Frank Sterns saw the writing on the wall and in the wall, so to speak, with the dawn of the home-automation market. He joined Niles Audio in 1992 because he believed the company was at the forefront of the revolution in simplifying the smart home. Jamie Sorcher recently talked to Sterns about the past, present, and future of home automation.

When did you know that home automation would take off?
It was before I worked for Niles. In 1989, I was a sales manager for Infinity Systems and we were making wood-box speakers. Denon had recently introduced a three-channel receiver, and it started me thinking. What are we going to do for a center-channel speaker, and where do you put it? I had the “aha” moment then that speakers would probably end up in the walls and ceilings because the number of speakers needed for surround sound would simply take up too much real estate. It wasn't hard to see from there that in-wall speakers would lend themselves well to having speakers all around the house.

At that time, Niles was doing primarily speaker switchboxes and volume controls. When I went to the first CEDIA [Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association] show in 1989, it became clear to me that the future was built-in audio as opposed to component audio. If you have audio distributed to every room, you have to have some way to control it, because you can't see the equipment you're using anymore. I joined Niles because I was absolutely certain the company's emphasis on built-in distributed audio and custom installation was the way of the future. I had no second thoughts.