Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hello, everybody and welcome to the Integrated Home, the podcast that's produced by the home integration community. For the home integration community, my name is Geoff Hayward and Today we're talking WOWHOUSE 2026. Welcome to the Integrated.
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Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Integrated Home. I am delighted to be joined by three integrators who have recently taken part in probably one of their most memorable experiences of 2026, which was Wowhouse 2026.
Joined today by Charlie McCourt from Equipped, Matt Tillman from Tillman Demotics, and Xavier Wilcox from Power Plant. Welcome to the show, everybody.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Hey, Jeff.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Wowhouse. I said it's probably an experience you'll never forget, but who want, who wants to start off by explaining exactly what wowhouse is? Because it's quite tricky to explain what it is, really, isn't it?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: I think it's quite simple, Jeff.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Go for it then. Go for it, Matt.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: You enter a house in every room, you're supposed to go, wow, that's it. And it could be the. It could be the interior design, the room, it could be who you meet in the room, it could be how long it's taken to build the room. It could be anything. There's a lot of wow going on.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: I think there's a lot of wow. It's at the design center. They hold it for a month, and it's kind of like the world's largest bungalow. A temporary showpiece for multiple interior designers, some of whom are the great and the good. Some of them are up and coming that maybe, maybe people wouldn't necessarily have heard of. But what comes together is every room is different. Everyone does a different type of room. And did you know much about it, Charlie, before you got involved, what it was all about?
[00:02:50] Speaker C: Yeah. So we've been visiting it for the last couple of years. Kind of just sort of nosing around and seeing what people are doing.
I think, you know, this year it seems we've amped up a bit. The quality level, I mean, and just the caliber of designers and people involved and the way it all came together seemed to be sort of a different level, much higher level. So, yeah, we've known about it. We've never sort of been involved in it up until this year. And then, yeah, happened to be involved in two rooms, which is exciting.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: And Xavier, I recall you saying to me quite recently that when you were asked to get involved, you didn't know what the hell the designer was talking about.
[00:03:26] Speaker D: No, no. Yes. I'm very much out the loop with all of this. So, yeah, we were approached and I didn't have a clue about Wowhouse at all, to be fair. So I hadn't visited it before and I think I'd heard of it, but I didn't really anything about it. So it was all new to me.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: It was all new. And Matt, had you been last year, did you. Had you seen what was going on there?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Last year we worked with Randall Sidley and did his garden out the back where he had the kitchen and everything. So we had some great parties there and met some cool people.
So it was lunch and dinner, lunch and dinner, like for ages. It was very good.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Excellent. And it this. Each room is kind of curated by a designer. Each room is sponsored by a brand. And I'm intrigued to know how you each got involved in it this year. Matt, presumably you're known in this world if you did it last year. So the designer that you worked with was Martin Kemp. Were they somebody that you knew were going to be involved and therefore you kind of assumed that you would be the integrator of choice?
[00:04:30] Speaker B: We just finished an amazing project in Chelsea with Martin, and very cool cinema, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've worked with him for many years, and then he approached me about the warehouse and said, you know, when you get involved, can we do some brainstorming? And then we thought about Ketra and we thought about the audio when he told us the idea. It was a great concept. And Martin's quite good because he doesn't usually do this kind of thing at all. So he's not one to be out there. And when he wanted to do something different, we knew when he means different, he means different. So he did the parlor. So it was great. So, no, it was an instant. Yeah, great, great idea to work with Martin But I think all the designers there were great. Everyone. I think like Charlie said this year the level, the standard seemed to raise a bit.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: It really did. It really did. And I think Charlie, what I found intriguing was you weren't the choice of just one designer, but you did adjoining rooms. Was that by design or just by complete accident?
[00:05:28] Speaker C: Pure luck. And very much a convenience point from an install perspective according to chaps who installed it. So yeah, having to just hop across the courtyard was extremely convenient for them between the two rooms. But no, it was yes. Salis and Graham who came to us first. We've been working with them for many, many years.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Aren't you related to someone there, Charlie?
I was told I went in there. So there's ever a job that you can't use blood Charlie on. And they were like, well actually my sister was A sister is married to Charlie. And I went okay, look, this is
[00:05:58] Speaker C: in the family, you know what actually back on. So Nicole told me about that. She was like a guy came in, very charming, very charming as you, Charlie,
[00:06:09] Speaker B: though not as good looking as you. You know, you look better in the Wowhouse.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: Well, look, I'll take that compliment. I'm flattered, but never, you know. But no, she, I was actually, whilst wow House was being built, I was actually marrying, yeah, Nicole's brother. So actually Nicole Salverson has become my sister in law. And you know, it's, it was, it's been a great connection since we first met and started working together. And you know, they, their design, their studio is very traditional. And I think the first thing Nicole said to me was, Charlie, I despise technology. I just don't want to see it. I hate the look of it. And I was like, well, great, this is not going to be a very good relationship. This is going to work.
But actually the sort of what's come out of that is that we've worked very closely and we can design the systems well for them.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: You'll turn them around, Charlie. They'll love technology by the time you're finished.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: I'm eight years in and they're tolerant, I'd say. But that was, you know, that was the intro and how we got involved with Salvos and Graham and that's been a great, great relationship in that one. So we know Lee from soho and they introduced us to Tiffany. But yeah, they reached out and said we need to convert one of our switches to something smart and brought us in and that's how we got involved with Tiffany and Romo who were the designer and sponsor for that, the Speakeasy,
[00:07:26] Speaker A: which is a lot of fun, that room, I mean, the Saracen Graham room was a bedroom, but what was the studio dug in space? How would you describe that?
[00:07:34] Speaker C: So they called it the Speakeasy Salon. So it was kind of this tinted sort of fabric heavy space with like a secret bar out the back, which was quite fun.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: The space you worked in. Matt Martin Kemp, he. He described it as. As a Grace Jones themed room, didn't he?
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he did the Rouge Noir, which matches my nail polish that I don't have on today. And it's the kind of ro.
Grace Jones actually lives next door to me. Actually a neighbor of Salverson Graham as well. And so I've met her a few times and he's obsessed by that. But the whole point was, was about using dead R fabrics to layer the room and to create lots of Easter eggs. So as you look around the room, you see different things. And he was launching his furniture range. And again, a bit like most interior designers, he doesn't like technology. But we wanted to demonstrate to him that the lighting, we'd create this room. And even after the room was built, he didn't really see how that was gonna work until we showed him some things over the first few days of the show and he's like, oh, actually this is really cool. I can show this, I can show that, I can show that. So then we created a whole scene set for him and he loved it.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: And Xavier, for you. Rigby and Rigby, they too were a customer of yours, weren't they?
[00:08:45] Speaker D: Yes. I mean, they're a company we worked very closely with or worked very closely with on a number of projects over the years. So we knew them very well.
I think the big difference with the room that we had was that Rigby and Rigby had a very clear concep of the room.
And they came to us really with just wanting to get the technology to realize what they were, their design.
It wasn't really kind of we were tasked. It was quite an unusual space in the sense that we had video screens that were mirrors. Sorry, that were windows into showing different parts of the world where Rigby can Rigby do projects or completed projects. So they wanted that concept that was very clear in their mind what they wanted.
And also, you know, the audio and the video, sorry, the audio and the lighting was the other sort of key factor of the room. So, you know, really, it was really realizing their design and we were quite, you know, the audio, video and lighting was quite, you know, integral to that rather than being a kind of add on that was in a lot of the other rooms.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: It struck me from the conversations I had with Rigby and Rigby that actually rather than Martin Kemp or Salverson, Graham, certainly, that they were much more embracing of technology.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, they do, they do. I mean, they're a really nice company to work with on that sense. They understand, you know, and they generally want, you know, to put technology in there, but they want to put it in, you know, in. In a. In a sort of, you know, simple and robust fashion that I think is the key element with. With all their projects. You know, they deal with people that. That, you know, you know, are comfortable with technology but want it to be simple to use and want it to be, you know, robust in operation. So. And that was the concept that we took, you know, with, with the, you know, with the spa bathroom at Wowhouse. You know, the other. The other issue that we. Well, not an issue that was very sort of needed to be addressed very clearly was the fact that the room, the Rigby and Rigby room, was not going to be manned. It had to run 24, run 12 hours a day, had to be turned on in the morning, work all day, had to be synced all day long. You know, the audio, the video had to sync all day long.
And there was nobody there to sort of press a button to restart it. So we had to think very clearly about how to keep everything in time and robust. Over a month of, you know, visitors coming and going. So that was quite an interesting concept for us.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: And before you got involved or said yes, or even perhaps after you'd said yes, did you set any clear business goals? I mean, Matt, what were you hoping to get out of it this year? Did you have anything specific in mind?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Good question. Not really. Not at the outset. We just thought, okay, let's see what happens.
But in the end, it was quite a good network event to meet. Lots of clients I haven't seen for many, many years. And we inv people in and did some mini CPDs and blah, blah, blah. So it was. It was a. It was definitely worthwhile from a networking point of view. We exhibited at Decorex for 10 years. We don't really do that anymore. So it was quite good to. To take advantage of the. The footfall through that. I don't know if Charlie Xavier, we spent much time at the show, but it was, it was. I met, you know, quite a few old contacts and new contacts. It's interesting.
[00:12:21] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I totally agree. It was A great place to kind of put yourself for the day and just sort of engage people in conversation as they're walking through. And, you know, lots of interesting designers and architects and even clients. Actually, we met a client of ours who we're pitching for on a project who was walking through and just happened to be there. And so they managed to show her all the bits and bobs that are, you know, potentially going to her place. So that was a great sort of validator.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Have you had any leads from it yet, Charlie?
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Yes, I had.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: No, yeah, had a call this morning and a couple calls specifically around the book speakers. I mean, they were kind of the thing, I think you guys will know what we do is trying to keep technology invisible, right. It's very hard to market, it's very hard to showcase, you know, I don't know on socials or anything like that, what we do. So we made a decision quite early on that we didn't want to hide everything. And that moved us away from like an invisible speaker or something like that because, you know, just no one, no one knows it's there, no one cares about it. We wanted to design something or create something that people would photograph and talk about and that was the goal. And then we sort of spoke with the PR teams and the social teams at both the companies and sort of had agreements in advance, put us on these collab posts and just trying to get something out of it. It's very easy to spend money, put the hardware in, put your time in and effort and care, and then there's no real validation of success after it. It's just, yeah, we were there and part of the conversation, so we would trying hard for that. I wouldn't say we haven't had any hard leads or anything through like that yet, Matt, but yeah, being part of the conversation and hopefully get some press in the coming sort of weeks and months as well was our goal.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: What about you, Xavier? Did you have a clear goal in mind when you. When you were on Twisted to say, yes, I'll do this?
[00:14:02] Speaker D: Well, no, not really. I mean, I think. I think we did it very much as supportive for Rigby and Rigby. So that was really our kind of, you know, as I said, we've worked with them on a lot of projects and things and we just wanted to help them out with this really. So that was our primary goal.
And you know, as I said before, you know, because I didn't know much about it, I didn't come with the great expectations of anything, you know. You know, to Me, it was just kind of, you know, helping somebody out and, you know, sure, good things will come in the future from it, but actually I was genuine. As we've spoken before, I'm genuinely surprised just how much positive response we did get from both, you know, you know, both suppliers, distributors, manufacturers and people we work with and, you know, and also customers that visited the show. So, you know, I mean, I think we got, you know, quite. Quite a lot back from it that we didn't really expect or didn't really were chasing after. So.
And I think if I had my time again, you know, and I would certainly do more like Charlie and Matt with the thing and actually be a bit more proactive with it because. But we didn't really have that on, you know, we didn't really have that sort of factored in, if you like. So. But, but, but, yeah, we. We responded and we did quite a few events there for manufacturers and for distributors who wanted to showcase what we'd put in there to their clients. And that worked really well.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: If you went to the equivalent of Wowhouse 20 years ago, there'd be no tech in it. That'd be the whole point. There'd be nothing there.
Do you know what I mean? Whereas I think now they expect the tech and the tech's blended in. And I didn't even realize that all of our us were in it. And there's so much tech in the warehouse now. There wouldn't have been 10, 20 years ago. So, yeah, I think it does demonstrate how technology becomes part of the interiors and how the interior designers actually accept it and like it. And although they don't like it, it makes them look good. So therefore they'd like to use it and work with good people.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: And your room was very much about the lighting. I mean, I would say that that sort of feel, as you walked into that room, it felt. I mean, Grace Jones could have emerged from behind one of those fabric pieces, I would not have been surprised.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: It was all about layering. Yeah, so it was. Layering of.
[00:16:22] Speaker C: It was very moody.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: It's moody. There you go, Charlie. It should have been open at night. It should have been the room that was the nightclub, because when we had a few parties in the evening, I was in there with a moody lighting and everything else. And, yeah, we'd just needed a. Like a shisha pipe or something. And then smoke bellowing out through the wow house and. Yeah, maybe a. Maybe a belly dancer on, you know, Martin's new table, you know, the house stop table. You know, it could have gone so much further than it did.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: But it was the lighting. But it was also really subtle the way it was doing that color changing as well. It was just, it felt just a moving kind of environment in a strange way.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yes, it did. Yeah. Nikki Burris, we worked who did the light design with us. She does a lot of work in house with us. She's pretty good.
And then our programmers as well. And Sebastian the ran it, everyone chipped in. I have to admit I didn't get involved in the setup at all. There were anything to do with it. And they decorates. If you're going to go and hang out at the show, don't even. I didn't even know what we'd done. I turned up right, what we done, then show me what we've done. And because you don't, you can't, you can't have two heads and do the setup and the techy bit and then actually use it as a client would do. I think you have to segregate those two in your own mind in order to segregate it for the client and the people that are going to be experiencing it.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And Charlie, I've got to say, those speakers, I mean, I've told you, I think in a previous meeting every, every time I was in your service and Graham and there was a journalist in there or anybody really, they loved those little book. Bookshelf speakers that were not actually bookshelf speakers but they were bookshelf speakers, weren't they?
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Yeah, no, they were. They were a lot of fun to design. And you know, I think, you know, we're often quite technological and quite programming and you know, we focus on that side of it and it was fun for the team to get creative, you know, and come up with that concept and actually core out the speakers. A very manual process. Get them row colored actually.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Did you make them, Charlie? Did you actually make.
[00:18:34] Speaker C: So they were a little K array. I can't remember the model. It's a little tiny little KRA speaker. And okay, we partnered with this company who curate bookshelves and libraries, which I didn't know was a business, but they do it for Savills and all sorts of big auction houses and hotels and yeah, they picked out every book and they chose two books for us and we called them out, hid some speakers in them, sort of covered them back over with the.
With the original spine that had been peeled off the back and then a member of our team went through with a needle and pierced every grill hole in the. In the speaker grill.
Painstaking and not particularly scalable, but you know, it's going to say if you
[00:19:13] Speaker B: got a warehouse full ready to go.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: Yeah, so we were the original hydrogen.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: That's it. Yeah.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Literally plan was to hydro dip them, which is what we're looking at if people want them moving forward and kind of dip the design onto it. But yeah, it was a bit of fun and something a bit different and I think, you know, that's what drew a bit of attention. And you know, we could have just gone with a couple of invisible speakers, but then nobody would have talked about them. So it was, yeah, it was enjoyable, although I think a bit, a bit stressful in the lead up getting them ready. But yeah, really neat solution, I thought.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: And actually what that did was it created such a great talking point and I think, you know, I'm still having conversations with journalists who were in that room saying we're interested in covering technology now because we saw those book speakers.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: Yeah, well, if that's, that's, that's all we could ask for. And if that's, if we're bringing technology and helping sort of, you know, bring it into that design conversation, that's, that's, that's the big goal achieved.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: So what did, what did Nicole and Mary think of it? Were they, were they pleased with that look as well? Was that what they were hoping for from the involved?
[00:20:23] Speaker C: Well, they actually were just like people.
It's all people talking about. They're not talking about the beautiful bedspread and the, and the custom fireplace which has our dog's paw print, you know, molded into. They're just talking about the speakers. So, no, I think it's opened their eyes to what can be done from a technology perspective.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, can't wait to see that on a project soon. And Xavier, with you, I mean, I had lots of comment from visitors about. Well, I'm not sure I'd have a huge video screen of where I wanted to go while I'm having a shower.
What sort of reaction did you get to, to that? And also you had the same kind of color changing lighting system thing going on, didn't you, with Lutron's Ketra?
[00:21:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, we, we very much followed, I mean the, the lighting followed, followed the video. So we had basically a five minute video that had five different locations. So each had a minute each and the lighting sort of followed that. So. And we used the Ketra lighting, which we were super excited about using.
And we, you know, like the Wowhouse I believe was, it was flown in you know, especially for. It was the first time in the uk. So it's really good to get our hands on that and play with it. And, you know, using the sort of. The full range of the Ketra lighting was also quite exciting because we had snow scenes, we could go right up to sort of 8000k on the lighting and we had sunsets where we could go right down to sort of, you know, 2000k, 1500, 2000. So, you know, we were doing all of that within, you know, syncing with the video, which was lots of fun. So. So, you know, I think it really did. It just showed, I think particularly that you can change a room's feel and change a room sort of, you know, how you. How you feel and how you feel energized within a room just by the lighting. The lighting was the key element that kind of made you feel, you know, like. Like you're on a beach in, you know, you know, Bangkok or you're in a. You're in a sort of, you know, a snowy scene in Tokyo. It's. It's. It. The lighting was really.
I think the lighting drove the room more than the video in many respects. So we were really pleased with that.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: And when did they get you involved? When did Rigby and Rigby come to you with this is what we'd like you to think about and do. Did you have much time?
[00:22:51] Speaker D: We had. I think about. They came to us about two or three weeks before the show, so it wasn't a great deal of time to play with. But, yeah, I mean, they were very clear about what they wanted to do. They came with the design. We didn't have any input into. Into that. We just delivered what they wanted to do. They wanted video screens for it, they wanted.
They wanted LED lighting, they wanted sound. We just basically put the elements of that into the room for them.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: And was it same for you, Matt? Did you have four to six weeks getting things designed or did you have longer?
[00:23:27] Speaker B: I think it was longer, Jeff. I'm pretty sure it's longer. Like I said, I didn't really get involved, but I think it was longer than that when Martin mentioned it to me in Jemima, because, like Xavier said, it took a long time to get hold of the Ketra. I think we knew for like three months or something.
And then we kind of got involved with their designer concept of the room and the layering and everything else.
But, I mean, it was plenty of time. But there's never plenty of time. It's the same with any project.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think we had a bit more notice than that.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Charlie, were you, were you on a short time scale or. I mean, with the family connection? You probably knew about it a year ago, didn't you?
[00:24:06] Speaker C: I didn't. I mean, they gave us enough time. I think we had a few months on the, on the bedroom. But for the, for the second space it was, it was much shorter. It felt like we sort of. Yeah. Had to coddle together the second room quite quickly.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: It must have taken longer to make the speakers though. That was a long process, wasn't it?
[00:24:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, they. Yeah. And actually Kray had a sort of a. It was a 10 week lead time or so on the actual custom ral finished version. So, yeah, a few months for the main bedroom, but for the salon it was much quicker.
But it was fun with the team kind of juggling two rooms in the same project. Well, kind of in the same project, I guess, but very. Two very different approaches in terms of how one designer approaches design and how a second one does and sort of trying to balance the two else.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Do you get paid anything for doing this or are you expecting to do it like gratis to the designers?
[00:24:57] Speaker B: No, don't get paid. Did you get paid, Charlie?
[00:25:00] Speaker C: We got cost covered for a set of speakers for one of the rooms that was, that was selected by the designers that we then kind of fabric wrapped at our own cost, which cost more than the price of the speakers themselves.
But yes, no, for the other room it was very much the, you know, supplier funded and you get paid in, you know, pr.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Same for you, Xavier?
[00:25:23] Speaker D: Well, I mean, fantastically for us actually Rigby and Rigby did, did buy the screens which, the digital signage screens, which was very nice of them.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:25:31] Speaker D: But you know, and Lutron supplied us with the lighting, which was really nice of them.
And you know, the rest of them really, as Charlie said, I mean, suppliers were really super supportive and actually once Warehouse was mentioned, they were more than happy to help us. And with all the equipment, even stuff that we don't normally sell, like Bright Sign Unit is actually quite an unusual product for us to use. And Midwich were fantastically helpful in lending us one for the duration of the show, which was very helpful.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: I mean, that is quite interesting that it's on the radar of suppliers that they actually kind of feels like they kind of bent over backwards a little bit to, to really pull out the stops and show you what they could do as well. Which is really interesting, I think.
[00:26:23] Speaker D: Absolutely. I mean, you know, when we mentioned it to people. They were super supportive, you know, super supportive. So, you know, we have no complaints on that. And I'm sure that's. That will go forward into the future. So anybody contemplating doing it again, you'll get a lot of support from manufacturers and distributors.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: But the terrifying thing from my perspective for you as integrators is, must be when they say, look, you've got, what is it, four days, five days to get this all installed and working. How do you feel about that, Matt?
[00:26:55] Speaker B: It was just programming for us really, because it's fairly basic, the audio, so it's just programming the ketchup. But we had that sort of pre programmed and tested as we tried to do with all of our projects. But it was just quite creative, getting the programmers together with lighting designer Martin and creating stuff. It was just creating something interesting. It wasn't particularly complex, any of it, I don't think, technically.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Good, good. And yeah. Xavier, was that a pressure point for you, the turnaround time to get it up and working? Because you had quite a bit of tech in that room.
[00:27:27] Speaker D: We did, we did, but we did set it all up. We basically set up the entire system in our workshop, you know, and, you know, we had it all running. So we tested it all, we tested the, you know, the video, the aspect ratios, the tiling of the videos. We had all that sorted and we did all the pre programming, like Matt said, you know, prior to the show. So we just basically, to a certain extent, it was a plug and play install. I mean, the Ketra did arrive kind of a day into the build. So, you know, that was very last minute and that was kind of, you know, we're all on a bit of an edge.
Will it, won't it arrive sort of thing. And also, you know, it's the first time we'd ever experienced or seen Ketra. We played with the program in the workshop, but we hadn't actually seen the product. So that was a bit of a learning experience for our programmers.
But the rest of it, we needed to make sure. We needed to make sure that it was robust and would run and would sync and everything like that. So that couldn't be done, you know, at the show. We had to do that prior to it. We had to run it for a week and make sure that everything stayed in sync and the video followed and the audio followed and everything like that.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: And I just imagine Charlie with What, more than 20 rooms there at Warehouse all joined together. There must be so many contractors and suppliers falling over themselves in those few Days of buildup. I mean, what is it like?
[00:29:03] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, I was. Well, I was away getting married at the Tuscan Hills, so I actually had no idea. My team reliably tell me a man after reliably tell me, don't get involved.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Don't get involved.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: You employ people.
It was perfect. It was perfect timing in that sense. I did all the sort of planning and pre design with the team and then. And they delivered it. And yeah, I'm reliably informed it was busy and challenging. But that's.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Congratulations, Charlie.
You must have broken lots of hearts.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: My gosh. But I mean, the thing is these installations is, you know, we've. Our piece has to happen before the designers can finish everything, right? We've got to get all of our installation and programming aside from the installation side, so there's that sequencing and, you know, you've got to have all the right stuff. And we're working with contractors and builders that we haven't worked with necessarily before. So I think, you know, it was challenging. But look, they put in the hard work and got it done. And people work great to a deadline, don't they? So.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, fair point, fair point. And Matt, you talked a bit about bumping into old clients there.
[00:30:08] Speaker D: Who are the.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Who are the people who visit Wowhouse? I mean, who is it that is filing through?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: People that are invited and like a party.
Interior designers who want to gain some ideas, I think, and some architects that want to stay in touch with the interior side of things. Mostly it, I think. And then a lot of suppl suppliers. There are a lot of suppliers seem to be coming in because they're sourcing materials.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Did you, did you find it at that kind of combination? Because let's be honest, you know, what is it, 20 plus quid a ticket? It's not cheap for people just to rock up and go there. You've got to have intent if you want to spend time there, haven't you?
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I think people did, though. See people bat an eyelid, did they? Everyone turn it. And it was a day out for a lot of offices, wasn't it? A lot of companies took a day out and they were like, okay, you know, you've got this company, that company, they were doing a day out.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: We were kind of told about a few. There was like Christie's, for example. We're doing a tour at some point and you're just basically trying to get yourself in the room then for that point. I mean, there was a lot of tours going through from architects Designers and other sort of adjoining professions that could potentially work for us. So yeah, we were just trying to be just in the room at the point where those things are going through and part of it. And then there was a few private events, as you said, Matt, the sort of late night shisha smoking, belly dancing evening, which does sound like a lot of fun. But the next breakfast, that's next to.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: We got some plans for that. Yeah, the boudoir. Go from the parlor to the boudoir. Yeah. And then. Yeah,
[00:31:41] Speaker C: but yeah, there was morning events and evening events and obviously, you know, we became a recent member of cedia, so just, you know, they were doing a few walkthroughs and all sorts of that as well.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: You've got all these things going on. I mean, Servio, you're obviously tuning into all of this thinking if we're involved next year we're going to be much more attuned to what is happening, I'm sure. But, but how easy is it for you guys to get visibility? Because you're like, you're one of the contractors, right? And it's all really about the sponsor of the room, the designer of the room. So how, how easy is it for you to get your name out there in the actual room itself? It's, it didn't seem to me too straightforward, I'll be honest.
[00:32:20] Speaker D: I mean, I mean, we certainly didn't manage that and we were very much in the background.
But as I say, we didn't really come with that concept of it, you know, and, but I think, you know, there's lots of positives to be had from that, you know, I mean, certainly with, you know, you know, with Rigby, Rigby with, you know, Samuel Heath, the people who did the bathroom finishes and you know, suppliers and you know, and we did get some, some really super positive feedback from customers who, who, who had been to the show. So, you know, I, I, I, you know, I think even our level of it, which was, you know, not quite as advanced as sort of, you know, you know, Matt and Charlie's. But you know, we, we, we got a very positive response. So I, I thought, yeah, but Matt,
[00:33:09] Speaker A: it's not a typical exhibition where you have a scanner and people wear badges and you can see who they are walking through, is it, it's not like that at all.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: No, you have to be the manual scanner. You have to scan people as they come in. Yeah, I mean, that's it. But then interiors, interior design, that kind of thing is very touchy feeling. It's all about it's all about who you know and who you get on with. It's all a very sort of friendly kind of. That's the way they do business. So I think you have to, you have to play ball and be there.
There is a certain thing. So if you take part in a talk or, you know, the PR that goes with that, people might read that, but it's usually your competitors or whoever, you just have your name out there as much as possible.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: And what about you, Charlie? Are you been maximizing the whole social media aspect of it?
Yeah.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: I mean, whether that lead actually leads to leads, who knows? It's a hard one to validate. I think, you know, we just, as Matt said, I think being part of that conversation and being present and sort of deepening those connections with the designers and architects, with the people who are going to bring you into the project, you know, that's, that's the goal at any of these shows. And, you know, having technology be such a big part of. I think this, what is. Well, historically a design show for so many years is great for our industry. People are starting to recognize the importance of it in the form and the different forms that it comes in. And I think, you know, that's, that's a joy. You know, we can post and we have done lots of posts and, you know, social media bits and hopefully being featured in a couple of articles, but, but, yeah, maybe they'll get picked up, but certainly the connections with designers and, you know, with Studio Doug, and we haven't worked with them before on a project, but, you know, hopefully now we've shown what we can do, they'll come to us on the next project. So those are the connections that we're looking to forge and deepen through the show.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Fantastic. So, Xavier, if you get a phone call from another designer next year and they say, can you be involved? What's your answer going to be? Would you do it?
[00:35:03] Speaker B: It won't be Salvason, Graham Xavier. It won't be Salvis and Gray,
[00:35:09] Speaker D: or
[00:35:10] Speaker C: if it is, I'll be asking questions.
[00:35:15] Speaker D: I've been, I've been, I've been making notes and planning all through this.
There's, there's, there's conversations to be had. No, I, I genuinely, yes, we would do it again. I think, you know, it was, it was a really good experience and it was really exciting and, you know, quite interesting. I thought the whole, the whole concept of the show was quite fascinating and there were some just, you know, even if you take out the technology side of things, and looked at what sort of size did with building that just incredible sort of facade at the beginning of the show. I mean, whether it appeals to you or not, aesthetically, it was just, you know, as an achievement in five days work, it was just staggering. But I mean, you know, the quality of everything was astonishing, you know, that I think, you know, was the thing that carried through every room you went to. It was the highest quality, you know, furnishings and finishes and things, which is really nice for people in our industry to be associated with. I think that's, you know. You know, I think. I think that's the real positive from it, that we are being associated with that kind of interior and that kind of, you know, lifestyle, because that's. That's where. That's where we want to put our equipment. That's where we want to be, really. So, yeah, and I think, you know, historically, you know, his interior designers have, you know, seen. Seen what we do, you know, like the Antichrist, you know, so. So I think. So I think, you know, it's kind of. It's kind of quite refreshing that, you know, there was so much technology at Whale House and being, you know, genuinely embraced by interior designers. So I think that is a.
That is a change. So, you know, which was great.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: And as a veteran of it, Matt, presumably no issues about coming back and doing it again.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: We've got some ideas for next year with some different people as well. So. Yeah, we'll see.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Excellent. And Charlie, I bet you'll be back, won't you?
[00:37:14] Speaker C: I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure we'll be back. I mean, it was. It was. It was great and a lot of fun and, you know, just great to be a part of. Yeah, that. The buzz for the month and, you know, everyone's talking about it, so, you know, we're happy, happily happy to do it and work with, you know, a few different designers. Designers don't tend to do it year on year, do they? They sort of dip in and leave it for a few months.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: It's supposed to be once. It's supposed to be once.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: Just once.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: But, Adam, architecture, we have size, have done it twice now. I think that might be the cost of building it. Obviously you've got the problem, Charlie, is you can only get married once. Well, well, you know.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Yeah, hopefully it'll last a few years.
[00:37:49] Speaker C: So, yeah, that's it. If you see me with another ring on my finger, then you'll know I'm house again. Another wowhouse invite. Yeah,
[00:38:00] Speaker A: brilliant, Brilliant. So what would be the biggest lesson you've taken or biggest learning? Because it can be about anything, really. For from that experience of a month, I mean, obviously yours, probably, Matt, would be next year. You probably book a wedding or do something whilst the team are working on it. So you don't get any involvement, but just rock up.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: My girlfriend hopefully won't listen to this podcast.
She's a jeweler and I'll be broke.
[00:38:25] Speaker D: So.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
But seriously, what. What do you think the biggest learning from this year? What would you say?
[00:38:35] Speaker B: I don't know, really. I. I think the only thing we didn't do is we didn't get involved like Charlie did. We didn't get involved enough in the PR to start with. So my guys got all involved in the setup and I was like, well, we're in the brochure. We sent that. Never mind the actual what we're doing. The publicity of what we're doing is almost more important than what we're doing.
And we didn't take advantage of that. We just helped them. And just a bit like Xavier was saying, we just helped them in the background. And yes, I was there, but we didn't do what Charlie did and really maximize the PR and getting all the literature beforehand because my guys that ran it just focused on the install. So I think that's what we do better next time.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: What about you, Charlie?
[00:39:12] Speaker C: Gosh, I mean, it all went so well. I mean, I think, you know, to the point. I think Matt will. Will find out whether those things actually worked. Whether you actually see me pop up in any. Any articles anytime soon. No, I think we would have probably got involved in it earlier because of what I'm understanding is a lot of those. A lot of those publications are locked in 2, 3, 4 months in advance anyway. So I don't know, I'm just. I'd love to. I'd love for us to be the headline rather than one of the. Rather than a subsidiary. I think that's, you know, and I think Dagesh from Nucleus managed to do that. Being a sponsor of a room, he
[00:39:44] Speaker B: did it really well, didn't he?
[00:39:46] Speaker C: Very impressive. And, you know, I think that was a. You're, then you're. Then your headline is up there. And like, we've had to fight hard to get our.
Our name into it.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: But I was talking to one of the interior designers who said that basically everything that they had in their room, they've either. They've either made it for a project already or they're selling it into another project. Or in fact, they were Selling pieces to people walking into their rooms.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Well, well that's what Martin, he launched his whole from the Avenue collection there. So it's all for sale. Everything in the room's for sale apart from a few little bits in his cabinet.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: So yeah, so there's a return. What about you Zafia? A big learning point for you. What would it be?
[00:40:32] Speaker D: I mean, I think a bit like Matt. I mean we didn't go into it with that kind of, you know, looking to get, you know, you know, a lot out of it. I suppose so, so we were pleased with what we got. But I mean, you know, doing it again, we would, we would, we would probably look at it more or you know, look at the PR side of it a lot better than we, than we, than we did this time around.
But, but that's, you know, insane that we, you know, we're very pleased with, with the response and what we got out of it and, and actually you know, you know, the relationship with the, with, with our suppliers and things. So you know, from our point of view it was all positive without having, you know, Charlie's PR machine, you know, so.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: But yeah, I think Charlie is the PR machine.
I think he's a one man PR machine. I mean who needs Wildwoods or anyone else, all these companies just, just Charlie McCaw, that's it,
[00:41:32] Speaker A: that's my key learning. Charlie McCourt, Thanks all for joining me and, and thank you for, I mean you gave us all a lot of help on the things we were working on over the last month at Warehouse. So thanks for that and yeah, can't wait to talk to you again in six months time when you're inundated with projects from designers or clients that you met during wowhouse. So I'm hoping that, that, that pipeline is well and truly primed for the next six months, year, whatever. Thank you very much.
[00:42:03] Speaker C: Great, see you later.
[00:42:05] Speaker D: Okay, take care.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Thanks Jeff. See you.
[00:42:06] Speaker D: Bye Bye bye.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Thanks so much Charlie, Matt and Xavier for a very entertaining and informative chat there. The Integrated Home is powered by Integrated Systems Europe, the world renowned annual tech show for the systems integration and audio visual industry. You can find out more about the Integrated Home on our social channels. Ntegratedhome podcast. The Integrated Home is a Wildwood plus production we support Together for Cinema.
[00:42:44] Speaker D: The Integrated Home supports Together for Cinema. Together for Cinema is a community interest company that collaborates with the AV industry to design and install cinema rooms in children's home hospices and other deserving locations across the uk.
So far, thanks to the huge generosity of manufacturers, distributors and integrators, freely giving of their time, products and expertise. We've created 46 dedicated cinemas, equivalent to an installation value of about 1.2 million pounds. In these special places, families, staff and volunteers are now enjoying fantastic movie experiences together and helping to create very, very special memories. Help our industry continue to make a difference. Visit TogetherForCinema.co.uk and find out how you can be involved to make short lives just that little bit better.
