This week's episode of Automation Unplugged featuring Richard Charschan, President of AcousticSmart Home Theatre Interiors.

About Richard Charschan:

Richard Charschan is the President of AcousticSmart Home Theatre Interiors, where he partners with AV dealers, interior designers, and architects to create top-tier home theater experiences. His company also manufactures home theater seating, star ceilings, custom millwork, and acoustic treatments. Richard is an expert in noise isolation and reduction, and the author of Theaterology, a book designed to educate architects and interior designers on creating superior home theaters.

Interview Recap

• The release of Home Theaterology and why Richard is giving it away for free to architects and interior designers.
• Why Richard believes great sound is the most crucial component in building an immersive home theater.
• What Richard is excited about for CEDIA 2024 and the future of the home theater industry.

SEE ALSO: Show #271: Inside CEDIA Expo: Industry Insights & Future Vision with Daryl Friedman

Transcript

Ron:

Hello, hello. Ron Callis here with another episode of Automation Unplugged. Today, we are here for show 272. Oh my goodness, can you believe it? And if we look at the calendar, now you're not actually going to watch this live. You're going to be watching this in the coming weeks. But on the calendar, CEDIA is actually right around the corner.

Ron:

So this is the week before Cedia. Today is actually August 26th. And so by the time you hear and see this, some of these announcements may have already been made at CEDIA. Maybe you've already met our guest at the show. But regardless, we are very excited to have today's guest. He's doing some really cool things. And he's published an awesome and beautiful new book.

Ron:

So let's jump right into it. Today's guest is Richard Charshan. He's the president and CEO of AcousticSmart Home Theater Interiors out of New York. He's been in the industry for many years, 27 years, actually. And he and I have many customers in common, many friends in common. And I can't believe I haven't had him on the show prior to right now. But there's no better time than the present.

Ron:

So let's go ahead and bring in Richard and let's see how he's doing. And let's talk about his new book amongst many other things. Richard, how are you, sir?

Richard:

I'm doing great, Ron. Thank you for inviting me on your show. I really appreciate it.

Ron:

No, my pleasure. Richard, for those that are not familiar with AcousticSmart, can you describe that business for us?

Richard:

Yeah. So we're basically we're a theater design firm, a theater design build firm. So we actually work with the AV dealers, the integrators around the country, and interior designers and architects. And we work with them in tandem, and we build the theaters with them from start to finish. We manufacture the interiors from the millwork to the noise isolation all the way up to the seating and the star ceilings.

Richard:

So we consider us to be a true theater partner for our dealers, which is basically the bloodline of our whole industry.

Ron:

For today's show, where are you coming to us from? Where are you at physically right now?

Richard:

I am physically in New York in my home office, and I'm looking out, and it's a beautiful day. We live right by the beach. It's like a very you know cool, you know beautiful day here in Lido Beach, in Lido Beach, New York.

Richard:

It's a surfer town where I live. Like even in the wintertime, the waves are crazy or if there's a huge storm, that's when everybody really goes surfing here, not really in the summer months.

Ron:

Do you get out there and surf?

Richard:

You know what? I used to. But as I got older, I just do the you know little bit of boogie boarding, which the surfers hate because then I'm taking up all their you know good waves. Yeah, like all their space in their waves, yeah.

Ron:

That water, it has to be cold, right? Do you wear a wetsuit?

Richard:

In the winter, you do. Yeah. I mean, in the summertime, it's a lot warmer than what it is in California.

Ron:

I don't know. I'm here in Fort Lauderdale. I'm spoiled. The water's like 95 degrees out there.

Richard:

It's totally different. It's a different world.

Ron:

Different world. Awesome. Well, this is a big month for you. And it's been a big couple of days for you. Your daughter was just married yesterday. Go ahead and share what I know and I appreciate you still coming on for the interview, but you're just coming off a wedding this weekend.

Richard:

Yeah. I'm still coming off it. It was last night. And I played a little bit of guitar with the wedding band for three songs. We did a Saturday Night to Write for Fighting, and we did Get By With A Little Help of My Friends. And we finished off with American Girl.

Richard:

You know I actually play in the CE Pro All-Star Band also at CEDIA. So I figured while I'm practicing for that, let me play with the band. And the band was cherry-picked. They were a band I've always wanted to have work for like any kind of a party one day. And they're part of the Cafe Wha band. So Cafe Wha, if you know anything about that place in New York.

Ron:

Out in New York. Oh, my God. I used to go to Cafe Wha. I've been there a couple of times. This would have been in the late '90s.

Richard:

Yeah. So that's where Bob Dylan got to start. You know Woody Allen, Neil Diamond, Carolina.

Ron:

That brings back memories.

Richard:

And then it became this cool club, and it's right underneath the comedy place. So if you go on a Friday, you know you'll actually...

Ron:

You go underground, right?

Richard:

Yes. Exactly. So this is one of the bands that they were grooming. And you know I always wanted to hire them because I heard now that they do weddings. But the Cafe Wha band was just it was so expensive. And with the book coming out and all the stuff I have, I'm like, "All right. Well, what else do we have?" So they had a couple of bands that they were grooming. And one of them looked really cool. They looked like a bunch of guys who were not your average wedding band. They kind of look like a bunch of street kids almost. They have like the hat to the side and all the players, like all the musicians at Cafe Wha, are ridiculously talented. Like They're a cream of the crop.

Richard:

So I said, "Let me check these guys out. They look a little you know like they need to be worked in a little bit, but let's see what they're all about." And I went to go see him in the club. I figured I'd stayed for three songs. I stayed for the entire set. They blew my mind. They actually did one mashup where they started off with a Whole Lot of Love into Nirvana into Gavin DeGraw. And I was like, "I think we're going to hire these guys.".

Ron:

Yeah. How hard is it? You said you jumped in and played with them. And I'm admitting I'm not a musician. So I don't have any comprehension of how hard that is.

Richard:

So I've been playing my entire life. And I mean, I was really serious when I was young. And I think most of the people in this industry, if you ask most of them, they were involved in music at one point or another. And that's why the CE Pro All-Star Band exists because most of those guys are musicians that were in the music industry at one point or another, and then they ended up getting to the audio industry. And they want to be close to the music somehow.

Richard:

And that's why I do what I do because at least the deals with sound, the acoustics, and how I got into this business was you know my knowledge of working in the recording studios. But to answer your question is, these guys are so good as long as you know your parts and you really know what you're doing, and I try to elaborate. I'm a pretty good lead guitar player. So I worked at a couple of things, and I worked on one arrangement that we did. And it was fun. We had a blast. I mean, I think that we kind of had like a really sweet ending, and we made the show. I mean, my daughter's friends were like having a blast. It was crazy.

Ron:

They must think that she has the coolest dad ever after you get up there and lead guitar solo on the closing.

Richard:

They're not really expecting much because I'm a 60-year-old guy, you know but I still think I'm 21 in my mind and I act like you know and sometimes I act like that. So I guess they weren't expecting much.

Richard:

And then when I came out and we were able to really rock the place. I mean, when you do Saturday Nights Arrive for Fighting, I mean, those parts on the guitar alone are just so exciting. And if you have a great band like the Cafe Wha band who's backing you up, it's crazy good. And these guys can sing their ass off and play their ass off.

Ron:

Oh, that's amazing. Man, just the reference to Cafe Wha. I had not heard that reference for 30 years.

Richard:

It's still there, man. And if you go there any Friday or Saturday night or even during the week, it's always different. That's what makes it so amazing. I mean, I was there one time, and I know we're getting off topic, but it's cool. You know And they tell people just to yell out a song. You know And they'll play whatever you tell them. If you yell out the Patridge Family, they'll play a Partridge Family song. And somebody yelled out, "Under the Sea" you know from "The Little Mermaid." And they did like a reggae version of that.

Ron:

Oh, that's great.

Richard:

It blew my mind. I was like, "These guys are so cool." you know And then I heard that they were doing weddings. I'm like, "If there's any way that we can hire these guys, we're making it happen.".

Ron:

Yeah. It's going to happen. So, Richard, the big news is that you have spent four years well, beyond the wedding of your daughter, which is pretty big news. But for those that are tuned in watching this interview or listening in their podcast, they may not know, but I'm sure they'll be excited to learn that you've published a book, Home Theaterology.

Ron:

As you said, rolls right off the tongue, Home Theaterology. And I want to go into the what and the why and the how of all that, and I do. And it's a beautiful publication that you put together with lots of sponsors and partners. Before we go there, I wondered if you would just take us back and kind of help us understand where you come from. You know Take us to the beginning, whatever you call the beginning, and let us learn about you.

Richard:

Yeah. So it's crazy. I mean, you know when you talk to people, everybody has their own journey and how they get there. You know And mine was like I was trying to get out of my father's company. I needed a way out. I wanted to do something that I was passionate about. And what happened was I knew somebody in the AV world who was doing theaters. And I came from the recording studio world and playing in bands and trying to get signed and all that stuff.

Richard:

And I was involved in construction my entire life. And he would show me these rooms, and they were really cool, but they didn't sound great. And I said, "How have you ever heard of acoustic treatment? You should really put some treatment in here and really make the room sound so much better." Because I knew that you're only as good as the room, right? And this went on for a while. Then all of a sudden, there was a magazine back then, like 25, 27 years ago, called Audio/Video Interiors, if you remember that one.

Ron:

I do.

Richard:

And they had their first theater there where somebody did acoustic treatment. And there was guys in Florida doing it. And it was starting to become known that you can really change the sound of the room by treating the room correctly. So he had a client, and he said, you know rather than using this person from out of state, you know why don't you call up my friend Rich Charschan? I think he can help you with this because he's got a background in it.

Richard:

So I went there and I met with this person, and I saw what I could do right away. He had a great setup. There were MartinLogan speakers, you know there were definitely MartinLogans at the time. I think there were like the Statements or something like that. I mean, it was a long time ago. But we ended up finishing the room, treating it. And we were listening back to I think it was James Taylor. It was a James Taylor live disk. It was only back then you can only listen to a DVD.

Richard:

It wasn't Blu-ray or anything back then. But it was still impressive. No, actually, 27 years ago, it could have even been laser. You know It might have been a laser disk. But the sound was so incredible that I literally had goosebumps, and so did my client. I mean, he was like, We must have sat there for an hour listening to stuff, and we couldn't believe it ourselves. I'm like, "Oh, my God. I can't believe that other people aren't doing this.".

Richard:

So I didn't really think much about it. And then when I got the final invoice back, he sent me a letter. And with the letter came a $1,000 bonus. I can't make this up. So I showed it to my father, and I'm like, "Maybe more people would want to you know do this acoustic treatment." So I ended up finding out about CEDIA, which is the organization that all the AV dealers belong to. And they were just starting out too and getting stronger.

Richard:

And I started calling people because back then, you can actually call somebody. Now, if you try to call somebody, they think you're trying to sell insurance. It would be really difficult to do what I did back then now. And I would call people and the AV dealers would say, "I think I'm fine. My room sounded good without the acoustic treatment. I don't really know what this is all about, but thank you." And so I wasn't really getting anywhere.

Richard:

So what I did was because I knew that if they could experience it, they would really want to do it and would really make a difference for their clients. So I started to market myself by coming out with these CDs of music, and each year would be a different theme. One was bands that sound like the Beatles and one was a whole acoustic CD. And then at the end of the CD, you know like in the back, I would say, "If you ever need acoustic treatment, you know call AcousticSmart, Rich Charschan." And they would hold onto the CDs, thank God.

Richard:

And then audio/video interiors came out with some other theater articles where they had acoustic treatment. And then other people were calling these AV dealers and saying, "Hey, I like to do a theater like what I see in this book. Can you get me this acoustic treatment?" And then they would call me back and they'd say, "Hey, you know are you the guy who called me like about a year ago and I got the CD. It's really good. And you know maybe we can do something here." And then all they had to do was hear the difference, and it just kind of grew from there. And that's really how my whole business started.

Ron:

How hard or easy was it in the beginning?

Richard:

It was like so freaking nuts. It was so difficult. But I was so tenacious. And I don't know. I was on a mission, and I had my first kid. And I was making 30 grand a year. I was making nothing. And I really didn't have my heart in my father's company. And I knew this is what I wanted to do.

Richard:

But nobody was doing theaters back then. It was so hard. You know Like we were talking early you know to do a three-gun run go and a fruition line doubler. Just that alone was like a fortune, like 150,000 or whatever it was.

Ron:

It wasn't for your everyman. It wasn't for you know...

Richard:

It was crazy. And so I figured I'd do three a year or four a year you know and see what happens. And then it just started growing.

Richard:

And then people started asking me about fiber optic ceilings. And the first one that we did, we worked with the people from Disney on because we figured you know they would know how to do star ceilings more than anybody. And I remember we flew them in. It was our first job with the star ceiling, and they cut into the engineered beams. And my contractor almost had a heart attack. And luckily, he was cool about it. He was able to save the ceiling. And we noticed how they were doing it.

Richard:

And we were like, "Well, we can maybe do this in our own shop." Because then we had our own shop. We were making acoustic treatment at that point. And then as we started doing more star ceilings, we became friendly with the guy who did all the rainforest cafes, and we were training underneath him, and we were working with him at one point. Now he's retired, but that really even made us much better at what we did, and we were able to really dial it down you know by making it even better.

Richard:

And now the system that we're doing 27 years later is the best that we've ever done. We can make it so it's easy to like you know with Atmos, you have to be able to hide speakers and not lose stars and be able to get accessibility if a speaker blows. In the old days if a speaker blew, you had to take down the whole star ceiling if you wanted to...

Ron:

I'm just processing that. That has to be a puzzle. I don't want to go sideways too far, but how do you do that so that you look up and you see the full star ceiling. But yet, if you need to repair or replace a speaker, you can do that.

Richard:

So in the old days, everything was daisy chained together, and they were made up of really large panels. So you'd have to take down the entire ceiling. It was very expensive and a nightmare. Now we do it out of stretch wall. So we can literally take down just a section. In two seconds, they can fix the speaker and just tuck it back in. And it's really seamless. You don't see any seams at all. And it's actually saved our lives.

Ron:

Just to stay on star ceilings for a minute, and again, I'm ignorant to how this is done. Does everyone have different systems that they like you have your own system, or do you guys use a third-party vendor and you're installing or designing, installing their stuff, or how does that normally work?

Richard:

We actually make it ourselves. It took us years to get to where we are now. So we ended up doing a showroom with JBL in Northridge. And you know we were used to cutting out where the speakers were. So if a speaker blew, you know if an Atmos speaker blew, we didn't have to take down the whole ceiling. But the JBL speakers, the Atmos speakers, were so big. We would have no stars in the ceiling because there were so many speakers, and there were four speakers that were gigantic.

Richard:

So we were like puzzled, and we had to think outside the box, you know how are we going to solve this puzzle, right? Because a lot of our a lot of what we do is problem-solving, right? Because every single job that we do has challenges. It's like a Mission Impossible episode. I mean, it's crazy.

Ron:

Every project is Mission Impossible. It's really insane the stuff that we do sometimes.

Richard:

So anyway, so we had to figure it out. And we said, "Well, why don't we just do it out of stretch wall? But how do we do that?" Because then there's speakers in back of it. And we came up with a system. And I mean, it was so labor-intensive, we were freaking out, actually. But now we have it down to a science. But that first one is always so, so difficult. But when you look at it and when you're in the room, it looks seamless. And that room is that showroom that we have at JBL, it's not a big room, but it looks much bigger than it is because the way we did the design. And it's just so sleek and so cool, and the sound of that room is just insane. I just love it every time I go in there.

Richard:

So I said, "Let's try to do this because this is a great way to solve the solution for people who want to use Atmos speakers, and you know they can gain access to it, and it will save us a lot of time in the long run." you know Because trying to maintain everything is just as important as doing the work. You have to be able to be there afterwards and be there to help the dealer you know to get at these things when they need to get at it or else you know it just becomes a nightmare for the AV dealer.

Ron:

To bring us to the present, what trends have you seen occurring with the demand for home theater? And I'll just say you could look back at the last 27 years or the last five years. Where are we at right now with the demand for home theater?

Richard:

It's really strange you know because you have certain parts of the country where they're doing a lot of home theater and then other parts of the country where they're not.

Richard:

Like in Texas, in Dallas, they're doing a lot of home theaters, but in Houston, not much at all. I don't know why that is. I have no clue to understanding that. And we're also seeing a lot of video walls now being put into theaters. And there's another puzzle that a lot of people are trying to fix right now because they want to try to incorporate both. And I think we're getting closer in that.

Ron:

Does a video wall give a I mean, what's your opinion? Does it give a better image than a good projector and a screen?

Richard:

It depends on who you talk to. To me, I think a video wall is better when you have a room where they live by the beach or they have an ocean view and they don't want to get rid of the ocean view and they want to keep all the windows open. And they want to watch TV or movies with the lights on.

Ron:

So it's managing light. It can pump light out.

Richard:

And the other thing is, to me, maybe it's because I'm old school. When you have a screen and a projector and the sound is coming directly from the screen, I think you know as much as people will say you know they might tell you that video is more important than the audio, there's been proven tests of people being in two different rooms where they have a small screen and an amazing AV system and then another room with the same image playing, the same movie playing with a beautiful image and the audio doesn't have acoustic treatment and it's not immersive, they'll always go to the room with the better sound because that really puts you in the middle of the movie.

Richard:

It's the audio that makes it immersive along with the image. I'd say that the audio is probably 80% and then the image is maybe 20% you know because the audio is what sucks you in three-dimensionally because you're hearing that all around you and it's bringing you.

Ron:

For One Firefly, as a marketer in the space, what we saw happen over COVID and I'm just curious if you saw this or if this was you know if you saw this or if this tracks. What we saw happen in 2020 and during those years, '21, '22, '23, is like an increased demand for the dedicated home theater. It almost felt like it received a bit of a resurgence.

Richard:

It was crazy. It was crazy.

Ron:

Okay. So that was real. You saw that as well.

Richard:

Yep. 100%. Yeah.

Ron:

And was that the people you know deciding to hibernate in their homes and spend the money on dedicated rooms?

Richard:

Yeah. And I'll tell you why, because it's a safe place. The world is getting crazier, and the theater room is like an escape room. I even have one rep that calls it escape rooms because you literally go in there for two hours, and if a room is done right, you really don't know where you are for two hours, and you feel like you've just been taken someplace else. And that's the beauty of these cinemas.

Richard:

And in our book, we got Barry Sonnenfeld to do one of the forwards. And he'll be the first one to tell you, you know when he did his Men in Black movie, he would go to the different cinemas, and half of them would have the bass taken off you know so that they wouldn't hear the rumbling in the room right next to it. Like If somebody's watching a Woody Allen movie and you're watching Star Wars, you know they don't want the Men in Black movie to interrupt the movie next door so they would turn off the subwoofers.

Richard:

And he would be like, "you know I spent a lot of time mixing this movie so that the subwoofers would be heard." you know And he's like a big he's a big subwoofer guy. He loves deep bass. So to not have that in his movies really upset him. And he told him, he said, "Look, if you don't put the subwoofers back on all your cinemas, I'm going to take it out of the theater." So when I heard that, we definitely wanted him to talk about that in the book because you can get a better experience in the home now than you can going to a movie theater.

Richard:

No doubt about it. And because all the movie theaters are losing money, the projectors aren't up to snuff. The light output of the projector is half of what they should be in most of the theaters. The audio is not what it should be, unless you go to California because almost every movie theater is incredible. But there are so many theaters around the country where it's subpar. I was just in Salt Lake City because we have a showroom there and I went to see the Indiana Jones movie.

Richard:

Terrible experience. Like Why would somebody even come here? It was just you know so subpar. And I saw the same movie in my theater like about a month later because they get streamed very, very quickly on you know the Kaleidescape. And I was like, "This is like a different movie." It's like I'm watching two totally different movies. And that's the beauty of having these theaters.

Richard:

But to me, the ultimate is watching music in there, watching concerts. That's really what gets me pumped. You know Watching a great concert in there, it's like being at the show, but it's more intimate for me because I'm hearing every little thing. And you know it's very emotional for me.

Ron:

Well, speaking of emotion, you decided to pour your heart into producing this book, Home Theaterology. Can you share with us kind of what your goal or inspiration was?

Richard:

Yeah. So a good friend of mine, Theo Kalomirakis, did a book. He actually did two books. The last one he did was 20 years ago, and that really helped to ignite the whole industry. And it really helped home theater for a long time. And the book lives on. I mean, it has a life of its own, and I'll go into deal with showrooms, and I'll still see the book. And I felt it was time for something new you know that people should have.

Richard:

But I wanted to be more for the everyday person you know so that this way, if they want to do a theater, they can learn something from it as well. Maybe learn a little bit about acoustics. What is acoustics and what is this all about? What does it mean? And if an AV dealer has a client coming up where they want to do a theater, if they give them one of these books, they'll be educated.

Richard:

Because the big thing in our industry is that there's a disconnect between the interior designers, architects, and the AV dealers. And every time we do a job together with an AV dealer, there's a lot of education involved. And we have to start from scratch. And we waste a lot of time. You know We get fabrics that are not breathable for acoustics that just don't work or they'll sag. Why are they the wrong choices? Why do we need acoustic treatment?

Richard:

I have a lot of interior designers now showing me acoustic wallpaper, which doesn't work for home theater. And you know all these different tips that would just make a big difference and also guiding the client directly so they don't make the wrong mistakes. I just had a job recently that we lost, not because of anything we did, but because they got talked out of doing the theater because they come up with the idea.

Richard:

It was three rows of seats, and they wanted to do a 100-inch TV in a room like this. So they're spending all this money, and they'd rather I mean, we're probably still going to do the interior work, but it's the wrong way to go. And it's such a waste you know to me, and you're really not doing the client any service. You know You're really taking something that should be different from all the other rooms in the house and making it someplace special.

Richard:

And you know that's when this book would come in handy. So I'm actually going to be sending this book to this client. So I'm hoping he'll realize that he made a mistake because right now, it's still in the early stages where he might be able to change his mind and realize that he's not really making the smart move here.

Ron:

This book is a not-for-profit. You're taking the profits from the book and investing it back into the industry. Could you describe kind of your vision for that?

Richard:

Yeah. So the whole idea really is to I mean, we're definitely going to lose money on the book, but I felt it was needed because you know we need to educate all the architects, interior designers around the country, get them excited about home theater again. And we're going to take all the profits from the book and put them into marketing this book into the hands of all the architects and interior designers who do the specifying around the country for high-end work.

Richard:

So this way, all my AV dealers around the country, all the manufacturers who sponsor the book will hopefully get more work from home theater in the next year or two because that's what Theo's book did. I mean, it really did. But I think my book is going to be a little bit more helpful because in Theo's book, every room was over a million dollars and up, and that's not for everybody. So I wanted to have I mean, there is some stuff in there that's out there that people are going to say it's crazy.

Richard:

Like We have a Lord of the Rings room and we have a James Bond themed theater and you know like an Egyptian room that we did. But most of the rooms there are just like an average room that you would see in a theater you know in somebody's home but done in a very classy way and it's really cool and how we solve some of the puzzles because every single room that we do has problem-solving. So I want to talk about that you know so they can see what we did to come up with some of the solutions.

Richard:

And then if they want to do something as crazy as it is, maybe they'll learn something from what we had to do and come up with another type of solution on their own. You know So you know I wanted it to be fun and I wanted to be cool and I didn't want it to be preachy. And I made it in layman's terms so anybody could understand it. It's not too technical. It's not a how-to book at all.

Richard:

But it's to give people enough knowledge so they'll be interested and that they'll want to learn more and hopefully inspire other people to do more home theater because that's really what it's all about. This is what I do. This is what I love. It's not about the money for us. It's about doing something that we're really passionate about because these rooms are hard. They're very hard. Some rooms take a year and a half to build. Some rooms take five months. It's not for everybody. And the hours that we put in are crazy.

Richard:

And we always have to be there to support our dealers. And it's rough sometimes because we have deadlines. Every room is like a Mission Impossible episode. And you have to come through because if you don't come through, I'm not only damaging my own name and you know I'm also damaging my dealer's name and the interior designer's name and the architect. And you have all this pressure to make sure it comes through and everybody looks great in the end. And that's not easy sometimes.

Richard:

But when it's all said and done and I look at this book and I look at some of the stuff that we've accomplished, I'm really proud of it. You know And I'm hoping that these interior designers and architects will look at this book and say, "We should be doing this too. Why aren't we doing more home theater? This is cool. And let's get on the bandwagon again. You know Why is it that some states are not doing home theater, period?

Richard:

Why is there an underground movement with do-it-yourselfers that are so big, thousands of people who are so into home theater, but the architects and interior designers are not specifying it? You know Why is CEDIA now smaller than it was you know in-home theater from five or six years ago? It should be bigger. If you ask any AV dealer on the planet what they love doing more than anything, it's not home automation. It's home theater.

Richard:

But most of the EV dealers do maybe one theater every three years if they're lucky. When Theo came out with this book 20 years ago, I had lots of dealers doing four theaters in one year. So I want to bring that back. And it's not just for me. It's for there's other theater designers who do what I do, and I want everybody to grow. I want them to grow too you know because you know it's a very small industry. Everybody knows each other.

Richard:

And this is my way of you know trying to you know educate people because with education comes knowledge, and then it's not so difficult anymore once you know the answers.

Ron:

What do you think the pushback from the architects and interior designers are? I mean, you don't have to hypothesize. I guess you know what the pushback is. Why are they not advocating this use of the space?

Richard:

Some people think it's gimmicky. Some people think it's I get the feeling like they'll never use it. And no, they probably won't use it if it's not done correctly. But if any home theater is done right, it's my client's favorite room in the house, like every time. And I've been to rooms that are subpar, and there's a reason why they don't use it. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they make the automation that great, and they don't know how to turn it on.

Richard:

You know So it's up to the AV dealer to really do their job. And in our book, we talk about the importance of audio calibration and video calibration with some of the top people in the industry. I actually reached out to people who I really admire, like John Bishop, you know guys who I think are rock stars in this industry who can teach people a couple of things and understand why these things are so important. Because every room is a showroom.

Richard:

And if we all did that and put our time in and made these rooms amazing, home theater would grow just on that because we'd be giving people an experience that they can't look at and say, "That's okay." They would be like, "Where do I sign?" Because then it's like a Ferrari. You know You're buying a Ferrari, not a Honda at that point. You know You're buying you know something that's truly amazing, so.

Ron:

Is it common from your experience that an integrator might deliver a home theater and not tune the audio or tune the video?

Richard:

It's crazy. It is nuts.

Ron:

Let's throw some numbers out there. What percentage of projects that we'd call a dedicated home theater do you think are being delivered to end customers without being...

Richard:

Really putting me on the spot, Ron.

Ron:

Hypothesizing. It doesn't have to be an exact number, but you think it's a majority?

Richard:

Yeah. Definitely. And what's even crazier and what kills me the most is that you see a two-point for all screen and they're watching like Indiana Jones or something like that or Jaws and there's bars on the top and bottom. You know Not because of guys like Mad VR that coming up with the solution so you don't have to zoom in and it's easier to calibrate it.

Richard:

But they should be using those products to make the rooms better and get as close to being into the cinema as possible so that their experience is next level you know because that's really what makes a difference.

Ron:

So let's say the integrator has the customer, has the project, and they engage someone like AcousticSmart. And we can be broad here. Our audience is mostly, if not entirely, industry players here. Do they make money if they bring you in? Do they get to take your fees and mark you up? So I'm curious on that. And then I'm also curious, how does it mechanically work? What does the dealer do, and then what do you do, and how do you guys play together on a project?

Richard:

Yeah. They don't normally mark up our design fees because it's a feasibility study. And it's almost like we're the client's insurance policy. You know We're their home theater bodyguard throughout the entire job. And the dealer makes money on all the construction and the build-out, all the products that we manufacture. So yes, honestly, it's really a partnership with us and the EV dealer, and we wouldn't be able to get into these clients without them.

Richard:

So to us, it's a win-win. And I can't do what they do, and they can't do what we do because they're not architects. They're not interior designers. They can get a program that they can do something cool, but it's not going to be at the level of the detail of what we're going to do. And then also, we help them manage these projects, which is really a huge thing. That's the biggest thing because building the room is one thing. But managing the expectations of the client, that is the hardest thing to do.

Richard:

And that's the one thing that AV dealers, because they're so busy, they're doing the entire house. And I'm just focusing on this one room. So by having us focus on the one room, we're definitely making their life a lot easier. And we're telling them when to come in. And then we're having them go and check a couple of things. Because once we isolate a room and the room is totally isolated, you can't go back and start moving wires around and putting things back in.

Richard:

So there's a lot of checking, triple checking, and then you close it's like measure four times and then you close up everything. So the hardest part of these theaters is really the build-out because the rest is just finishing. So that build-out process sometimes can take a month, a month and a half. Or in certain areas like in LA, it can take three months because everything just seems to take longer there.

Richard:

But yeah, but that's really it. You know It's just the project management with anything. Whether you're building a house or one room, these rooms are complicated. It's like building a kitchen, but a very complicated kitchen.

Ron:

What are the normal timeframes of these projects? Does the room run on its own timeframe separate from a larger construction project?

Richard:

Yeah. We're the last people in usually on an entire house, whether it's a 5,000 or 30,000 square foot house. And we're the first people they want out because they've been working on this house for three years and they just want everybody out of the house. So there's that pressure because they've been waiting so long for this entire house, and they finally signed us on, but yet they want us out of there as soon as we got signed the contract. But that's part of our business, and you know we hear this all the time.

Richard:

And then we have the high-profile clients. It could be a celebrity client. It could be whatever it is. And they want the whole room done in two months. And it's usually insane, but we don't want to disappoint the client. We're trying to help. And those are the ones that are ridiculously tough, and those are the really challenging ones. We don't have those too often, thank God.

Richard:

But a normal lead time for a project is normally four to five months. It's not because it takes us that long, but all the trades, the coordination, just making sure that people are following our map correctly, that's the normal lead time. But in certain parts of the country, things take longer. Like in New York, we can do a job that would take six months, and LA would be a year and a half.

Ron:

Wow. Why is that?

Richard:

I don't know.

Ron:

Just the way it works.

Richard:

I just can't figure it out, man. It's crazy. Everything just takes longer. You know So to get things going a little faster, like I'll fly my own crew out, and we'll do all the construction and build out because we can get it done in two weeks. And we'll be back there six or seven months later. They're still painting the same walls in the same room, and it's crazy.

Ron:

That's crazy. So, Richard, you've been a part of CEDIA for how many years, since the beginning?

Richard:

Since, yes, for a very long time.

Ron:

For a very long time. So you've been to many CEDIA expos?

Richard:

Yeah. Since the days of Runco and all those guys, Sam Runco.

Ron:

Oh, yeah.

Richard:

We actually helped him with his theater. We helped Grant Stewart with his theater years ago. He was a great guy too, man. A lot of legends, a lot of great people in this industry.

Ron:

I think this will be my 24th or 25th CEDIA. So maybe not as many as you, but a few of them. And pre-COVID, you know 18, 19, you know it seemed like CEDIA was larger. I'm trying to think of exact number. I know they published numbers, but it's been smaller since as a show. And I'm not talking the trade organization. I'm talking the expo that Emerald purchased a few years ago from CEDIA. And it seems like certainly during the COVID years, you know for a year, there was a virtual show, then there was no show, or it was pretty nominal, and then it's come back the last few years.

Ron:

What are you foreseeing about the expo, kind of the gathering of all the industry brain trust and getting together? Do you think it gets back or maybe even bigger than its heyday, or what's your take on all that?

Richard:

It's really interesting because you have a lot of a lot of AV dealers got frustrated, I think. And that's when they started HTA. And then the tech summits came out, which honestly, they were great. And I think they're still great.

Richard:

So some dealers are like, "Well, I'm going to the tech summit. Why do I have to go to CEDIA?" But there is nothing better than going to CEDIA and just seeing everybody all in one shot and seeing all the technology. And there's a camaraderie in our industry, and there's like a brotherhood. I can't explain it. But even guys who are not in my circle, or it could be a competitor just to see what they're doing.

Richard:

It's just so amazing to me what they're coming out with. It's so freaking cool. And I love it. You know And I love that aspect and seeing the new projectors that are coming out. I know that Christie is now getting to the business again. Into home theater, and their product is just insane. And Barco is coming out with some amazing stuff. And the OLED walls, you know the LED walls, the one that Quantum came out with last year, was just mind-blowing. I mean, it was frigging cool as hell.

Richard:

So that kind of stuff is just you know it's great to go for that. But I love walking through the floor and just seeing everybody and shaking hands and seeing what everybody's up to, making deals on the floor, and just getting excited about what's going to happen in the next year. Because that's really what CEDIA is all about to me. You know It's just trying to connect with everybody, and we're all part of this group that's really special.

Richard:

I think in the old days with Runco and guys like that, there was a lot more rah-rah and a lot more people coming in.

Ron:

Tequila shots for everybody?

Richard:

Yeah. It was just and the parties were epic. I mean, I remember Origin Acoustics. Jeremy, God bless him. We had Kid Rock one year. And I remember he played "We're an American Band," which is you know Grand Funk is probably one of my all-time favorite bands. And I was just like, "Oh, I love this industry, and I just love being here. It's so freaking cool.".

Richard:

And you know I'm just happy to be a part of it. But I do think that what Daryl's doing from CEDIA, he's the President of CEDIA. I mean, I have to say, he's working his ass off and he's trying hard. I think he's really trying to make a difference. And I know he just went to the White House to try to you know go to bat for CEDIA. And you know that's a bold move.

Richard:

And he used to work for the Grammy Awards. And I'm a Grammy member because I'm a musician. I have CDs that I put out and all that stuff. And I've done a lot of recording studios. That's another part of my business I do. A lot of people don't even know about that. But anyway, so we have that in common, me and Daryl, and we hit it off. And we're both into meditation. I do meditation every day. So you know we have that bond.

Richard:

But the fact that he's actually going out there trying to do something, trying to make a difference, yeah that really matters to me. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have this book at CEDIA.

Ron:

Well, let's talk about the promotion strategy at CEDIA. For those that are listening tuned in and whether they're I don't know if we're putting this show out before CEDIA or after CEDIA, so I'll put that out there. But for folks that want to get their hands on the book, what is the game plan at CEDIA? And then what's the game plan post-CEDIA?

Richard:

That's a great question. So we're bringing like 1,000 books to CEDIA. And we're going to have three booths. We're going to have one right at the registration. We're going to have booth 4220, which is right on the show floor, where people are going to be able to pick up books.

Richard:

You can actually order it online at hometheaterology.net and buy the books in advance and just pick them up at CEDIA so you don't have to wait online. We're going to make it very accessible for everybody. And if you want to get them signed, you can definitely get them signed because we're going to be signing all over the place. The third booth is going to be really fun, really interesting. All the sponsors who are involved in the book, JBL, Barco, Screen.

Richard:

Well, actually, they're not going to be there this year, but we're going to be at the CEDIA booth at 12:30 on Thursday, and that's going to be a really big book signing. But anyway, the idea is to have like a portable booth and just going to all these different sponsors and just getting people excited about home theater and signing some books and saying, "This is what we should be doing next year.".

Richard:

And next CEDIA should be bigger than ever. And you know try to create work for everybody, you know not just for me and the other theater designers who do what I do, but for all the screen manufacturers, all the projector companies. I'm sure that the screen manufacturers must be hurting because of the video walls, right? I mean, you can't be helping them. Yeah And you know just for everything in general.

Richard:

And if you have any architects, interior designers who you think should be getting a book, please send me an email at Richard at AcousticSmart.com and we will send one to them free of charge because that's really what this is all about. I want to get this book to the hands of the interior designers. So after the big book signings and after doing all this, then we're going to have all the tech summits around the country. We're going to be doing book signings there. And then we're going to have a second edition.

Richard:

And once the books run out, the books run out. Then if it does well, then we'll do a second edition. But the money that we make from this will all be going to the marketing to the architects and the interior designers around the country. And I want to see these in every library. And I also want to see them in the showrooms of all our dealers. I have some dealers that bought three or four books because they have theaters coming up and they want their clients to get educated so they can read something and get excited about what's to happen because their house might be two years away you know and it's just breaking ground.

Richard:

So hopefully they'll get a little bit of knowledge and they can educate the interior designer or the Arctic, say, "This is kind of what I want to do. I want acoustics. I want to do sound isolation. I don't want to have a big TV in a living room. I really want to have a real dedicated theater." So I'm hoping that this helps do that in some small way. And I have no idea how it's going to pan out. I'm doing this all out of passion and because I'm a dreamer, I don't know how real it's going to be, but I'm doing my best. And if it works out, then that's great. But I have no idea.

Ron:

It starts with a vision. So you have that, and you've put that vision into action, and you've got a product on the other end that's about to be released in a week. So that's...

Richard:

Yeah. And it's crazy because there's a lot of moving parts. You've had three booths. I know people are going to be waiting in line to get signed copies. So I have people with cards with a QR code right on the card. So if you don't want to wait on a line, you can scan the QR code and pick it up in any booth.

Richard:

Because when I go to CEDIA, I want to go to the demos right away. I don't want to wait on the line. I don't want to lose time because I might be there. I have some dealers that go there for one day. They don't go there for all three days. So time is precious. So I'm aware of that because you know I've been going to CEDIA for a long time. So I'm going to make it so accessible, so easy that it'll be impossible for you not to get a book.

Ron:

What's the price of a book?

Richard:

The book is $90, but with the discount through CEDIA and through the end of CEDIA, and if you go online now, it's 25% off, so it's $67.50. And it's like a beautiful, hard-covered table book. It's like a coffee table book. It's gorgeous. And the pictures are shot by some of the top people in the industry like Phillip Dennis, Salvatore Dovey, you know guys who are just amazing.

Richard:

And the book really pops and the photography, just that alone is worth a watch, you know just to go through the book and to ooo and ahh. And then we have some cool forwards. One of the forwards was written by Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen's band, who's been a dear friend of mine. And you know you know we've helped him over the years many, many times.

Richard:

And Barry Sonnenfeld, the movie director who is the keynote at this year's CEDIA, who's also a big fan of home theater. And he doesn't even talk about AcousticSmart at all. It's really all about home theater in general because he's a fan of home theater. And that's really what this is all about. And then also in the book, we have a lot of we have one or two pages or three pages of secret demos of demo scenes that we love.

Richard:

Because when I see dealers all the time, they always ask me, "What's your favorite demo? What do you like to what's the one go to?" And I have a bunch. One of them that I think is really fun is The Patriot. There's a scene in The Patriot, which I have here in the book. We hear the voices all around you. I'm not going to really give it away, but if you put that on, people are just blown away, you know where it feels like you're in the battle scene.

Richard:

It's pretty amazing. And then the movie Help, which is we actually show it on DVD. We don't even show it on Blu-ray. I'm grandfathered in on the Kaleidescape, so we download it onto DVD so it's easily accessible. But the sound is so good. And I put on what song do I put on? I think it's "I Need You" is the song, the George Harrison song and the separation of the stereo and the guitars and the way the bass sounds and the drums. It's like they're right in the room with you.

Richard:

And it's a DVD. A Blu-ray sounds even better. But the fact that the DVD sounds that good and so three-dimensional when the room is tuned, people just get blown away and everybody loves the Beatles. I mean, like either you're a Stones fan or a Beatles fan. But if you're a Beatles fan, there's tons of great stuff out there. The Rolling Stones, they are putting out video after video, and they have some great stuff.

Richard:

And then one of the things I also talk about is there's a video that's near and dear to my heart. It's very hard to find. It's an import. It's Seal, Live at the Point. And on that, there's a secret section of that disk where they do an acoustic set live in a church. And the imaging of the two acoustic guitars are like so in your face and so freaking cool. And the sound staging is so mint, and it's a DVD, not even a Blu-ray. I don't think that's even available in Blu-ray. And it's very hard to find, but if you can find it, grab it because it's an amazing mix. And there's a lot of little chestnuts like that in there.

Ron:

That's brilliant. And for folks that are listening, I was sharing the website. And I'm going to go ahead and put this on the screen again, but I'll describe it here. Let me see if I can get to it. This is at the website hometheaterology.net. And I'm just going to spell that out for anyone that's listening. That's home theater, no spaces. Ology, O-L-O-G-Y, dot net. And this is Rich's website for his book. And it looks like you can order right here, right from the website. Is that the preferred method, Rich, for people to go to the website and click on the Order Now button?

Richard:

Absolutely, yeah. And it's so easy. And now we even have PayPal, so it's like you can do it in seconds. People don't have a lot of time these days, so I try to make it as easy as possible. And the cool thing about it is that you can get it now at a discount because it's really not about the money. It's just about people trying to get into their hands so that they can get at the discounted price. And then at CEDIA, pick it up right at CEDIA. So everybody's got their book without having to read online. And it's just a great opportunity to get back into home theater, to get psyched about it.

Ron:

I love it. Rich, it's been a lot of fun having you on episode 272 here of Automation Unplugged. For folks that want to get directly in touch with you beyond going to hometheaterology.net, where would you also send them?

Richard:

I would say just go to my website, acousticsmart.com and go to contact us. Or I'm very accessible and very easy to get a hold of, just go to Richard at Acousticsmart.com. I'm sure that anybody listening, they must know somebody who's worked with us over the years. We have a very loyal following of people, and they're all like family members, to be honest with you. I have some AV dealers that I've been working with for as long as I've been around, you know, 27 years, and we kind of went through the struggle together.

Richard:

When we first started out, we were the crazy people that were talking about things that nobody understood. And then as years went on, all of a sudden, we became the innovators. And that's the most interesting thing about it you know because I always believed in it. I just didn't think it would take this long. I'm 60 years old now. And it keeps me going, but I'm like, "Damn, you know why'd it have to take this long?"

Richard:

And now I'm doing this book. So I'm really going to go into overdrive and be working my ass off this CEDIA when I really should be chilling out because I just had the wedding and I had to go through all that. But this is literally like the week after my daughter's wedding. I'm doing CEDIA and this whole book thing. And then I have the CE Pro band where I have to learn like 15 songs, and we only get two rehearsals like two hours each. And then we don't see each other for another year. I'm not kidding you. So we got to get our shit together.

Ron:

Yeah. You are clearly going to be a busy bee the next few months, for sure. Rich, it's been awesome having you on the show. I appreciate you sharing with myself and our audience. And we're excited for your book launch, man. I look forward to seeing you here next week and putting my hands on this book myself.

Richard:

I'll make sure I put a copy aside because once they're gone, they're gone. So I'm hoping people really get a kick out of it. They flip through it, even if they don't read it. Hopefully, it'll get them excited and energized about doing home theaters. And that's really all I care about.

Ron:

I'll be putting my order in through your website. So you'll have to sign it for me at the show.

Richard:

Love it. Thank you, Ron. I really appreciate that.

Ron:

Appreciate you, Rich. Be well.

Richard:

Yes, sir.

Ron:

All right, folks. There you have it, the one and only Rich Charschan. So appreciate you all joining, and I'll see you all next time. Thanks so much.

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.

Resources and links from the interview:

• Richard Charschan LinkedIn Profile
• AcousticSmart Home Theatre Interiors webpage
• AcousticSmart Home Theatre Interiors LinkedIn page