|
Home Improvement
 If Nick Mark '87 gets his way, your house could be more technologically savvy
than you. One of the co-founders of Custom Electronics in Portland, Maine, Mark
designs and sells sophisticated systems that integrate lighting, security,
entertainment and environmental aspects of the home.
Custom Electronics, established five years ago, is on the cutting edge
of the "smart home" market. Depending upon a homeowner's taste and income, the
computer- and electronic-based systems can be installed for as little as $1,500
or as much as half a million. The average system, Mark says, costs about
$8,000.
Once wired, a smart house can, with the punch of a few buttons, tell the exact
latitude and longitude of the home and automatically adjust light and heat
according to the time of day and season. When the homeowner "announces" his/her
arrival (with a call from a cell phone, a micro chip in the car or in other
creative ways) the house can turn on a favorite CD, fire up the hot tub and
close the drapes in the master bedroom.
"You can program the software any way you want," said Mark. "You can set it for
different moods depending upon the individual." Television screens can hide
behind walls and stereo speakers can be wired into every room; with a push of a
button lights can be set for parties, romantic evenings, nights home alone or
small dinner parties. Mark predicts a day when this technology is routinely
installed in virtually every new house.
Systems can be custom built into new homes or retro-fitted into old ones, Mark
says. The company has contracts as far south as Florida, as far west as Utah
and throughout New England. In August, Mark and his partners had their biggest
coup to date when a customer ordered a completely integrated home theater,
audio system, lighting and environmental controls and security system.
Mark says he entered the business because of his love of electronics--he was
disassembling clock radios at age 5 and was well known in high school for his
elaborate stereo system.
A physics major while at Colby, Mark, originally from Greenwich, Conn., entered
the management training program at Bath Iron Works.
After about three years he began searching for something that would "fill his
sails," he says. After writing a business plan regarding the integration of
electronics into people's daily lives and homes, he "ran into a couple of Maine
guys with the same plan." Ten months later Custom Electronics was off the
ground. With four principal owners and a handful of other employees, Custom
Electronics is growing rapidly.
"I'm doing something I absolutely love," said Mark, who lives in a "dumb" house
in Falmouth with his wife, Leslie. "It's a neat feeling being involved in
something you enjoy. I love going to work every day."
Eighties Class Notes |
Table of Contents | Nineties Class Notes
|
|