The Future of Retail?

Jon Summer started Cyber Sound and Security in 1995 and understood from the beginning the importance of creating a showroom that allowed customers to experience what they were about to buy. However, when he and Jason Beatty, Cyber Sound’s VP, visited the Savant Experience Center in downtown NY, they decided to completely revamp their showroom to demonstrate residential installations in the most realistic way possible.

When you enter the Cyber Sound Experience Center you instantly feel comfortable in this smartly decorated home,” says Jason Beatty. “We hired a local interior designer, Est Est Inc, to help us get that loungy, mid-century vibe.”

The idea behind the new center is to actually show how products can be seamlessly integrated into the decor. It’s one thing to tell a customer what’s possible and another for them to experience it themselves. They show how it’s possible to have all sorts of technology –multiple TVs, iPad controllers, docked iPods, speakers in every room, etc – without compromising the interior design.

“All of our TV’s are hidden behind panels that move out of the way, or they’re on a lift that allows the TV to drop into a cabinet,” explains Beatty. “Sonance speakers are all over but they are either completely hidden or designed with such an extremely small footprint, they virtually disappear.”

Styled after Savant’s Experience Center, the heart of Cyber Sound’s design is around Savant and Apple technologies. Savant makes the only home automation system using the Apple platform because of their quality products and it’s stable and powerful eco-system. iPads and iPods are used throughout the facility on desktop docks or mounted in the wall. In fact, they are so simple to use that when customers pick them up they just know what to do. Intructions aren’t required.

Other features include Savant’s surface [coffee] table with an embedded touch screen, a 24” touch TV in the powder room, and various TV’s with Savant’s On Screen Display that allows full control of of all devices and systems in the Experience Center – just like it would be in someone’s home. The bar area has four Runco TV’s that can independently display it’s own program or all can be used to display one large picture. The high-end theater is uncompromising featuring the most up-to-date technology and products available today including Digital Projection’s Titan Reference 3D projector and Stewert Filmscreen’s Directors Choice screen that allows masking for any size image.

Most homeowner’s want dual purpose room’s and the Cyber Sound Theater is more than it appears when you first walk in. Finish the movie and press a button on the iPad. A seperate screen and projector drop from the ceiling. Grab a club and some golf balls and start playing on one of 65 plus courses around the globe using the TruGolf simulator from a company called The Konstruct.

You can’t just pop on over to the Cyber Sound center and get the full VIP treatment. However, when you set up an appointment, you’ll meet with the sales team and project managers. Customers are given a tour of the building and all the operations so they can see the extent of the services provided. With a staff of 57 people, Cyber Sound distinquishes themselves from other custom integrators with a fully integrated support team that includes their own electrical company, Cyber Electric, and an IT company, Cyber Technology. Saving the best for last, customers are finally lead into the Experience Center, where they are encouraged to just “go play”.

“In our experience everyone that walks away from our new center is amazed by the quality of our work, the simplicity of our systems, and, ultimately, they just get it,” concludes Beatty. “They finally understand what a great system would be like, and are far more motivated to make it a reality in their own homes.”

Photography by Tony Hernandez

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