Blogs
Sonos IPO - Yes or SoNo?
Sonos, on track to do 1 billion dollars of sales this year plans to list shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SONO.
With a reported net loss of $14.2 million on close to a billion dollars revenue ($992.5 million) is it a good time for the smart speaker company to be going Public?
Some people think No, with James Titcomb from the Telegraph making a point that the smart speaker space is being invaded by Amazon, Apple and Google. He has a point, If people are really interested in sound quality (And I mean really) then they won't be shopping for an all-in-one speaker/amp combo. They will have a proper set of stereo speakers and an amp (perhaps a Sonos amp) but Sonos have been moving away from this market and more towards smart speakers.
The trouble with smart speakers is that Amazon and Google are effectively using their smart speaker products as a loss leader to grab market share on data, search, advertising and purchasing. So not only are Sonos up against the biggest technology companies in the world, but those companies don't need to make a profit on their products, Sonos does.
Sonos currently makes a loss, but it has a great platform and a great product. They need to leverage the relationships they have with distributors (Best Buy sells 1 in 3 of the Sonos units sold in the USA). From their prospectus you can see that 61% of purchasers have more than one Sonos unit in their household with buyers on average buying a further 1.4 units. So customer loyalty is high but...
Sonos notes in regards to risks, customer dissatisfaction is a very clear and dangerous one if Sonos decides to stop supporting older versions of its products - furthermore they go on to say “that in the near to intermediate term, this backward compatibility will no longer be practical or cost-effective.”
Personally, for myself and many customers, Sonos shoot themselves in the foot if you cant use your older products anymore, or worse if they borked or bricked them with a forced firmware update. It's good that they note the danger of this, however the very fact they made the above statement shows that it's likely at some stage, silly and pointless IMHO and just the way to alienate your customer base - Lets see if the bean counters win that war.
Project Handover - U Time Fitness - Laguna, Phuket
UTime Fitness Studio in Phuket at Laguna.
U Time is a popular Fitness Studio where you can get 24/7 access to a premium gym and highly qualified staff for the price of a coffee per day. Popular in Hong Kong they recently opened their first Thailand Gym in Phuket at The Plaza Del Mar in Laguna.
We were tasked by U Time to install a music system that sounded great and was capable of being controlled, turned on and off by customers entering with their keycard entry 24 hours of the day.
UTime Gym with in-ceiling speakers
The installation consisted of 4 pairs of Nuvo In-Ceiling Speakers powered by 2 Dual Stereo Power Amps and some added Oomph provided by a 12" Subwoofer tucked away discretely.
UTime FItness in Laguna, Phuket
24 hour gym in Phuket, Laguna - UTime
“Working with h3-digital was a pleasure. I explained our needs and Rob and the team delivered the perfect product within budget and on time. Look forward to working with them again!”
UTime Gym Handover - Cathal Kiely from UTime meets with Rob Hobbs from H3 Digital
Tv's are still getting bigger, will be biggest in China.
RCA 630 TS - 10 inch Television
Television has been available in crude experimental forms since the late 1920's but it was RCA's 630-TS that was the world's first mass produced TV set, launched in 1946. The TV had a huge 10 inch screen (Black and White of course) and had a smaller sibling with a 7 inch screen. The RCA 630-TS had a starting price of $352 in 1946 so around $4,800 today. It weighed almost 40Kg in tabletop form.
Recently an IFA Tech Trends report pointed out that the USA is no longer going to be the trend setter in terms of largest TV size.
TV Size by Global Market
It expects that by 2020 the average TV screen size in China will be a massive 54.1 inch, 2.1 inches larger than even the USA at 52 inches, which is 3.1 inches larger than the European TV average size which is understood to be around 48.9 inches by then. This is for new TV sizes, the Japanese are way behind on an average of 40 inches for their TV sizes, although this is likely to do with the size of their apartments and homes than a penchant for small Tv's.
Smart TV sales are on the rise
TVs are not only getting larger, but also smarter. 68% of all TVs sold are now “smart” TVs, while 32% can deliver Ultra-High Definition or “4K” images.
What is amazing is that you can just about buy an average sized TV now for exactly the same as the average sized TV cost back then in 1946 - some 72 years ago.
Bangkok Sonos Install - Sukhumvit
Sukhumvit Rd Outdoor Speakers - Swimming Pool
This Bangkok home located just off Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok is an entertainers dream, great for Dinner Parties and entertainment gatherings it features 7 zones of Sonos Audio including 12 pairs of Nuvo In-Ceiling and Outdoor Speakers, with Sonos Playbars and Sonos Subs for the TV's Audio Visual.
The living area is one large audio zone with 6.5" in-ceiling speakers in the entrance hall, corridoors, family, living and dining area, all powered by Nuvo Power amps and a Sonos connect (ZP90).
In the Living Room and Media/Home Cinema Room there are 84" and 75" 4K LED Televisions with surround sound and bass provided by the Sonos Playbar and Sonos Sub.
Sukhumvit Rd In-Ceiling Speakers - Entrance
The Pool Deck features 2 pairs of Nuvo outdoor speakers providing a great spread of sound over the swimming and deck areas.
The Master Bedroom has an additional pair of integrated ceiling speakers in the ensuite, a fun addition for listening to music whilst soaking in the bath.
Finally the Gym and fitness area is another Sonos zone with speakers tucked up into the ceiling, you can walk around the entire home and have music exactly when and where you want it.
Low Voltage Landscape & Outdoor Lighting
We've actually been installing 12V landscape and garden lighting for years, previously only on request for our smart home lighting installs. Now we are launching it as a comprehensive new service, available to all. Low Voltage lighting is the safe, beautiful way to light your garden, pool, path and outdoor living areas, it can be retrofit into your home or designed in from the start.
Softly light pathways and accent trees
Our fixtures and fittings are almost all imported but we use locally sourced Philips 12V LED Lamps so that they can easily be replaced, although being LED they last much longer than halogen, fluorescent or incandescent bulbs.
Low voltage lighting is safe, you can rest assured that you and your children, pets, gardener or friends aren't going to get electric shocks from a 12V system. It does have to be wired correctly to work, as such you will need a proper lighting plan and power supplies/transformers from us.
Create atmosphere around water features
Add mood with 12V uplights
So what can you do with low voltage or 12V outdoor lighting? It's a beautiful way to accent your favourite trees, plants and landscape areas. Softly light paths and create outdoor living spaces for entertaining.
Contact us if you'd like to find out more.
Home Cinemas of the Rich and Famous: Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal or 'Shaq' as he is known is one of NBA's most famous stars, worth a reputed 400 million dollars his Orlando, Florida home has recently been up for sale at a price of $28 million. It features 12 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms and it's own basketball court as well as a garage for nearly 20 cars.
Shaq's Florida Home
What we are most interested in of course is the home cinema. As you'd expect the home theatre is fully kitted out with the latest Surround sound system, huge widescreen with motorised curtains, the soundproofed 10 seat home cinema has a Superman theme (Shaq's Basketball nickname).
Shaq's Home Theatre - Front view
Shaq's Home Cinema Seating/Rear View
The rest of the house is equally awesome, take a look at the basketball court, garage and other Bling areas.
Lounge
Basketball
Bedroom
Garage
IKEA ♥ Sonos
Ikea recently held its annual Democratic Design Days Conference in Sweden and showcased the prototype and end product of it's first collaboration with Sonos. The Symfonisk will be released into Ikea showrooms in the second half of next year.
Ikea's multi room music system powered by Sonos.
The design itself is meant to be used within IKEA furniture (and has been designed to fit inside it's furniture range) or as a shelf itself, turning a speaker into a shelf is pretty cool, I think they are going to rethink what they will do with the power cord though as that's the only part of the design that looks out of place.
Designing an IKEA speaker, powered by Sonos.
The speaker works in an identical manner to the Play 1 and links into the Sonos app and multi room audio ecosystem. Like the Play1 the speaker can be paired with another for stereo sound in your room, IKEA are imagining building in sound systems throughout your IKEA furnished home .
“Many people dream of built-in sound systems, but few can afford it. Our goal is to save space, get rid of cords, make clutter invisible and bring sound and music into the home in a more beautiful way””
From next year the 17 million+ people who visit the 400 IKEA stores worldwide should be able to purchase multi room audio, powered by Sonos, direct from the Superstore. This is massive and shows that IKEA very much has it's eye on the Smart Home, they already have a range of (Philips Hue compatible/hackable) smart lights in stores now.
Apple's World Wide Developers Conference - Smart Home Snippets
Apple's Developers conference was held last week and journalists were expecting an answer, or challenge, to Amazons and Googles dominance of the smart home world. Many were left scratching their heads after what some called a 'snub' by Apple of the Smart Home - Ouch!
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference for 2018
Digital Trends asked if Apple were just late to the Smart Home Party or just not turning up, Bill Roberson asking why new Smart Home Tech was MIA from the conference.
Homekit did manage to make a very brief showing, mainly in the form of a new app called Shortcuts for Siri and Homekit finally dropping on Apple MacOS when Mojave hits the (digital) shelves.
Shortcuts
Shortcuts is Apples new app on iOS 12, Shortcuts will use Siri to perform actions based on custom phrases. For example "turn on music upstairs" would turn on the music upstairs, "unlock all doors" could unlock all the doors in your house (in both examples the controlled hardware would have to be Homekit enabled. This will work on all iOs devices, Homepod and the Apple Watch.
Apples demonstration included very basic home automation such as "Turn on fan" and "set thermostat to 70 degrees", things that you have been able to do with Amazon's Alexa and Google's Home from literally Day One and indeed can do currently with Siri. There was some confusion how this ties into the Siri / Apple Homekit ecosystem, you can already do these things within it, perhaps this just allows you to tailor the words/phrases used to command those routines.
Tim Cook at Apples WWDC 2018
Most importantly and in my eyes the (only) jewel in the crown for Apples Smart Home ecosystem is the ability to finally use Home on MacOs - Command your home from your desktop. This should have been there from Day One and is the one thing that in my mind elevates the Apple Smart Home platform in any way above the Google and Amazon competition.
Home App on MacOs Mojave
Up until now Home app has only been available on the iOs devices, so you could use your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch to set up and control your Smart Home. It makes infinitely more sense to be able to sit down at a proper computer (with a keyboard and mouse) and set this all up, even if you decide to only use the touchscreen devices to control it all afterwards.
This is where Apple could really excel, the Amazon Alexa app is too broad and complicated and the same goes for the Google App, they both aren't particularly suited to managing a Smart Home, especially via desktop.
Amazons 4k FireTV Cube (with Alexa)
Amazon has announced a new addition to the Fire TV family: Their line of streaming components for Television, Movies, Video and music. The Amazon Fire TV cube is an Alexa powered miniature set top box that can be controlled by voice, send IR commands with the integrated IR blasters and control your TV, it even has a built in speaker.
On top of this its an Ultra HD 4k at 60fps (frames per second) device, meaning you will be able to watch ultra High Definition programming. Talking about programming, Amazon are promising access to over 500,000 movies and TV shows available from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, NBC, and more.
Amazons 4K HDR Capable FireTV Cube
Soundwise the FireTV cube features Dolby Atmos.
With Alexa on Fire TV Cube, you can control compatible TVs, sound bars, cable and satellite boxes, and A/V receivers.