybody is effected by technology, and since everyone, including the architects, designers, and builders themselves, are more reliant on it than ever, the clients and trade partners don’t fight that conversation as much anymore.

Are you aware of many integrators who have interior designers on staff?

I know very few. I think there are maybe two integrators out there who have one on staff. And I think the reason it’s uncommon is that, if an interior designer knew an integrator had someone who does what they do, they’d be less apt to refer that integrator, thinking the integrator might take that client’s interior design business in the future and create a conflict of interest. Plus, it’s such a different field.

Could you cite any integrators that are particularly good at getting in there early on projects, at bringing the design elements together, and at creating a strong bond with the other trades?

There are a few in our industry that do a really great job of that. But SAV Digital Environments in Montana stands out because they do a phenomenal job of marketing. They do a lot of lunch ’n’ learns for architects and designers, they get their CEU credits, and they do quite a few events at their showroom. I’m seeing more integrators instead of moving away from showrooms, building new ones, and they’re building them to be interior designer and architect resources.

That’s a great trend, and I hope it continues, because you can talk about human-centric lighting but when you see it, it really has an impact. That’s especially true with something that’s near and dear to this industry’s heart—a high-performance home theater. Home theater has become such a diluted term. A client sometimes thinks it’s a three-hundred-dollar soundbar system they can find at a big-box store because it says “home theater.” So they think that if that’s three hundred dollars, if they spend five thousand dollars they must be getting something just ridiculously, phenomenally top of the line. But, as you and I know, you can spend multi hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home theater, if not millions. But it has to be done right. It’s not just the components—it’s the design, it’s the acoustics, it’s the space. So I like that high-performance theater is being focused on again, where there are truly wow experiences that can convince even a jaded client. Clients will spend the money when they know what experience is they’re going to get.

Interview by Michael Gaughn for Cineluxe.

A Lutron Pico Remote.

Two Lutron Pico Remotes flank a comfortable bed, allowing the resident to easily control the blinds, drapes and lights from their position of rest.

SAV works with architects, developers, designers and builders to achieve stunning results that align with the design intent of any project. Recently, we’ve been hard at work with a local developer called Velocity to restore and modernize a historic structure in downtown Bozeman. While many projects require our technology systems to look and perform beautifully, we also understand the need to make the system more subtle, or even to make it disappear completely, in order to retain the historic feel of the structure. Here’s what Dan has to say about our design capabilities with regard to hiding tech in plain sight:

“One of the reasons we talked to Cory is that… you guys [SAV] know this so well, and it’s going to be professional. It’s to the level where a trained eye doesn’t even know it’s there. And that’s what I like. So that’s why I like the little speakers, that’s why I like all that stuff routed back down to the basement, it’s because you have no idea what this old house is packing.” - Dan Corbielle, Velocity Development & Real Estate

A Lutron Alisse Keypad integrated next to the range in a kitchen, part of a work in progress.

A close-up of another Lutron Alisse Keypad.

We’re currently working on wrapping this project up, and once it’s finished, we will publish a case study about it to further explore the entire process. In the meantime, for more on SAV’s design compatibility, check out this case study.