Solutions for Designers: What About That TV?

A great home interior always maintains a consistent scheme throughout.  Architects and designers work closely to create the kind of ambience the homeowner client desires. Sometimes, though, introducing technology into a room can interfere with that ambience...but it doesn't have to!  Certainly not when you have experienced technology experts who keep "design magic" on hand for just such an occasion!

Since an "Old World" look is so popular with finer homes, we thought we'd demonstrate a problem and suggest some solutions.

Problem. The home below has a certain look its trying to achieve.  With the furniture removed, its easier to see the problem:

That TV!  What's that doing in a room like this?  Well, truth be told, it probably needs to be there as a main place for family gatherings.  But we would suggest hiding it exactly where it is now!  We'll show you how a little further in this article.  You might also notice the speakers to either side (visible just beyond the columns) and another center speaker right above that flatscreen?  Painting the grills to match the room is a great idea.  But if you want those to be impossible to see, we recommend speakers like LiveWall.  Even your painter will never know they are there!

Solution A.  Let's suppose you, your architect and your designer have collaborated on a room with the following look:

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Video Projection Still a Top Option

Video projection technology has really come into its own over these past several years.  TV screen sizes have grown to 80 inches and larger but so have their prices.  More often than not, the choice for home theaters is still video projection.  And with the picture quality so amazing, why not?

But lets consider the homeowner who decides he wants to retrofit his existing home with large-screen format TV viewing.  A typical floor plan doesn't include a spacious but windowless room which could accommodate a home theater.  So the homeowner wants to use their family room for large-format TV viewing.  In that case, the most typical set-up will be installing a drop-down projection screen.  You'll have a few factors to consider in making your choice of projectors and screens.  Here's where you need your professional A/V installer on-board.

Briefly, factors to consider are: (1) screen placement in relation to seating; (2) screen size in relation to room dimensions; and (3) the amount of both fixed and ambient lighting which might reduce picture clarity.  There are other factors, to be sure, not the least of which will be the kind of sound dynamics the homeowner wants to achieve.  But for this discussion, we're just considering the viewing aspect.

The first two factors are simply a matter of ratios and proportions.  But the third factor--balancing the brilliance of the picture with existing room lighting--is the main dance.  The balance to strike is between a projector with proper luminosity and a screen with the optimum reflection surface.

Check out the photo included here comparing two screens in action.  You'll notice this demonstration includes a renegade light source bleeding onto the left side of the projection field.  The image on the upper screen really gets lost on that side because its reflecting that light back to the viewer.  Not so with the lower screen.  Also, its quite evident the upper screen offers less contrast overall than the lower screen.  The blacks appear more gray in the upper screen.  Lesson learned: the issue is not lamp strength of the projector but rather screen surface material.  Click here for a brief video demonstration of the difference between screen surfaces.

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2014: The Year of Home Automation?

2014 could very well be the year home automation comes into its own.

One writer in his blog listed six good reasons he believes 2014 is the break-away year for home automation.  But what impact will that have on homeowners in general?

First, the marketplace changes dramatically when people go beyond having heard of a technology to actually grasping what it is AND its benefit!  Due to mass marketing, people have seen commercials about being away on vacation and remember they didn't change their thermostat settings, so the actor in the commercial simply does so on his phone.  Or else its the one where they can't remember if they locked the house and--again--casually do so on their phone or tablet.  As a result, the public is beginning to understand that is an example of what home automation (AKA smart homes) is about.  John Q. Public, therefore, now gets both what home automation is and also why it can add security to our lives.  Smart technology is found in our phones, homes and even cars (see our post on smart car technology here!).

Second, as people are understanding the value of home automation, they realize its something they want for themselves.  Remember in the early days of the internet when travelers wanted internet access in their rooms and had to pay a small fee for it?  Hotels quickly learned they could entice guests with "free wi-fi access."  That's because they understood the value of offering that amenity to their guests.  Before you knew it, it seemed wi-fi was everywhere.

That might be just how home automation takes off.  What has been a growing technology in recent years may just about mushroom into popularity the way desktop computers gave way to laptops and tablets

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"SportsCenter" at Your Home with Savant Tiling

If you are a sports fan, having a tiling feature on your TV is truly the ultimate way to watch.  Tiling means you can send multiple video signals to a single TV.  Imagine picture in picture on steroids.  Now, Savant offers 4, 6, and 9 source versions with the release of their SmartView Tiling.  For most sports fans, I'm sure the 4 is plenty.

OK, so you’ve got your big projection or flat panel TV.  Think how cool it would be to see one big picture with 3 smaller pictures off to the side!

Yes, you might have seen that before, BUT…with the Savant app, you just touch the screen icons on your iPad.  Up pop the sources and you can choose which source goes where.  Then, if you want, you can just double tap any of them and it will fill the screen.  Or, slide a small icon to the large one and everything flips.  But the coolest part of all is tracking which video source you are listening to.  The current one playing has a little speaker icon on it. All you do is slide that across to another screen and the sound flips!  That is just so slick!  Check out a demo here on this quick video.

With SmartView Tiling, Savant is just pulling way out in front of the pack in making it simple and fun to put the best technology at your fingertips.

If you don't want to miss any of the action in America's stadiums,  fairways, courts or tracks, call us!  We can bring it all home to you!

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24/7 Access to Your Baby in NICU

Anyone who's ever had a newborn sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) knows all too well the anxiety that goes along with such an event.  For the mother in particular, her strong natural urge to bond with her baby is interrupted and limited by her baby's need for specialized medical attention.

One of the most basic desires for the mother is to be able to reassure her baby that she is not far away.  But in NICU, that can be extremely difficult to do.  She knows her baby is in a totally foreign surrounding absent of anything to remind her child of his or her mother.  Unless the hospital is equipped to house mother and child together there will be a great deal of time in which they are separated.  But perhaps technology can help!

Mommy’s Hear™ is a device designed to allow mothers to both see and speak to her baby while in NICU.  With technology borrowed from remote access security systems, this device is located right at the baby's incubator so the parents and family members can see their infant from any remote device like a smart phone or iPad.  This is especially vital in the case of long-term NICU care as with infants born prematurely, for example.

When the parents can't be at the hospital such as while caring for the baby's siblings, the family can talk to their infant at any time, night or day, via the phone or iPad--much like using Skype or FaceTime.  Telling baby "good night," singing a lullaby, or just watching baby awaken in the morning can be so reassuring to newborn and parent alike.

This ability to communicate directly is significant, as recent studies show the introduction of sounds like the mother’s voice reduces cardio-respiratory events common to premature infants.  Not only that, but it can aid in the child’s development while promoting bonding when parents can’t be at the hospital.  And should a family member be a little "under the weather," they can still see and talk to their baby without risking exposing their newborn to infection.

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