People often ask us "Can you hook up our home electronics so we can operate it from our iPad?" The easy answer is "Absolutely!" While you're at it, what you really need to do is envision how your 21st century dream home or corporate office would function and, as a custom A/V integrator, let us help you make that a reality. With that in mind I thought I'd bring you an EXTREME example to demonstrate what custom integrators can do!
GE, a global leader in energy research and technology, opened its new $40 million, 200,000 square foot Markham, Ontario Grid IQ™ Global Innovation Center dedicated to promoting its next-generation energy management grid. To help bring the new center to life in the most engaging, customer-friendly way possible, GE partnered with Advanced, Canada’s leading A/V integrator, to envision, design and install an integrated audio-video and IT solution that encompasses 55 rooms including a Customer Experience Center that features a jaw-dropping 58-foot Prysm LPD video wall.
Advanced utilized Prysm's video wall technology along with several wall-mounted touchscreens to enable customers to explore GE’s energy technologies firsthand and provide them with ways to discover solutions to improve and enhance their energy grids.
In fact, it's the world’s largest curved Prysm video wall, measuring 58 feet wide by 7 feet tall using 175 individual tiles with the thinnest seams currently possible. Video processing is provided by the latest Extron Quantum™ Elite processor and a professional grade multi-zone audio system was installed to complete the media experience. The entire Customer Experience Center features Crestron automation and can be controlled through an iPad.
Acadian Home Theater is a Crestron dealer and we have automated many area homes with Crestron products and innovation. Crestron has long been a leader in the "touchscreen control" of complex systems. So a home can be programmed to have the HVAC system begin warming the bathroom 15 minutes before you normally awake, have the lights slowly fade brighter so your eyes can adjust and the flatscreen in your exercise room turn on and tuned to your favorite morning news program.
And, yes, if you want to override your regular settings, you can always operate it with your iPad!
by Bryan Naquin. Follow Bryan on Twitter @ACIexperts. And you can always contact him at 225.906.2589 or by email at
When MLB all-star Adrian Gonzalez, was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Boston Red Sox, Gonzalez and his family purchased a new home on the opposite coast, nearly 3,000 miles away.
He wanted to include in his new home some of the best features he came to enjoy in his current residence. In 2010, Gonzalez’ San Diego home had been equipped with an Apple-based Savant home control system, relying on Savant apps on iPads and iPhones to command the system. The integrator included a five-screen home theater with four built-in iPads in a counter in the rear to surf the web or play games.
Fortunately, the Gonzalezes wanted the same Savant control system in their new home. So his integrator just had to duplicate some of its original efforts into the new home. Only this time, the company would need to fly their crew to the other side of the US and ship everything needed for the job (including tools) ahead of them.
As it turns out, it wasn't until after construction on the home was completed, that the Red Sox traded Gonzalez back to the West Coast to the Los Angeles Dodgers, so he’ll be able to use the Savant system to keep tabs remotely on his Boston home … before he presumably puts the home on the market.
Two industry magazines featured Gonzalez' Boston home each of which included a slideshow of the results. Here's a link to one such slideshow illustrating the finished product. You might want to find out more about what he incorporated into his home. Click here to read an article about how it all came together.
If you tour a lot of homes for sale, it soon becomes clear what amenities one expects to find in great homes, though perhaps not considered to be in the "high-end" range.
You might expect, for example, triple-crown moulding, granite counter-tops, stainless appliances and extra-large walk-in closets. In terms of electronics, you might look for flatscreen TVs, built-in speakers (both indoor and out) or even a security system with closed circuit cameras.
But consider what your reaction to the home is when you find a dedicated media room or even a home theater? Or perhaps you learn the home features fully-distributed audio and video to all the rooms in the house. How does that affect the home's desirability factor? Then again, what if you learned the home is programmed to operate from a tablet or remotely from your smart phone?--adjust the temperature, check the security cameras, or turn lights on or off? Wouldn't any of these amenities create the sort of "wow" factor that tells you THIS home seller has one great home!?
Distinctive home electronic systems not only put the "style" in your lifestyle but could be the very thing that helps your own home outclass the others on the market when its time to sell.
Jerry Del Colliano write in hometheaterreview.com:
Nothing helps "get you home" from your day in the trenches better than by filling your home with the music you love. But whether you're in an apartment or even a dorm room, you need portability while getting major impact from a simple system.
For simplified sound with robust tones, we want to recommend to you the SoundLink by Bose. This little beauty is a mobile speaker which delivers amazing sound quality while weighing in at a mere 2.9 lbs! Not even the size of a textbook, SoundLink is Bluetooth compatible meaning you can wirelessly connect to this handy delivery system from your phone, computer, tablet or other Bluetooth device from up to 30 feet away! Cnet.com calls it "the best portable Bluetooth speaker on the market." Click here to see how they get such LOUD, distortion-free sound in such a small package!
Open the cover to turn it on and continue folding it back to serve as its own stand. And because its battery holds a charge up to 8 hours, you can fold it up and carry it with you to enjoy outdoors as well! For $299.95 you get the fantastic technology you expect from a Bose product. Click here for a one-minute video to see it for yourself. If you order from us, you save on the shipping charges plus get local, dealer support for it and all your Bose products or upgrades.
Our next recommendation from Bose is a beefy package for the apartment when you're looking to have a complete entertainment center that you can handily take with you later. Its the Bose VideoWave Entertainment System. It begins with a 46-inch flatscreen HD TV. What's truly incredible about this TV is that it delivers cinematic sound while it eliminates the need for extra speakers. The speakers are BUILT-IN BEHIND the screen! The Bose technology fills the room throwing sound more deftly than a ventriloquist. Its practically eery to have sound coming at you even from behind! So your "surround sound system" is compressed right into the flatscreen. Watching the big game or your favorite movies doesn't get more exhilarating! Click here for a look "under the hood."
Now to that, add your portable music via the dock included in the package to launch from your iPod or iPhone. That wrap-around sound is now bathing your home in your favorite tunes. So when its time to have the friends over, you're ready! And what a great time awaits when you bring out your Xbox or Wii. Check out this review of a VideoWave set up in an apartment.
“Invisible” speakers seem almost impossible to grasp unless you’ve seen them in action! Imagine standing right in front of a wall speaker seeing nothing but a drywall surface yet with your favorite music emanating from that very surface.
Yes, they do exist and audio-video integrators have been using them since the 1990’s. Loved by architects and interior designers,
these speakers are ideal for the main gathering space in your home because their appearance (which doesn’t exist) doesn’t interfere in any way with the décor or design of the room. But they are not as popular as you might think…for two good reasons.
First, they’re not inexpensive. Second, while they sound good, they don’t sound as impressive as similarly-priced flush-mounted speakers. That’s why we carry Live-Wall Speakers. These speakers produce convincing soundstage with plenty of nuance and detail. Everything is about enjoying the end-result and these speakers were engineered to produce the kind of resilient sound we expect from the systems we install.
Most previous invisible speakers suffer from a somewhat veiled sound that didn't have extended high or low frequency response. Manufacturers would try to compensate for this by using special equalizers that added to cost and complexity, and only partially solved the problem. Live-Wall not only clears that hurdle but creates such a broad and even sound dispersion that it is difficult to determine audibly just where in the wall the sound is centered!
