If integrators are seeking out an experienced vendor partner to boost their game in the growing shade control category, it’s tough to top the history that Draper brings to its product lineup. The nearly 120-year-old Spiceland, Ind., company underscores the heritage and innovation with behind its latest Draper@Home shade solutions for the CEDIA channel.

“It is not a new product for us,” Jim Hoodlebrink, director, AV Distribution at Draper, tells CE Pro. “Draper has been doing window shades since 1902, and it’s been our primary product line throughout all these years.”

However, Hoodlebrink adds, a good portion of that business has been on the commercial side and although more custom integrators have gotten into that market (or “resimercial”) in recent years, Draper saw the increasing residential opportunity.

Toward that end, Draper@Home shade models, facilitated by Somfy motor and control technology with wide-ranging third-party integration capabilities, hit on all the important aspects and potential benefits of motorized shade control for integrators and their customers when it comes to design and installation features.

Unique Products Give Draper Dealers Installation Flexibility

Draper enables dealers to deliver solutions that address every area homeowners would want covered by motorized (or manual in some cases) shade window treatments, and even some places they – and the integrator – may not have considered before.

“We can get into skylight shades and motorized bottom-up shades, and unique products that maybe a lot of people don’t know about,” Hoodlebrink notes.

“But we are a full-service product line, so we carry everything in motorization – battery-operated, low-voltage motors, standard high-voltage motors, different control applications, everything …. whatever people need, we have it covered.”

Meanwhile, shades is just one category Draper has history developing and engineering solutions. The company will be at InfoComm this month, and continues to highlight commercial solutions like projection screen and direct-view LED display mounts (and new Acumen and Foundation lines, respectively), projector lifts and more to arm integrators with ways to succeed in addressing commercial and resimercial projects – and with Draper@Home, perhaps see more market clientele crossover the other way too from pro AV dealers doing resi work.

It all adds up to lots of flexibility no matter the job.

“[Custom integrators] may have to step in and do commercial applications like a restaurant or even into larger applications for whole-building operation systems,” Hoodlebrink says. “Draper certainly has lived on that side of the world and has been on the home side as well – but those products can carry into either side.

“People don’t realize maybe that we do the battery-operated systems, as well as the low-voltage systems, as well as the manual shades and even the high-voltage products – a house can have every one of those products … so you can mix and match.”

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