Cleveland - Yesterday I pointed you to some photos of well designed home theater installations for inspiration. Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Whether you're considering a home theater, a distributed audio system or a home with a control system for your lighting, security and climate, etc. you'll find ideas galore here. The annual Electronic House Homes Of The Year Awards (2013) have been announced.
Here you'll find in depth looks at a fully automated 42,000 square foot home, an underground 200+ inch home theater screen, and a 24 zone distributed audio system, along with much more. There's also awards per budget that'll give you an idea of what you can expect for the money you plan on investing.
We at K+ Integration Systems can create something just like this for you. Note to self. I need to enter our company in this competition next year. We can hold our own with the best.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - It's always ok to dream, to dream big. Even if you can't reach that lofty dream, aiming high creates good results.
Have you been thinking about building a home theater? Maybe in that unused portion of the basement? Or the bonus room you'd told the family would one day be a theater? Looking at photos of great home theater design always helps serve as inspiration and gets you to dreaming. We at K+ Integration Systems can make it a reality.
Cleveland - I swear to God I've heard it before. Someone is going to buy a projector to create a big screen home theater and they consider using a blank wall or even a bed sheet as the screen. They're remembering their youth when someone in the family or neighborhood showed Super 8 home movies and improvised using the sheet as the screen.
While the screen is not as important as the projector it is critical in creating a good image. There are factors that need to be considered. What is the lumen rating of the projector and is there are any ambient light issues in the room the theater is to be in? The answers to those questions helps you narrow down the type of screen you'll need.
Screen construction is much more complex than a white smooth surface. Sometimes it's not even white. There are also particles of material that are used to brighen the picture.
Actually there is paint you can buy that's designed to project an image onto. And while it's an inexpensive, if you're buying a $5,000 plus projector it's hardly the way to go.
Here's a new story from CNET, The big picture: Projection screen basics, that explains what you should be looking for when in the market for a screen. A better idea is to hire someone like me and K+ Integration Systems to design a home theater for you. We'll get the screen right along with every other detail from major to minor.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Yesterday I wrote about installing a NAS drive to your home entertainment system, Adding a NAS device to your computer creates a digital library of entertainment. It seems a number of my readers were either interested in getting one or already employ the device. Personally, I can't think of a reason to use one on my system.
Ok, you'd use a NAS drive to stream some sort of content to internet-enabled devices. The content could include music files, any sort of video and photos. The devices would be smart phones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs.
Let's take my collection of mp3s. I have an external hard drive attached to my MAC which contains over 500 gigs of music. There's a dupicate hard drive stored in my closet as back up. I also have about 20,000 songs on the internal MAC hard drive. Those 20,000 songs are loaded into iTunes and, since I subscribe to iTunes Match, also reside in iCloud. The MAC soundcard is connected to my distributed audio system just as you would a CD player. If I want to play any one of those 20,000 songs I can trigger it from iTunes on the MAC or using the Apple Remote app on my iPhone or iPad. That means I can choose songs from anywhere in the house or on my gazebo.
That external hard drive with over 500 gigs of music has been set up for another iTunes library. There's an option in iTunes that allows you to set up a second iTunes that won't import the songs onto the internal hard drive. If I want to listen to any of those songs I open that itunes library and control it just the same as the iTunes I described previously.
Quite frankly, I rarely listen to music off of either of my iTunes libraries, opting instead to stream music from Spotify. Spotify gives me the option of adding any mp3 files of my own into its app so I have those 20,000 songs on the MAC hard drive loaded. The 500 gigs of music is dwarfed by what's available on Spotify. And I can control it anywhere in the house using a third party app called "Remoteless".
I don't store any videos. I don't see the point of collecting movies. They're not like music which is just as rewarding with repeated lsitenings. Once you see most movies there's no reason to watch them again. And on that rare occasion you can rent it.
The only reason I can see for using a NAS is if I were rip some of my 8,000 CDs onto it without any compression. That way I'd have the convenience of digital without a loss of sound quality. That's a lot of work when I can just as easily pull a CD from my library and play it throughout my house.
There's also Apple Airplay which allows me to stream any content from my MAC, iPhone or iPad onto my home theater system. This is simply achieved by using the $99 Apple TV.
So you tell me. Why would I need a NAS? Here's the only NAZZ I need.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Here in Cleveland and much of the northeast and midwest it's hard to imagine spending a great deal of time outdoors much less watch a movie outside with the cool spring we're having. A look at the ten day forecast does not warm me up either.
In fact, outdoor home theaters aren't too common around these parts regardless. But if you can create an amazing outdoor kitchen that's only used a little more than half the year why not add a home theater to your backyard living quarters.
I love the whole concept of outdoor living in the summer. I have my gazebo which becomes the focal point of my house in warm weather. Down south they pack it up and go inside to the air conditioning in the summer. It's too darn hot. Isn't that a crazy concept? We cherish the heat after cold winter months. Home theater al fresco is a treat.
It's not too difficult to set up such an outdoor surround system either, especially with the hugely popular soundbar which makes wiring and placement of speakers much simpler. The toughest thing will be deciding where to put the screen.
Here's a pictorial from the San Fransisco Gate which shows how one family created an outdoor home theater in a relatively small garden of a backyard, Creating an outdoor home theater. The beauty here in Cleveland is that our backyards are much larger than in the big city.
Designing the correct outdoor theater is trickier than indoors. It's much more than four walls. In fact, there's usually no walls outside. So when youre ready to add outdoor movies to the outdoor living room give K+ Integration Systems and me a call.
If you have any questions or if I may be of service eamil me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - It seems I'm far from the only one who's fed up with the dated AV receiver. The bloated center piece to your home theater is quite laughable at this point.
Myself and others have been writing about the problem over the past few months. Now Electronic House's Grant Clauser adds his voice to the chorus, 8 Things Most Receivers Don’t Need (and why I’m wrong about most of them). Clauser guts the thing more than I have but covers his butt by stating he may be wrong. The AM/FM tuner may be superfluous with internet radio. Still, there's those live local sporting events that sometimes get blacked out on the net. And the sound of a local FM signal is probably better than the crowded bandwidth stream.
It's all good though. There's something afoot. If this many people are complaining, surely the manufacturers are hard at work in their labs creating the AV receiver for the 21st century. Either that or they'll be caught sleeping while an upstart grabs the brass ring.
The back of a current AV receiver. Thanks to HDMI they are looking a little less intimidating.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Lifehacker just published a terrific article on how to build a home theater. It's not like the ones we build at K+ Integration Systems which typically involve an architect, builder and interior designer. This is a guide for someone who just wants to set up a surround system in an existing room.
The story, How to Build Your First Home Theater From Nothing, breaks down the components needed and then goes into detail on what you should be looking for in your situation. That could mean staying in budget or choosing the right size screen and speakers for the space.
A word of caution though. Even with the great step-by-step Lifehacker provides, the hook up and calibration is tricky. There are, sadly, countless DIY home theater set ups out there which perform poorly. They may have speaker wires crossed causing out of phase sound. It could be they really don't have a high definition picture on their screen due to improper settings in the equipment.
A home theater isnt cheap, even if it's done by yourself. If it's not working properly it becomes a waste of money. So if you don't think you can handle it let me know.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - There's certain remodel projects in a home that garner more attention and help when it comes time to sell. Bathrooms and kitchens top that list. But does a home theater add value to your home?
Of course, if there's rooms or systems that need attention then those should take precedence. But if you're wondering if a home theater is a good investment, plenty say yes. When I'm searching for articles about home theater I always come across online real estate listings that boast of a home theater.
That's not to mention the other values of a home theater. For one, it becomes a reason to gather the family. And there's nothing more important than that.
So let K+ Integration systems and me design and build you one. It'll be money well spent.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Last year Dolby introduced a new surround system for the commercial digital cinema market called Atmos. It allows for sending discreet sounds to 64 individual speakers.
Now before you think you have to install 64 speakers in your living room to recreate Atmos, which has been used in over 30 US releases thus far, the fact is that it can be easily scaled down. Atmos can even work on a soundbar, presenting a much richer and detailed soundtrack.
So far Dolby isn't commenting on the possibility of bringing the technology to the home theater market. Here's the story from Twice, Dolby Atmos Coming Soon To A Home Theater?.
If you have a question or if I may be of service email me at radiohannibal@gmail.com
Cleveland - Last week Lifehacker asked its readers to submit their best home theater hacks. That is, unorthodox ways people have improved a home theater. It could be cost cutting, innovative design or tweaking a piece of gear. Hacker Challenge: Hack Your Home Theater
They announced the winners today. Included are a way to turn off sports commentators with a switch, using a laptop fan to vent an equipment cabinet, turning an old dresser into an entertainment center, and enabling your projector to be able to move to closer or farther from the screen on rails.
