We carry a line of IP Cameras made by Honeywell. These cameras allow you be anywhere and be able to look in on the cameras via your phone, or computer.
Not only can you look at the camera but you can move it around up and down and right and left.
Pick a spot in the viewing area and everytime something or someone moves through the area the camera will text you a 10sec video clip to your phone.
click the link below for more information on the cameras.
How many times have you just sat down and wished that you had turned out that one light in the other bedroom. Those days are at an end. It used to be that the systems that controlled the lights were complicated and expensive and usually it wasn’t worth it. We will be going to a lutron trainging class tomorrow in hopes of moving the company more towards being able to offer all levels of the lutron controls.
Radio RA2 is the first system that we will be working with. This system allows homeowners to use exsiting wiring in thier home for their systems. If you have ever had electronics installed in your home this is not always the case.
here are the key benefits:
The system allows to set up many different settings that will automaticlly create energy savings in your home. For instance you can set you lights at 80% which will save energy right off the bat.
you can install sensors that will turn off the lights if no one is the room so that you dont even have to worry about turning the lights off.
The system will also allow you to control light levels in specific rooms as well as be able to raise and lower shades. This feature is great at night when you want to make sure all the lights are off in the house and that your outside lights are on.
When you pull into the driveway or down the road you can press the visor button. You can have a preset scene that will turn on once you press that button, so there is no more coming home in the dark.
All of it can be controlled from an iphone or ipod too which means no matter where you are you have control.
All of this can easily be installed and operated in a matter of a day or two. I will post more once we go to the trainging.
When you buy a TV and put it in you expect everything to be pretty much setup for the best watching setup possible. Unfortunatly todays tv manufactures care only enough about the picture settings to make the defaults standout at the store. So when you are standing there looking at all the pretty pictures that one with the extra bright picture and the sparkly edges gets your attention and you take it home with you. It is not unlike the cute puppy with the waggly tail.
Once you have it home and its away from all those other TVs you might realize that the picture is sometimes washed out, and often times has a hint or more of orange and blue. These are the same settings that made it stand out but now its time to make those go away and get the picture to realistic color levels.
Go into your settings and take the brightness all the way down. If you have to you can leave it a few numbers above O but trust me its going to look better.
In most tv settings the contrast and sharpness are set way to high. you are going to need to get into the settings menu and look for advanced settings. to get there alot of TV manufactures require you to select movie or custom for the viewing setup.
now see if you can find a gray scale or color bars with gray scale. if you can you can do this yourself. if you cant then its time to call a professional.
now that you have found the color bars and gray scale you want to get the black and white bars and both ends to blend with the respective back ground and the rest of the scale you want to be variations of gray. in other words you want a black and white and everything in between. adjust the contrast and sharpness until you get there.
To get the colors right you are going to again want to look in the color menu until you can find the settings that allow you individualize the colors on your screen. again this is not possible on all TVs. This maybe another area that you have to call the professionals in.
if you have it what you want is to be able to get the right colors to match on the color bar. to do this you will want to start with blue, which is usually the color that is most out of whack. using the color bar in the blue color mode, you will want to adjust the amount of blue until the bars blend with the back ground. move it up and down and you will see what i am talking about. do this with every color. once you have done this you will see a big difference in the colors. this is the way the images are supposed to look.
another setting that is rarely ever turned on is the auto motion plus. you will again have to go into the settings and look for this. Once you find it turn it on. If you have a TV with 120hz or above this should be an option somewhere in your settings that will improve your picture quality.
If something looks off to you its not the end of the world this is all in the eye of the beholder. You can always go back to a preset mode or just restore the defaults and start over. I encourage you to give it a try though it will make the picture viewing experience much better once you get the settings right. The other thing to consider is that you need to let your TV warm up for awhile and you need need to put a few hours of viewing into it before you try adjusting the settings.
Its coming and lets face it you dont want to be the guy with the lame tube TV and no surround sound. The Super Bowl and for that matter all great TV watching events are now filmed with the idea that you will be watching them in 1080p and 5.1 or 7.1 sound.
The first thing is to pick out a TV, you need to first figure out the size that you want. Which is really dependent on the amount of money and space that you have. Sure Vizio makes a 75″ tv for $20 but you get what you pay for. Scale down to a 46″ or 40″ made by a reputable company like samsung or panasonic. The most important thing in a TV is resolution and refresh rate. Now a days its hard to get a TV thats not 1080p but they are out there. If you are getting anything 32″ and under 1080p vs. 720p doesnt matter your eye cant tell the difference. Over 40″ go with 1080p. The refresh rate will definitely make a big difference too. If you can swing it go for 240hz if not make sure you are at least above 120hz. If you want the best you will want 1080p at 240hz some manufactures are coming out with 480hz real soon, probably at about the time i hit publish on this post.
Once you have the TV you are going to want to mount it on the wall and have some professionals (not the geek squad) run all the wiring that you will need back to a receiver. Which is what will have your cable/sat box and bluray player hooked into it.
To get an “ideal” surround sound setup there are a lot of formulas that need to be put into place. A quick way to calculate speaker locations is to draw a right angle triangle. the tip of the triangle is where the viewer sits. the 45 degree angle is where you will want the right front speaker. then flip the triangle and thats where you want the front left. The center is the 90 degree angle. this is ideal and cant always be place there. the rears you want to flank the viewer as best as possbile. the important thing in setting up speakers is that you want them at seated ear level. I cant tell you how many times i come into someones house and they have their speakers sitting behind a chair on the floor.
There are many options, for speakers and a lot of it depends on the room and what is possible. In wall speakers are y favorite but not always that easy to get into proper placement.
In ceiling speakers are great if you have easy attic access the key is to make sure you have speakers that are designed for home theater use and not room audio.
Bookshelf and tower speakers are good too but they are a big enemy to the designers of the house.
So before the big game gets here plan now and get some good speakers and great tv put into your house so you can enjoy the game the way it was meant to be. Call the professionals and get things put in correctly. When you have professionals put in a system for you, you should expect to have all wires hidden and have a remote that easily controls the system. Do not settle for anything but the best when you have your system install for you.
I just got my first order of sonos equipment in today. I had to get an opening order so I had a full selection to play with. In my house I have a few rooms of whole house audio and a home theater.
I have been wanting to add audio to my master but have just not go around to it. So i decided to add sonos in there. I put one of the S5 units in there. It is a stand alone unit, kind of like a bose wave radio in size but way better in quality. I was very scepticle of sonos at first. I have a customer that specifically asked for it, so I did some research and got the dealership. I was blown away by the quality of the S5. For such a small unit it was as good as my episode 300 speakers that i have in the kitchen, which is good enough for the master.
Sonos S5 controller
What I was most impressed with is that counting the time that I helped the Fedex man bring the boxes in, it took me about 30mins to be up and playing music in my room. What is really cool is that while laying in bed my wife can select and play music from our library and from internet radio stations on her Itouch. My daughter also some times like to play back in our room and from my computer I can turn music on for her and even control the volume. I can also see volume levels so if things get out of control I can turn down the volume from my computer or from my handheld controller or from my droid (yes there is an app for the droid too).
Here is what I suggest, if you are in greensboro or the surrounding area if you have a home theater, whole house audio or just a simple boom box get with me and I will give you a loaner to try out. I promise that in no time you will have a great sounding system and even better you will have a huge music selection.
Eyes & Ears, Sound and Security, Inc. is entering the blog world. We are hoping to be able to offer quick but helpful blogs on various technical topics that you as the customer might be interested in.
To start things off I would like to talk about home theaters in Greensboro. We have installed quite a few different types of home theaters for customers over the years. It used to be that everyone would get a separate room dedicated for home theater use. Those days are over, now the living room and bonus room is the place of the home theater. I think there are two reasons. The first is the economy, everyone doesn’t have money to pour into a room that they wont use every day. The second is the technology is becoming more accepted and understood.
We now can stream music, movies, photos, and Internet content straight to our living room. So why not have the best sounding speakers and the best video display right in the living room? I think that being able to recline on the couch and watch a movie with great sound and video is the way to go.
For the past year or so we have been installing home theaters in Greensboro and the surrounding area that fit well into living rooms and also that are fair on the budget. With have become experts in hiding speakers and subwoofers in tight spots. We are also masters in getting wires in places that seem impossible.
Give us a call today (336.669.8173) so we can meet with you to find the right fit for your home theater needs. Be sure to take a look at our website for more of we offer.