By Krissy Rushing Tomlin
RTI has been at the forefront of control and automation since 1992, creating reliable and innovative solutions for residential and commercial environments. Committed to delivering an exceptional end-user experience, RTI transforms complex functionality into elegant simplicity for end-users. The company achieves this by enabling systems integrators with both a templated installation approach and a fully bespoke system for a high degree of customization. For end-users like homeowners or office workers, this means interacting with your environment in a more enriching way. For builders, architects and designers, it means delivering on the original promise of the ‘smart home’ without concerns regarding unreliability or complexity. RTI systems are reliable, easy to operate, and easy to personalize.
I recently caught up with RTI’s Head of Global Marketing Bill Hensley who shared his enthusiasm about the company’s latest innovations, which aim to enhance user experiences in performance homes, classrooms, boardrooms and beyond.
” RTI is known for its advanced control and automation solutions that seamlessly integrate various technologies with homes and businesses.”
Krissy: First, let’s hear about you. What is your background and how did you come to work with RTI as Head of Global Marketing?
Bill: I came into the industry after a career in retail and licensing, mostly leading marketing for Japanese company Sanrio and its Hello Kitty® brand. While living in the San Francisco area I was approached by Core Brands to lead marketing. The management team and I connected, even though the only “core” brand I’d heard of was Furman power conditioning , as I had used Furman products as a part-time musician. But I fell in love with this industry rather quickly. Joe Roberts joined Core Brands soon after me and became the company president. Joe moved over to RTI as CEO in early 2020 and brought me on later that year.
Krissy: Tell our readers a little bit about your overall product offering.
Bill: RTI is known for its advanced control and automation solutions that seamlessly integrate various technologies within homes and businesses. It’s a mix of hardware and software — control processors, touch panels, remotes, collaboration systems, and AV distribution systems, all of which are customized using our Integration Designer software. It empowers systems integrators to quickly and easily create personalized and intuitive control experiences tailored to their clients.
Krissy: We’ve noticed that RTI has been growing lately with several new team members joining over the last few months.
Bill: We have an amazing team, including some key new members. But I should start with Kevin Marty, our Co-Founder and CTO. I don’t know if there are many co-founders in our industry who are 32 years into their passion, but Kevin brings this passion every day. Mike Jordan, formerly at Snap One and Core Brands working under Joe Roberts joined as our Chief Product Officer late last year. Under Joe, Kevin and Mike’s leadership, we’re supporting systems integrators with important new solutions in multiple categories.
A great example is the all-new AD series of DSP Matrix Amplifiers. Of course, they integrate natively into RTI systems, but they also make great standalone audio distribution solutions. We’ve launched new touch panels and have new remotes coming soon. It’s been a while since we’ve launched so much hardware, and it’s an important part of our growth story. This is an excellent time to do business with RTI.
Krissy: RTI was one of the first control and automation systems for the residential market, appearing on the scene way back in 1992. Has RTI always done commercial AV as well?
Bill: Yes, we’ve always catered to both markets and all flavors of commercial environments — office, hospitality, houses of worship, and so on. On the residential side, we do everything including performance homes, high-end luxury homes, and luxury transportation like yachts and motor coaches — all those flavors!
One of the RTI advantages is our singular platform. Our systems integrators learn one platform and apply it across all verticals, from a home media room to a whole wing of classrooms. I think RTI’s Integration Designer is the only CEDIA Hall of Fame winner among control platforms. We are now on version 11, which brings elegant templates that are fast to deploy with great results, or integrators can start from a blank slate and customize to their client’s needs. That’s super important. On the commercial side especially, most businesses only let the user do what they need to do.
Let’s say you run a restaurant chain — your manager has RTI on her iPad and she can see what’s going on in each location. But the bartender in Location One really just needs to change the sources in the AV system, so he has a simpler view via an in-wall touch panel. You could apply this same example to the luxury home; the remote in the guest suite doesn’t control the whole house, just the guest suite. And you don’t need to start with a blank slate; you can start with our “Coral” template and customize from there. This is a huge part of what we do, and it makes using the system faster and more elegant for the end-user.
With Integration Designer 11 and the Coral template, a systems integrator can program a simple system, say in a home environment, in as little as 15-20 minutes.
Krissy: Tell us about the new Intelligent Surface touch panels, they are so beautiful!
Bill: We just launched this new line of touch panels. It comprises 10- and 5-inch touch panels with the thinnest bezels anywhere and a super low profile on the wall. The 10-inch has an optional table stand that would be at home in a conference room or on the kitchen counter. You can mount these on the wall in either portrait or landscape orientation.
Overall, they have a gorgeous look that can work in any environment, with a new set of visually stunning background images that, of course, can be fully customized for the client. Likewise with the new remotes — it’s all about advanced ergonomics and aesthetics coupled with smart use of the technology. For example, our new Access Point Base Station is, as its name implies, a Wi-Fi access point, ensuring an instant-on Wi-Fi connection for the remote. It even features three programmable buttons, plus a “find my remote” button for whenever it gets misplaced.
The Intelligent Surface touch panels are a great example of our design-forward thinking. The narrow bezel and near-flush mount minimize the visual impact of the hardware on the room design. In a broader sense, the intuitive and fully customizable RTI control system makes any space more enjoyable, aligning with the design-build professional’s goals of creating spaces that are not only beautiful but also highly functional. Plus, our reputation for quality supports the high standards that architects, builders and designers aim to achieve in their projects. Ultimately, they want to give their clients more control with less real estate dedicated to products. And most of our products run on power over ethernet (PoE), using less power and making for a simpler installation.
Krissy: Final thoughts?
Bill: Home and business automation is a competitive business and there is a lot to know. So, we think learning one singular platform makes business sense for systems integrators; learn RTI and then install it any place in any application. But a control brand is only as good as the connections it makes possible. Behind the scenes we have a full team of developers writing drivers to connect RTI to the products and systems important to the integrator’s clients. Our role is to create solutions that help the integrator deliver an exceptional experience in the most simple, elegant and sophisticated way possible. We think this philosophy benefits everyone in the design-build community — the architect, designer, builder and ultimately, the end-user.
Krissy Rushing Tomlin is the CEO of Rise Media Strategy, a full-service marketing firm. She has served as Editor for multiple large national magazine and her byline has appeared in Wired, DigitalTrends and HGTV among others. Deemed an expert in the home theater and smart home space, Krissy is the author of the book Home Theater Design.
