While the term "game changer" gets beaten to death by the technology media, the fact is that periodically, technological innovations come along that do in fact reshape the landscape, and thus change the game.

In the custom installation channel, such changes impact not only how installations are performed, but also how they're sold, designed and completed. One such recent innovation was the shift from distributing audio and video throughout the home over analog lines to doing so through network cables. That change heralded the demand for new equipment, saw old products fade into oblivion, and necessitated that custom channel pros acquire new skills in order to make the best use of the new technology.

The Apple iPad has received a lot of attention over the past year with regards to its impact on the custom channel. The device has single-handedly usurped the touch screen business. So it doesn't come as a surprise that, when polling integrators to find out what new technology has most impacted their projects in recent months, they all came back with the same answer: that 9.7" Apple wonder.

With the iPad now in major play, how have projects changed? What challenges have integrators faced on the jobsite, and how have they been solved? And what does the future hold for upcoming projects?

John Stumpf, Sales Manager, Station Earth, Fergus, ON, says that integrators should include at least one hard-wired touch panel per floor in a project as back-up. "There will come a time when Apple runs a system-wide upgrade and every iPad in the house shuts down. Doing a control system entirely with mobile devices might be short-sighted."

"The iPad might as well be a naked woman," jokes John Stumpf, Sales Manager at Fergus, ON's Station Earth. "If you have one in your showroom, everyone wants to touch it."

Stumpf remarks on how addicted people are to their iPads, from executives to soccer moms, carrying them with them wherever they go. These days, it's not unusual for a prospective client to show up with his own iPad in hand.

According to Stumpf, the iPad is more than just a tablet; it's a gateway drug that leads people towards integrated home systems who might not have considered them before. "As soon as you give someone an app that will let him do something easier, he'll want it," Stumpf explains.

Touch Panel Back Up Needed

The impact of the iPad on Station Earth's business has been dramatic; so much so that Stumpf is only half joking when he says he doesn't care if they ever sell another dedicated touch panel again. He's only half joking because Stumpf advises that it's still necessary to wire for and install at least one interface that isn't an iPad or similar product.

"There will come a time when Apple runs a system-wide upgrade and every iPad in the house shuts down." Hence the need to have at least one dedicated touch panel in a project as both a backup and a backdoor. "Doing a control system entirely with mobile devices might be short-sighted," he explains. "Everybody's had a mobile device whose battery dies."

While Station Earth has willingly (even eagerly) gone with the flow regarding iPads, Stumpf's team still strongly advocates for not just one non-iPad touch panel in a job, but at least one hardwired touch panel per floor in their projects. "Hardwired touch panels never fail," Stumpf emphasizes. "After that, the clients can have 30 iPads if they want."

Johnny Mota, Designer, Vsys Home Automation, Sonoma, CA: "While the iPad has changed how we design systems, and while we're beta-testing Android control as well, having a hard-wired alternate is still necessary."

Of all Station Earth's projects, there's one in particular that both epitomizes this technology shift, and underscores Stumpf's warning about going whole-hog on mobile control. As it happens it was a hand me down project. The initial contractor "got carried away" and had disappointed the client and left him in the lurch. According to Stumpf, the second company called in presented an estimate that the client thought was stratospheric, so Station Earth was called in to offer a second opinion and bid on the redo.

The entire house had been wired with the expectation of nothing but mobile control. "Imagine a finished living space of 18,000 square feet with not one touch panel in the house," Stumpf describes. Understandably, the client had been conditioned to accept that this was normal, so Stumpf and his team got to see and dissect the original dealer's quote. They had go back to the beginning, and go over some old ground to bring the client onside to their methodology.

Fortunately, the lowest level of the house hadn't been fully finished, so the installers were able to retrofit and get lines run to six touch panel locations. With that backup in place, Stumpf notes that there is still an enormous reliance on mobile control. But overall, he's confident that the entire project will be great once completed.

Also central to the shift to mobile control has been the need to rethink how control and access to subsystems are programmed, especially with regard to security cameras and access systems.

"When the doorbell rings or the intercom at the front gate is buzzed, no one wants to take 15 steps to access the camera and see who's there," Stumpf asserts. In one of the initial meetings with this client, Stumpf took his own iPad along, and accessed his own home's cameras over 3G. It was a substantially simpler process than the one the original dealer had sold the client on, and proved to be a pivotal moment in winning the project.

While the iPad has become the interface of choice, the device hasn't greatly altered Station Earth's prewire practices. Given the relative lack of expense when it comes to running network lines, it's still a best practice to wire for full control in new construction, even if most of the control locations aren't expected to be used. "Having the wire in place is key for future changes," says Stumpf. "While the days of putting 10 or more wired touch panels in the house are gone, we still wire accordingly." So while Station Earth is doing fewer touch panels and more iPads, that hasn't really changed how its projects are prepped. Since it's always better to be over prepared than under prepared, Stumpf cautions that integrators should not slash $10,000 prewires down to $8,000 based on the hunch that they don't need wired locations anymore.

Peter Williams, Custom Integrator/Savant Programmer, Sound Designs, Toronto, ON: "If we specify five interfaces and are saving $2,000 on each location that a traditional touch panel would have cost the client, that's $10,000 right there that can go somewhere else."