In this episode of Art of Smart The Podcast, we delve into the launch and success of our training academy. We also talk about a challenging experience we had with PayPal, which froze our account unexpectedly.

We're kicking of our 2023 podcasts with a bang! This week we're down in London to visit L-Acoustics Creations L-Acoustics Creations is the residential side of L-Acoustics, THE industry leaders when it comes to live and pro audio. If you've ever been to a concert or festival then you've more than likely seen their speakers AND they invented the line array! We sat down with Director of Sales Nick Fichte who talks us through his journey within the industry and how he was headhunted by...

This clip is from our HDANYWHERE Podcast which filmed in March 2022. We were given the exclusive first look at this remote during the podcast, however, we held on the footage until HDA had officially announced it. This was the prototype version of the remote that we were shown so there will likely be a few minor changes since then. Expect to see a lot more of this during and after ISE 2023 in Barcelona!

Well folks... after an entire year of podcasting (we recorded our first episode in January!) we thought we'd change it up for the Christmas Special Episode and focus on ourselves for one episode. More specifically focus on our founder and managing director Rich Heppell and the journey that he and the company have been on since starting back in 2017 and before when he used to work as an electrician desperate to move into the smart home industry. Rich on Linkedin -...

This week we're down in Surrey to visit Lithe Audio! Lithe Audio make a variety of speakers that can be integrated into an AV system but also operated without a control system using bluetooth or wi-fi. They also supplied a lot of the speakers that we use on our training course! We sat down with Managing Director Amit Ravat who talked to us about the companies operations, how it came about (which is very interesting) and also the other arm of the company: Retrotouch - which manufactures...

This week we're down on the south coast with our friends at Focus SB! If you've not heard of them before (have you been living under a rock!?) Focus SB make all kinds of electrical accessories: Sockets, switches, dimmers, buttons - you name it. Not only that, but they manufacture our Face4 faceplates completely from scratch as well! We sat down with Managing Director Gary Stevens and Head of Strategic Partnerships Duncan Ray to talk about the Focus SB journey, their products and all about...

For this week's episode we're over in Stockport to visit Aquavision! We sat down with Owner and Managing Director at Aquavision Alastair Benn who talked us through how he came from a job in radio to setting up the company, being a family run business and talking through their incredible line of products. Aquavision have some world firsts when it comes to some of their products - listen to the episode to find out more! https://aquavision.tv Instagram -...

This week we're over in - you guessed it - Doncaster to meet up with our friends at Doncaster Cables. We use their cables in pretty much every project we work on and have hundreds and hundreds of metres in our York Office. We sat down with Aaron Walstow who is not only the Works Manager at Doncaster Cables but also is the inventor of their EV Ultra cable which is taking the market by storm and solved a problem that even Tesla couldn't! Absolutely incredible. We absolutely loved touring...

This week we're back down in Surrey to visit Sony's European headquarters! This was a big milestone for us as we were invited for an exclusive first time look at their new VPL-XW5000ES & VPL-XW7000ES laser projectors, alongside their massive modular TV wall! We sat down with Adam Dover and Yadev Tailor from Sony's Professional Displays and Solutions team to talk about their new projectors as well as their other display solutions for the smart home industry. Really cool experience...

We've hit the 10 episode milestone! This week we're down in Woking to visit Faradite Director & Founder Chris Turner and Sales & Marketing Manager Matt Emberson. We had a really fun chat with them talking about their motion sensors which we use in nearly all our products, the VERY interesting reason for why Chris started the company, UK manufacturing and more! This was definitely another episode where we could've chatted for a whole afternoon but cut ourselves off 🤣 We also...

We took a short trip to Grimsby for this weeks episode where we visited Myenergi and spoke with co-founder Jordan Brompton! We do talk about EV's and renewables in this episode but what we really wanted to hear about Jordan's story of how she became co-founder of one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. https://myenergi.com Myenergi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myenergi/?hl=en Myenergi on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAIZwAsCi2zMfrb9DekkWXQ/videos Myenergi on...

This week our guest is Ian Claxton from Qmotion down in Milton Keynes. We talk about blinds (of course), supply chains and how Ian annoyed Mrs Claxton… We also filmed a factory tour and product walkthrough video which will be dropping in the near future. Stay tuned for those if you're interested in window and blind solutions for your home! https://www.qmotionshades.co.uk Follow Qmotion on Twitter - https://twitter.com/QMotionUK Follow Qmotion on Instagram -...

12pm Sunday Art of Smart - The Podcast Episode 7: SWA This week we're down south in the beautiful Gloucestershire area to visit one of our favourite companies - SWA We spoke with Director Brian and Sales Director Julie about how the company was founded, the recent merger into the Shoal Group and of course the Storm Glands. This episode is a bit more focused on products and tools 🤣 Overall a great conversation which includes the interesting story of how the company was founded - any...

Hudson Lighting This week we head south of London to speak to the Lighting Legend that is Chris Hudson at Hudson lighting. On today's episode Rich and Chris chat about first cars, starting a business out of the family garage and running laps of the office every morning before work. Disclaimer: if you wanted to hear a podcast about lights… Sorry! https://www.hudsonlighting.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/company/hudson-lighting/...

On today's episode we are at FS Cables - the home of Rainbow Spaghetti! We sat down with Daniel Butterfield and Mark Mastrangelo about their merger into the Shoal Group, the struggles of keeping stock levels high during Covid, the logistics of sending miles of specialist cable to the other side of the world and much much more. https://www.fscables.com Follow FS Cables on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/fscables/ Follow FS Cables on Instagram -...

Little bit different this weeks podcast episode... as it's Gallo who were on the road and not us for a change! Gallo Acoustics Co-Founder Colin Urie joins us in our York HQ while on his travels around the country. On today's episode we discussed Speakers, the power of social media and of course, Gallo Beer. https://galloacoustics.com Gallo Acoustic on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GalloAcoustics/ Gallo Acoustic on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/galloacoustics/ Gallo Acoustic...

For this weeks podcast we make a regular trip over to Cheshire to see the folks at Aspire Monitoring Services. Aspire are actually the company that monitor Art of Smart's office security as well as a bunch of other companies and even some celebrities and footballers. We sat down with Adam Griffiths and Dave Pickup and talked about the story behind Aspire, how an alarm receiving centre works and why someone would need one. We see a lot of cool tech in our line of work but Aspire really do...

In this week's Podcast we head down to St Ives to speak to the team behind the software that keeps Art of Smart running like a well oiled machine. It is of course, simPRO. The guests on this episode are CEO Sean Diljore , Ricky Sevta CRO and Mat Wray head of partnerships. We talk about the companies beginnings, the new 4 day work week they are implementing and the challenges of global expansion during Covid-19. simPRO Software is a cloud-based job management solution for trade contractors...

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE AOS PODCAST! This week we headed over to Malvern to meet the video wizards at HDAnywhere. We chatted with Chris Pinder, Justin Fothergill and Dillan Pattni about the early days of the company, why the company is BOOMING in South Africa and much much more. These guys have some serious passion for their business and their journey was the inspiration for Art of Smart. Follow HDAnywhere on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HDANYWHERE/ Follow HDAnywhere on...