RE: NEC Smarthome show

["Rob Mouser" <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Great to meet up with all the 'regulars', a special thanks to Mark, Paul
(And his long suffering other half ;-)), Keith, Li and Trevor for a really
enjoyable weekend at the hotel.
I am pleased to confirm that our beloved leader does indeed eat a more
varied diet than just Potatoes ;-) I have photographic evidence of Mark
eating a prawn cracker of all things! Obviously he was fooled thinking it
was a crisp ;-)
I apologise to all the list members as I failed miserably to get Keith
Doxey
drunk and get him to sign the pre-prepared affidavit stating that the KAT5
switcher would be delivered by Christmas 2005 ;-)
As for the show....well as many have said "plenty of wow-factor"
out there.
What really struck me was the lack of knowledge of many (Simply, Comfort
and
Web Brick guys VERY much excluded) of the exhibitors. My overriding memory
will be the MD of one company with a LARGE multiroom audio stand looking
really quite amazed that Keith could provide a box to send RGB video over
CAT5. He was even more amazed when Keith said he could get composite over
CAT5 using just 1 pair! "Hey, that's really 'trick'" I think was
the
comment........!!!
It really does show that the collective knowledge of this list, out ways
some of the 'commercial' knowledge out there and without doubt at a lower
price point.


Many thanks,

Rob
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Keith Doxey
> Sent: 17 April 2005 20:05
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] NEC Smarthome show
>
>
> > From: Paul Gordon
> >
> > Not long got back home from Birmingham, so thought I'd add my
> > thoughts about the weekend to those already posted.
> >
>
> Got home mid afternoon myself.
>
> >
> > I definitely feel it was worth the visit, - it's always
interesting to
> see
> > (and occasionally touch) all the nice shiny things!
> >
>
> Absolutely, even if I didnt manage to sneak the 61" Plasma out
:-)
>
> > The Smarthome part of the show was absolutely dwarfed by the
> > selfbuilding & renovation part of it
> >
>
> I did noticed a couple of stands in the selfbuild show that would have
> been
> more appropriate in the SmartHome show but there was just so much to
see.
> Interesting to notice that the organisers used some sort of random
number
> generator when numbering the stands.
>
> Looking through the list of exhibitors in the brochure helped you
identify
> stands you wanted to see and told you what number stand they were on.
You
> then had to spend ages searching the floorplan to find the number on
the
> layout!!!!
>
> >
> > The exhibitors within the Smarthome show seemed to fall pretty
> > broadly into just two camps: -
> > ....about 50% of the entire exhibition was AV equipment, -
> > ....Another 40% was all "fancy lightswitches"
>
> > The remaining 10% was (IMHO) the main area of interest, -
> > including our very own favourites like Comfort & Simply
> > Automate, and a few niche/new products like the Web-brick and so
on.
> >
> > Most are interested mainly in selling a complete, closed system.
> >
>
> Having seen some of the prices they were quoting you can see why they
> wouldnt be interested in selling someone a couple of X10 moudules !!
>
> >
> > As ever, the most enjoyable, (and in actual fact the most
productive)
> > element was getting to meet up face-to-face with fellow UKHA-ers,
> > - I think it's true to say I learned more about CBUS by chatting
to
> > Kwong Li over breakfast in the hotel and with Rob Mouser in the
bar,
> > than from any of the exhibitors at the show.
> >
>
> Agreed, some very good discussions and several ideas gleaned from the
> show.
>
> > Would I go again next year... well, yes. of course! I can't
> > resist all those nice shiny toys!
> >
>
> The organisers are planning to double the number of stands in the
> SmartHome
> part of the show next year.
>
> > Would I go to it in preference to a UKHA2006?? - Absolutely not!
> >
>
> If it was only possible to go to one event then it would have to be
> UKHA2006
> but I would also go to SmartHome 2006 for a day if I could but
preferably
> not at the weekend as there were a lot more people blocking the stands
on
> the Saturday.
>
> Great weekend meeting up with friends again :-)
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>