If your son is the owner of the company why isnt he doing the postings?
Does he work at your facility or is he in China?
And how many of the "Setnet Professionals" are still working for Setnet and what qualifications do they hold? Will they be our source of Technical support? or will we be usherd to talk with Abdul Hussein Imabomber in a foreign country?
If the market is a prediction of things to come...isnt ALC dying out anyway?
Why did the pricing become astronomically high after you purchased rights to the devices?
Wouldnt it be the same? Engineering for the units has already been taken care of thru On-Qs R&D therefore you have no costs associated with the design of a product.
Is this an attempt to pad your wallet more?
Did you purchase these switches to sell and upgrade all the smarthouse applications still in existance or did Obama appoint you Lighting Control Czar??
I have been reading the posts with much interest and amusement. Let me see if I can answer any questions posed by yoda.
As to the Setnet Professionals working for SET NET, the group of men that worked on the house of the Lou Gerighs sufferer, they were people that Tony knew in the industry. Tony called and got different manafactures to give products and we went up to do what we could to help out a fellow installer who had fallen on very hard times. We all know Tony but now actually have no connection with the company. Several of us have some experience with ALC lighting and would offer what help to installers as we could.
ALC was actually the third generation smarthouse product. The great thing about ALC was like the first smarthouse products it worked first time, every time, which in those days x-10 etc, didn't. Now over a decade later the reliability of other products have greatly increased and the hardwired solutions are not as attractive as the were years ago. I love the ALC product and hate to see it fade into the sunset but I also miss dos 6.2. The major advantage I see to the the newer wireless products is that the devices do not have a wire connecting all devices together and a surge is not as likely to take out all the devices on a branch. I mostly do propritary systems now, Lutron, Crestron, etc and for wireless devices use crestron infinet. This seems to be the direction some of the industry is heading and the products are getting better.
I, like everyone else, no matter how much we enjoy our work like to make money.
Thats all I can offer today.
Gary Bridwell
Thanks for clarification Gary Bridwell. Im interested in learning more about the Lou Gherigs project that you and the other guys did for the project mentioned in your posting (and located on Tonys website). Since it was the only project of its kind, are you the only guys who are doing those kinds of installs?
I may have a few applications that may fit right up your alley if you are interested in some work.
I like the way the system seemed to have worked (unlike nothing ive read about). Do you work with any of the other installers?
Or are the rest of the guys installers and owners of their own businesses?
To take a house and automate it in the way you guys did is exciting to read about and im sure being able to see it in operation would truly be an amazing site..
It seems you guys covered a wide area as far as where you were located geographically as well. (even one guy from Missouri?)
My hat goes off to you guys and the dedication you have more enhancing the lifestyle of a "fellow integrator" and making his life more meaningful to him and his family..
I hope others on here have read the BIO about the project and/or viewed the video..These guys really know their stuff
Maybe I can contact you sometime?
Thanks for your posting....
Sure would love an opportunity for a shorter post.....
Let me do the best I can to comment on all posts with this one single response. Although it is getting a little repetitive since much of this has already been addressed and as such we are wasting a lot of people's time.
Yoda, I too served in the USAF. You have my respect. Actually that's where my electronics education began. I owe the US military a great deal!
If you are fishing for our how small we are (I think you already know, first hand), then we are tiny! Mostly family members. As far as our qualifications, I have already spent more time than I am comfortable with discussing this and choose not to compare skill sets again except to say that we are survivors. We will be here when many others are long gone. Gary B chimed in and he is an old friend from many years back. He has first hand knowledge that we never give up! Will we be here to serve you and back up your installs in the future. YES SIR!
No, we will not be routing our tech support to any other location. The buck stops here. Soon, you will see some proof of that. For now, let me say that ALC is about to rise from the ashes! At least in the area of tech support and training, sales will be up to you folks.
As for as the future of the market you asked about, let me say that currently there is almost no new construction market left. But, when it comes back ALC will not die out as we are now the reason it will not. Frankly, it don't eat much and as soon as we get the manufacturing infrastructure smoothed out and moved to the United States, then the product will take care of itself.
Now for prices. This is what may have ruffled your feathers anyway. Let me explain what a manufacturer really is. OnQ never actually made a single product. Instead they send their engineering specs to an outside source that makes the products to their specs. We will do the same. Currently way too much dependence is placed on foreign sources. People like OnQ can travel to china and work out manufacturing issues far easier than I can. Larger companies can also purchase 10's of thousands of units at a time. We can not. Instead we will be placing orders for a few thousand at a time. This and the move to the US affects our pricing.
We must also consider current distribution channels. We must price our products to allow distributors room to stock our parts and then sell them to you. We are supporting all current OnQ Distributors and have added some new ones. Although not many distributors are prepared to stock anybody's products in large quantities until the recession is behind us.
I don't want to compete with any other distributor unfairly. But I promised in an earlier post to help any of you who have been active in theses posts (and the previous ones) with some amount of pricing assistance. Have your choice of distributor call us and mention you. And we can add you to this process (for any job/install you might already have quoted).
As for design, there will be some future design costs. Both of the original Engineers for the product line are eager to develop the product. But first, we must firm up the foundation in respect to supply of materials.
Now for your "pad my wallet comment". Well of course I want to get paid. However, we can only succeed at that if you do so as well. There is no business case if you are not happily involved.
As for as your comment about upgrading current Smarthouses using ALC, well that one comment cracked the door on your true identity. You obviously know more about this situation than would a newbie. So let me comment in a straight forward - eye to eye manner (which is my style).
Yes, I fully plan to continue to travel the US converting Smarthouses to ALC just as I have since 2002. There were somewhere around 2000 smarthouses installed between the years of 1990 and 1996. All of them will one day need an ALC conversion. Hopefully, prayerfully, this will be a cash resource for our company for at least the next 20 to 30 years. One by one, every Smarthouse will one day have to deal with the obsolescence of their current system. And until another brand comes along ALC will have a home in these conversions for a long time. Actually, that one thing should satisfy your concern over the future of ALC.
I think you already know that in 2002, AMP handed over ALL of the supply of unused Smarthouse parts in their warehouse to us. Why? Well, among the reasons was certainly the fact that the 2000+ customers would one day need help. And they must have thought us worthy of the responsibility. Now in 2010, another company chooses to use us to continue in their footsteps. The AMP Smarthouse was made obsolete and the ALC system created to change that. Today ALC also has a future in new homes as well as providing relief to those cursed to live in AMP Smarthouses? For these reasons, ALC has a home for many years.
LIGHTING CONTROL CZAR? An interesting title. Actually the most experienced person in the automated lighting industry may well be Scott Kladwoski of PCS. But I guess, the old school of hard knocks might at least make me the PRINCE! I never strived for this experience, but this is where I find myself.
Now for a comment about the Lou Gehrig's project and a response from one of the smartest men I know of in our industry - Mr. Gary Bridwell.
Let's put a face on this project. The face is one of another of our industries smartest people. Mr. Steve Smith. Steve still uses the system that was designed by us and installed by a handful of special people like Gary Bridwell, Ryan Hyatt, Shannon Graham, Glenn Mertens and others. These men sacrificed a lot to help one of their own. The promotion of that project and the discussions since, have the primary goal of providing hope to the other victims of Lou Gehrig's desease. None of us wanted accolades. Steve wanted his story told to show the world that you don't have to give up simply because you are 100% paralyzed (except of his eyes) and can't talk.
Gary Bridwell was certainly a strong leader in that group of men and always gave 150% without question. Gary knows how small we are because he lives 2 miles from here and I see him regularly at Mt Lebanon Baptist Church. He also knows my son as he provided a lot of Anthony's early training when he worked for me and was Anthony's supervisor. It should come as no surprise that as time moves on, a man should begin to position his family into a role of taking over in his place. Anthony will one day take my place as I did my father. And the torch continues to burn. Try finding that commitment to the future in companies that are not family run. I hope you all see this as a positive for the future of ALC and our company in general.
As far as Anthony's capacity to lead and support ALC, he is superior to me in many ways and I would team him with any of you on any job you undertake without fear of failure. I will share your comments with him, but one of his strengths is that he is wiser than I as such will probabily ignore your attack on his character/skills.
Now for warranty. My license agreement with OnQ demands that I support their current warranty obligations until they expire. However we also offer the same one year warranty on our future sales. And we also bought their entire lab and product testing equipment. Meaning that we will do repairs as needed. In addition, we are currently rebuiling their test jigs to include all models of HAI and Elk Products controllers and some other equipment. We have over 100 ALC switches installed into the test jig and will be using it to create training and support videos that you will soon see. As relates to tech support, this is an area where I can excel and love to do these kind of hands on projects. I think you will be amazed at the videos we publish on our site. Give us some time and see what comes of this effort. Better yet, drop by and see for yourself!
Yoda, was price the issue that set you off? What can I do to salvage that? I have bared my soul to you Yoda and I have used my real name. What else can I say.
Since Gary has finally posted, I suggest you folks pick his brain. In all my years of experience I have met few with his tenacity. It will be good to have him posting. Yoda, give me another chance to make you smile. Shannon Graham has already been active here as well. He too is a great asset!
God Bless, yes Yoda, especially you!
TS
