Blogs

Ben Hobbs 3/27/18 Ben Hobbs 3/27/18

Cinema - It's gone to the Dogs!

The Cinema is going to the Dogs! A new film has seen a wave of theatre's around the world opening up the cinemas doors for their preview showing to our friends of the canine variety so they also can watch the movie.

These guys look excited to see the movie together.

Cinemas in the following locations opened up their cinemas to well behaved dogs and their owners for special previews;

The Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
Duke Of Yorks, Brighton
The Ritzy, Brixton
Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge
The Cameo, Edinburgh
Picturehouse Central, London’s West End
Clapham Picturehouse
Crouch End Picturehouse
East Dulwich Picturehouse & Cafe
Exeter Picturehouse
Greenwich Picturehouse
Hackney Picturehouse
Harbour Lights, Southampton
Stratford Upon Avon Picturehouse
City Screen, York

Isle of Dogs is a stop motion animated film by Wes Anderson "When, by executive decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbage-dump called Trash Island, 12-year-old Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies across the river in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture."

Ben Hobbs 3/17/18 Ben Hobbs 3/17/18

Nuvo at ISE 2018

Home Audio company Nuvo had some of their newest music technology on show at Integrated Systems Europe at the Legrand stand. Nuvo were instrumental in the distributed audio industry as the first company to develop and sell a multi room audio solution from a single box (amplifier).

Nuvo took the opportunity at the show to launch their new range of architectural speakers. A new range of in-ceiling, in-wall and outdoor speakers for use with their Nuvo multi room audio and other home music system amplifiers. The older speakers the Accentplus1 and Accentplus2 range are still available and we've had great success with them (we often use these with Sonos Connect:amps).

Nuvo Architectural (in-Ceiling and In-Wall) Speakers

Introduced at the show were a range of DIN mounted amplifiers, these small amplifiers are mounted on your DIN rail (Your Breaker Board) in your M&E Room (or cupboard). You can have up to 16 zones and the DIN mounted P600 amplifier is 2x20 watts, plenty for background music in your house or villa.

Nuvo's DIN mounted distributed audio amplifier for music all over your home.

Nuvo also increased their range of control keypads for the P series of wireless amplifiers. These can be installed into the wall and offer instant control for your home stereo system for those times when you don't want to reach into your pocket to grab your phone and fuss around. Simply press the on/off button, mute or adjust volume and sources instantly with the press of a button.

Also at the show was the P30 Touchscreen controller for the wireless music system - This always on wall mounted touchscreen is perfect for controlling your Nuvo music system and choosing songs, albums and playlists easily.

Nuvo P30 Touch screen control for Nuvos audio system.

Ben Hobbs 3/13/18 Ben Hobbs 3/13/18

RIP Sonos CR100 Controller.

We've still got one somewhere in our office and a couple of our customers still use theirs but the latest email from SONOS tells us that they will no longer be supporting the CR100 controller from next month.

When SONOS debuted you could only control it through the Original SONOS controller, there wasn't an app (until 2009), it was replaced with the dreadful CR200 of which we had an almost 100% return rate of until that also was phased out.

The Original SONOS controller before you could use your phone or iPad to control SONOS.

Their email states;
Due to the controller’s aging internal components, we cannot continue to support the CR100. Your CR100 will no longer connect to your Sonos system once you update to our latest software release in early April.

We know the CR100 has been an important part of your Sonos experience. Even as we shifted to the Sonos app in 2009, the CR100 has lived on as a coveted dedicated controller in many homes.
But, the controller’s hardware has reached the end of its lifespan.

The CR100 is a unique Sonos product because it’s powered by an internal lithium ion battery. Across devices and industries, aging lithium ion batteries have the potential to overheat when left charging. For this reason, starting in early April, future Sonos software upgrades will no longer recognize your CR100 when it tries to connect to your system.

What does that mean?

1. We recommend that you disconnect your CR100 from its charger, unplug the cradle, and safely and responsibly recycle both components at your local e-waste center.

2. As of early April, if you update your system, your CR100 will no longer connect to Sonos.
If you choose to take steps to ignore future software upgrades, you are acknowledging the risk of the aging lithium ion battery in your controller. Additionally, opting not to update means you cannot add speakers, services or voice assistants to your Sonos system and that you will not receive new features or security patches.

Ben Hobbs 3/8/18 Ben Hobbs 3/8/18

Amazon Alexa and the Creepy Laughing

It's been confirmed that Amazons Smart Home Alexa systems have been laughing at you behind your back, sort of. It seems that quite a few peoples systems have been accidentally triggered into spouting out some creepy sounding laugh track.

International press has been reporting people getting spooked out by by the creepy laughter.

Apparently the Alexa enabled systems such as Amazons Echo, Sonos ONE and the Amazon Echo Dot have thought they had heard the command "Alexa, laugh" which previously triggered Alexa launching into a creepy sounding laugh.

Amazon has since launched a fix so that you must ask "Alexa, Can you laugh?" which is now followed by "Sure, I can laugh" and a small Tee Hee at the end.

Ben Hobbs 2/14/18 Ben Hobbs 2/14/18

El Gaucho Steakhouse

You did know we did commercial sound systems for restaurants, hotels and nightclubs - didn't you?

Beautiful Restaurant with a great sounding audio system.

Whilst I've been in Amsterdam at Integrated Systems Europe the H3 Digital Team have been busy installing a great sounding audio system at El Gaucho's Steakhouse in Patong Beach, Phuket.

This place is a first class restaurant for meat lovers, just take a look at that stunning view (I'm not just talking about the Butchers Fridge).

Stunning Design (And a great sound system).

So what sort of music setup does it have, we don't want to give away too much of our magic sauce but the symetrix system allows us to balance and use a digital DSP which we can access over the internet if required to program, balance and equalise the system. The install was done in conjunction with Ben Walters at Fuzion Far East who work on ALL the premier nightcub, restaurant and commercial sound systems in Bangkok - We are a trusted Phuket Partner for them and we've been working over a decade together.

Ben Hobbs 2/11/18 Ben Hobbs 2/11/18

Integrated Systems Europe Day 3 - Control4

Control4 billed themselves at this years ISE as: A leading provider of personalized automation and control solutions, allows you to control virtually any device in a home or business, automatically. Founded in 2003, the company mission is to deliver an elegant and more affordable way to control and automate lighting, music, video, security and energy in a single room or throughout the entire home.

They recently bought speaker manufacturer Triad, who's in-wall and in-ceiling speakers have been popular in home cinemas, especially in the USA. Control4 say of Triad:Triad loudspeakers deliver world-class audio performance into every room in the home - without compromise. From the finest Dolby Atmos home theater to high performance in-ceiling loudspeakers for rooms where a bulky speaker isn’t an option, Triad has superior sound for every room in your home.

They showed their range of touchscreens, room controllers, Switches, Dimmers, Keypads, Remotes and Networking/Routers. For me their UI does appear dated now and I'm not keen on the lock down into one system approach that sees equipment get aged out quickly with no replacement.

Ben Hobbs 2/9/18 Ben Hobbs 2/9/18

Integrated Systems Europe Day 2 - Additional Thoughts

I'm at the end of Day 2 of the show (These posts run a few days late as and when I can get the posts up) and it's apparent how bright our future is going to be.

I'm talking about displays again, If I hadn't seen some of the technology at the show I simply wouldn't believe it was available or ready for market. Again and again I caught myself saying wow.

Moores Law has real world implications for processing and LED technology that will accelerate as time goes on, in a similar way to how far phones have come on in the last decade - display technology is on a similar curve.

Moores Law broadly in laymans terms stated that every 2 years electronics/computing power would double. Whether that means faster chips, smaller chips, smaller LEDs or a halving of the price for the same tech, its generally been the case for the last 40 years or so. The effect on the LED displays are they are getting bigger, higher definition and cheaper, all at the same time.

One of the many beautiful displays on show at ISE 2018

I cant wait to see where all these super crisp, high resolution, colourful displays end up - It has the real potential to make our spaces more fun, whether thats at home, in the office or on the side of a building.

Ben Hobbs 2/9/18 Ben Hobbs 2/9/18

Integrated Systems Europe Day 2 - Crestron

Crestron had a huge presence at the ISE show, much bigger than I would have thought - They have a much larger spread of products than I remember with a hand in just about every sort of integrated technology. I'm not a fan of their residential systems, rock solid but an absolute pain to program but can see it certainly has a place in the industry where you are going to plug it in and leave it or have the expertise on hand (and on payroll) to reprogram when required.

Prior to the show Crestron's Press Release stated (Italics):

Crestron had a strong show presence at ISE 2018

We all know the workplace has changed dramatically: a dispersed workforce; open floor plans; AV on the network; and reliance on mobile devices – not just to communicate, but also to present and collaborate. With these innovations come new challenges.

Join us at ISE 2018 and see how Crestron is meeting these challenges with:

DM® NVX, the standard for network AV, and the new DM XiO™ Director, which provides browser-based monitoring, management, and control of DM NVX endpoints
Workplace Technology Solutions Ready-to-deploy, pre-packaged Workplace Technology Solutions that make it easy to deliver consistent meeting, presentation, and conferencing experiences on a large scale. Easy to purchase and deploy, they support network security protocols and cloud-based provisioning.
Crestron Mercury® – the only open UC solution
XiO Cloud, our complete cloud-based provisioning and management platform
Crestron Audio Solutions, including new network audio and cloud-based provisioning
AirMedia® 2.0, the fastest, easiest, most manageable and secure wireless presentation technology, built into our room solutions
All-new FlipTops™ featuring a dashboard forward design for easier access to cables and connectors and one-touch cable and compartment door retraction
Crestron AirBoard™, which enables viewing of electronic whiteboard content on any display device
MPC 3-Series, the first wall mount presentation controllers with an integrated control system and capacitive touch

On the Residential side of our stand, see demonstrations that highlight the lightning deployment speed and efficiency of Crestron Home Automation Systems, whilst showcasing the customization and incredible user experience they provide. We’ll be debuting several new products:

HR-310 and TSR-310 Handheld Remotes, our most elegantly and ergonomically designed and advanced remotes yet
Horizon keypads, which offer designer aesthetics, superior button feel, four button styles, and multi-color backlighting in highly-configurable single-gang models
Crestron Pyng®, now with support for integration of video control and all the benefits of DigitalMedia™
Beautiful Crestron Shades including new Horizontal Sheers, now available in EMEA
DM 4KZ cards and endpoints, which bring 4K60, 4:4:4, and HDR to existing DM infrastructure

They used the show to debut their new range of Horizon Keypads at ISE 2018.

Available in highly configurable single-gang models that combine up to four across, the new line offers designer aesthetics, superior button feel, four different button styles, programmable multi-color backlighting, interchangeable custom top and bottom trim pieces, and Cresnet® wired communications. Crestron keypads deliver an advanced custom control solution as part of a complete Crestron smart home

“These stunningly beautiful keypads provide Crestron residential dealers, as well as interior designers and architects, with incredible flexibility in both control and design. Inviting to the touch and appealing to the eye, Horizon keypads deliver a premier user experience combined with bespoke design for homeowners.”

— Michael Short, Global Residential Marketing Manager at Crestron.

Ben Hobbs 2/9/18 Ben Hobbs 2/9/18

Integrated Systems Europe Day 2 - Zwave

ZWave have a booth here at the ISE exhibition, it's in the Smart Buildings Hall and is completely overshadowed by the sheer amount of KNX company and industry booths. This is Europe after all and EIB (European InstaBus) is what KNX is based upon. The ZWave booth was made up of lots of tiny microbooths featuring companies utilising the ZWave wireless technology for smart home and automation.

So what is ZWave first of all? Zwave (or Z wave or Z-wave) is a protocol for communication among devices used for home automation. It uses RF for signaling and control. So basically its a protocol/standard for small home technology pieces to all talk to each other. The range is up to 100m and its very low energy so normal batteries can be used and last for a very long time.

The Z-Wave Alliance was established in 2005 as a consortium of companies that make connected appliances controlled through apps on smartphones, tablets or computers using Z-Wave wireless mesh networking technology. The alliance is a formal association focussed on both the expansion of Z-Wave and the continued interoperability of any device that utilises Z-Wave

For a little bit more information about Zwave and its rivals in the smart home networking industry the below is taken from the Zwave Wikipedia.

For smart-home wireless networking, there are numerous technologies competing to become the standard of choice. Wi-Fi consumes a lot of power, and Bluetooth is limited in signal range and number of devices. Other network standards competing with Z-Wave include Insteon, Thread and ZigBee. Of the three, Z-Wave has the longest operating range at 300 feet (outdoor) and 80+ feet (indoor). Insteon has the largest number of maximum devices capability at 17.7 million (to ZigBee's 65,000 and Z-Wave's 232). Thread has the fastest data transmission rate at 250 kbps. Z-Wave has better interoperability than ZigBee, but ZigBee has a faster data transmission rate. Thread operates on the busy Wi-Fi standard frequency of 2.4 GHz, while Z-Wave operates at 908 MHz in the US, which has reduced noise and a greater coverage area. ZigBee operates on both 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz frequencies. All three are mesh networks