Home Automation and Smart Home technologies are becoming more popular and commonplace then ever before. Lighting control, HVAC (Temp control) and whole house music are even dare I say "affordable" or getting there fast. A well designed Home Automation system can make the homeowner's life easier, make the house easy to sell to any that see it and actually save energy and money. In the Next Few Blogs I will discuss

Lighting Control

A lighting control system can span from a one room system where your dimmers can be remote controlled by the hand held remote of your media room to an elaborate and money saving system built for security, safety, fun and beauty. In a one room solution when "watch dvd" is pushed on the remote everything comes alive in the system, projector on and the lights slowly dim on their own from that one button push. When you hit pause to get up for a minute they slowly come back on and the Play button takes them right back down to movie watching mode. This can be done for very little money.

A full lighting control system is where the lights of the clients choice are changed out for smart dimmers that all talk to one another. This first allows for Scenes, the first step of control. A scene is where you will have a party button and the lights in the dining room come on 50%, Kitchen 80% for cooking and living room 70% for entertaining. There are usually 4 scenes per keypad and can be configured any way the client likes. When the switches are all installed the lights can be controlled together or individually  from many different types of interfaces. When leaving the house your "Away" Button will turn all the lights off, turn on your patio light and landscaping lights come on automatically at 8pm. Your "home" button opens the garage, turns on some lights that you deem safe while entering your vacant home ensuring anyone that may be in your house will flee. The shades can also be  controlled for added energy savings and comfort with the added shade control. When all your most used lights are set to come to only 50% when turned on you stand to save 40% on your electric bill. This could mean big savings in a sizeable home. Call Theater Advice today for a free in home consultation  to discuss lighting control in your DFW, Frisco, Allen, Plano, Prosper TX home.

Buying TV's, receivers, speakers, etc on the internet is a VERY BAD IDEA. Most quality installers will not even install gear purchased on the internet for a few reasons. The first being if anything happens during installation we cannot replace it. The second being if things do not work during or at the end of installation when we turn it on...we still have to charge you for the installation the entire day, you will have to ship it back, and we have to charge you again to come back out and nobody is ever happy about that but it is the only fair thing.

90% OF INTERNET COMPANIES ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO SELL THE PRODUCT. You will not get warranty if you buy off the internet without checking with the manufacturers website. So for instance buying a JVC projector off of the internet from one of the over 1000 internet dealers...go to the JVC website and you will find they do not sell their projectors on the internet. Even if it arrives broken you will not get warranty. Also you need to ask yourself..."if they did not buy it from JVC obviously, where did they get it from". These are called grey market goods.

Just find a company you can trust that has quality lines of product. A quality installer can usually beat all local store competitors on price so you will still get service, warranty and peace of mind and still save money. You may save more shopping on the internet but you will 100% have a nightmare with at least one or more of the things you get shipped and it will cause a domino effect of problems throughout the process.

Theater Advice does not charge for service calls up to two years as long as you are inside 15-20 miles and even does it in evenings so your family does not have to go without a TV. When you get everything on the internet it is hard to take responsibility for something not working when we did not sell you the product. Please be smart about this process and buy these sensitive products the right way and from the right people that can help you when things go wrong.

David Huse

I would like to introduce and talk about Sonus Faber one of our most prestigious lines. These speakers are the direct result from hundreds of years of Italian craftsmanship. (See Link) http://www.soundstage2.com/tours/sonus_faber_200708/

The speakers in the upper echelon are carved from a single piece of wood with no parts "put together" and are stained and seasoned for a year...no other speaker takes this sort of care to build. For every minute they spend building these works of art the sound is even better still. Theater Advice has the knowledge base to sell and Install Sonus Faber speakers. They take immense set up and the right person to install them. Call us today to talk more about these amazing speakers.  

Let's talk about Electrostatic speakers. Electrostatic speakers are the most detailed loudspeakers in the world. They are comprised with two pieces of metal positively and negatively charged to create static and the film sandwiched between acts as the Tweeter and midrange as one big panel. Martin Logan is the most prominent maker of Electrostatic speakers in the world and will always hold the quality of a real American Speaker company. Their build quality and beauty make them a perfect companion for any sound system or Media Room. Martin Logan now has affordable on wall speakers that hold the same standards as the rest of their line and a full line of subwoofers. Please call Theater Advice, Frisco TX today for a full Demo of Martin Logan Speakers and Martin Logan In wall speakers but be prepared to never think of speakers the same way again. They reinvent sound expectations and are one of the best speakers in the world.

If you are in the market for something to fill the hole next to your fireplace or just a low cabinet under your screen in your media room look into something custom. Use Theater Advice to design and build you a fully custom cabinet for all of your Audio Video Gear. Furniture stores sell nice cabinets but they never fit perfectly and they do not match other wood work in your home. Our cabinets will fit your gear, have good air circulation and fit your space perfectly all while stained to match your cabinets and or mantle. Custom cabinets are priced usually below store bought ones of any quality as well. Call us for a free in home consultation. 

When you want to take your room to that next level just add some pillars. There are many materials and styles that can really turn a room from a Media room or Home theater to a real Theater. You can even add 4-8 sconces and a dimmer on them so when you hit "Watch DVD" everything turns on and the lights slowly dim.

You can hide your speakers in your pillars as well making for a clean look in the room. So many options and many others to make a room really special.

Call us today to take that square box look like the real thing with almost any budget. 

So the Ipad is a very cool piece of equipment. It is basically a huge Ipod touch with all new apps and games you can play. It also has the ability to surf the web as a tablet PC would and read books with a cooler interface than the Kindle. However you cannot view flash content on webpages which is a little ridiculous in this day in age. It is much like when the Iphone came out and did not do picture messages which was a years old technology. It will surely be on a later version of the Ipad and they will expect the first adapters to the product to re-buy it. Also it is a very cool movie player but keep in mind you will need to hold it with two hands the whole time or prop it against something. Not very practical. I will stick with my laptop for now and buy one in a year when they are half the price. The rule here is never buy the first run of some new technology in electronics.