Rich Green shares his views on the future of technology

The morning of the 2016 CEDIA awards, the CI industry gathered at Dolby Europe HQ in London to listen to Rich Green talk about what the future has in store for the home technology sector. He clarified that, although his talk is entitled "Future Technologies - The Inside Scoop from Silicon Valley" he is not a futurologist. His experience in Silicon Valley and his relationship with top entrepreneurs in the technology sector and venture capitalist give him a unique insight.

“We track emerging technologies and pin point how this will affect your business,” he said and added, “The best way to get out of the doldrums is to innovate.”

Green is one of CEDIA's most highly regarded instructors in Home Technology and he travels hte world teaching and sharing his knowledge. He is an anthropologist and an archaeologist. His new venture in Palo Alto is the first history museum completely done on virtual reality.

“At present, heavier products, such as AV rack are what give installers more margins, but these are going to disappear,” Green said, “Very soon we will see the emergence of C2C. This is not consumer-to-consumer sales, but cloud to consumer. It means ‘disintermediation’. Today we are the intermediaries between the products, the clients and the installs, but this will come to an end.”

Before the audience got too depressed and left to find a new career, Green unveiled the way forward: “Focus less in hardware and more on the services you offer.”

By nature, home technology is likely to need some adjustments and sometimes it also fails. The role of the AV specialist is to accompany the client on the journey and provide the service that will match their needs. Having a good team of people working on any custom installation is key.

“People are expensive, things are cheap,” said Green, “make sure you hire talent, pay well and nurture with purpose.”

The Internet of Things (IoT) is picking up speed. At a consumer level, wearable’s, voice operated devices and connected objects are already a reality. People want good and simple to use user interfaces. The good news is that CI has been in this arena before it was known as IoT.

Over the next decade, a lot of the work needed to make the IoT ubiquitous will be on infrastructure. APIs are an important thread to be used on weaving the fabric of the IoT.

The next generation of mobile networks, 5G, expected for 2020, will provide a connectivity 30-50 times faster than 4G. 5G will enable a fully connected mobile ecosystem.

Green predicts that we are going towards the post App area, so the focus has to be more on the what it is offered rather than the how it is delivered. Today there is machine-to-machine learning that provides an interoperability that goes beyond Apps. Devices will not need to be interfaced.

“Connected objects allow the gathering of key information about how people live and how they use the technology. They give context,” pointed out Green, “In this world full of technology, we need to slow down, remember how it is like to be a human being and tackle our projects with clarity and grace.”

House holds today have their own chosen ecosystem, be it Apple, Android or Microsoft the ecosystem. This has to be taken into account when designing a custom installation.

Green clarified, “DIY smart homes are not an easy thing to do. It is the AV installer that will know if the WiFi network is adequate for the requirements. They can set up high quality installs, such as 3D audio or reliable 4K streamers. But the design of these installs need to be thoughtful, simple and relevant to the client.”

Echoing American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer Marc Andressen’s advice he said, “One way to make a profit is to serve the 1 per cent of people that can afford what you are selling. You have to develop a life time relationship with your client.”

Green concluded with some wise advice: “In the near future, holiday holo-decks at home will become a reality. Virtual Reality is set to grow. The new countries will not be called Russia, or America, but Amazon, Apple, Google… The AV industry has a vantage point to ride this wave, as long as they understand the client and the ecosystem they favour; provide good, life time services; don’t marry into just one brand; and most importantly, take time to try the technology first. Do not experiment on your customers.”