HTSA Hopes Comcast Presence Yields Better Communication With Installers
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Comcast stuck out as an atypical attendee at the Home Technology Specialists of America spring conference, which attracted some 210 vendors, dealers, journalists and industry association members. It’s the second appearance at a custom electronics event for Comcast, which attended CEDIA Expo last fall. That event calls itself the “leading tradeshow in the residential electronic systems industry."
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Bob Hana, HTSA’s managing director, told us HTSA has been talking to Comcast for six months about how “the country’s largest integrated media company that’s interfacing with our clients can work better with system integrators so that at the end of the day customer satisfaction is extremely high.” Today, he said, “that’s not always the case.” Hana cited a “level of frustration” among system integrators who install an electronics system in a customer’s upscale home that’s “often comprised by the cable guy who doesn’t understand how it’s really integrated."
Comcast is interested in feedback “because we're all on the same path,” Hana said. “You can’t fight one another about it. You have to figure out how to make it seamless for the customer.” Cable updates are one area of concern for installers because they often result in turning off equipment in the home. When the TV doesn’t come on, the HTSA member gets the phone call from the customer, because “they're their guy or gal,” Hana said. HTSA members then have to send a service truck to the customer’s home to turn the cable equipment back on, Hana said.
Hana’s hope is that discussions lead to an understanding by Comcast of how updates affect HTSA members and including them on those plans so installers can anticipate and respond to Comcast updates. Another part of discussions is allowing installers to turn on the cable service at the end of an installation without having to wait for a cable technician to arrive. That way, dealers can provide an end-to-end service, including testing of the video system, without having to rely on Comcast to complete the process. Installers are “already there” in the customer’s home, so it “just seems to make sense” to let installers handle the cable installation portion as well, he said.
Hana said he’s not privy to Comcast’s long-term plans but believes Comcast needs to work with HTSA to help it reach goals with subscribers and incorporate installers as part of the solution. “It speaks volumes about the space our members occupy that a company like that would recognize that here are the best of the best,” he said.
Comcast Labs launched a beta program called CXI (Custom Xfinity Integration) at CEDIA working with a small number of integrators with the objective of ensuring that Comcast Xfinity products work seamlessly in customers’ homes, Cherie Cremer, Comcast vice president-planning & operations for technology & product, told us. The products cover Comcast’s existing Triple Play products for voice, video and data, she said. Comcast is at the spring HTSA conference to meet with other integrators and educate them about the CXI program, she said. She cited Comcast’s X1 video platform and said, “We want to make sure it works beautifully in customers’ homes.”