CHAA was established just four months ago, and is already aiming high – hoping to use TV as a medium to inform the end user and the industry about key issues and emerging technologies.

The Automation Show will be a 30 minute weekly installment that will feature on Australia Live TV, with studios based in Adelaide and soon, Melbourne. The show will be web-based which means that it can be watched anywhere with the opportunity to re play past episodes at any time.

“This will be a window for organisations and companies to display the latest gadgets and talk about what is happening in the industry – who is doing what and where,” says CHAA chief executive Andrew Hendy.

“There will be a segment dedicated to the consumer and another for the automation industry. This is something that nobody else has done before and a major aspect that makes us different from other associations.”

CHAA currently only has 20 members; however it is focusing much of its efforts forming alliances with other associations to help members have substantial contacts.

“We are hoping to work with National Electrical and Communication Association (NECA), as they deal with electrical contractors. One of the things that caused us to be in existence in the first place was that a lot of electricians were expressing problems with automation and wanting to up-skill themselves,” Andrew says.

“Many consumers have called in an electrician wanting them to install automation technologies and they don’t have the knowledge. In some cases they are being called in to fix problems created by previous electricians who have installed automation incorrectly.

“There is a very big knowledge gap there which we hope to work with NECA and other associations to up-skill electricians.”

CHAA has already formed an alliance with America-based Continental Automation Buildings Association (CABA), which Andrew considers a huge step.

“We are now a CABA member and it is one of ours. CABA has been around for over 20 years and has the likes of Microsoft and Harvard University as members. It is now giving us tremendous support with resources which is going to be an enormous assistance with content for the TV show and gives huge potential for viewers and advertisers.

“You can always watch America and predict that whatever is going on there will happen here eventually. That is why being on board with CABA is such an enormous advancement for us – we are getting advanced research at an early stage.

“We are also in discussions with KNX which will give us a huge geographical advantage as it is involved with 20 European countries.”

CHAA is also aiming to deliver training to its members and eventually have a CHAA certification. However, the optimum medium for delivering the training is still yet to be confirmed.

“With certain products, such as AMX, Control4 and Crestron we will encourage training from the relevant company, then we will provide the generic aspects that need to be in place to have a training regime that can up-skill electricians to a stage where they will be experienced in all facets of automation and not just one company’s product.

“We are in talks with a major university that has competence in technical areas as well as higher academic areas such as business. It is still in early stages of development but a major advantage will be the large number of international connections that the university has.”

Andrew says that one of the major motives for joining the association is the networking potential that is available upon becoming a member.

“We have already had members working with each other purely because they are mutual members of CHAA.

“As the sponsors grow there will be a greater range of products available to members. They will also be kept updated with what is happening in the industry. And of course the bigger we get, the more chance we will have of influencing government policy.

“Our key priority at the moment is to continue to grow our members. The more members we have the more benefits we can provide.”

CHAA has currently gained sponsorship from Vodafone which allows members to gain 3 months of phone service and a $50 petrol voucher. CHAA members can also pass this benefit onto customers they are doing business with.

“We also have an insurance product available that is tailor made for companies working in the automation industry. It has special rates for product liability and public liability,” Andrew says.

Similar to CEDIA, CHAA aims to provide an exhibition show, however Andrew says it is aiming to join an existing show and not provide a standalone one as CEDIA does.

“Organising a dedicated show can be a nightmare and can be an expensive, financial risk.

“If we decided to organise our own show, but didn’t manage to get the public’s interest, we might as well send the industry a brochure as they would probably already know about us by that point.

“So if we tag onto something like The Home Show, that would probably be more beneficial to us at this stage. There are several options for us at the moment but we just need to decide which one is the best for automation.”

Contact:

www.chaa.asn.au