SRQ DAILY Jan 18, 2016
Monday Business Edition
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"If you look at the trends in our area, people are looking for contemporary architecture, and that goes hand in hand with people drawn to gadgets."
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The areas in the purple portions on this map, available from Sarasota County Geographic Information Services, are designated by Sarasota County as employment centers, areas specially designated for private economic development.
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Once considered the domicile of only the tech-obsessed, the world of smart home technology today finds itself welcoming a mainstream set of customers. A new survey conducted by Coldwell Banker Real Estate shows the broader public embracing such technology years before most experts expected.
The Coldwell Banker Smart Home Marketplace Survey, released last week at the Consumer Electronic Show, polled more than 4,000 Americans and found 45 percent already own smart home technology or plan to invest in it in 2016. Perhaps more startling, 36 percent of the respondents who answered that way don’t consider themselves early adopters of new technology. But Roger Pettingell, a Coldwell Banker broker in the Sarasota market, says the results don’t surprise him, and that buyers increasingly expect automated components to be in place when they shop for homes today.
While he says the label ‘mainstream’ might be a little far, “I definitely see it at the upper end.” “If you look the the trends in our area, people are looking for contemporary architecture," Pettingell said, "and that goes hand in hand with people drawn to gadgets.” Whether it’s wireless audio systems or automated lighting controls that can be adjusted using a smartphone, interest in integrated home amenities has become the norm in the luxury market. It’s reached the point where if a seller still has an old-fashioned entertainment console and an older television, Pettingell will often ask an owner to replace those with flatscreen and integrated systems before the property gets listed.
And other businesses in the smart home space also see a change. Mark Vandenbroek, owner of SmartHouse Integration in Sarasota, has been in business 18 years, and over the last five years has seen attitudes shift significantly. “We are busier than we have ever been,” he said. The greatest interest has been in integrated lighting and security systems, but homeowners are taking advantage of increasing opportunity to have a single platform handle everything from sound systems to pool heaters and irrigation setups.
Changes in the industry also benefit the consumer moe than ever before, Vandenbroek said. “There are more new companies and more collaboration between companies,” he said. “We used to have to find ways to make things work together. Now large manufacturers are sharing code with one another so the integration is simpler and more reliable.”
Photo courtesy SmartHouse Integration: Outdoor Oasis home.
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Pine View School students received a visit from NASA this past Friday, when a panel of scientists arrived to discuss their work with the agency’s Vegetable Production System and survey the students’ own botanical work in the school gardens, done in partnership with local chef Paul Mattison. Local entrepreneur Ed Rosenthal joined the panel to discuss the special fertilizer produced by his company, Florikan, which became an integral part of NASA’s mission to grow edible produce in space. “Through collaborative efforts like this,” a Pine View official said to the students, “anything is possible.”
With hundreds seated in the school auditorium, NASA scientist Gioia Massa delivered a presentation on the various challenges facing food production on the International Space Station (ISS) – eliciting the proper ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ with demonstrations of fluid mechanics in zero gravity – as well as the sweeping benefits of gardening in space, beyond nutritional value. As part of the station’s Bioregenerative Life Support Systems, the vegetable gardens NASA plans to grow would affect atmosphere, water processing and even stress relief, said Massa. “You’re trying to mimic what happens on Earth, but in a closed environment,” she continued, “using biology to support the humans.”
Following the presentation, the panel—Massa, Rosenthal and NASA scientists including vegetable engineer Nicole Dufour and postdoctoral fellow Matthew Mickens—engaged in a brief question-and-answer session, fielding queries on everything from trees in space to how to get a job at NASA, before heading outside to the gardens.
Under the direction of Mattison, Pine View students have been growing the same varieties of vegetables grown or planned for growth on the ISS and using the same time-released plant fertilizer made locally that NASA found so effective to use in space. “Where else but America could a family-owned business develop a product that NASA would eventually use in space,” said Florikan founder Rosenthal. “That’s the American Dream.”
Scientists and astronauts have made great strides, Massa said, but problems remain in need of solving. Sharing visions of lunar colonies, she challenged the students. “There’s still a lot of work for you to do in the future.”
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Jim Lampl, an investor in Sarasota radio station WSRQ since its inception, took over day-to-day operation of the station this month. We spoke with Lampl and Jill Delano, the station’s general manager, about the future of the media outlet.
Will there be any significant change in format for the station? Lampl: We are still thinking the talk format has a lot of value and a lot of upside potential. People can get music in so many different platforms, but this is one of only places you can get locally owned, locally operated, independent talk. The big differentiation between us and the other presets is they are all music. I tell people give us one preset and we’ll give you local talk news.
Will there be an increase in locally-produced material? And will there ever be a local morning show? Lampl: Our goal is to keep expanding the local programming. We’re going to do a thorough analysis of all of our syndicated line-up. At the very least, we’ll be moving some programs around to different time slots as we increase local programming. DeLano: It’s one of our goals. We have been doing afternoon drive time but we want morning. It’s a natural extension of what we are doing.
Will you be hosting a show yourself? What are the plans to replace The Nilon Report in the afternoons? Lampl: No, I’m hoping I’m smart enough to find better talent than I. With the team we have in place, I’m very optimistic about our future. We have great talent. We want to see a new, dynamic, fresh afternoon show. We are looking at three or four different people who we are excited about. We’re working hard, and we are also having fun on this adventure.
Are there plans to increase the broadcast reach of the station? Lampl: Yes. We are designing and going for permits and constructing a new tower to have a stronger reach. We want a new tower online in the next six months to strengthen our potential in Manatee County. DeLano: We have potential to pick up an additional 1.4 million listeners by increasing the signal in Manatee.
WSRQ broadcasts at 98.9FM, 106.9FM and 1220AM.
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Intercoastal Medical Group announced orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian D. Burke has joined the Intercoastal Orthopedic Group. Before joining Intercoastal, Burke was director of the Total Joint Reconstruction Service at Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg since 2011. Burke’s orthopedic surgical skills include patient-specific total knee replacement and direct anterior total hip replacement.Burke received his medical degree from the West Virginia University School of Medicine. He completed his internship in general surgery and residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Florida Department of Orthopedic and Rehabilitation.
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Sarasota Memorial Hospital installed the SoloHealth kiosk and educational displays in Newtown’s Robert L. Taylor Community Complex on Dec. 29. The health and wellness kiosk provides members with free blood pressure, vision, weight and body mass index checks, along with individual health risk assessments and customized recommendations based on their results. Sarasota Memorial worked in partnership with the Multicultural Health Institute to find a suitable space for the self-service screener and provide culturally relevant health education to an at-risk population. Demonstrations at the kiosk will be held today at 9:30am, following the 35th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast and Community Awards Ceremony, which will be held at the Taylor complex.
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