John Sciacca Writes...

Da Mayor: Doctor...

Mookie: C'mon, what. What?

Da Mayor: Always do the right thing.

Mookie: That's it?

Da Mayor: That's it.

The world’s largest technology distributor, Ingram Micro Inc., owners of CE distribution powerhouses AVAD and DBL Distributing, hosted a vendor expo for resellers this past week in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the absolutely beautiful Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort, a AAA 5-Diamond rated property. (You can read all about this ...

As I wrote in Part One of this piece, I've been a custom installer for the past 15 years, and in that time I see people making the same home theater design mistakes over and over. And over.

And these are real-world systems costing between $10,000 to $50,000 where you can get an amazing home theater experience, but th...

Since 1998, my full-time day job has been that of custom installer, and a frequent part of that job has been working with people on the design and installation of their new home theater/media rooms. And saying that I’ve been involved in over a hundred theater installs wouldn’t be an exaggeration. I’ve also had the opportunity to go on many jobs where another “installer” did the system and the homeowner was unsatisfied with the results—a lot o...

Over the years, I’ve had my share of customers that used odd vernacular to describe things that I had to interpret what they were actually trying to say. One client called up complaining that his monitor wasn’t working. “Monitor?” I asked. “You mean the TV?” “No, not my TV, my monitor.” “Which TV are we talking about?” “My monitor! Not TV, Monitor!” We went back and forth for several minutes before I was ab...

We recently landed the biggest project in our company’s 18 year history – both in physical size of the home and in financial scope of the job – and I thought I would start a multi-part blog post chronicling the project over the next several months, the decisions I made in system design, the proposal process, the prewire, trim out and installation.

I have a feeling that many readers out there have custom install shops lik...

When I come across a quote that I find especially meaningful or poignant in magazines or books that I’m reading, I write it down – or take a picture of it – so I can remember it.

In reading an extensive interview with Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, in the December 10-16, 2012 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I stumbled across this quote from Apple’s new CEO:

“A gre...

Last month I wrote a post titled, “How I learned to stop worrying and love the soundbar,” a play on the Dr. Strangelove title. That post detailed all of the reasons why I used to be prejudiced towards soundbars, and why we didn’t really capitalize on that segment of the market. But our company finally came around and realized...

Kids develop brand affinity and aspirational thinking pretty early on.

I – like many boys that were young in the 80s – had a Lamborghini poster on my bedroom wall many, many years before I could even think about getting a driver’s license, not to mention that it cost more than the house we were living in. But still, the desire for that red Countach was there. And still is there.

I...

“With the bass kicked in, the Vegas are pumpin'

Quick to the point, to the point no faking

I'm cooking MC's like a pound of bacon

Burning them if they're not quick and nimble”

Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby”

Be honest. You didn’t think that you would come to the blog today an...

(That’s a Dr. Strangelove reference for all you non-cinephiles out there...)

There are many parts of this industry that I like… There’s that moment when you turn on a system for the first time and all of the keypads spring to life, come on line and start reporting metadata just like they’re suppose...

Because I like you, I’m going to share a hard truth with you. Because friends can be honest with each other, right, and say the tough things that need to be said.

Here goes: You’re not perfect.

And whether you’ve been in business for one year or 20 years, fresh out of CEDIA Boot Camp or a grizzled “I remember when you had to...

It has been nearly two years since we’ve had cause to tell a tale of Mr. Cooper here. For the uninitiated, here’s what you need to know about Mr. Cooper. It’s important to note that Mr. Cooper is not in any way your typical high ender. He lives in what sounds like project-type housing, drives a car that is in such poor shape it has *literally* broken down and stranded him in my parking lot, and he travels about 2 hours one way to come to my store. It all start...

We’ve all heard the old adage, “The customer is always right.” That no matter what they want, no matter what they demand, no matter how outrageous, off-mark or bizarre the request, that the customer is still right. (There’s a classic tale of Nordstrom’s – an upscale clothing/department store refunding a customer’s purchase for tires.)

There’s no question that Amazon is moving a lot of TVs. I mean, they frequently sell them at prices that are at or under wholesale, you can browse through dozens of reviews and find the set with the most “THIS IS THE SET THAT I OWN! SO IT’S THE MOST AWESOME! ANY OTHER SET IS FOR LOSERS AND NEWBS! ANY OTHER COMMENTS ARE FROM SPAMMERS AND HATERS! THIS SET IS THE BEST!!!!” comments by it and then click-to-order. All of this while sipping a beer at 2 in the ...

...and a Jerk can’t change his true nature.

Many years ago, when young(er) John was just starting out in this home theater industry, he crossed paths with someone we’ll call Mr. Menace.

Menace was building a fairly large new home and expressed extreme interest in having all of the latest and coolest technology of the day: A dedicated media room with front pro...

Mariano Rivera is considered by some* to be the greatest relief pitcher – or “closer” – the game of baseball has ever known.

(* I’m sure this will infuriate some non-Yankees fans who will readily offer all the reasons why someone else is better, so I offer this and

Long time readers may recall our rather unceremonious parting of the ways with They Who Shall Not Be Named. Well, part of the fall-out of said ways parting was that we were left with quite a bit of inventory for which we were no longer a dealer. We’ve decided to get proactive in trying to clear out this old gear and have been advertising it on ...

There’s that golden, warm, sweet glowing period that surrounds that first, wonderful, falling-in-love part of a relationship. The sun shines a little brighter, birds chirp a little sweeter, rainbows add a new color and even Fiona Apple is happy.

During this time, everyone is on their best behavior and all the little faults and foibles are overlooked and often thought of as cute, endearing quirks.

Lest you all think that I just sit around at work all day listening to the sound of my arteries hardening, trolling the Internet for the latest The Gregory Brothers autotuned masterpiece, or working on some new 2500 word blogging manifesto, I thought I’d share not one but TWO calls I received yesterday. These share the kinds of “oh, this crazy, crazy world we work in!” stuff that I imagine custom...