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Vampires No More? NCTA Moves to Make Cable Boxes More Energy Efficient 11/30/2011 | Leave a Comment
A few months ago in our post, “Afraid of Vampires? You Should Be. Energy Draining Appliances Could be Costing You a Fortune,” we talked about how your cable or satellite DVR set-top boxes are the most energy consuming appliance in your home. Cable boxes are basically running at full power all the time, even when switched off. Well, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), this could soon change!
The NCTA and CableLabs are forming an Energy Lab facility, which will concentrate on improving energy efficiency and promote the development, testing, and deployment of technologies that will enable users to reduce and manage energy consumption in the home. They will work on manufacturing set-top devices that have sleep capabilities that will reduce power consumption when subscribers are not watching television.
And according to the NCTA, 90% of all new set-top boxes purchased and deployed by top cable operators will meet Energy Star 3.0 energy efficiency standards for set-top boxes.
A recent article in Electronic House explains more of the details of the plans for the Energy Lab.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control, home automation systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Additional Reading:
Afraid of Vampires? You Should Be. Energy Draining Appliances Could be Costing You a Fortune
Easy Being Green: Get Out of Your Hybrid Car and Into Your Green Home
Is Violet3D the Surround Sound Wave of the Future? 11/28/2011 | Leave a Comment
Surround sound has always been a tricky technology. To be truly immersed in the surround sound experience, one has to place the speakers in specific (and strategic) spots in a room, and then position the seating in the audio sweet spot. Aside from advancements in the quality of the sound itself, this has been the status quo for years.
Enter Indian company Violet3D, with a technological innovation that’s looking to change surround sound forever. Violet has developed a wireless surround sound system that allows for speakers to be placed anywhere in the room and still deliver the surround sound experience, irrespective of where you’re sitting. In Violet’s own words, “By using omni-polar speakers, [the Violet sound system] creates unique wave-fronts – one wave-front from one direction for one channel – using ALL the available speakers.”
The range of the speakers is approximately 150 feet, and the system uses digital signal processing along with a uniquely designed amplifier to provide a high-fidelity sound and loudness from small speakers. Violet3D replaces wires of conventional home theater systems with a phase accurate and power adaptive wireless technology that beats the best cables.
So is the Violet3D system a game-changer? At close to $1,300, it’s definitely on the high end, but if more companies adapt and improve upon the basic idea, surround sound could be looking at a whole new ball game.
Have you got a Violet3D system? Let Certified Connection set it up for you!
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Have You Texted Your Grandma Today? 11/10/2011 | Leave a Comment
You’ve probably heard someone say lately, “I just can’t live without my smartphone.” According to a recent Nielsen study, that person is probably in the 25- to 35-year-old age range. People in this age range are the most dependent upon their mobile devices. Another interesting piece of information came from that study. The group adopting smartphone technology faster than any other is the 55- to 64-year-old age group.
This is exciting news because as the people in this group get older, they’ll already be familiar with smartphone technology and it can be very helpful to them. Not only are smartphones important in an emergency situation, they can play an important role in home automation, which can help a senior with decreased mobility remain independent or help another just show off for his golf buddies.
We’ve discussed in the past how many home automation systems can be controlled by an iPad, a touch screen installed in the wall, or a smartphone. Security systems, lighting, temperature, and entertainment in the home can all be controlled by the push of a button. For seniors, an Internet connection and familiarity with a smartphone would allow them to do all that from a comfortable chair, as well as set up medication reminders or other alerts. Concerned family members can set up motion detectors that will provide fall alerts or video cameras that will allow them to check on their loved one throughout the day.
Baby boomers adopting smartphone technology now is a great thing because as this group ages, home automation combined with smartphone technology will give them a greater chance of staying as independent as they’d like for as long as they’d like.
Certified Connectionis the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Bargain Hunting Isn’t Always a Bargain – Shopping Online for Electronics 10/10/2011 | Leave a Comment
It’s no secret that people bargain hunt for expensive items online. They go into retail shops, test out the item, and then go online to find a sale. This is especially true in the home automation and home theater industries. It seems like smart shopping – after all, especially in this economy, you don’t want to pay more than you have to. But what I’ve seen more and more frequently is how often people run into problems when they use this method of buying home electronics.
It sounds logical that if you need a particular model to add to your already existing entertainment system you go online to find the lowest price you can. But I’ve seen online retailers ship a different model because they don’t have the one you need in stock. Then you’re stuck trying to clear up the issue on the phone – assuming the online retailer has a good return policy. Or maybe you get help designing a complex home entertainment system and go online to purchase the components. After you have all of the random boxes piled in your living room, you have to get the system working, and complex designs require seamless communication between the components. Assuming those random boxes contain the right component models, you still might need expert help putting it together.
I like to think of myself as a solution provider rather than just a problem solver. By working with an expert from designing your system to hitting the power button on your remote, these problems can be eliminated. Working with an expert ensures that you start with a good design that meets all of your needs, and you’ll never have to worry about getting stuck with the wrong part or having a bug in your system that you just can’t work out. Bargain shopping online is tempting, but sometimes the cost savings just aren’t worth the headaches.
Certified Connectionis the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
By Eytan Vestin of Certified Connection
Can’t We All Just Get Along? Integration and Home Automation Control and Home Theater Systems 09/30/2011 | Leave a Comment
As a provider of home automation control systems and home theater solutions for commercial and residential clients, one of the largest issues we come up against is making numerous components and systems work together – integration. Ultimately, it is our job as integrators to provide the best customized solutions for our clients, making complex components, software, and systems work together harmoniously in a simple way. Each client has different needs and requirements for their specific systems, and at Certified Connection, we aim to cater to each and every client to suit their exact needs.
Customized home automation and/or home theater systems often require that we pull from the top-of-line components available in the market in order to provide the best system for each client. This means making products from manufacturers x, y, and z work together event though they may have different operating systems or software.
For example, when we work with a customer to install a home automation solution with lighting control and environmental controls, that customer wants to and should be able to access all of these controls from one device, whether it’s a universal remote, an iPad, or a smartphone device.
Manufacturers often claim that certain components will work together seamlessly or provide software or modules that are intended to allow them to work together. But in reality, and unfortunately, this may not be the case – which makes our job even more difficult.
Of course, the companies that provide specific components have proprietary systems, which is what keeps them on the cutting edge and keeps them at the front of the market. But it seems that there could be and should be some common ground from which they can work together to provide more easily integratable components and systems to benefit integrators and ultimately their customers. If a source vendor claims to have patches or modules that integrate components with another company’s components, they should be tested and tested again to make sure they truly work.
As integrators, we want to be able to provide the best products and services to our customers, giving them the best seamless, high-end systems. It would benefit everyone if source vendors could figure out a way that we could all just get along.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Additional Reading
Getting the Most Out of Your Audio/Video System
Lower Energy Costs and Increase the Value of Your Home by Making it More Energy Efficient
Home Entertainment Technology in Europe vs. the United States
