I first met Frank Damiano in an AMX training room in Horsham PA around the year 2000.
And for all of that time, he has been Founder and CTO of Damiano Global Corporation, an independent control system and audio DPS programming company.
His company has developed an AV management software called DGnet that, in my mind, looks like a software defined solution to a hardware defined problem.
Transcript...
this is a software defined survival where we talk to AV IT professionals and software developers to find out how to leverage software to reinvent ourselves and we do this we listen to their stories and ask for advice and tactics on how to survive and thrive in a software defined what today software defined survive all of us are trying to find our way in this new industry and we’re all wondering what was going to be doing three five current revenues important thing that all of us should try to get in on it is difficult if not impossible task in our industry they have all these platforms programming by you and it was easy to think at that time while they’re taking our jobs right it would be wrong to resent that minutes just the way things go and I try to look at that as sort of well what’s the challenge and opportunity in the nine a dominant Helen’s ladies and gentlemen welcome to software defined survival my name is Patrick Murray and today’s guest I met first at an AMX training room in the Horsham Pennsylvania many many moons ago I’m guessing it was around the year two thousand and for all that time he has been founder and CEO of Damiano global corporation and independent control system and audio DSP programming company and his company has developed AB management software called de Jeanette that in my mind’s kind of looks like a software defined solution to all hardware defines problem so please welcome to the show Frank Damiano Frank welcome to the show what thank you Patrick pleasure to be here is there anything about that introduction that you’d like to correct or expand upon you’re right it is a sparse this sparse but I have been doing the same thing for what eighteen nineteen years now so I think I think we say we’re innovating you know technology and you know trying to leave the past but %HESITATION yeah essentially been doing the same thing for nineteen years nice so I like to find out the origin story of where people came from like how you got into AV because nobody really grows up saying I want to do a be when I grow up so so how did you wind up in that training room that fateful day in Horsham outside and I didn’t realize we actually met yeah actually physically met it was for the weekend and in access training together all my goodness wow way back in two cities so you know that was just after I left the military so my story actually I had nothing whatsoever to do with AV and I was stationed in Germany and when I basically left the military came back to the US and I had all these ideas about what I might do stalking a venture capitalist so I had this idea about a hardware portal kind of concept you could put these kind of pedestal sinks style computer terminals and bus stations and %HESITATION train stations except our public libraries and %HESITATION we use target average housing to fund the ability for you to check your mail that sounds so ridiculous now to actually even say that out loud but no two thousand yeah we don’t have smart phones and that was actually would have been a really valuable service so I kind of had that on the brain when I got back from Germany I thought I was going to do that but I was catching up with everyone in my life and I met a friend who wanted me to take me to lunch and tell me all about how happy he was to get back in the industry came from which was a bit so I knew nothing about this and we go to that bar cheers in Boston and %HESITATION we’re we’re eaten Anne’s basically explaining to me all the trouble he had finding people that could program the stuff call Crestron I have no idea what that is but %HESITATION you know what you show me a catalog he knew I was good with computers so after lunch we went up to his office and he shows me this catalog it’s like you know I don’t really know anything about this but I do know computers and I can tell you this is literally decade old stop that their value added reselling so %HESITATION although I might not know anything about it I’m pretty confident I can learn it quickly so I basically paid my own way to go down to Crestron and Rockley and take the introduction of programming class at three day classes to do at that time that give you a little bit of everything yeah I came back to Boston opened up the yellow pages and started calling all the AV dealers in Boston saying Hey I just took the Crestron class and the you know do you have any program and the interesting thing was is that the most to a tee everyone was like well we’re pretty offset without Crestron programming and %HESITATION one company said well can you do a a maximum like and what he’s talking about so I kind of rolled my eyes and and I I can’t leave actually said this but I said give me a month and %HESITATION and I’ll do it so that must’ve been where we met because I went down you know I did some research find out where a Max was went down to Horsham and %HESITATION took all the classes they had in a month and my business kind was born from there and been doing the same thing of a son wow that’s a really cool story so there was this whole industry you knew nothing about and %HESITATION you saw some opportunity there and %HESITATION it really took the initiative busted out the yellow pages called AV dealers and and they told you the path they told you what they needed and at that time it was a mixed programming and so what’s your business like now just for a little comparison I think we crunched the numbers in twenty seventeen sixty percent of our revenue came from Crestron programming well and how many programmers yeah mustache insofar as audio DSP in programming the six of us wow that’s impressive so starting as a one man shop and growing to a to six programmers I’d I’d say that’s that’s some good growth in in in our industry yes ma’am six administrative people so it’s like that in the military they said there was for every person out in the field you have to have ten people back in garrison supporting them and I can tell you in this business for every program you have you need at least one admin support person behind the absolutely I see I see a lot of value in that just to %HESITATION so they can focus on the work and %HESITATION not deal with yet just the simple things like scheduling and travel and things like that making sure the job site is ready so what was your most successful Evey projects and and what made it special for you you know actually having listen to podcasts have given this some thought and %HESITATION I can answer that pretty quickly it was a job in New York City for HSBC and this this job had all they had it all it had the tri factor the hat trick you had kind of a cool project right it was with the cool client with a lot of history and it was with the legendary integrator HA Harry disassociate the way I used to work for him yeah what a cool guy right yeah I it’s the I’m actually kind of sad to see my project we have did together %HESITATION and I don’t think it was because I wasn’t good it was just I think he was kind of transitioning at the time this was he had programming recesses on staff this was just kind of a larger project you need to bring someone in from the outside but remember fondly in his in his touch buttons so there’s also new product but I never actually seen or used a whip microphone he’s the guy at the show you know that kind of invented the halo ring around a microphone %HESITATION yeah that’s pretty common today but at the time yeah he was that he was the one that did it and it was up user interface so was a button then you with this whole complex thing the wiring in it use those kind of G. P. I. O. interfaces the Crestron or amex interface but that what was cool about this job was this building had to be two hundred years old almost so old historic banking building and it was one of those executive briefing center floors so they got funding or whatever to literally just rip everything out and redo it so they were redoing the entire war all at once and it had catering and little auditorium and a receptionist all these will break out rooms a conference areas so what was cool about it was it was just an exceptional work of integration where Harry designed the stuff very meticulously you know was all proven well designed stuff so no one comments or anything we did was very impressive but the collection of them together with the most tightly integrated group of rooms we have a date because I’m all the technology basically work together seamlessly the reception desk had a panel that would be and see who’s name next system so it was a real simple thing to program the reception panel simply VNC into the different rooms because it was the same size at school they could literally see the you know the feedback of everything control the rooms this one the coolest things we put a touch panel in the kitchen so we put this twelve inch touchscreen on the kitchen that just had a tic tac toe board in nine buttons for the nine different dot conference rooms and if people wanted a Pepsi or something in the press a service button a service request button in the room on the touch panels with it with the panel would be light up and stops flashing the room number is probably the most expensive like waiter call system ever installed but it worked and people loved it and yeah I would look back on that it was one of those jobs we never had to go back you know Harry knew what he was doing and I knew what I was doing the and you know we bang this thing out had a happy customer never had to hear from him since but I think about often excellent well you’re bringing up a lot of memories that’s really where I cut my teeth in in AV with a yet Joseph Coley was kind of my mentor show me the ropes how all this stuff works together and of course Harry I still keep in touch with him once in awhile so I’ll have to tell me about this story will be will be happy to hear about that and numb yeah when a project is well planned and you just kind of plug the pieces together and everything fits well it really doesn’t matter how big it is dumb the planning is really everything so I think there’s a lot to learn in that what kind of %HESITATION changes have you seen over the years that I’ve had really the biggest impact on on your programming business while Hank used by could answer that %HESITATION I think it’s sort of the rise of these quote unquote programmer list systems and the change actually is not I thought you know when I got into this in two thousand that’s when they started talking about a V. I. P. convergence and and of course I had enough knowledge to be pretty comfortable with that so I thought well I will get into this at the right time right now I have no problem with that convergence they’d be and I teach I think that’s always kind of kept me a little ahead in you’ll worried as you know a Max came up with things %HESITATION Yellowstone’s programming languages and that have bomb was the one you have to buy it on a desk came before our PM or before PM I do not recall yeah and %HESITATION system builder and they’d they’d have all these platforms that would be programming for you and it was easy to think at that time while they’re taking our jobs right but they weren’t and it was a matter of a rising tide floats all boats so it just sort of kind of agree the whole industry and there was always that need for custom programming and that’s still kind of where we’re at today %HESITATION where even though more more people using that stopped they still need the Patrick marries in the BBC’s and you know the steep green glass of the world to go and do these custom systems but dumb you know there’s something a little different happening here now those programs are actually getting I’ve decided to do some interesting stuff like you look at Crestron with their AB framework in that one touch dialing you know that’s easier said than done right you know you gotta know chase on programming on this level details integration around and they just build that into it I got it yeah I gotta give Crestron props for that I mean that really Pushin there raising the bar with that saying Hey this is kind of the expectation of all people should have with these systems but then there’s also the %HESITATION this pressure from outside the industry so whereas through that whole time hide was rising in all our boats rising with it now the %HESITATION basically the you know the oceans is getting wider there’s all these different players and people jumping in and %HESITATION so you know what I see happening now that does concern me is you have a whole host of players that are coming in you know so you have Kramer Clough control which is really good actually I mean I think if if I was going to make a cloud control system the latest incarnation of Kramer call control it’s it’s a good way to do it you know they really they really know what they’re doing Barco has over a chore you know %HESITATION and even that won’t escape into the pitcher are you know and then there’s Logitech and all these other players in that stuff is really I think eating into all our lunches in it would be wrong to resent that I mean that’s just the way things go and I try to look at that as sort of well what’s the challenge and opportunity in that cross and that’s where did you not watch dog was born what’s the intersection of all those kind of pressures and an industry most interesting so I I I like that lead in and %HESITATION I think it’s it’s kind of obvious that the AV industry as a whole has just been growing and there’s a need to to fill those gaps right they all can’t be the super custom a highly complicated projects customers asking for simple solutions that can be installed quickly so that’s the reason for configurator is and like these one such systems that’s what customers want so that’s what gets delivered and as the industry grows and of course %HESITATION these trends for one manufacturer to deliver a complete solution there’s lots of different products coming online and different ways to approach things and I like the way you said you know you can view that as competition with which it is in some sense but you could also see an opportunity in there too well to offer your own thing because it is no longer just coke and Pepsi right it’s no longer just to big manufacturers to choose from there’s lots of different ways to approach it so tell us about your approach tells about DJing at what what makes it different what kind of problems does it solve well a few years ago we started looking at it and and we were watching what was going on in the industry and the idea was well what can we do to sort of at outburst if you will you know not to get all while with men on you but %HESITATION and we had a customer that came in half to say Hey %HESITATION could you set up an arm a server and the cloud for us and and like we could re sell these manage systems to churches and that’s why the fourth time a consummate come and ask me about doing that in the first three times that they asked me over the years was just a terrible idea I thought you know I don’t want to do this and these are the reasons why in that they were good reasons at the time you know most notably because a lot of people try to do it for existing systems and they didn’t appreciate the complexity of this wasn’t simply plug in blade to say let me you know stick a USB drive in your AMX frame or your Crestron frame and now suddenly it’s going to be compatible with our medicine fusion and all these things but he kind of came at a from a different angle as just management and monitoring as a service in some cases for people that didn’t even have control systems with the business itself was managing water in some way I just look at the whole differ when like a hot actually is a it’s a good idea so we can look into it and we tried %HESITATION you know we tried the traditional approach amex was pretty cool they just kind of gave us our math and said you know we like what you’re doing and %HESITATION yeah we want to support yeah so that was the first one we had up and running restaurant was pretty difficult about the whole thing they were kind of like well to really good idea what I will always take a look at that and %HESITATION and then after like three to six months of hounding them literally I had that they would even sell me the software they kind of that was when they redesigned the whole approach to fusion the timing I thought on that was pretty pretty suspect an extra will tell a game actually like how it’s really good idea except I stuff doesn’t work in the way you know its land based not win but okay we’re not off to a very good start here %HESITATION but you know we stuck with it and we thought well Hey this is the age of cloud right %HESITATION what if we did our own thing and I think three years ago I probably would have no business dreaming about doing something like that but you know you get good people on the team you kind of management style it was actually my guys that came to me believe it or not said we see what you trying to do and and you know on we think we might be able to do this on our own actually did want to ask them to do that I thought it was too heavy a left but you know thankfully are they like me and that we can put together this team and we started working on it and we built this whole asset monitoring platform in the cloud from the ground up we didn’t just like spin up the server and the cloud we use the latest cloud technologies like you know a W. S. when da %HESITATION we use Google cloud platform is what we built it on and we actually using python code we just started writing all these series of micro services and we came up with our own asset management platform from scratch so odds very unique it actually has very secure has a dual key authentication scheme it has its own custom made PI and the idea is anything can talk to it like in this world with is more more people coming to the table why not just make something that can help everybody so we rode job we wrote the platform then we wrote a series of modules frame express run an extra to say well Hey here’s models right out of the bank that kit you can just load your program and now your system is not part of watchdog and you can not put custom hooks in there for things like project your life and you know what input is you display on the kind of typical stop you do within our mess up fusion insulation actually know a part of this research I went to one of your classes we did your IBM cloud the remote management class yeah yeah yeah I actually took that I thought that I thought there was some competition they have then I realized I we would like going to a completely different direction we were trying to build a whole platform and we have so far is our platform is scalable to the queen and that means like everyone on earth could have millions of devices connected to it they put the module when they compile the the module with their keys and now they’re processor comes up in the right place and watch dog and they can actually see what’s going on with Crestron we actually had to work the hardest Crestron it took hundreds and hundreds of hours to get those just the initial version of the module going we had to write it in a whole combination of a quest simple simple simple sharp but at the end of the day we have this plugin drop in modules so you can take out any processor you go to our site you download the modules that processor you put your keys in it compiling loaded into an available slot and it’s kinda like us if you take it the NPS for instance you put this drop in programs and then it’s like the NPS tools in the cloud so we can actually read the I. P. table there’s a lot of stuff you can do actually without putting anything in the core program so anything that can be done through OB terminal commands but through the API we do and then if you want to do something a little more advanced to say like those projector hours something more fusion like you put anything in it the system communication link in between the two of you main program talk to our model and then you can just add more more attributes and then from there this reporting in notification all the kind of things people would want to do it in advance are massive fusion insulation pretty cool stuff there’s a bunch of stuff we talked about that I would want to touch on I don’t know if we’ll get to all of it I think the importance of a good team really can’t be underestimated and I like I like the fact that they came to you and said and appreciated what you were trying to do and came up with a solution I think that’s a sign of a a really great team people coming to you with ideas that they you can execute on %HESITATION then eighty eyes you mention so we we live in an A. P. I. worlds but that really hasn’t that message has gotten to evening yet and that kind of ties into how much how different how much difficulty you had dealing with I mean you mention Crestron I’m sure the other ones had their challenges as well and dump all the hoops that you have to jump through to expose very normal things to win API I think about this a lot of improvement that even manufacturers could do I personally believe every product should just have the API and let us use the tools that we want to manage it but the thing that that really hit me was you mentioned she took the course remote management application development ends you realize it was a different direction and I think it’s important to to to realize the distinction there the course is to develop an application right so it’s one it’s like a custom project almost it sets a dashboard that does what you wanted to do and what your building is a platform that %HESITATION that is a scalable and can be used on many many many different types of installations do you have any thoughts on that like a platform verses and application I have a lot of thoughts on that in Iraq and I can say that if that that’s that’s the the long and the short of it is that it’s a platform worse is in a single system our collection the system will not trying to compete with the AMX Crestron extra you know Kramer or any control manufacturer watchdog has supplemental control built into it but they can be up to a fifteen second delay because of the security of the client server nature of it although you can control any system connected to watchdog that you take the time to program a supplemental can call control element into because the processor only checks in with watchdog once every fifteen seconds it could take up to fifteen seconds were to get that command that’s part of the whole high security nature of it in for monitoring and asset management supplemental controls great but if your chart we’re not trying to replace in room control not even trying to compete with that what you is showing had the opportunity that we stay on on a limited basis a room by room basis to replace the talks fail to really have a cloud real time connection but for us that wasn’t secure enough what we were trying to do like my goal is to get you that watchdog and missiles not to control the middle the course but everything else that you might have an a you know dad did a real DOD Nipper certified kind of solution that I mean there is a the base core security of watchdog is TLS SSL so on the same rate as like online banking that’s that that’s the base level then you add to it things like the dual key authentication so very secure platform but there’s an additional level of security we can roll out when we reach that state that would encrypt even the data within the SSL street and you know it will involve rolling codes mean the NSA would be impressed so it is it’s it’s a platform in you have to sort of pick your market you have to know what what are you going after what aren’t you going after and what wouldn’t certainly not trying to replace anything going on that day Crestron rants which we’re just trying to complement it I mean a big part of what we’re doing Patrick is trying to kind of raise the bar for everybody all of us are kind of trying to find our way in this new industry and we’re all wondered what we’re going to be doing in three five ten years from now it was important when we developed watchdog that we come up with something that could help lift everyone up so you know we were seeing for years people should be using our massive infusion and our global viewer but they’re not it’s only being used in very large installations %HESITATION and then even when they do get rolled out how often does the integrator get looked into that right they should be the first people looked into it yeah so many times they’re not so we wanted to create something that just eliminated all the up front hassles that are associated with these things like spending up servers even without using cloud which is certainly moving in the right direction they still need to spin up in a short server and that takes time with this it’s just monitoring dot did you not doc caught any device in the world that’s ever gonna talk to watch soccer always going to use that you are out so it’s just sitting there waiting for things to connect to it so we thought Hey if we eliminate the pain points eliminate everything that’s required to sort of spin this up and get this going what I like to say is that it’s good for one to whatever many systems have one important asset are you have you know some with price Waterhouse Cooper with thousands and thousands of rooms and everything in between I want to have a solution that could serve all those people so our system actually handles money to we knew Hey are recurring revenues important saying that all of us should try to get in on this recurring revenue streams that is a difficult if not impossible task in our industry I mean how many people actually get service contracts for programming if you did your job what do I need a service contract but with something like watchdog I think we we wanted to help integrators and programmers get into that managed services kind of platform so that what we’re offering were making it really easy for either the integrated a pay far or the end user you know that you can put a credit card or a CH information write the platform and we actually have built in this revenue we call the revenue share and %HESITATION the defaults ten percent but we can actually in certain cases increase that if the integrators adding more value once a platform to handle building on that and will actually ACAP that revenue share every month to integrate our does he give them that revenue stream and and reduce the friction involved with all the paperwork of invoicing and this that and the other thing too is trying to give these tools to the industry to say Hey you too can be part of this so don’t I mean I believe was that integrates will be able to sell more mana services with a tool like watchdog and that’s a big part of our goal with this that is a really impressive application that that kind of turns the way business is normally done a little bit on its head AV is really slow to change especially the way projects are done and the way they flow but there’s a whole rest of the world out there who just expects these kind of managed services that expects there appliances to be monitored and to be informed when when things go wrong before they go wrong and %HESITATION and they’re willing to pay for that because it is an ongoing service and I like the way you %HESITATION you lay that out that that the payment schedule is is built into the software and the invoicing is taking care of and revenue sharing and all that and that is really more of like a software as a service type of approach that that again I think %HESITATION we could use a lot more of the navy also a lot of exciting stuff on the road map for that too and like one of the things that we want to do is create a service provider kind of model so it’s against really hard for programmers to get in on that recurring revenue yeah so what happens when a CCLI programs system for someone and then there’s a problem and there’s always that sort of uncomfortable kind of period of time you say okay I covered under warranty are covered under warranty all covered under warranty but when did that just become inappropriate covered under warranty you know that varies from client in project in operational requirements and everyone kind of have to make those difficult decisions on their own one of the things you wanted to do to help our our brother in right appears instead create the service provider role where you could register on the platform as I do do that service provider in a client let’s see you do programming for HSBC and HSBC can access the watchdog HSBC could basically select to add Patrick Murray as a service provider to their cap and anytime they got a notification of a problem they’d be a button there that could say Hey why don’t you ask Patrick about this and when they push that button we could have you know you’d be you’d be able to work with us to create your own terms and conditions you know maybe have some kind of risk free guarantee the say okay I’ll take a look at it and you know typically the way we do things as we have risk free time and materials we said okay you can engage us with just your word you’ll pass if we produce a positive result and this is what I rate will be and so we might spend forty eight hours looking at a problem to someone but we’re only gonna build them for that time if we actually produced by the results let’s say that two terms and conditions will screen will pop up did agree to it in in not until they agree to it would you then be with for that notification you you could do your magic to you’re saying you let the platform no the problem’s been resolved once the client agreed we could hit their billing account and basically instantly transfer you that money and help you now without a service contract still maintain an easy way of having a financial relationship with these customers that you’ve done business with that’s a really cool idea it’s almost like a a service market place like like apps store except for service indeed I like that approach we need more solutions like that because you know how it is we run from project to project and now it’s it’s this feast or famine type of a thing and it’s not exactly the best way to run a business long term and %HESITATION having those kind of yeah actions directly to your customers and in ways for them to reach out directly to the person who who should be working on it I think that’s that’s a really great way to use the technology today so given all of your experience developing GTG net and and having some customers and and and using it and coming out with this new approach new products do you have any advice for someone who might be interested in developing a new solution or a new approach and how they will go about raising awareness for trade secrets Patrick while we have to maintain something a competitive advantage but that’s just a snarky way saying I don’t know which you know if if I’m honest Patrick you we’ve just been following our hearts with this you know and %HESITATION and I’m not gonna lie part of it is just hoping we’re doing the right thing I mean it feels like we’re doing the right thing would check in a lot of boxes but probably just following your heart you know we felt this is something the industry needed and there’s definitely a build it and they will come philosophy but I gotta tell ya not as many people come in as we had hoped are wanted but that doesn’t mean they won’t notice things take time so we’re still pretty new that we released it at the Infocom last year as we kind of did you did you not watch dog so we kind of a version two point know that we’re gonna be releasing at impa con this year and that was certainly spent our time and were built you know we have some we have some good anchor clients and certainly doing some interesting things but I have this fantasy that the integration industry would come beating down my door saying yeah we we want to be doing this we even have yeah we’ll have it what programmers most people listen to this so we have those clients that just always come look to us these innovative solutions and we have some clients that just talked over and over over the years about how they wanted to manage services but they never really do anything that interesting shall we know we need to be doing managed service as well something like MXR mass infusion these you really can’t do manage services without asset monitoring so here I come up with this we even offer branded versions of them where I’ve gone and actually you wouldn’t believe how many domains I own things like that AB I see a world in Crestron dot world and all these you know and I have all these domains in the bank just waiting for people to come and ask to do business with us so I’d take an integrator and usually out I’ll buy it doc cloud version of the domain and you know we’ll do all the networking and everything to resolve that to our platform to say Hey look at we can give you this branded version of it we can even put your logo on look how much more can we do form and you know I I’m it’s sad to report a lot of people would see that and that they don’t get excited by it but yet these people profess to want to be offering managed services they think they can do it on their own and %HESITATION you know all I can say with that is good luck in the navy I SPL is trying to do it with symphony and that they’re actually doing some really interesting stuff was happening in its target of course the highest revenue clients actually what kind of what they’re doing it’s kind of an eye he G. kind of approach you look a little device there talks to the the cutbacks in that you know queries per call quality in duration and all those kind of important statistics for those customers that spend the most money with a BSL but you go and ask the average person an AB ICL office don’t even know what symphony for this having been involved with insulation so I know sometimes where they say the pioneers get the Arabs that’s right that’s right patience is key nothing happens quickly and I’ve been through it myself you come out with a new product to get to trade show everybody says wow that’s cool it’s amazing I want to use it and getting people to actually execute on things is a real challenge and I think it it really it needs to come from the end users the end users the customers have to ask for it somehow but if they don’t know about it how can they ask for its you’ve got this I couldn’t agree more eggs solution that the people that are most passion about the do not watch I’ve been and uses so our new record clients end users that came to us and liked what we were doing and that the that is definitely with the driving forces so if there was you know some advice I could give to our our industry peers rise to say don’t be afraid to approach and users you know I mean and and that’s that’s kind of the pepper gas model right I mean they kind of went from serving integrated serving large integrators very quickly and that I believe was a key part of their success I hesitate to speak farm but it’s certainly a model to be emulated it’s a conclusion I’ve come to I think %HESITATION if you’re thinking long term and you have the patience and then getting your own customers to buy into your solution is is really the way to go just because you know integration business has a different model than a software business to us so were there any plans for the future that you’d like to share with us absolutely hardware actually at the simple com will be releasing our first piece of hardware we’re going to call it a very interesting name a PMU USB one we thought we were going to be that kind of company that had boring model names but you know the reason you do that right so on and again we’re not trying to compete with control system manufacturers but we actually you know we we believe that our so the niece here what we’re going to focus our attention on this exceptional you know monitoring supplemental control we want we want to try to build did you not watch dog into the brand that people go to for just real high and exceptional monitoring and asset management so you try to look for these things like well how do I measure you know our current or you know line voltage and things like that in the rack so your crush on AMX make rack mounted use but you know what if it’s not a record of his sister displaying a lobby or something like that so we were trying to find these %HESITATION single outlet devices that you could monitor power and there’s a lot of stuff out there like we nose and other things like that that you can put in your house but nothing like really enterprise grade if you can believe it we tried some stuff from Tripp lite actually let us to invest too much money into developing our own will single out what device such power to the USB bus you can plug into any computer or raspberry pi and %HESITATION it’ll actually measure the line voltage and current driver device we believe this will be the person kind of a line of measurement devices that will help bring that extra level of monitoring control because take it this way I mean this is the problem you run into with fusion RMS or any kind of asset management platform you monitoring the online nonstop flight status the device it goes off line right in that begs the question why did it go is it till then yeah is it plugged into the network go out you know what’s going on and it turns out if you just simply monitor the power consumption of the device you might be able to save of animal you could earn the right to call customer and say Hey ya can you check it but still they are plugged in writing the song I’m seeing a power monitoring device I’m seeing that it’s literally drawn zero amps which means nothing plugged into its not even stand so things like that and %HESITATION you know we’re also trying to help people kind of like what you’re doing that sort of raspberry pi the system on a chip kind of mantra it to say you know these things won’t necessarily replace aim express on Iraq’s front nor nor should they try but it’s a good a good supplement to it to say well let’s compliment your boardroom system by putting some of the smartest things like this will rise reprise when you what we have the full custom version of the raspberry pi zero W. got a little case with the watchdog logo on it and we use any HDMI cable and the CDC protocol basically monitor displays and report their status to watch dog C. to stick this thing on the back of it you can even put a little battery backup on that thing so in in power it through the U. S. B. that most displays have these days without any additional plugs you can actually monitor it even if the power goes out in a still get the sos message out and you add to that this is a hard we were releasing that Infocom and you really couldn’t monitor that asset whether it be a projector or display or anything like that so we will will differentiate ourselves in a positive way and %HESITATION now take off from there I think that a lot you mentioned about replacing control systems and I think this goes back to the beginning of this discussion when you were talking about a rising tide and on the AV industry growing there’s just a lot of niches out there and there’s no one solution that’ll solve everything and I really think you know when you talk about the cloud they’re talking about age computing now and that’s kind of where I see things like the raspberry pi it’s not a replacement for anything but he could sit on the edge of the network and do a little bit of logic for you before you pass things to the cloud or as a gateway or things like that ask you look at how we are going to be using it and I have an interesting %HESITATION kind of survey too at an informal survey results to share with you okay no masters classes a couple weeks ago right rice so I had in my in the pocket of my shirt a raspberry pi zero W. in our custom case within rail mount so we have which we cannot take this red repository really sex up with this will general Collette and then the sole custom watchdog got emblem on the on the front of it I mean it it’s impressive looking yeah I probably took that thing out of my pocket and showed it to twenty different people while at masters in only one person recognize what it was so I I don’t know do you view that as opportunity or misguided ness but I’m gonna choose to look at that as opportunity it’s it’s the whole model of the shows its software defines the hardware does not matter and since the raspberry pi a comes up a lot because it’s thirty five Bucks so if we don’t care where the whole software runs then why not take something that’s proving to be stable and is is very affordable amen to that there you go so I think that’s a good stopping point for today if anyone wants to get in touch with you how they go about doing that all the best thing to send an email to info at did you not dark cloud excellent thanks a lot for being on the show Frank thank you Sir was pleasure if you enjoyed this discussion if you liked what you’ve heard if you want to hear more discussions like this please go to I tunes legal review to the show get in touch with me somehow and let me know that you’re out there listening and that’ll motivate me to keep doing these shows get mad so if you’re driving or whatever said something in your calendar to give you a reminder to go to I tunes thanks for listening to software defined survival for transcripts and show notes go to software defined survival dot com