By Douglas Weinstein
One of the premier technology design and systems integration firms in Central Florida, ZIO spans the corporate, hospitality and residential markets with a heavy presence in advanced lighting design, control and entertainment. For 25 years ZIO has gained the trust of their clients and their consistent, practical solutions have elevated their reputation to that of technology advisor for some of the largest projects underway across the country.
Peter Shipp
I think it’s important to network within the design-build community and build relationships. Especially on large projects, it’s important that we speak the same language as our peers and understand their processes so we can work more closely and avoid the unknowns that crop up. The last thing I ever want to hear is ‘I wish I had heard about that sooner.’
I recently sat down with Peter Shipp, ZIO’s Founder and CEO to talk about an amazing residential project he and his team designed that recently wrapped after four long years of specification and build, the work ZIO is doing in the commercial market, and his own personal journey into the world of technology that began when he was just a kid.
Doug: Let’s start with this amazing residence your team worked on. How did you become involved with the project?
Peter: My first conversations with the client weren’t about this new house. Although he had bought the lot, he originally contacted me because of issues he had in his old house. The first part of our relationship was, ‘can you fix this?’ I was referred to him and what we inherited was a real mess. Now, the client is really into technology, and he knew pretty much what was wrong with the design of his house but couldn’t fix it himself. And at the end of the day, working on his existing home was really a test he set for us – would we try to sell him stuff or would we simply get him up and running and let him decide if he wanted to rip everything out and start over. So, we were (and we always are!) very pragmatic and suggested logical solutions which he agreed to. Along the way, we discussed current technologies, and our relationship became one of ZIO becoming a trusted advisor, which is our goal on every project and with every client.
Then, months later, he called and said he was building a new house and wanted us in from the very beginning of the discovery process. In fact, he trusted us enough to ask for our opinions on architects and contractors.
Our initial discussions were about creating something simple and reliable. Now, I always unpack “simple” because people might think you mean basic. His goal was that he didn’t want complicated, so we went through what would deliver the best functionality and provide the most reliability. Intuitive to live with, quality everywhere, but value also where applicable.
Additionally, there were a lot of design conversations about mechanicals and electrical that we advised on because we collectively as a team have extensive knowledge of a variety of built environments.
Doug: The lighting design is really quite spectacular. What was ZIO’s involvement?
Peter: We were the lighting designer for the whole project. We document 100 percent of what we do and provide extensive documentation because the coordination between the design and build trades is critical to get things right from the inception of any given project. Everything on the building and in the building, we designed and integrated. We didn’t do the landscaping lighting although we will probably revisit that at some point.
Everyone involved with today’s intelligent lighting knows that dimming and architectural issues are critical and we designed and managed that process entirely. The owner was heavily involved in the interior design and there was a lot of input on the linear coves and building facade lighting. He had specific ideas on how he wanted light projected, so we came up with solutions as we worked through the design process.
He wasn’t aware of Ketra from Lutron, so we introduced him to the product and this house might be the largest Ketra residence in Florida if not the Southeast. The control is Lutron Homeworks QSX with Palladium keypads, and very few of them because he didn’t want a lot of buttons. We advised him to think about his scenes using Natural Show which allows each scene to evolve with the natural color temperature of the outdoors all day long. Of course, he is able to make adjustments and as you know, it can take a few months to get acclimated to today’s intelligent lighting.
So, the house has a combination of downlights and linear lights in coves, under cabinets, shelves and toe kicks. A third of the downlights are wall-washers because I don’t like to flood the room with light. We also provided specific lighting solutions for his artwork, including sculptures.
Doug: Talk about some of the other technology design the client was interested in.
Peter: There is a ton of shading in the house. Keep in mind this place is 15,000 sq. ft. under air! And it really is quite gorgeous. The fit and finish across the board is really spectacular. So, as far as shading, every shade is in a ceiling recessed pocket. That required extremely close coordination with the contractor. The automation portion is handled via a Control4 system and Josh.AI.
Another key feature that we designed and integrated was a custom home cinema. Originally, he said he didn’t want a theater because he didn’t use the one in his old house that much. But somewhere into the design process, maybe six months, he decides to go all out and got really into the process. And what we delivered was a far, far better theater than his old one and he absolutely loves it.
Here’s the thing about home cinemas. Getting a great image up on the filmscreen is pretty easy today because all of the top manufacturers make incredible projectors. What’s really difficult is getting a totally immersive soundfield where the dialog is crystal clear, and you truly replicate what the audio engineers hear in post-production. The big difference between a good or a great theater is the acoustical design. Delivering exceptional sound is tough, but replicating the power of the live performance that allows for the suspension of belief is our ultimate goal.
When you have a client that knows enough about what they want and gets it about what’s really important – that the design and services part of a project makes or breaks the installation – and that they value that expertise, that’s what it takes to really have a good outcome. Residential technology is an emotional purchase. Whether people understand what the products and components are, they really should be focusing on the people and the team who have your best interest in mind on every decision they make. And it’s equally important for us as trusted advisors to recognize when we aren’t the right person for any(every?) aspect of the job.
Doug: You’ve been in business now for 25 years and started your company when you were still in high school, right?
Peter: Yes, and it’s been a fun ride. [laughs] My early background was in theatrical lighting and audio. In high school I did all of the technical stuff for our theater. I was into electrical systems and audio reproduction. So, I started the company and worked part time at it when I went to the University of Central Florida to study business. I could figure out the technical stuff, but I wanted to make sure I knew how to run a business.
I brought on my first employees in 2004 and went to my first CEDIA Expo trade show. I remember meeting Ken Erdmann who had such a wealth of knowledge not only on the technical side, but also all of the likely mistakes I would make in the business. Managing to escape making most of those mistakes, we’ve grown steadily since then. My father says that since I never worked for anyone else, I didn’t learn anyone’s bad habits!
In 2011, realizing that I could only grow the residential business so much in my market in Central Florida, we pivoted to large corporate and hospitality projects. We have a large concentration of hotels in the Orlanda area and quickly realized lighting control was a huge area of need that was going unmet.
Fast forward to today, and we have three lines of business. Luxe residential, which is almost all referral work, commercial A/V andcommercial lighting. While we do piggyback off of each other, lighting is a great way to introduce technology into any project.
Doug: Let’s talk commercial, since that represents a large amount of your revenue. While your residential projects are mainly Florida-based, you work across the country in commercial, right?
Peter: Yes. We’re very fortunate to have earned the trust of some of the largest hospitality owners and operators and are called upon when they need a project done on time and on budget, with the right design and with knowledgeable boots on the ground.
What I’ve found working in commercial is that the time and money on change orders or having to take two steps back before moving one step forward, is a huge time suck for savvy owners and developers. They would rather pay a little more knowing that the project is in good hands, and again, I’ll go back to what we discussed in the beginning – we strive to be trusted advisors, not just subject matter experts. We present real-world, pragmatic solutions. Now, while we advise on solutions that get the job done, we also advocate on increasing budgets if we think the results call for it in specific areas. But that balanced approach is what has earned us our reputation in the commercial space.
Doug: How do you keep your team educated and up to date regarding the latest technologies and integration techniques?
Peter: Good question. It used to be industry shows. CEDIA, LightFair, InfoComm, LEDucation. And they still are important, but post-Covid I have noticed less value in those events in terms of education. Actual projects and working with our senior teams that has great depth of knowledge is really how the problem solving and learning and figuring out what works and what doesn’t is how we educate our newer hires and bring them up to speed. We also value learning from our peers in the industry and from networking with design-build colleagues who share their world with us.
We have a large enough team with deep knowledge where we can problem-solve internally. One example – we hold a patent on a lighting control product that we use for live event venues, theme parks, etc. that is a safety device. I co-created and patented it with one of our team members. I told him what I needed and he designed it. So, if we have issues related to light flickering or another anomaly, we attempt to fix it. Our entire staff gains a higher level of knowledge and expertise.
Doug: Final thoughts?
Peter: I think it’s important to network within the design-build community and build relationships. Especially on large projects, it’s important that we speak the same language as our peers and understand their processes so we can work more closely and avoid the unknowns that crop up. The last thing I ever want to hear is ‘I wish I had heard about that sooner.’
We’re very fortunate to work on larger projects in both the commercial and residential worlds and see some pretty amazing architectural and design and build work, so we’re just excited to be adding our knowledge and expertise to some of these incredible buildings.
