Andy Kinghan is the go-to guy when you want a “smart home” that takes advantage of the latest technology in audio, video, networking, security, lighting and even automatic window shades.
Andy Kinghan is the go-to guy when you want a “smart home” that takes advantage of the latest technology in audio, video, networking, security, lighting and even automatic window shades. His jobs have included setting up giant theaters for multi-million-dollar mansions, live sound reinforcement for auditoriums, and smaller projects like lighting and remote security for individual homes and stores.
“I’ve never wanted for work,” he says. The calls can come from a former client upgrading that same home that Kinghan worked on decades ago or a new client who got his name through the grapevine.
BIG PROJECTS: He moved to Hawai‘i in 2013 for a job at the former Kaiser Estate in Hawai‘i Kai. He and a crew spent several months pulling 40,000 feet of wire from giant thousand-foot spools to various locations on the estate and installing equipment.
“Wiring for lighting, audio, video, network connections – everything,” he says, plus computer coding for the system.
That project had included a $200,000 aquarium behind the bar, but the owner instead settled on four large TV monitors stacked two by two that could show either four video feeds or a single big one.
Soon after, Kinghan set up a million-dollar home theatre on Hawai‘i Loa Ridge that included high-end Steinway speakers and amps as well as individual controls for the seats.
He worked on a live sound reinforcement system for shows at the Four Seasons Resort O‘ahu at Ko Olina and in a past life helped do live sound for a vast range of performances – from San Francisco 49ers football games to Luciano Pavarotti and Herman’s Hermits.
BEGINNINGS: Kinghan grew up in California and Nevada. When he was 5, his father gave him a Phantom Rolls Royce radio. “I immediately wanted to open it up, and I broke it,” he says.
His love of playing guitar and other instruments helped him make friends and become an audio expert. But playing in a garage band wasn’t a long-term career, so he joined the Navy, got an electronics degree and became a sonar tech. He says he solved his final exam problem in seconds – so fast that some exam supervisors thought he cheated.
Kinghan’s first job after the Navy was with International Game Technologies out of Reno. A new technology back then was video gambling machines – video keno, video poker and video slots. “They’d call me to come in and validate a machine. That it hasn’t been tampered with,” he says.
The “first coolest thing” he ever did was installing a powerful pan-and-tilt camera on a cabin’s giant dome in Tahoe. From Dallas, the cabin owner could “show the boys in Dallas where he lived and just see what was going on” all the way across Lake Tahoe. The house also had electronic door locks that could be opened or closed remotely if a contractor needed entry.
LEARNING THE TRADE: He honed many of his skills while working on estates and pricey condos in the San Francisco Bay Area for VIA International Systems, a high-end concierge AV company where he filled just about every role at one time or another: programmer, techie, engineer, project manager and salesman.
But sales was not his first choice. Kinghan told his boss: “I prefer to bring things to life. I like getting my hands dirty, rolling up my sleeves.”
THE ISLANDS CALL: He had let VIA International know he was interested in moving to Hawai‘i, and the call came when he was leaving the St. Regis hotel in San Francisco after working on former Vice President Al Gore’s penthouse condo. The company needed an expert on O‘ahu for the former Kaiser Estate job, so he sold almost everything he owned and moved.
SOLUTIONS: His company’s philosophy is, “There’s never a problem; there’s always a solution.”
Another guiding principle: “Always do the right thing,” he says.
That’s especially important on O‘ahu. “It’s a small island, and everybody knows everybody,” Kinghan says. “Everything gets around real quick … whether you’re a dirtbag contractor or somebody who means what they say and says what they mean.”
OUTSIDE HIS COMFORT ZONE: Once, he was asked to give a presentation on the future of home automation to a large convention of architects in Los Angeles in 1994. He was nervous but pulled it off. “There isn’t anything we can’t control,” he told them.
“They loved it though they didn’t understand it then. It was so new.”
Today, you can remotely turn on items at your house: lights, A/C, even your hot tub. Or Kinghan can set the system to turn the devices on automatically when your phone is a specific distance away. The possibilities are almost endless.
MENTORS AND INSPIRATION: “I’ve always had really awesome people in the right place at the right time,” Kinghan says. “I’ve had these blessings of angels and mentors.”
Then he adds, “Being grateful: That’s what inspires me – just being grateful [for] where I live and who I’ve got to love.”
