Monday, July 13, 2015

Home Theater 101 - Learning The Basics of Home Theater Systems



The idea is simple enough: A home theater provides a theater-like experience in your home. But what exactly does that entail? The quick answer is, there's no quick answer. A home theater can be as simple as a few A/V devices in your living room or as complex as a completely renovated basement designed to look like Hollywood's El Capitan Theater. At its core, a home theater system should provide a high-quality video experience and an immersive audio experience that breathe life into your favorite movies, but a number of roads can lead to that destination. This primer offers a general overview of the basic home theater ingredients--from the A/V equipment to the seating to the other room elements that can shape your perfect home theater. We've provided plenty of links, to content on our website and others, that will provide more information on each element.

Audio Video Installation in Los Angels.


Friday, July 10, 2015

Premium On-Wall TV Installation

You buy the TV. We do the labor.
Have your TV professionally installed by an experienced technician. Installations are available Monday through Saturday including evenings.

Premium On-Wall TV Installation

Have your TV professionally installed by an experienced technician with one of our affordable In-home Installation services. Installations are available Monday through Saturday and can be scheduled for the Morning, Afternoon, or Evening.

With the Premium On-Wall TV Installation plan, our installers will ensure that your TV is working, configured correctly, and mounted safely to a wall. Cabling (except for the power cord) will be concealed inside the wall.

Here is what you'll get with the Premium On-Wall TV Installation Plan:

    A pre-installation consultation with a certified installer. You'll discuss the placement of your TV; we'll even move it to another room if possible.

    Your TV will be mounted to a wall and connected to 4 other audio/video components (DVD player, Game console, cable box, etc). You will need to provide the wall mount as well as the necessary audio/video cables for your TV and components.

    All wires and cables for the TV and components will be concealed inside the wall. This does not include power cords and all components must be placed within 15' of the TV.

    The installer will configure the manufacturer's remote control to operate your TV and all connected components (if applicable).

    A full 20 minute tutorial on system use. Our installer will ensure you know how to operate your TV and remote before leaving.

    Any packing materials and boxes will also be removed from our premises.


Please note that:
These installations can typically take up to 1 - 4 hours to complete.
The appointment time you schedule (morning, afternoon, or evening) provides our installer a 4 hour window for arrival.
Our TV installations are backed by a Two Year Limited Warranty.


Getting Started is Easy. Just add this plan to the Shopping Cart and Checkout.
Once your order is processed we'll send you a confirmation email with our contact information. You can then schedule your installation appointment by calling us at 1-866-551-5908.

If you have any questions, give us a call at 1-866-551-5908. Our customer service representatives are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to assist you.

See our Terms and Conditions for complete plan details (you will need Adobe Acrobat for this).


Wall TV Installation, TV installation, TV Installer.


Brooklyn, NY Surveillance Camera Installation & Access Control Expert Say Security Camera Help Solve Crime

A New York City, NY security camera installation and access control expert says security cameras; helps solves crimes and lowers insurance cost for local business owners, apartment complex owners, and some mobile business owners. Businesses can see savings through lower insurance cost as well as reduce thief, over the long term for their business by implementing security cameras system as part of a surveillance monitoring system for their home or business.

Business owners, apartment owners and homeowners who need high definition surveillance camera Installed can purchase through Professional Tech Services (PTS). A New York City, surveillance camera installation and access panel control company. The sign up page detailing full service availability and pricing can be found here: http://ptsny.com

Professional Tech Service city wide service includes all Boroughs; Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island as well as Long Island in New York City. Surveillance camera installation is designed to address the most common issues faced by business owners, apartment owners and homeowners when choosing a High Definition surveillance camera Installation. The service includes:

Mobile Surveillance Camera Viewing – Now business owners, and homeowners alike can view their business or home on their mobile networked device from any any where in the world, where they have a connection.

High Definition Cameras – High definition digital camera that offer 1080p view with night-vision so that the quality of the video is lost at night time, with setting design for customers specification.

Backing Up Video Storage in the Cloud – Blacking up all your videos on the cloud storage so that if DVR is stolen or damaged business owners and homeowners can still retrieve there video by login into their cloud account.

Omar Jackson, Marketing Manager of Professional Tech Services, had this to say about High Definition Surveillance cameras;

“Business are more mobile than ever so accessing their cameras from anywhere, and having those videos backed-up in the cloud is a must for any serious business owner.”

On top of all the benefits listed above some business owners still have old and outdated security cameras with default settings intact. Professional Tech Services; will also help business owners and homeowners whom, have not changed their default settings on there existing cameras to update those immediately. This service is geared towards; stop some hackers, criminals and predators from coming through business owners and homeowners cameras back doors.let PTS stop those hackers and peeping toms now.

Those interested in learning more about the company can do so on the company website at http://ptsny.com/. Those interested in purchasing can go directly to the service listing, here: http://ptsny.com/.

For more information about us, please visit http://ptsny.com

Security Camera, Security Camera Installation, Security Camera Installer.
Go big and go home: How to install a video projector

You’ve finally stepped up and decided to take that next step into the home theater Big Boy club; you’ve made the decision to abandon that weak-sauce, girly-man flat panel display and go with a strong-like-bull front projector! First things first…bring it in. We gotta hug this thing out. Congratulations!

So, now that you’ve made this momentous decision you’re probably all, “What the hell? How do I turn this madness into a reality?!”

 …even though modern projectors are really quiet, they still have some fan noise which is another reason to get them back behind the seating position.

I got you, bro. Since I’ve installed dozens of projectors, I’m gonna hold your hand and walk you through the velvet ropes and lead you down the plushy carpeting all the way to the nice seats in front of the big screen of home theater Nirvana. 

Here’s everything you need to know about installing your new front projector!
Screen Size

Whole articles have been written on selecting the screen to use with your projector so I’m not going to go into that here. Suffice it to say, I’m going to assume that you’ve made the decision on the screen material, gain, aspect ratio, mounting type (fixed or roll-down) and all the other stuff. (For what it’s worth, I have a Draper Access MultiView Series V M1300 motorized screen in dual aspect ratio in my theater. It is 92-inches when 16×9 and 115-inches in 2.35:1. For more on aspect ratios, read this post.

The only thing we’re interested in here is the screen size. And by size I mean the width, because it is the screen’s width that is going to determine the throw distance and installation location of the projector. For the sake of math simplicity, let’s just assume that you are going to use a screen that has a 100-inch width (which would be 115-inches diagonal and 56-inches high for a 16×9 screen).
Throw Distance

Throw distance refers to the distance from a projector’s lens to the screen – every projector has one. Fortunately, most modern projectors have a pretty install-friendly throw distance, enabling them to work in nearly any room with a large array of screen sizes. If, however, you have an oddly-shaped room – say on with a peaked ceiling, or one that is very narrow – then throw distance will be a much bigger deal. Some higher end projectors manufacturers – take Runco, for example, offer different lens options that allow you to put the projector almost anywhere in a room.


Projector Screen For the purpose of our hypothetical install, let’s use a JVC projector. All JVC projectors have a throw distance range of 1.4 to 2.8. This means that the front of the lens can be positioned anywhere between 1.4 to 2.8 times the screen width. So, with our 100-inch screen, we could place the projector anywhere from 140-inches (1.4 * 100) to 280-inches (2.8 * 100) from the front of the screen. Remember, that measurement involves the distance from the lens to the screen, so if your room was only 12 feet long (144-inches), you would have to go to a smaller screen to accommodate this projector.

Projector Location

Let’s say you have a perfect room and you could place the projector anywhere in that 140 – 280 inch location. What’s best? Well, I like to keep the projector away from the viewing position. There’s just something about that thing hovering over my head like a Star Destroyer that I’m not in love with. Also, even though modern projectors are really quiet, they still have some fan noise which is another reason to get them back behind the seating position. If you find the gentle whir of a projector fan comforting, then by all means, place it as near your head as possible. Using the shorter distance will provide the highest brightness, so if you are going with a really large screen, have a low-light-output projector or will be watching a lot of 3D, this might be important. Using the longer distance gives higher contrast, and also uses the center – or sweet-spot – of the lens for the sharpest image.

Cabling

If you have a front projector, that will likely mean that you have a home theater system and some kind of surround sound receiver or pre-amp/processor. Really, you only need a single HDMi cable going to the projector as all of the video switching and conversion will be done in your receiver. I’ve had good luck with Redmere HDMI cables which can handle 1080p video up to 60 feet. If you are going beyond 60-feet – or just want to future-proof your install – consider running couple of Cat6 cables. You can send HDMI up to 100-meters using a technology called HDBaseT. I’ve used it a bunch in the real world and the stuff works great. Also, pull a extra couple of Cat cables for IP connection and for controlling the projector or, you know, just for the good, clean fun that is pulling wire.

Sound

This shouldn’t even need to be said, but if you were thinking of using the internal speakers in your projector then stand up right now and double-punch yourself right in the jeans! I mean it. Punch-punch right to the jeans! Most projectors are now (thankfully) omitting speakers and the ones that still include them put them in – I believe – as an idiot-detector. I can only picture the engineers laughing to themselves hysterically each time they install one of the horrible 1-inch drivers. “I bet someone uses these! Ha-ha-ha-HA!” Don’t use them. Ever. If you don’t have a separate speaker system already then you aren’t ready for a front projector yet. Save up. Buy the audio system and then get the projector. Don’t worry; these tips will still be right here waiting to help you.
Ceiling Mount

The vast majority of projectors that I’ve installed have been ceiling mounted, however you could also set the projector on a shelf (done it) or in a cabinet (done it) or built into a custom soffit (done it). Shelf mounting means that the projector is sitting on its feet whereas ceiling mounting means that the projector is upside down. This is an important distinction because it gets into leans shifting and vertical offset, something I’ll talk about next. If you are mounting it, there are a variety of universal ceiling mounts available that feature independently adjustable “spider arms” to fit the mounting pattern of a huge array of projectors. I usually stick with mounts from larger companies like Omni Mount, Peerless or Chief because they are constructed of sturdy metal and offer a variety of adjustments that let you really lock the projector down so it’s straight, level and won’t shift or drift over time. Chief has a handy “mount finder” on its site that can help you find the right mount for your specific projector.


Horizontal Centering

Unless there is some act of God preventing you from being able to, center the lens horizontally on the screen. This will just ensure better things down the road and give you maximum flexibility in your vertical offset adjustment (below). Now,  some projectors do allow you to horizontally shift the lens, and if you abso-frickin-lutely can’t center the projector on the screen from some reason – or just totally F-up reading the tape measure when it comes to installing the mount – use horizontal lens shift, but do NOT tilt the projector left or right trying to fix this. (Also, refer to punching self in jeans above.)

Vertical Offset

I’m not gonna sugarcoat vertical offset; understanding it is a bit like that billiards scene in Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. Every frickin’ time I watch that scene I’m like, “Oh, yeah! I totally get it! That’s simple! I’m gonna go and crush someone at billiards!” But the second it’s over, I’m all, “How the hell did that diamond system work again?!?” (If you get that ref, drop me a comment below. We’re already destined for friendship.) Vertical offset is as important as throw distance when it comes to installing your projector, and refers to the amount above or below the screen that the projector lens can be installed.  It will be especially important if you have a high ceiling as you will likely need to use a down pole to lower the projector to the appropriate height. It is also definitely projector dependent, so before you go slapping your mount up on the ceiling, make sure you understand the offset range of your projector. For instance, JVC models offer 80% offset but above and below the screen whereas some models offer different and lesser amounts for up and down.

Here’s how we can make practical use of offset with our JVC projector. Start by multiplying the vertical height of the screen – 56-inches – by 80% which results in 44.8. Then take one-half of the screen height – 56 * .5 – and you get 28. Now subtract 28 from 44.8 and you get 16.8. This is the amount that the center of the lens can be above or below the screen.

Here’s a more practical use of that math: In a room with a 10-foot (or 120-inches since it’s easier to deal in the same unit of measure) ceiling, you want to place the center of the screen at 60-inches for a nice comfortable viewing height. This means that the top of our screen will be at 88 inches (60 to the center, plus one-half of the 56-inch screen height). Since the projector’s lens can be 16.8 inches above the top of the screen – 88 + 16.8 = 104.8 – we would have to drop the projector roughly 16 inches from the ceiling to be correctly installed.

I also realize that understanding this just went all poof! (like Keyser Soze) the second you finished reading it. That’s OK. I had to go back and read it like 15 times myself.

Keystone (aka “The Tool of the Devil”)

Once the projector is installed, you want the front of it to be parallel to the screen and the top to be level. This will produce a straight, square and level image on the screen. If it isn’t straight, square and level, go back and fiddle with the mount until it is straight, square and level. Now, you might read in the installation manual that if you can’t get the projector at the right position vertically you can just tilt it up or down to fill the screen and then fix the geometry errors with some sorcery called keystone adjustment. It’s all, “La, la, la! We’ll skip down to Candy Land where geometry problems don’t matter and can be whisked away by the digital fairy! Hee-hee!” Don’t do it! This is the coward’s way out and a one-way ticket to ruining the highest of defs that you have paid for.

What happens when you tilt the projector up or down is you turn your nice beautiful, perfectly square and high-resolution rectangle into a hideous monster of a trapezoid. Images will be narrower (if you tilt the projector down) or wider (if you tilt the projector up) at the top. Keystone correction digitally “crushes” the sides of the image and restores a Frankenstein of a rectangle, but it does so at the expense of image quality. JVC even cautions, “Using the keystone feature will substantially decrease the image quality. JVC does not recommend its use for home theater applications.” So there. Just understand that if I ever come to your house and see that your projector has been tilted down and you are using keystone, I’m going to want to grab a stick and beat it down from your ceiling like a high-tech piƱata. Then the stick and I are comin’ for your jeans…

Zoom/focus

At this point you are damn close to being done. Depending on your projector it will have either a motorized or manual zoom and focus lens adjustment. (I actually prefer the manual because it offers finer adjustment, but the motorized is nice because it allows you to get right up on the screen and really take a good close look at the focus.) Projectors usually have an internal test pattern that will look like some variation of this:


Use the zoom and shift controls to get the test pattern image to perfectly square up on the screen. When done, check it against a variety of real-world material, both HD and non-HD. You might need to tweak the size a bit to get it to balance for each source.

For focus, I like to use the printing in the projector’s menu. Specifically, I get up to the screen and make the edges of the white text look as razor sharp as possible.

Picture Adjustments

At this point you’re ready to watch movies. But, actually you’re not. Why you’re still all giddy from the afterglow of a successful install, let’s take a moment to dial in some settings for a truly optimal picture, shall we? While the best picture will be obtained by hiring a professional ISF or THX-certified calibrator, the next best thing is to get a test disc like Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics or Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark. These will walk you through setting the two most important picture adjustments on your new projector – contrast (peak white) and brightness (black level). Once you have these settings dialed in – using the same lighting conditions as when you will watch movies, of course – you’re ready to pop in a movie and enjoy!

Projector Installation in L.A.
 
Cable TV installer network could put ‘30MWh of electricity storage in UK homes a month’

The head of a company selected by the UK government to deploy residential energy storage under a pilot scheme believes that his network of installers could deploy 10,000 units, equivalent to 30MWh of storage per month.

Simon Daniel of Moixa Technology said that his company, which produces systems between 2kW and 5kW capacity, has contracted an installation company which previously put satellite and pay-per-view television systems in homes across the UK to fit Moixa’s Maslow energy storage system. Given the right market conditions, through both financial and non-financial support, it would be feasible for Moixa to scale up their installations significantly, Daniel claims.

Maslow is primarily paired with solar PV systems. At present, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) trial of the technology addresses three specific use cases – firstly to better enable self-consumption of PV-generated power onsite, secondly to assess the possible benefits of aggregating storage from a number of interconnected systems and finally to provide DC back-up power through forthcoming new power standards.

Moixa’s installation partner has previously deployed satellite and cable television systems at a rate of 40,000 per week. With Maslow designed to be fitted in a customer’s house in around an hour, Daniel said, it was feasible that the company could supply significant numbers of systems on a regular basis.

Leveraging economies of scale would be the key to enabling increased deployment at a cost-effective price, the Moixa chief believes. However, speaking at an Electricity Storage Network event last week, Daniel also called for a subsidy scheme along the lines of a “Feed-in Tariff (FiT) 2.0” to be considered for energy storage paired with PV systems. Retrofitting existing solar systems with Maslow units could also provide a quicker path to market, according to Daniel.





The consumer interface for Maslow, displayed on a smartphone. Image: Moixa Technology.

PV Tech Storage spoke to Simon Daniel this morning and asked how - while the numbers he quoted made it appear logistically possible for Moixa to supply several thousand units a month - demand in the market could be driven up to meet this potential supply. Looking at Germany, one of the current leaders for storage paired with solar, Daniel was adamant that the same constraints to deployment may not apply to a UK-wide rollout of Maslow as they had done for many systems currently available in the central European country. Around 4,000 systems were sold in the first year of a German subsidy programme for residential systems, predicted by EUPD Research to rise to around 15,000 this year.

“The difference with Germany is they tend to do ‘fridge freezer type’ large systems, a large metal box costing you around €5,000 (US$5,710) to €10,000, so it’s appealing to a subset of the market that are rich, large solar homes who are spending 5k plus on a system. So there’s a price factor there. Ours is about €2,000, it’s going to be significantly cheaper and quicker to install,” Daniel said.

As well as scaling up and a possible FiT scheme, the other key to increased deployment would be regulatory changes, according to Daniel. In common with other regions, such as Texas, where the multiple benefits to the network conferred by storage are being examined in earnest, part of the story will be enabling storage system owners and providers to benefit, for example, for providing grid services as well as enabling self-consumption.

Daniel concluded by reiterating his company’s wish to see a “FiT 2.0” applied to storage that he said could be a “tipping point” to drive demand for energy storage upwards.

“It’s interesting that while there have been no subsidies, people are still shipping those things, as soon as there’s a FiT 2.0 you see a tipping effect in the market.

“The constraint is what pull-through from the market [there is]. The tipping point is a FiT 2.0 tariff giving benefit to storage and increasing market need, which is peak prices and outage risk. If you have a power cut, storage takes off, if you have rising electricity prices, storage takes off and if you have a tariff, incentive, storage takes off. We’ve seen that in other countries.”

Jonathan Radcliff, a senior research fellow in energy storage at the University of Birmingham, agreed that the UK, which currently supports storage at a relatively small scale through research projects and pilots, needed a more overarching and comprehensive policy to support energy storage technologies and the growing industry around them.

Radcliffe told PV Tech Storage that it was positive that the government has supported demonstration projects and the sharing of knowledge, but “it needs to scale up a bit more from those and get a bit more coordinated around the policy and business opportunity”.

According to Radcliffe, a national strategy framework could help. His team at the University of Birmingham are this year working on a roadmap for UK energy storage “looking at both how the trajectory of technology forms and costs over the coming years and linking that into the energy system and how it could play a role in that”.

The UK's minister for energy, Amber Rudd recently confirmed that the government is not planning any framework of incentives for energy storage.

TV Installer in Los Angels.
Home Theater News, Consumer Electronics News and Audiophile News 

Read the latest news about home theater, audiophile, HDTV, 3D and Blu-ray topics on HomeTheaterReview.com. This is a complete list of everything news for topics like AV receivers, AV preamps, bookshelf speakers, floorstanding speakers, LED HDTVs, 3D HDTVs, LED HDTVs, LEC HDTVs, 1080 HD projectors, Front video projectors, 2k video projectors, 4k video projectors, Compact Disc players, DACs, USB DACs, Apple products, AppleTV, in-wall speakers, on-wall speakers, home theater news, AV instruct trade news, record players, vinyl, 24-96 news, HD download news, home theater PCs (HTPCs), home theater forums, 3D glasses, headphones, iPods, iPad reviews, DVD-Audio, SACD, DTS CDs, HDMI and much more.

Home Theater Installation in L.A.


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Picking The Right HDTV for Your Home Theater System

When you envision a theater-like video experience, you probably think first of a projection system and a very large screen. That's certainly the display of choice in the prototypical home theater. The two-piece projector/screen combination is generally best suited for a dedicated theater room, in which you can completely control the lighting (although many projector manufacturers now offer high-brightness models that are specifically designed for use in brighter environments). Companies like Runco, SIM2, Projection Design, and Digital Projection International offer projectors and services targeted more at the high-end marketplace, around $20,000 and above. However, projectors aren't reserved solely for the wealthy. This type of display device can actually offer the best screen-size-to-cost ratio. JVC, Sony, and Optoma have earned high marks for the performance of their mid-level projectors, which fall in the $5,000 to $10,000 price range, while Epson, Panasonic, and Sanyo offer high-quality entry-level projectors. As for the projection screen, you can choose between fixed-frame, pull-up/-down, or motorized screens, and most screen manufacturers offer a wide variety of screen materials to suit different projectors and environments. You also need to think about what screen shape you want: Do you want a standard 16:9 screen that's perfect for HDTV and many movies or a 2.35:1 screen that lets you watch CinemaScope movies with no black bars (this requires a suitably equipped projector and sometimes an add-on lens). Another option is to add a masking system that uses drapes or panels to tailor the screen shape to suit each source. Some of the top names in home theater screens are Stewart Filmscreen, Screen Innovations, dnp, Da-Lite, Vutec, and Elite Screens.

Projector Installation in L.A.