Did you know that manufacturers in our industry regularly ask us for help!

I bet you did not know this, or never even thought about it. But, it is very true. Major manufacturers in the Audio/Video, Car Audio, Home Control (aka Home Automation), Home Theater, and Home Lighting & Shades industries routinely come to us for help. You see, they know us and our reputation for great work and really caring about the products we sell. So on a regular basis one or more of our guys will be asked by a manufacturer to help them with an upcoming product.

• Sometimes it is a major speaker company that wants us to listen to a just about finished new speaker and help them voice it and help them get the sound…just right.

• Other times it will be one of those big Japanese electronics firms that will ask us to work with an upcoming series of new A/V Receivers to give them feedback on the sound or on the ease of use of their remotes and their on screen controls.

• We actually have a company within Ask The Advisors, called Guifx, that is hired by these companies all of the time to do their Graphics and Controls for touch screens and remotes. In fact there are some products out there labeled Guifx inside.

• Several Car Audio companies have had us test new speakers and amps before they are ready to go to market.

This is just a partial list of the things we do all of the time…and believe me, the list goes on and on.

What is the point of all of this you might be asking yourself? Here it is…if you want advice on your next A/V product, or Car System, or Security System…perhaps you might want to come in and ask us. After all, the manufacturers whose products you might be trying to decide between, might have already asked us.

Oh yeah, if you really want to have fun, run over to the neighborhood “Big Box Store” and ask the salespeople there when was the last time a manufacturer asked them to beta test a new product or listen to a speaker that was not out yet…it will be fun to see the look on their face as they try to figure out what you are talking about.

When you need advice, come to us. It’s in our name; it’s what we’re here to do. Just Ask The Advisors!

The short answer, for all the obvious reasons, is Yes. But there are a few reasons why an iPad might not be the ideal solution for you. Let me explain…

Fingernails: Whether “real” or acrylic, they simply don’t register on the iPad’s capacitive touchscreen. (The majority of women I’ve talked to don’t like touchscreen phones for this reason.)

This technology requires direct skin contact. So unless your nails are really short, the iPad might be a poor choice for you as a home controller.

A single interface: If you have a large home and plan to have several iPads to operate everything, you may be stuck with a single interface. And if you’re in the kitchen, for example, you shouldn’t have to drill down to switch the lights on.

A single graphical user interface is stored on a central processor and is loaded by the iPads in real-time. Having a different user experience in different areas of the home simply isn’t possible with many systems.

The docking: The iPad docks in portrait mode. So, if the user interface is in landscape mode, you’ll be looking at it sideways when it’s docked, unless you undock the iPad and hold it in your hands.

The user interface can be designed to be oriented in portrait, but if you also have dedicated touchscreens in your system, you’ll then have two user experiences rather than one.

Connect time: Home control on an iPad will run just like any other iPad app. That means it takes time to launch. This could be frustrating when you want to perform simple tasks. You could leave the home control application open all the time, but with 150,000 apps, books, web browsing, email, and more, it will be tempting to close it.

The iPad doesn’t support multi-tasking, which would allow it to run more than one app at a time. So not only would you need to relaunch home control simply to adjust the lights, you’d need to quit your high-scoring game of Tap Tap Revenge to do so.

The iPad will prove to be an amazing device capable of doing many things. Get one, download a book, and sit back in your favorite chair… but use your dedicated touchscreen controller to turn on the reading light.

Also check out DSI Entertainment System’s iPad blog

Ask Morgan About Graphical User Interfaces

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Light control is the ability to adjust the amount of daylight and electric light in a room or throughout your whole home. With Lutron, you can adjust the amount of daylight with electronically controlled shades and drapes, electric lights with dimmers and switches. And you can conveniently control it all with keypads, sensors, and other light control devices to create the perfect balance of daylight and electric light to suit your lifestyle.

What are the benefits?

Having the ability to create a range of light levels throughout your home, rather than simply turning your lights full on, adds convenience, creates ambiance, adds a “wow” factor, and saves energy.

Benefits of Integrating Radio RA2:

Add Convenience To Your Daily Life.

You’ll have the right light when you need it, where you want it to create just the right mood or ambiance.

You’ll find there is more to lighting than simply on and off to add “wow” to your home.

You’ll be able to create lighting scenes for a specific activity, such as entertaining friends or watching a movie in your media room.

Save energy when you dim a standard halogen or incandescent light bulb by 25%. On average you’ll save about 20% of your energy consumption. Dim more, and you’ll save even more. You’ll also extend the life of your light bulbs.

You can try out an Interactive light control demo from Lutron here.

Don’t forget…. Motorized Window Shades help save energy, too. We will discuss that in a later article.

Ask Dan About Radio RA2

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The new construction housing market has slowed. Remodels and retrofit projects are still vibrant. Green is the ultimate buzz word.

The concept of this project was to create a home theater in combination with a green component, the choice of which was solar panels. The power developed by the panels would more than offset the usage of the theater. We chose to use four Sharp 175 watts panels. These produce 700 watts per hour, which was tied into the main panel of the house. No battery is required because the entire house draws off the solar panel not just the theater system. Each geographic area gets varying amounts of usable sunlight. (Please Note: there is a map with usable hours of sunlight for every US city location is in this binder.)

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The theater consists of the following items;
a front projector, a 100 inch screen, six speakers including a subwoofer, a blu-ray player, an AV receiver, a green power conditioner, a universal remote control, an Ipod dock, HDMI cables, and two rows of theater chairs to accommodate six people. We chose to use a green power conditioner that turns off all items that would normally draw power in a standby configuration thereby conserving energy. The leather seats were made with a unique method that does not require the use of chromium in the tanning process. This is the “green element” of the seating.

The solar panels can produce approximately 22,000 watts weekly. (700watts per hour X 4.5 usable hours X 7 days in a week) Based on the combined power consumption of the theater, a family could enjoy 16 hours per week without using any electrical power from the grid. Any less viewing would send power back to the grid and diminish the accumulated usage of the entire house for that month.

An added benefit is the federal tax credit. Currently 30% of the price of the solar panels, inverter, roof rack, cabling, and installation earn the homeowner a deduction of 30% from their federal tax obligation. In this case the solar system priced at $5,880 including installation, which entitles the homeowners to a tax credit of $1,764.

The retail price of the theater components including the seating is $21702. A eight percent discount was offered to the buyer. The price of the gear was $19,995. Installation of the theatre was $3,000. The construction of the riser and carpet was $780. The total price the package installed was $29, 575 before the tax credit.

Please follow the link below to discover additional local rebate and incentives information for virtually all communities in North America:

http://www.dsireusa.org/index.cfm?EE=0&RE=1

Thank You,

Home Theater Specialists of America

Check out this video of the complete build.

* For more information on the Guiltless Green Home Theater, go to htsa.com.
* Article courtesy of HE Magazine

Ask Wayne About Incorporating Solar Energy

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