Home automation with Ben and Adam MacKenzie

Tom Houghton:

You’re listening to “The Building Code,” I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

And joining us today are brothers, Ben and Adam MacKenzie, who are both engineers. They’re both LEED Green associates and co-owners of Budget Blinds of Lincoln. A hand, to keep going with this long list of greatness, they’re both identical twins.

Paul Wurth:

And they’re here in the studio.

Tom Houghton:

And they’re here in the studio.

Paul Wurth:

So we’re trying to keep them straight.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

It’s Adam and Ben.

Tom Houghton:

So why don’t we, maybe Ben introduce yourself first. That way people can hear… I don’t know how they’re going to be able to distinguish between you guys.

Paul Wurth:

I get it. I’m looking right at them, I can’t distinguish them.

Ben MacKenzie:

Our voice is different-

Paul Wurth:

We’ll find out. We’ll find out.

Tom Houghton:

So, okay. This is Ben talking. Say hello, Ben.

Ben MacKenzie:

Hello.

Tom Houghton:

Hello, Adam.

Adam MacKenzie:

Hello.

Paul Wurth:

Awesome.

Tom Houghton:

I mean, it sounded pretty similar.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Let’s move on. There’s a lot of twins in the world, this is not that unique.

Tom Houghton:

A lot of twins in the construction space, like the “Property Brothers.”

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, there you go.

Ben MacKenzie:

We were waiting for that one.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

You guys get that-

Adam MacKenzie:

We get that a lot.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, okay. Cool. Good for you guys.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

I may or may not have already had a question from somebody who saw me who were like, “Are the ‘Property Brothers’ here?” No, not the “Property Brothers.”

Paul Wurth:

Next episode.

Tom Houghton:

Next-

Ben MacKenzie:

[crosstalk] Little teaser.

Tom Houghton:

There you go.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Shout out to the Angelo.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

There you go. All right. Well, let’s dive in. Today we’re going to talk about a lot about home automation and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, home automation. It’s exciting.

Tom Houghton:

It’s good.

Paul Wurth:

It’s here, but it’s only just kind of scratching the surface, right?

Tom Houghton:

Well, I mean, yeah, adoption.

Paul Wurth:

Adoption. That just makes sense.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, the products are all there, people just have got to start adopting this.

Paul Wurth:

Well, that’s not true, right? Like they’ve been kind of pieced together.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

In that fair? Like the ding or the ring? The ding?

Tom Houghton:

The ding.

Paul Wurth:

Has such a better name. So the ring, you know, you can buy that and then you can like plug in your own automated electrical lights.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

It all start with the clapper obviously.

Tom Houghton:

The clapper.

Paul Wurth:

But, so are we talking more about like, this is your whole house system that someone’s going to do for you? That’s the next step, right?

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. And that’s what we’re proposing is coming to the market is, you know, so far we have the people buy the Alexa Dot and they’ll say, “Hey, I automated my lights. I have an automated house.” And we want to rewrite that definition and say, “No, true home automation is coming now.” The prices are getting to the point where that’s something that we can provide to basically every mid-market house in the country.

Tom Houghton:

What would you say true home automation looks like to you then? Let’s maybe define that.

Adam MacKenzie:

I think a lot of that is what you interact with in your house. So the ones we’ve seen already and that, you know, there are certain technologies out there. You have your smart, heating and air system, so a nest or a smart Honeywell, a thermostat. You have your smart lighting. You see things like Phillips Hue, or even Ikea has a smart lighting kit now.

Adam MacKenzie:

Then also sounds. Google, I think has a audio system you can set up in your house, but Sono speakers as well, things like that are all… I think those three things, light, temperature and sound, are three things we’re looking at automating and bringing a better experience to people. To home owners with.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I think the difficulty is for a guy with my level of technical knowledge is, I don’t want it to learn three different things. That’s a tough one for me. I have a WiFi HPAC, something in my house, never touched it. Don’t know how. Don’t want to get into it. I’d rather pay somebody, but then I don’t want to do that either.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. I think it kind of breaks down into two camps depending on what devices you’re using. Because like you mentioned the categories, right? So you’ve got heating, lighting, I’d say locks too, right?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Security locks?

Paul Wurth:

The ring doorbell, all that stuff.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, the door… Exactly. That’s like, security for your house, yeah? That’s all being automated. I think it breaks down right now into two categories of, do you use Apple products or do you use Android products? Because of course, Google has the whole suite of their products. I of course, on the Apple side know about that with HomeKit, that’s their big tool to kind of take all of these different companies and put them under one umbrella. To try to make that experience easier for the customer, so that way you can just say something like, “Siri, set my temperature in the house to 72 degrees,” and she does it.

Paul Wurth:

That’d be easier on me.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

[crosstalk]

Tom Houghton:

You can do that today.

Paul Wurth:

Yes. I could?

Tom Houghton:

You could, with an ecobee. We don’t need to dive into two products. But, let’s take a step back, and first go back and introduce you guys. We just kind of dove right into the topic there, because we’re so excited to talk about it. But, give us a little more background on you guys, and the company you work for.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. So first, thanks for having us in today. So Adam and I both currently, we’re consulting engineers in Kansas City. Then recently we became co-owners of Budget Blinds of Lincoln.

Ben MacKenzie:

So some history on Budget Blinds, nationally it’s the largest window blinds provider in the country. That means we have access to the largest manufacturers. We can get the best prices and best products. But what’s really excited us, and why we decided to buy in this year was some of their other partnerships. So with Sonos, if you’re familiar with sound, a smart speaker company.

Tom Houghton:

Yup.

Ben MacKenzie:

Then also with Lutron. And, Lutron on the commercial side, where are most of our experiences is, they’re one of the big players. They’re one of the leaders in controlling your entire building. If I’m designing a hospital, I’d like Lutron to be controlling the lights, the technology in the building, the shades in all the patient rooms. So with Budget Blinds partnerships, with them it really brings an opportunity to use some of that commercial experience to easily bring home automation to the residential markets.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. So, like you said earlier, you’re looking at that kind of every man or woman being able to do that in their house, right?

Ben MacKenzie:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paul Wurth:

Whether you’re doing a remodel or doing a new construction.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. And our goal is to really be that one-stop shop where we do it for you. You don’t want to be an expert. You don’t have time to be an expert on those systems, so let us set it up for you. Everything’s going to talk together through what we call the hub, and then you control everything with your voice or through your app. Everyone’s familiar with those, we are like playing around with them.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

That makes sense.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. So, would you say your focus is currently more on the residential side, and currently selling to like homeowners? Are you dealing with contractors, wholesale, that stuff?

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah, nationally and historically, Budget Blinds has been going into people’s homes, getting them one-on-one consultation and saying, “Hey, what kind of blinds shades do you want in your house?” And that is what the vast majority of franchises out there do. But, what we’re really focusing on is going to home builders, developers, people like that, and kind offering them that package of here is your home automation kit.

Ben MacKenzie:

I’m a professional electrical engineer, and I’d like to think I know a thing or two about lights, and just some technology systems and buildings. But yeah, the hardest part about automating your home is, yeah, “do I have an Apple phone or Android,” or what can work with what other systems? And it’s complicated. I think if we can come in and say, “here’s, day one, you’re building a house and you open your front door, walk in and everything’s set up for you.” That’s really the end goal, I would say, with what we’re trying to do.

Ben MacKenzie:

So, mainly on the residential side, we do, do some commercial work, but I think the primary focus for now is residential construction.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. That’s awesome.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I mean’ I feel like we’ve maybe talked about this before we got on air. I feel like throughout the last five to 10 years, we’re kind of at a point where people might be more open for that budget line item when they’re doing a remodel or new home. Like yeah, “I don’t even know what it’s going to cost. Anywhere from two, five, 10 grand, probably, the whole all-in.”

Paul Wurth:

So, I think people are a little bit more open to that now. And as long as there’s one central hub, as you said, like that’s it, you don’t-

Tom Houghton:

It’s got to be simple.

Paul Wurth:

Where would the hardware be then for you guys in your scenario? Like, would it be a separate piece of hardware? Like those huge old-

Tom Houghton:

Like touchscreen.

Paul Wurth:

… remotes?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Or like could you just do it on an iPad or a tablet?

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah. Our goal is to have it through an iPad. So whatever device you guys have In your house right now, it’s the same one we’re tying into. I’ve seen the hub, like I said, is the brain to your house with our system, usually, you just set that right next to your router. It plugs into the router, and then it talks to the whole house.

Adam MacKenzie:

And even the dimmers that they make in some of the wall outlets that can control your smart lights, those are actually range extenders now. So your whole house is talking to the brain, the hub, but you don’t really know that’s happening, and that’s our goal. All of this is talking and you don’t have to worry about it. It’s all set up. Everything is within range in your house, it works day one.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. I like to say I’m a technology forefront-

Paul Wurth:

You are.

Tom Houghton:

… pioneer person. I mean, so I’ve got hue lights in my home. We’ve got ecobee. We also have like a Honeywell smart thermostat, that’s a whole nother story, on why we have both. We’ve got a HomePod.

Paul Wurth:

You have a Tesla.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, that comes too.

Paul Wurth:

[crosstalk].

Tom Houghton:

Apparently. To come pick me up. We’ve got smart locks. I mean, I’ve kind of tried the whole gamut, and like I said, I’m managing it all through HomeKit right now. So I can ask Siri to do pretty much anything, and she’ll kind of figure it out through the back end, which is great. But maybe you can share it from the Lutron perspective, what products it has and integrates with, that you could potentially just bring this all under one brand.

Adam MacKenzie:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Adam MacKenzie:

And honestly, the way you framed it there is probably the most intimidating part about a home automation system is, you listed five brands right there-

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Adam MacKenzie:

… and they can all talk to each other through HomeKit, but each one is set up a little bit differently. Each one has a little different user interface. So, our goal with Lutron is to bring all of your lighting in the home, all of the sound in the home and all of the shades in the home, are controlled off of one system. So like you said, it all can get tied together, but through HomeKit, but for the purpose of the system, you’re only tying into one point.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. Yeah, that’s smart.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. Historically Apple and Lutron had been pretty strong partners. I think when they first announced the Apple watch, one of the first apps on there for the home control side of things in HomeKit was Lutron.

Tom Houghton:

Yep.

Ben MacKenzie:

I actually think it was the first app on the Apple launch.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah. So, I think that’s a good first step to say, “Hey, there is some official support behind all this stuff,” but yeah, with Lutron, I think it’s much more of a permanent solution versus kind of a go grab something at Best Buy and slap it on a wall somewhere.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Adam MacKenzie:

They do have hardwired dimmer switches and on off switches that are smart wall switches, so they’re going back talking to that hub. Our goal of bringing this is almost a box you check when you’re building a house, that would be in your house day one in the wall, so it’s not just something that’s stuck on the wall. It’s in there. The electrician when he’s building your house would be putting that in. So, it’s a lot more permanent, and really ingrained in your house, not just a… yeah, stuck on afterthought.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

Do you guys have any idea about what the dollars and cents would look like? Because it seems to me, obviously this is going to be an extra cost, right? But because when you walk out, you can demo light to the right time and the heat and air is super efficient, and all the different things you guys just talked about. There’s an element to efficiency there right, when it comes to cost. So, is there any numbers out there that you can just throw around?

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah, one of the ones I hear most often from Lutron is that, if you install just automated blinds. So this isn’t talking about the smart HPAC system, just the automated blinds that you leave on a hot summer day, they close. If you leave on a cold winter day, they’ll open and let some heat in, that’ll save you 10% a year, just on the automated blinds. And while that’s not a, “Hey, I’m going to pay for this whole system, just with this 10%,” it is leaning in the right direction. Now if you, “my whole neighborhood was done with automated blinds,” if we’re reaching out to a builder, that whole neighborhood uses 10% less energy.

Ben MacKenzie:

So it’s one of those things as this technology grows, as it becomes commonplace, and that’s one of the big points Adam and I tried to make, is this will be in every mid-market home that’s built in five or 10 years. It’s a technology that’s coming, just because it’s affordable, and it’s the way to make your house kind of a tech gadget. So yeah, when you look at just from a financial savings perspective, 10% is not huge, but it is a step in the right direction.

Tom Houghton:

And at least it’s something.

Paul Wurth:

Well, there’s also a cool factor too.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, that’s true.

Ben MacKenzie:

Definitely.

Paul Wurth:

You walk in, you know, with a significant other and the blinds just open up, and the music starts playing, the lights dim.

Tom Houghton:

A little Barry Manilow on there.

Paul Wurth:

Well, I don’t know about that.

Tom Houghton:

You’re saying significant other.

Paul Wurth:

Even if that’s true. But there’s some cool points there –

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah, there’s a-

Paul Wurth:

… that’s what I like.

Adam MacKenzie:

We’re trying to have some partnerships with a handful of five-star hotels across the country, and they have it set up in their system. They’ve kind of standardized on a certain Lutron system, I guess. They have it set up, so once a customer or a guest checks in, their profile pops up on the screen and it tags it to the room and the heating and air system starts cooling, or heating the room to a certain level.

Adam MacKenzie:

The second you swipe your key at the door, or you opened the door, the lights start to turn on, the blinds open up. So it’s really about setting a scene, and that’s a term used in the industry, is just really framing a pictures. Setting the stage for your experience in a room. Not everyone goes to five star hotels that have that technology, but something that’s new about Lutron, and going back to Ben’s example about hospitals earlier, they can really hit any project out there. If you want to do a big hospital campus or a college campus, or if you want to do a fancy hotel. Or just, the average person’s home, I think they have a product for every one of those scenarios.

Paul Wurth:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). And if we trust this technology in a hospital, we trust it in our home too.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

And yeah, getting back to what Adam said about the scene, that’s such an important part of this is that, that scene is where we’re tying everything together. So, and like you said, that the reason these hotels do it isn’t so, the blinds are open when you come in, it’s so when you walk in, you’re like, “wow, this is cool.” And the music comes on. The blinds open. The lights turn on, and from their end, it does it every single time flawlessly, every time a guest comes in.

Paul Wurth:

And that’s why they did it, it’s a differentiator. They’re developers in Chicago, a tower went up recently where it was a large condo right on the river. Lutron came in and provided one of these packages, a home automation package to the developer, and the developer did it. They didn’t do it just to save costs. They didn’t do it to have technology everywhere, it really was just to have a differentiator in their building.

Paul Wurth:

And I guess that gets to the point where, one of the big things we’ve seen on the commercial side is just the progress of technology, how something starts on the commercial side and it always will find its way in some form or another into the residential world.

Tom Houghton:

It’s got to start somewhere.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. Yeah. So, typically we see that let’s say a flagship NFL stadium. One of those comes in and they want some flashy new technology, it’s obscenely expensive, but someone uses it. Someone buys it. Then from there, maybe it’s a smaller college stadium, but they’ll want that same technology because, hey, they used it in “The stadium” a few years ago. So, as more people start to adopt it, the prices come down. Then, I’ll use something we call, a variable-frequency drive in engineering as an example of this, or a VFD.

Ben MacKenzie:

So, this used to be a Cadillac option on a motor, typical motors they turn on, they turn off, that’s the end of it. But a VFD allows us to slowly modulator the speed of the motor to whatever we want to, so that lets us from the efficiency side really hone in our controls. Really hone in how our systems work and the efficiencies on them.

Ben MacKenzie:

So that used to be this Cadillac option, but now it’s pretty much the standard. The question usually comes up now, why aren’t you using it, rather than, why are you using it? So, as those prices start to drop down, suddenly it hits that point where it’s everyone, every building can afford it, and the big point is when codes adopted. So once it codes adopts it everyone has to do it and it’s standard.

Ben MacKenzie:

This gets to the second point, which is kind of how technology has always progressed from the coast into the Midwest, always, with everything we do in the building industry, this is how it works.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah. Just on the energy code side of things, every time you design a new building, build a new building, there are certain requirements for how efficient it. If the lighting and mechanical systems work. I do some work in California and Washington on the coast, and things there are three, six, 10-plus years ahead of what we’re seeing in the Midwest, and what we’re designing around. So, a similar thing, home automation and smart shades are big in certain areas of California. I think that same mindset will trickle in with home automation technology to the Midwest.

Adam MacKenzie:

There are plenty of people out there who are putting smart lights in their home, smart thermostats, all that, but again, I think we really just want to tie that all together into one point and just make homes better spaces for people to live, and more enjoyable cooler spaces.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, definitely. In terms of blinds, how many options do you have for, because I feel like most automated blinds I see are just the roller kind.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Is that kind of it?

Adam MacKenzie:

That’s typically when we’re talking automated blinds, that’s what you’re going to see.

Tom Houghton:

Okay.

Adam MacKenzie:

One of the things I think that makes Lutron better, and some other blinds professionals might not agree with this, but when you look at some of the product books, you have hundreds of different colors, and fabrics, and shades, and opacities and all that. And to me, if I was looking at a home, of all the things you have to look at when you’re building a home, that’s not what I would have time to focus on. So Lutron, they do have a lot of customization, but they have a lot more kind of upfront standards that we would go to. And they’re not selling based on the fabric like everyone else is, they’re saying, “Hey, you’re buying this because of the technology. You’re buying this to make your house cool. To tie everything together.”

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Ben MacKenzie:

At the same time, they still have a lot of different kinds of fabric and that can really sway the price on a shade, whether you want to go lower end high, on darker shades.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah, If you want blacker shades.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah, exactly. But at the same time, some of the higher end Lutron systems, you can get wood shades that have motorized, they can raise and lower with a motor, but then they can also tilt the wood blind angle with a motor. So there’s some pretty fancy stuff and you can combine those with a blackout shade. It’s really whatever you want to do. I’ve seen some higher end multimillion dollar homes, I get very, very fancy within, they do some pretty cool stuff, but, yeah, there is a wide range of products with it.

Ben MacKenzie:

But I think Lutron on just the traditional automated blinds in your average home, a lot of what you see is that roller shade. Yeah, definitely.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah. And again, they’re selling points that technology, there are controls technology, or a controls company first, and the blinds technology, we’ve perfected that stuff. We know how to do that. So let’s focus on the technology.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

Sure.

Tom Houghton:

So we talked also again about new construction, obviously it’s the best time to kind of do all this stuff, right? Because you have kind of complete control, how does this market play to, aftermarket after build?

Ben MacKenzie:

The big difference there, other than having it ready day one, is if you’re going to a renovation, we go typically with a battery powered system, just so you don’t have to tear up the walls and put in new battery or new power packs and wiring. But I know batteries kind of scare a lot of people away, especially in a house, especially if you’re putting a blind 20 feet up in the air. But, we see five to 10 years to 12 years even with the batteries of life.

Ben MacKenzie:

And yeah, if you’re looking at the new construction site, generally speaking, you’re going to get hardwired power to it, so you don’t have batteries. But, even then with new constructions sometimes just with how the building is set up, you may want to do battery operated. Or maybe in certain apartments and owner would want to say, “Hey, let’s just do battery shades instead of the hardwired.” And it’s just a little more versatile with having those options, I think it’s easier to approach any situation out there.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, definitely. Is there a cost break there too? I’m assuming that the battery ones are cheaper.

Adam MacKenzie:

The battery ones per shade, actually more expensive-

Tom Houghton:

Oh, I’m just kidding.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah. Just because there’s a bit more on the housing side, what they have to squeeze into a small form factor, but-

Tom Houghton:

Makes sense.

Adam MacKenzie:

… on the whole system with a battery shade, you don’t have to go worry about wires and all that. So, it all somewhat evens out. There’s a pretty big range that you can have with that on the pricing side.

Tom Houghton:

Okay. This all kind of stems around the idea of building more sustainable future for us, obviously we’re using less energy. This is better for the planet. It’s better for everybody. So Ben, you did this big project, is that correct, about sustainability?

Ben MacKenzie:

So recently down in… well, I say recently, it’s probably been 18 months now. But in Kansas city I was, or I am the sustainability chair of an organization called ASHRAE, and it’s basically a huge HPAC engineering organization that there are hundreds of thousands of members. They dictate everything from new sustainability codes to just the basic airflow codes in a building.

Ben MacKenzie:

So, every year they have two conferences, all across the country. Some of those get up to 70, 80,000 people, so it’s a huge amount of people that move across the country that fly, put in hotels, take Uber’s around whatever. So someone at some point said, “Hey, we’re ASHRAE, we’re a sustainable, Or we say we’re a sustainable organization. Is this really a sustainable practice moving over a hundred thousand people a year between the two conferences around the country?”

Ben MacKenzie:

So they started a footprint project, is what they call it. They basically provide $20,000 for every host city of one of these conferences. So, Kansas city actually got one of the summer conferences this past summer, and with that, we had to put on a sustainability project. But, I wanted to take it one step further and ask the question like, “Hey, you give us $20,000, but are we actually making a difference?”

Ben MacKenzie:

So that’s when I reached out to K-State, the architectural engineering program there, and Julia Keen and our students did a great job on this. But they basically, they crunched a ton of numbers, ran a ton of data, build these huge spreadsheets and then gave a number. Quantified the carbon footprint of one of these conferences. The number they came up with was a little bit sobering, and that $20,000 doesn’t really offset the carbon footprint of a conference at all.

Ben MacKenzie:

But, we still did great work, we installed a lot of new sustainable or efficient systems for some low-income families. We got safer systems in there, they had stuff away behind code, got some new water heaters, installation kits, LEDs, stuff like that. But yeah, the big part of that was to answer the question like, “Hey, conference center, the convention industry causes, there’s a huge carbon footprint there, and what can we actually do to fix that. So, there’s still a lot of work to do with it.

Tom Houghton:

Sure. So in that, were you looking at carbon offsetting, like travel? Or was it just in terms of actual attendance at the event?

Ben MacKenzie:

We actually tried to put it all together.

Tom Houghton:

Okay.

Ben MacKenzie:

So we brought everything in from the point, how many total airline miles are traveled? What does the hotel energy use look like? What does actual conference center energy use look like? And we cut it pretty much there. We didn’t get it into the weeds, we could have added a lot more to it, but those numbers add up quick.

Tom Houghton:

For sure.

Paul Wurth:

What gets you into some super exciting stuff like, electrical engineering and blinds?

Ben MacKenzie:

Actually, we’ve wanted to be building engineers since we were like eight years old. So as funny as that sounds.

Adam MacKenzie:

I think before that.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah, our mom has told us back when we were like two or three, we’d have her take us to construction sites and watch them build stuff. Which, I am sure we thought that was the coolest thing in the world, and she didn’t, but-

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

But she obliged-

Adam MacKenzie:

[crosstalk]

Tom Houghton:

… which makes her the best mom right there.

Adam MacKenzie:

Exactly.

Tom Houghton:

Shout out mom, way to go.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah, so we find ourselves at the University of Nebraska, at the Omaha campus, in the architectural engineering program there. We got our master’s through there, and then moved down to Kansas City to start our careers as consulting engineers. And just through that, I don’t know how it came up, we were working on, my brother and I, on a research project with our firm down there.

Ben MacKenzie:

And, it had to do exactly with what we’re talking about now, which was automated shading. And like, if we’re talking about building codes, you have to prove something, at some point you have to say, “Hey, it’s not going to just save 10%, let me show you how it’s going to save 10%.” So we did a research project on that, and then that just coincided with when the Lincoln franchise, the Budget Blinds, went up for sale.

Ben MacKenzie:

Adam and I had talked behind the scenes, if an opportunity like that came up, I think we’re at a position in our lives now where we could kind of bite that off and jump into it. So once that came up, we wanted to get into the family business. It made sense because now we have Omaha and Lincoln under one big umbrella, and we can share resources between the two cities now.

Adam MacKenzie:

Yeah, and a lot of it is just with some of the partnerships that Budget Blinds has with Lutron and Sonos, companies like that, it’s a really good Avenue for us to use some of our experience as professional engineers and say, how can we bring that expertise into the blinds industry and help homeowners get some cooler technology in their homes.

Adam MacKenzie:

And that actually gets to how, I guess why we were on here, build a trend is always going after the builders, and the developers that are saying, “hey, we know technology is going to be a part of the industry. That you guys are a technology company, that’s a great fit.” So we’re also making the claim, “Hey, technology is going to be a part of your home, and in the coming years, that’s going to explode. Everything is going to be automated.”

Adam MacKenzie:

So we thought it was just… I think that both of the companies can see eye to eye on that, where we both value technology, and we know what’s coming and we’re building. We’re hedging some of our bets on that. So with that, also there was a podcast where we heard that you guys have the line item. When you put together a proposal. Your builders can have a line item, the check box you want, the granite countertops you want, the hardwood floors. And like we said earlier, home automation will be on that checklist.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, sure.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. This stuff is not going away.

Adam MacKenzie:

Correct.

Tom Houghton:

Technology is just getting more and more ingrained in our lives. So, the sooner you jump on the train, the more you’ll enjoy the ride.

Ben MacKenzie:

Yeah. And that’s where we’re trying to find the builders who also see eye to eye on that, we want to be their partner with that. We know how to do it, so let us get that into your homes, and let us make your homes cool.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Adam MacKenzie:

I think construction is one of those things where there aren’t a lot of cool things, but bringing technology into it really, I think it’s cool.

Tom Houghton:

Absolutely. I feel like in the Street of Dreams program that we have here in Omaha, I’m sure there plenty of other cities that have it as well. But, I think one of the things I feel like I hear the most, when people walk through those homes, it’s like, “Did you see that home? You touched a button and everything changed in the house.” Everybody’s looking for that kind of experience, you’re right, that’s what everybody wants. That kind of ease of use, right?

Ben MacKenzie:

For sure.

Tom Houghton:

That’s what all this is about.

Adam MacKenzie:

It’s cool, and it can make your life easier. Like Adam said, if you wake up in the morning, your blinds, open your lights, come on, that can make your morning easier. So-

Paul Wurth:

As long as there’s a snooze button on that.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Adam MacKenzie:

Or maybe that’s the-

Tom Houghton:

[crosstalk].

Paul Wurth:

Take it back down. Just get back down.

Tom Houghton:

Not really yet-

Paul Wurth:

Not really-

Tom Houghton:

… give me 10 more minutes. Nice. Awesome. Well, thank you guys for coming on the podcast today and sharing your industry knowledge and experience, we really appreciate it. If you have questions, feel free to reach out onto the podcast hotline.

Paul Wurth:

Oh yeah, they have a podcast hotline.

Tom Houghton:

Why do you keep forgetting that?

Paul Wurth:

Because we haven’t used it yet, that’s why.

Tom Houghton:

Well, you need to call in.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, we need questions.

Tom Houghton:

Call in and you can ask questions about home automation. Feel free to reach out to us either on our email, as well our podcast, @buildertrend.com. If you had a question for Ben and Adam, we’ll make sure we get it to them, and check out the show notes page for all those fun details of everything we talked about today.

Tom Houghton:

But Ben and Adam, thank you guys for joining us on the podcast.

Ben MacKenzie:

Thanks so-

Adam MacKenzie:

Thank you.

Ben MacKenzie:

… much for having us.

Paul Wurth:

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

Tom Houghton:

Want to share a suggestion for a future guest, have a question about Buildertrend that you’d like us to discuss, or a topic that you’d want us to cover on the podcast. Let us know by calling and leaving us a message at (402) 596-6437. That’s (402) 596-6437, and who knows? You’ll maybe hear yourself on the podcast.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast, so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode, you can find it @buildertrend.com/podcast.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on “The Building Code.”

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.