cM :: MORLEY|DIGITAL

You know the old saying, “Half of life is just showing up”?  I think it’s also followed by “The other half is showing up on time.”  While both are true, the former is what benefited MAINGEAR @ Quakecon 2008 this year.  We had a prominent position at AMD’s booth, and while the competition sent machines, no one bothered to send people. 

So we got to do a lot of mingling with AMD fans and gaming enthusiasts, and were really able to bring our message of performance, reliability, and customer service to the old and young alike.  Wallace and I were AMD’s “Ask the experts” panel and we had a lot of fun talking about AMD technology, being a boutique PC builder, and I even got to talk about some of my favorite subjects like bloatware, crappy chassis, and other stuff.

But two things just blew me away.  Getting to go up on the main stage and give away a MAINGEAR PC in front of a huge crowd of people was just awesome.  Everyone was so excited to be there and the kid who won our F131 was shaking as he filled out some paperwork.  We put a brand new system in the last of the first F131 chassis we ever used.  We painted it red for AMD/ATI, and it was kinda emotional for some of us as we were really giving a part of our history.

You can see me talking about it here.

The other great experience was being involved in a documentary about gamers and the gaming industry.  Wallace, Wendel, and I were all interviewed both one on one, and at our booth about what it’s like to be in the gaming business and actually make money at it, compete with the Tier 1s, what a boutique PC builder really is, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  It was produced by a Tonight Show producer and I have no idea where it’s going to air or when, but the last one they did ended up on MTV.  So we’ll see.

Which is why it’s with a heavy heart that I must tell you that I’ll be transitioning away from MAINGEAR shortly.  MAINGEAR has been a labor of love for me over the past year and was never about the money.  Wallace and crew really restored my faith in this business and I couldn’t be more proud of the work we have done and what we have accomplished.  They are truly a force for good in this business. 

But I’ve been offered such an incredible opportunity that every day this week I have pinched myself to make sure it’s not just a dream.  The possibilities are endless and I couldn’t be more excited.  I can’t talk much more about it, and I really wanted this post to be about my love and respect for MAINGEAR, so I’ll save it for another day.

I’d say that my love affair with Microsoft’s Media Center started with a BANG last year when I was the first to launch digital cable tuners in Windows Vista.  And while I moved a lot of boxes for that company, I had no idea just how expansive the whole home theater ecosystem was and what it was like to actually integrate this technology into a real-world environment.  I learned very quickly that PC companies just don’t get it.  Their systems are built in a vacuum and treated like a PC.  The PC world shoves technology down the A/V industry’s throat so fast it almost turns most A/V dealers off of anything PC related. 

But not so at Fluid Digital.  I spent months not just focused on the hardware or the software, but the actual usability and real world experience that high end customers demand.  It’s one thing to sell this hardware to tweaks and geeks who have been waiting for it and are techno-savvy enough to deal with issues, but quite another to sell the product to someone who has never even heard of Media Center before.  And once you inject yourself into someone’s TV watching experience, you better be damn sure that your system is going to be more reliable than their cable box.  Because people can stand a blue screen or two with their computer, but interrupt American Idol and there will be blood.  I also took this philosophical approach when I designed MAINGEAR’s Axess HD.

So, here are some pictures of the last high end install done by a Fluid Digital dealer, Home Entertainment, Inc.  And yes, that’s Media Center being controlled wirelessly by a PSP.  You can watch and control 100% of your Fluid Digital media server any where around the world, including high definition premium cable channels, for less than $750 retail.

BTW, that new project I mentioned I was working on?  It should be announced at NVISION at the end of the month.

Since some people get their panties in a wad when I don’t fully disclose every business venture I’m affiliated with at the start of every sentence that comes out of my mouth, I must again remind people (and probably for the first time on THIS blog) that I do consult for MAINGEAR Computers.

In doing some competitive analysis, I came upon this gem of a post from a boutique builder as to why they are “better.”  To me it sums up the biggest problem facing the boutique business:

But they offer a very limited amount of options and choices.  They also charge more than us for the same options and configs.  Sure people are happy because they can spit out these systems fast, and they know they work.

Our systems are completely different for every system we build.  We have no idea what our next order is going to be.  Sometimes components just do not want to work together and sometimes they work together the first time. 

I’m not sure where to begin on this because it is so full of fail.  First off - being able to be sure that a configuration is going to work is a Good Thing.  That’s the point of a limited number of choices.  If you offer 8 vendors’ motherboards, 6 vendors’ memory, and an equal number of heat sinks, power supplies, etc, there is no way to ensure that all configurations are compatible.  That means there’s a very realistic chance that a customer will order a system that the company has never built before nor fully qualified as a reliable product.  Furthermore, can you imagine the support nightmare?  Personally, if I wanted to call up technical support on a product that I’ve dropped $2,000 on, I’d want to be damn sure that the person on the other end has at least SEEN a configuration like mine before.

I’ve run a real product development lab at a $30 million dollar company.  I know exactly how difficult it is to balance choice versus responsibility when it comes to your customers.  There is a balance and you always err on the side of responsibility.  It is flat out not worth it to add that latest hot motherboard that got a great review on a website just because you don’t want to lose a sale.  You must properly qualify it in your system configurations and in your production process.

To do otherwise is simply irresponsible and reprehensible.

Omaura is proud to have provided the TF8 enclosure for MAINGEAR’s new home theater offering.  Check out the press release here and configure to order here.

The Axess HD Home Theater media center features a sleek and luxurious new HTPC enclosure design utilizing up to 10mm thick aluminum construction, acrylic trim, and an optional OLED front panel display. Elegant aesthetics and functionality make it right at home next to premium A/V equipment from the most prestigious manufacturers. At just 100mm high and 401mm deep, the Axess HD is an unobtrusive yet powerful media hub for your digital home. Acoustically tuned fans and hard drives minimize noise yet maintain air flow for cool operation.