An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest today is Jay Dobensky — founder and president of Beverly Hills Smart Homes, a luxury integration firm serving elite clients in Beverly Hills and beyond

About this episode:

With more than two decades in business, Jay has built a reputation for delivering bespoke automation and AV solutions to some of the most iconic names in Hollywood. His entrepreneurial drive began with Advanced Home Automation back in 2000, which quickly grew along the I-95 corridor before evolving into what is now Beverly Hills Smart Homes.

Jay’s work has earned him recognition on national television as the tech expert on DIY Network’s hit show Man Caves, and in 2024 his company achieved its first-ever CEPro Top 100 listing — a milestone he’s eager to build on in 2025. Beyond integration, Jay has lived a colorful journey as an entrepreneur, storm chaser, and innovator, now developing a patent-pending fire suppression technology inspired by California’s devastating wildfires.

In this episode, Jay and I discussed:

• His evolution from startup founder to leading a luxury smart home brand in Beverly Hills.
• The unique demands of serving high-profile clients with discretion and excellence .
• His experiences on national TV and overseas with the USO, bringing AV to military bases.

SEE ALSO: #319: Smarter Hiring for CI Businesses: Inside the Amplify People Process

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Welcome to another episode of Automation Unplugged. This is a big week. This is Cedia week. So many of you will be in Denver, Colorado, or maybe you're in transit, maybe you're on your way to Denver. This show is releasing on Wednesday morning, September 3rd, as all of our automation unplugged shows release every Wednesday morning. And, , I have a couple of, let's call it housekeeping details to go over before I get our, our guest introduced. And that is, , here at cedia, , when Firefly is offering a number of education courses. And, , I'll be teaching or co-constructing. , many of these courses, , and you certainly could cross-reference these details, , in your, your show guide from Cedia, but I'll just point them out real quick in case you are interested in attending. I'm gonna look over here at my cheat sheet, , on Thursday. That would be tomorrow Thursday, , at 10:30 AM Mountain Standard time. , we're gonna be teaching marketing on a shoestring big impact strategies for small budgets. On Thursday at one o'clock, , we're gonna teach how to get in the door with trade partners. I know many of you are looking to grow your relationships with architects and tier designers. Custom builders and other trades, , we're gonna give a lot of best practices in that course. And then on Friday at 10:30 AM we're gonna cover recruiting in a tight labor market strategies for small businesses. And I know in that course I'm gonna be joined by Sam. She's the director at Amplified People. That is our recruiting and hiring business, , sister company here of one Firefly. So definitely you want to join us for those sessions. And if you are at C Dia and you're in Denver this year, our booth number is 1 3 2 6. So 1, 3, 2, 6. Make sure to stop by and say hello. I'm gonna be in that booth as much as possible. I'll be, , either in the booth or I'll be in a course teaching. , to our, our class. So, , I look forward to seeing you all there. This is always an exciting time of year for all of us in the industry. I know many of you are very busy, , at home with projects, so I, I hope you're able to make it out to Denver. And if you are, I look forward to, to seeing you. Make sure to stop by, say hello. If you listen or watch to automation, if you listen or watch Automation Unplugged, make sure to tell me, let, let me know that you listen. And, , what type of content or conversations do you enjoy most? And, , we always factor that in to the, the guests that we book and the types of conversations, , that I try to guide our guests through so that I can, , get the best and the brightest ideas surfaced for all of you. That is why we produce Automation Unplugged so that you guys and gals can benefit from the conversations. So now let's get to today's show. I have a, , a longtime friend and industry veteran, , with just, , such a colorful background and history in the industry. And so many fun stories. We're gonna cover many of them. , today in this conversation. I'm here to bring you Jay, , Dubinsky of Beverly Hills Smart Homes. And let me go ahead and bring in Jay and, , let's see how he's doing. Hey, how are you sir?

Jay:

I am colorful. How are you, my friend? I say

Ron:

colorful stories.

Jay:

I love it. I love it. Hello

Ron:

Jay. Ja, for those that don't know, you don't know Beverly Hills Smart Homes. Maybe just give us the quick one, two, , what are the details? What is the business? What's your role in the business? You know, where do you, what type of work do you guys do?

Jay:

Sure. , greetings, all of our fellow techs out there, safe travels to C Dia. , so I founded Beverly Hills Smart Homes as a rebranding. Of my original company that I founded in 2000, which at the time was called Advanced Home Automation, , and then quickly renamed Advanced Home Audio and Video when I realized in 2000 that I couldn't convince people or explain to them what automation meant at that point in time. , and I am the founder and president of Beverly Hills Smart Homes, and obviously, as the name implies, we serve the Beverly Hills market, but we're a global company.

Ron:

Do you, that, , implies you're, you're doing projects not just in that southern cow market, but you'll also, I'm assuming, travel around the country or travel around the world if necessary.

Jay:

Yes. In, in fact, I founded the company in Connecticut in 2000 and was there for 17 years running the 95 corridor between Boston and New York on a daily basis and still have clients there. And working on projects there, , in addition to now the client clients that we've amassed from around the world, various countries.

Ron:

That's awesome. What, , what, , type of projects do you guys do, just to get people familiar with the type of work that you do? What's a, what's a small project? What's a big project and maybe what's normal?

Jay:

Well, we found the, the sweet spot, , being in that luxury high net worth custom integration space. , and you know, typically when you're dealing with clients, especially out here, , in Beverly Hills, the Bird Streets, Holby Hills, Bel Air, , you need to have some exclusivity. In what you do and how you provide it to them, because they are looking for that specifically. They, in most cases, want someone who is more discreet, you know, more dedicated to their needs, and, , can service them on a very, in a very private level. , and that comes with adjustment in the way you do your business. , it, it is, it's certainly not volume driven and it's not the type of operation where, , at least I would recommend driving around with logoed up vehicles because they're looking for a, a more discreet approach. They don't want to give away. Their private information and you know, who, who happens to be sitting in their driveway all day, , because you will be followed. In fact, I've had paparazzi, people follow my vehicle out from some of the clients. So it's different. I mean, it, it's, it's a fun niche, but it's a different niche.

Ron:

So paparazzi, so this is, you know, TV stars, movie stars, the, the, those sort of people that one imagines might live in Bel Air or Beverly Hills.

Jay:

Yeah. It, it's, it is a different universe when you're in those neighborhoods and the Hollywood tour buses and TMZ buses are going by and they're stopping in front of the state where you are. And, you know, all you're trying to do is get your gear in and out of your vehicle and, you know, do your work and be discreet about it. , and then when you pull out of the driveway. You know, there are two or three vehicles parked across the street, and all of a sudden one of 'em zooms out behind you and you're like, what am I supposed to do? Is this, am I supposed to allude this person? I don't even know what's going on right now. , but you, you do adjust to that. And it's, I mean, it's par for the course.

Ron:

I mean, , just so folks can get familiar with your brand and your business, I'm gonna see if technology behaves here. And I'm gonna put, , your website up on screen, see if I can do that. And, , I'm just gonna navigate, , your website a little bit and, and keep in mind we do have, , audio podcast listeners so they can't see what I have on screen. So maybe just illustrate, , how you're presenting your brand via your website.

Jay:

Yes. And, , I have an amazing website provider. Hello. Hello. And it really, the, the messaging for the brand had to be, in my opinion anyway, it had to go right to the mark of luxury. And, and by using that CC'd walk up, , and having some slow motion video that really catches your attention, it's not, um, it's not just flash images that rapidly go by and can kind of desensitize you a little bit. , it's very purpose driven in that it, it promotes the elegance and the luxury and the craftsmanship, , that goes behind our work because to, to me. Beverly Hills is an expectation. It's not just the name of a city. It's now an expectation and a brand in and of itself. Mm-hmm. So to have a company embody that name is a great responsibility. And, and I don't take it lightly. , and I want to make sure that clients who come and visit us for five seconds or 10 seconds on our website or on one of the social feeds, will see that that's the face that we put forward.

Ron:

No, that that makes sense. And, , if people wanna check out your website, your domain is bh smart homes.com. Correct. So I just, for our, our video, , folks tuning into the video, they saw it streaming across the bottom of the screen. Um, Jay, I, I'm over here in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. And, , I, I, of course, anyone in the world has paid attention to, , what's happened, , in Southern California, particularly with fires. The palisade fires. What is, , we're, we're recording this here in late summer 2025. What's the current state of affairs over there has, um, have ho has home construction begun? , how extensive, , I mean, we know that it was bad, but how extensive was it and what, what does it now look like that you and others are probably looking at the other side now in the rebuilding phase?

Jay:

Well, going back almost nine months, , really looking at, , to be frank, the, what it looked like, the gates of hell, , from our vantage point. In Santa Monica, looking up at the Palisades while it was being evacuated is just one of those indelible images in my mind. Seeing that volume of smoke and the, the fire on the mountaintop, knowing that those were residential neighborhoods where the fire was, um, gave it a different perspective for sure. And where, where we were at the time, um, at my wife's studio was in the outer evacuation area where it wasn't yet mandatory, but in going up the four or five blocks up, , ocean Avenue, they were issuing mandatory evacuations. Hmm. So it, it was unnerving. Even from where we were, which was still a mile, you know, a couple miles away where you could see it in front of you, but you couldn't escape the smoke. It was choking. And you, you were just trying to do what you could to help people because they were pouring down from Pacific Palisades and there are only, you know, those, you could go one of two ways to get out of there. And they were coming down PCH, , and they had just stuffed their cars full of everything that they could get in there. And they were covered with soot. And, you know, people were just like emotional, like you've never seen before. Bawling their eyes out, driving in their car, knowing that they were losing their home at that moment. You know, like those things are, they'll be in my mind forever. Um, but now looking at it today. Most of the lot clearing is done. I would say 90% of it, it looks like, you know, Armageddon has struck because it's it's block after block after block of cleared open lot land. I mean, you've never seen people

Ron:

understand what did it look like before? So maybe folks haven't been to Southern Cal, they haven't been to that part of la Okay, what was it? But before, and that'll maybe contrast with what you just said, that it, it's cleared lots now and Sure. Armageddon.

Jay:

Alright. It, Pacific Palisades, um, it was a very, or is a very hilly area, so it rises right from Pacific Coast Highway and goes straight up in elevation, a couple hundred feet. And then there are, you know, probably 10 to 15. Secondary major roads that wind up through these canyons and hills and residential neighborhoods were then built off of those roads. And most of the homes were one acre, you know, three quarter acre or one acre lots, , but very sizable homes. You know, mo mostly estate type homes and very affluent neighborhoods, a lot of them gated communities. Um, and we served. What were the

Ron:

home value? You know, maybe in 20, $25, what, what was a typical home or maybe the range of home values,

Jay:

three to 5 million would, would be my estimate. , you know, and then you just go up from there. But three to 5 million, , and it's now just wasteland. You know, it's all gone. And even the, the downtown area where the retail stores were, most of it's gone and there's still one building in the middle of downtown. , that was two stories. And you know, it had the steel I-beams framing it, and I, it was like a grocery store sized building, so it was pretty sizable. But I was just through there a couple of weeks ago and those steel I-beams were still there. So they, they melted during the fire and drooped. And it's, it's almost like this really bizarre, morbid kind of art in a way now that everything else has been removed around. It, it, it, it is like a monument to what happened. Um, but there are signs of progress. , the first homes. Are now being framed in Pacific Palisades and it, it's only a couple, but it's a start. And I, I think within the next three months we'll start to see the build go down. , and certainly by first quarter of 26, I think we'll start to see it in earnest. Um, but for, for people that have never seen that area and and don't know what, we're looking at the scale of not only the destruction, but what's going to come in the rebuild to me is unprecedented. I've, I've never seen anything like it. And in New England, I went through Hurricane Gloria as a kid. I went through Sandy. With my business and what that did to Long Island and some of those communities along the shore. So I know what disaster recovery is like. But this was like nuclear scale obliteration. I mean, 7,500 homes roughly just in Pacific Palisades, and then another 8,000, , you know, in Altadena, which don't get talked about. But the, the massive level of destruction there, , was equally as devastating, if not more so, you know, and now we have to rebuild both of those communities simultaneously, so there's a long road ahead. But for integrators and contractors of all sorts, it is going to be one of the largest projects we've ever seen. And it will probably go on for. You know, three years, three to five years,

Ron:

that's gotta be one of the probable densest concentrations of AV integration projects in the country.

Jay:

Maybe ever without question. I, I mean, I, I don't think I am estimating it fairly and I'm, I'm a pretty good estimator. I think, , e even on the low end, if you think that 25%, you know, 30% of those homes had some sort of ab or, and or automation before the fire, which I think is an underestimation knowing some of those neighborhoods. I do the math, the basic math, that's a lot of homes that are going to need new tech, and I think. That's an advantage in a way because now these homeowners can, can take advantage of the latest and greatest technology. And some of that I, I'm working on in-house where I'm looking to put products out there that assist with, um, the fire protection so that if this were to ever happen again in that area, I mean it will happen again in Southern California. It's just where, um,

Ron:

I was reading about this and, and Allison prepared show notes for me in advance of this interview and in, in the. So I think it's what you're referencing. , it was about a fire suppression system that you're, I was like, what, what is Jay doing? Developing fire suppression system. So, all right. And it says it's patent pending or you're in the process of patent, , application. Trademark and trade. Trademark and patent application process.

Jay:

Yeah.

Ron:

What is that? I mean, it's, I I understand the need.

Jay:

Yeah. Well, and you talked

Ron:

about the reason for the need. Um,

Jay:

and it's, , it's an, an opportunity to combine different skill sets and experiences that I've had, um, for the greater good. And my, my father is a retired 36 year firefighter, and he, you know, he can just. Spit out this information about firefighting technology that would bogle most people's minds. I mean, what, what he has forgotten, I'll never know. And in talking with him during the fire, they, we started norming some things that involved the technology, you know, where I knew I could leverage some of my control experience. And he had all of these great ideas about how to create a suppression system that could actively work to prevent these homes from catching fire in the first place,

Ron:

but

Jay:

also in all likelihood, suppress the fire that works around the home. 'cause it wasn't, it wasn't a case of. Like a structure to structure transfer For most of these homes that burnt it was the embers being thrown, you know, in some cases a half mile in the winds that were in, in, let me back up a minute. For people that were not here that day, when the fires started, it was the windiest day that I remember being in SoCal. Woke up the wind, the wind was whistling in the windows. It was 40, 50, 60 mile an hour, Santa Ana winds. So once the fire started, the embers just carried across these neighborhoods and blew into the vents, blew under the gutters, you know, and, and that's how a lot of these homes caught fire. So building a suppression system that will hopefully, , keep that from happening. , and you can't prevent it a hundred percent obviously, but it's been something that I've worked on since January and, you know, I'm trying, there's a bit of a rush to get it out there so that I can introduce it, , in time to get some traction with it.

Ron:

Yeah. Holy cow. When do you find out what, what is the patent process? When do you find out if it's unique enough to quote, be original and patented this thing that you've invented? Well, if,

Jay:

if there's anyone out there listening or watching this that has gone through a patent approval or trademark approval, you

Ron:

know, I've done trademark work and it's, , it's hard to say the least hard and slow. I'm think I'm five years into some of my processes

Jay:

and, and I, I'll be honest with you, I'm watching the mailbox every day. You know, it's really down to that basic level. , I do have to. Put it out there at some point, you know, or I'm going to miss the opportunity also. So I'm juggling that. Um, and IP is, you know, more important than ever before. Yeah. But you can't hold on to the IP so long for so long that you lose the opportunity to do something with the product. And that's tricky. And that's what I'm facing right now.

Ron:

That's tricky. Alright, well let's, if, if you don't, I appreciate you giving us a perspective, a local perspective of what's happening there. Um, as the, the Southern Cal market recovers from these horrific fires and, um, I would say it, it sounds eerily, , exactly the same as what happened in, you know, the Hawaii Islands and believe that was in Maui. Um, yeah. Just horrible, horrible devastation. Um. But I wanna switch gears and, , I wanna go back. You had, yeah. I said you had a colorful, past, colorful background, and, , if you don't mind, take us back in time. Tell us where, where did you start? That brings us to the present where you're running, you know, Beverly Hills Smart Homes. What, what does your background look like?

Jay:

Well, not unlike, almost, I would say 99% of the rest of us that get into this field, and I know it came up in the discussion that you had with Matt Bernoff. , um, it's almost like it's in our genetic code. You know, we are geeks at a different level by, at birth

Ron:

and help it warn that way.

Jay:

Yeah. Yeah. There, there's something in there. Um, and I like to call. Those moments that you recognized Genesis moments because it, it led you down the path. And I mean, it might sound, it might sound odd to people perhaps, but as a kid, there were two events that happened that forever changed my destiny. , the first being that I needed to know how the Fisher-Price Barn made the move sound when the door opened. Hmm. Like, I, I had to take it apart at whatever four and figure out how this moo happened. So, because you're pretty

Ron:

confident a cow was not in there

Jay:

right? Right. With an empty bark. Maybe it was in there and you needed to know. I needed to know, was it, was it hiding in the door? Um, and that prompted me to, . Let's say borrow a few of my dad's tools while he was at work. And, , I, I'll say this colorfully, I disassembled the barn as much as I could, and in my father's ever present amazing positivity. He did not lose his mind. When he came home, , and freak out that I had done this, he sat down with me and attempted to put it back together as much as we could. , a few of the parts were beyond repair, but we did our best. And he explained to me that sometimes mechanical devices can mimic things that happen in nature. It's like, all right. That's pretty awesome. Um, and then the last thing that he said to me was that he made me promise that I wouldn't touch any of his tools again unless I asked him first. Okay. So that, that was number one. Number two, I was, I think it was, it was 10 and our family would gather at one of my aunt's homes every Christmas Eve, and that was the hangout for Christmas Eve. Well, her husband was, , um, he was a VP at NCR National Cash Register, and his job for the holiday break was to take home an IBM 80 88 and a Tandy computer brand new in the boxes and test them. Head to head to see which one the company should invest in as their first computer for their staff. So halfway through the evening or so, you know, the adults are having adult beverages and doing adult things upstairs. Not those adult things, but doing adult things. And the kids were left to their own devices in the basement. And my cousin and I, who were about the same age, noticed the boxes in my uncle's office and being the curious too that we were, we had to take them out. And then when we got them out of the boxes, the smell was unlike anything we had ever smelled before. If you know what those early computers smelled like, , I used to go to

Ron:

computer shows with my dad. So

Jay:

the, there's nothing today, the whole building didn't

Ron:

smell like that. Computer smelled.

Jay:

I mean, I don't know what that did to us, but, , it smelled great. Yep. And once we got them unboxed sure it

Ron:

was pretty toxic. Plastic or metal, probably what that was. Sure.

Jay:

You know, we couldn't resist the Phillips screws on the back to get the covers off. So into the garage, my cousin goes, grabs the screwdrivers. We took the covers off, and then, you know, we're just blown away and amazed by these early circuit boards, which you'd laugh at today. But at, at that point, it was the best thing we'd ever seen. Um, we didn't get to look at them for more than maybe five minutes, and my uncle came down to check up on the kids and opened the door to his office and he was a little bit more, um. How shall we say? Less

Ron:

understanding.

Jay:

He was less understanding and a lot more colorful. , but to his credit, and he recently passed away a couple of years ago and it, this was something that I told the family and most of the family never knew the story. Um, to his credit, he sat down with us and asked us to put them back together. He said, I'm not gonna put 'em back together. I'm gonna get fired for this, that you're gonna put 'em back together. And the fact that he did not freak out and actually encouraged us to continue with it, put that I can do anything mentality in my mind in a way that nothing else could, if that makes sense. Yeah. And my cousin went on to become. I, I couldn't even tell you what level he was, but he was very high level employee at Microsoft. And it took me a while to go down this serendipitous path, but knowing that it led me to today and to having a, a luxury custom integration company, I, I can look back down that path and say that it makes sense, you know, that those pieces fit. Um, and then the, I'll say a third thing in there, two A is that I come from a background of business owners on my dad's side of the family, it goes back four generations. So I was not afraid to start a business and to run a business because of the experience that I saw from my family and always being around small business.

Ron:

Mm. That's funny. That's, I did not come from a family of entrepreneurs and I did not have that confidence. It was actually my wife who came from a family of entrepreneurs and she said, you can totally do this. And I was like, I'm terrified. It, it's interesting to hear you say that, that idea that for many entrepreneurs maybe that are listening, they might appreciate someone probably early on, whether they were in your family, maybe it was a friend, maybe it was, you know, spouse's family or, or friends probably has an influence and helping you ultimately have the courage to go do this thing called entrepreneurship because it's, it's, it's appropriate to be a little scared. 'cause it's hard as hell.

Jay:

Yes. , you can, you can plant the seed, right. And. I, I think a lot of people can think back whatever their career is, by the way, to a moment when that seed was planted by someone else, you do ha part of it has to come from within. And, , oh, who was it? Was it plu tar? Um, the philosopher said that the mind is not a vessel, , to be filled. What was, that's a tough one. I don't remember that. But a fire to be kindled and you do have to have the, the motivation to do it. And some of those days are going to be the hardest days that you ever go through. But when you come out on the other side of that, and you can look at it in retrospect, the reward, , I don't know if you can touch that. In another way, you know, that, that type of feeling, um, it's not for everyone. And there are people who will just work the nine to five and or be in the corporate thing and all of my compliments to them for doing that. But for those of us who do have that, , interim MacGyver within us, or, or the, the curiosity to be a business owner and to go, go through that, the, it, it is, it's unique. U-N-E-E-K, it's unique as I, my wife would say.

Ron:

H. What led to, in 2000, originally starting the automation business, how did that, how did that happen?

Jay:

A painful stimuli. , I had a position as a junior network administrator, so in it, and. I thought that that was going to be something that I could do for a long time. Right. So I was exploring the, the work for someone else routine. And it was a, it was a small, I'll call it a mom and pop business, you know, 10 employees or so.

Ron:

This was in the Northeast and they were

Jay:

covering, what's that in the northeast? In the north? Yeah. They were covering the, the northeast corner, northwest corner of Connecticut. Excuse me.

Ron:

Okay.

Jay:

So Litchfield County and, and down into Fairfield County. And I, I was enjoying it. It was a lot of fun. , and then the bubble burst and within a few months that company, like so many others, had to readjust because of what was coming downhill. And

Ron:

the do.com bust.

Jay:

Yeah.

Ron:

Okay.

Jay:

Yeah. And they, you know, they had to lay a few people off. And I, unfortunately, it was just one of the low people on the totem pole in terms of when I was hired and I was laid off for the first time in my life. Mm-hmm. And utterly disgusted, you know? Um, he, like I said, I came from a family of small business people who were always working and always successful. And my mother and father encouraged me to educate myself more, to be more, to do more than they they did. And I thought that I found the magic pill, and then it just vanishes. And it was a, it was a psychological blow. And at that point, I remember just having one of those moments where I, I went for a hike and I, I was up on top of a ridge just sitting down, you know, doing the zen thing. And I promised myself that I would never be in that position again. And I did a gut check, made sure that everything was lined up, you know, I could handle it financially. Um, you know, my dad was there early on to provide support for me, em, emotionally and from a strategy perspective, and I'll always be grateful for that. Um, and I started the company knowing that I, I love tech and I also had this music background as a, what I'll call a, a recreational drummer. , but in my neighborhood we had a group of extremely talented musicians when I was growing up and I was like the, the least talented of that group, but. I was the one who wanted to know how to dial in the soundboard. I wanted to know how to make these different unique sounds come through the mic or through the synthesizer or how to, how to get a different sound outta the drum kit. So I was technical in my ability and I knew that it was the right move somewhere in my gut to combine those knowledge bases. And little did I know in 2000 that we were like on the ramp up just beginning of what was going to come out of IOT and how networking would change everything. And here I had this immediate

Ron:

probably 10 years still early of iot really impacting the AV automation space. Oh yeah. It was still primarily analog, but it was your foundation and it would form Pivotal later on were where the industry went.

Jay:

Everyone was talking about it. How were we going to get connected devices? Right. And it,

Ron:

yeah,

Jay:

, it was all, um, it was all wired at that point. 'cause wireless was still really brand new and there were no smart phones. So you were dealing with like tase, , and going through switches and, and doing it that way or, you know, stark apologies and all kinds of fun networking protocols. But there was an end game to all of that. And I ha I just knew it. I felt it. There was something about it where I said, okay, I, I, I know this is gonna go somewhere and I need to be part of that. And getting into the surround sound arena and the stereo arena was relatively easy because I knew what good audio sounded like and I aligned myself with a couple of great brands right out of the gate, , and had a few others introduced to me. Hmm. That helped the process. And furthermore, I was in an area of the country in central Connecticut that was undergoing a housing boom and the homes that were being built, although we would learn later, that a lot of them were overextended mortgages, , they wanted to invest some money in ab and early automation, you know, and even down to like 12 volt triggers custom made on pieces of plywood. It, it was still automated and it was cool. So I hit that perfectly, , and took advantage of the flat panel market, which in 99, 2000, 2001 was at its height. And you, you could make four or 500 points selling a flat panel and installing it, , with techniques that hadn't been perfected yet. And hardware. That wasn't massly, that was back in the

Ron:

day of what? $30,000 plasma panels. I, I don't even know. What were the price points of a plasma? Four five inch plasma 50 inch. So

Jay:

if you could get a 42, they were 79. 99 or so for a good one. Yeah. I'm talking NEC Fujitsu. Um, Panasonic came in at 69 point 99, if I remember correctly. Okay. And then I,

Ron:

okay. That was as I thought they were more maybe somewhere. Maybe the bigger ones were more,

Jay:

well, my first 65 inch, I remember this, like it was yesterday was 11 9 99. And you know, the clients would gladly pay an, you know, you could double that up in most cases to custom. Mount it because you were really custom fabricating a method of mounting that nothing really existed yet. You were winging it on the fly. Wow. , and connecting it with component video if you were lucky or, you know, a DVI cable or something. , but that wild, wild West period was amazing though because it, you know, it got us to where we are now. I, I'm so glad that I got in when I did because I, I, I wouldn't have that confidence that I have today if I didn't go through it when it was really, you know, do it or crash and burn back then.

Ron:

So I, I'm, I'm mindful of time and I wanna get just to a couple of things that I, I want everyone to, to learn about you, Jake. 'cause it's, it's just fun. So I'm just gonna put it on screen. Okay. And then you're gonna tell us what, what, what was this thing? Think of this as a bit of rapid fire, but I'm gonna go through just a, a set of diverse Oh, awesome topics here for, for our audience. There's you standing in a t-shirt. Looks like you're on a military base surrounded by a bunch of soldiers. Um, here, I'll, I'll, I'll put another one here and that you'll see a brand name up in the top and it says, man caves. What, what was man caves and how are you associated with that?

Jay:

Man, caves was really one of the, one of the first, and I believe one of the most successful home improvement genre TV shows to go into the H-G-T-V-D-I-Y network lineup. And I had the good fortune of being contacted by the, , design crew for the show, for a project that they were doing in Connecticut. , typically they were either right outside of Boston or they were down in New Jersey and they were doing an episode for, , Gary Dete, who is also known as Baba Bowie from the Howard Stern Show. And he lived in Fairfield County in Connecticut. And the, the designer asked me, and I had the voicemail saved for years and years and years. I don't know where it is now, but he asked me if I would be interested in helping them because it's a little bit out of the area where they typically go. And I, like, I couldn't dial that phone number fast enough, you know, like, sure, it would be fun. So we did that episode. I had a great time, met a lot of great people. The two hosts of the co-hosts of the show, , were amazing in their own right. And they had great chemistry, Jason and, and Tony Ragusa Rest in peace. , and that ended up being like a three season. Not every episode, but a three season run where we would help them design and then do the install for the tech. Hmm. And the, the pictures that you showed were from their season finale episode from I believe, season two. And that was at Camp Virginia, which is an army base. Was an army base, , in the desert in Kuwait. And we spent a week out there completely rehabbing, , the Quonset hut. That was huge. I could, I couldn't tell you how many square feet it was, but it was a huge space. And we did a lot of, what was

Ron:

your reaction from the soldiers?

Jay:

, touching, you know, like a lot of them came in and they would assist us on the cruise and help, help with the tasks. And they were so grateful that we were coming out there to do something like that. And I, I was like the, I, I was like, Yankee doodle let out of a bottle. You know, when I was there, because I had no, I, I had no real worry about being directly connected with the show. 'cause I was kind of a freelancer for my company. And I, my, I just wanted to go out and shake as many hands and say thank you as many times as I possibly could for these people who were halfway around the world in the middle of a hundred twenty five, a hundred thirty degree desert, ready to give their life up for us. And I, quick sidebar story to run one of the most touching moments of my career so far, , we were doing the soundproof reading room. They called it United Through Reading. And once it was done, they had this army man go in there. Army man. , he was the first person to go in, right? This army,

Ron:

man you said army man. He

Jay:

was really an army man. Um. And we had a tripod set up with a camcorder and a microphone. And the concept was you would come in and pick a child's book and then sit down, read the book to them, like a bedtime story and they would take the disc and ship it free of charge back to the home, the USO. So this gentleman comes in and, I mean, I'm not exaggerating, he was six foot six, probably 250 or 60 pounds. He was just a mountain of a man and he was carrying what they called the, the saw the squad automatic weapon, which is like a light machine gun, enormous thing. So he puts it in a corner like it's a toy, goes over to the rack of books and picks out Goodnight Moon. And for any parents out there that know Goodnight, moon. You know what I'm talking about. He sits down in the chair, we turn on the camcorder for the first test run, and he transforms instantly into dad. He goes from being killer with a machine gun to dad. I don't know anyone who could maintain composure in that moment, by the way. And I know a lot of really strong people with great fortitude. Everyone that was there started to cry. And, you know, one by one, we'd walk out to the back and we all collected ourselves in the back of this building. And we all shared a, a cry together because it, it like hit us how much these people were sacrificing to go out and do something like that. So, of course we're gonna do everything we can to give them the best experience. And that led me to doing a lot of work with the USO. So they're like one of. Favorite clients. And I've gone back overseas several times and shipped equipment, AV equipment out to a lot of the military bases over there. Um, because I, I can't do enough. You know? It, it's a lot of fun to do it. Very rewarding.

Ron:

Sounds amazing. Amazing. All right, next, next random one. All right, everyone, you're in for a bit of a shock here. , but what, all right, we got you. Look, look, handsome and dapper and all black. And you, you're sitting there in front of, , , armored vehicle, , with sensors and arrays and antennas all over it. What? And this is not military, by the way, folks. This is, what is this? Jay

Jay:

Cue the, , twister movie soundtrack for this one. . This is the storm chasing truck that I built in 2015. , and I guess suffice to say, I had always been a weather hobbyist and I, I studied meteorology briefly when I was going for my undergrad, which ended up being business. Um, so I always had a, a fascination with the weather. And my wife is a broadcast meteorologist and, um, avid storm chaser. And when we met, we did a, oh boy, there were a few years where we did over 30,000 miles a year driving around the country, I'll say chasing tornadoes, but it was really collecting weather data and learning as much as we could about severe storm behavior. And the reason that was important was. Because she was able to create a business out of that. And the truck, um, the, the truck was probably, I don't know, around 70 K or something at the time, and I easily invested that much into it to give it, outfit it. With the technology package and the armor package, it did have armor plating underneath to protect the, the motor and the transmission. And it had bulletproof glass because of the hail. , it had Kevlar line tires like a Humvee because it, you don't realize it if you're not, if you've never been in it, but the debris that you have to drive through and drive over when you're going through all these areas, how close would you

Ron:

get to storms?

Jay:

, as close as we thought we could get safely. And, , I, I say that as kind of open-ended obviously, but the, the smaller the tornado, the closer we felt that we could get to it because it didn't have the capability to pick up large objects and propel them for very far distances. The stronger the tornado, the, the more we had to back off for, of course, logical reasons, but the, it was the mechanism. It wasn't necessarily getting to the pinpoint where you could punch the core, which you could do in a small tornado, an EF zero or an EF one. We took, we would take the truck and punch the core with it to see how the winds would change, how the, the pressure would drop. 'cause you

Ron:

were picking up all the sensor data from the storm.

Jay:

Yeah. And you could see that on the, on the top of the truck there. Um, and that, that was critical. It really was critical data. And now, you know, with the, the way the data's collected with all of the monitoring sites around the country, , the one thing that they lack is the, the flexibility to maneuver between the sites, the physical sites, and get data that may be, you know, it's random in nature, but it's equally as valuable as those fixed data site locations. And, , I don't wanna go down too much of a path there, but like, well, I, I'm gonna

Ron:

ask a nerdy movie question. So, in the movie Twister, and, you know, some of the folks listening are old enough to where they watched it in the theaters with you and me. Yeah. And in the movie Twister. , didn't they make these little doodads that they released and they flew and got sucked up into the tornado and they picked up all the data? Correct. Was that real? Was that like Cartoon Hollywood, , magic, or did they do some version of that?

Jay:

No. In fact, if you go to, , Oklahoma City and you go to the National Weather Service Headquarters and the severe storm prediction center, they have a museum inside of the building. And in that museum they have, it's very small. I don't mean like it's a big museum or anything. It, you can see it all where you're standing there. Um, they have the original Dorothy and then the other iterations of that similar product, , on display.

Ron:

Is that what they called the device that got sucked up? That was called the Dorothy? Yeah,

Jay:

Dorothy. So the idea was. To have that firmly on the ground, secured on the ground, and to then have the lid be able to open with the air pressure changes and have those devices literally get sucked up into the circulation and the vortex. And then they could measure and send back the data and they, early on before they could really communicate that well, um, it was just as important to see where they went ultimately, because the updraft can pull things tens of thousands of feet into the atmosphere and then it could carry miles away from where the storm actually hit the center of the core of the storm. , and to do a better job of mapping a storm behavior, , that, that was important also, and I'm going back like early nineties, mid nineties where , I did a little bit of work there with. , project Vortex in the Tornado project and it was just collecting data. 'cause I, I was all about technology and data and I know just within those two studies alone, they decreased the warning times for tornadoes in the Midwest and tornado alley by like 32 minutes or something like that. It was a phenomenal reduction because they were able to better predict the behavior of what storms would go tornadic versus what storms wouldn't.

Ron:

Now bring us to the present. You are, you might be storm chasing again. This might be in near future. Near future.

Jay:

Yes. So, , in addition to owning Beverly Hills Smart Homes, I also sit as the CTO for my wife's company, the weather co-op and. Part of that company involves data gathering and, , metrics. So again, the only real way to get to those storms if they're not impacting the, the physical fixed sites is to get boots on the ground and go after them. , and you need it. It sounds outlandish, but trust me, it's not. There are areas of the country where you have behavior, storm behavior that's very unique to that area of the country. New England is one of those areas. Storms will behave in different ways in the hills of New England than they will out in the open plains. And there's, there's not a ton of really solid data to support that. So the more that we can gather and the more that we can feed into those metrics, the, the better the forecasting will be. So, got it. That part of the investment is to, is to build a, a rig 2.0 and, , go do that with her. Although, I mean, it is what it is. My company's busy enough, but somewhere I'll find the time. It

Ron:

sounds like some fun adventuring. Now, , Jay, this is cd a week. , what, what are you gonna do this week in Denver?

Jay:

, try not to get overwhelmed by it in the best of ways, by the way. , it's

Ron:

hard, right? 'cause everyone brings out their shiniest objects and is is there to impress and then you get the parties and entertainment at night. It's, , it's a lot.

Jay:

And the band is back. The band is back. They put the band back together. Um, yeah, you and I spoke of that briefly beforehand. You know where it's kind of like the mall at Christmas, E. Yeah. And that, that's how I feel about it. Um, but I do know, like in particular, , come to see you at One Firefly also, , El Acoustics is debuting their high risk. I think they have a great, , demo. El acoustics

Ron:

is blowing up. I'm seeing them everywhere. At random factoid. A couple weeks ago, it was in New York City at Google. , headquarters or facilities in Manhattan. And, , which I, I was like, they, I got invited to a training on, , , advertising, YouTube and Google advertising. I was like, yes, sign me up. And I was in the theater and I was just the only nerd looking up at the ceiling, and it was all, all acoustic speakers. And I was like, taking pictures of the speakers. People were like, what are you taking pictures of? I was like, do you not see these cameras and projectors and speakers? Everyone thought I was a weirdo. Everyone else was marketing nerds and I was the person taking pictures of the audio and video.

Jay:

I, I'll tell you what, I tip my cap, you know, I really do. To, to see the growth and, you know, it takes great people. Also, you know that from, from your business. It, when you hire great people to be the face and the voice, , or the extended face and voice, let me phrase that correctly, of your company. That will do so much for your brand recognition and your success ultimately. And to have guys like Nick Fick, , and Kevin Lehrman, you know, out there repping it every single day, and to go to these demos and meet guys like Dylan, um, the who's the engineer, we're all geeks in this together. And they, they stand out and, and again, kudos to them for what they're doing as a company. And they're introducing new products.

Ron:

Yeah.

Jay:

So they're trying to keep pace with what's going on and what their competition's doing. , and they're doing an awesome job. They have an experience center out here that is a must see for. Any audio file, you, you have to go there and spend, spend enough. I,

Ron:

Nick has shown me the pictures. I, I've never been there when I've been out to la. Timing didn't match up. I, I haven't been able to experience it, but now you've reminded me. Well, next

Jay:

time, next time you and I will get together and we'll go there together, , and do it with them. But yeah, seeing them, um, CC'd is another one. , that's, you know, you can't miss their display. I'm a, I'm a big URC supporter when it comes to automation, and they've done a lot over the last 12 to 18 months to level up with their company. , so looking forward to seeing, seeing their booths too.

Ron:

Love it. Jay, it's been a pleasure having you on Automation Unplugged. , I promise the audience, , some colorful stories and background you delivered. , what are the best ways people can get in touch with you directly or follow you?

Jay:

Well, it in touch directly it, you can email me at jj This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., , to see the website. It is as mentioned, bh smart homes.com. , as well as our, , Instagram feed, , Beverly Hills Smart will get you there also. And, , you can catch me on LinkedIn, typical

Ron:

awesome. And on LinkedIn, just, , Jay Dubenski is gonna, gonna jayski people to you. Awesome, Jay. It's, , it's been a pleasure. I've enjoyed our, our friendship and partnership over the years and I look forward to seeing you, you in a few weeks in Denver. And, , thank you again for joining me here on this episode of Automation Unplugged.

Jay:

, I'm grateful for you having me on here, my friend. Thank you.

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• Jay Dobensky LinkedIn Profile Page


• Beverly Hills Smart Homes LinkedIn Profile Page


• Beverly Hills Smart Homes Webpage

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