Audio Video, System Integration and Technology Blog

Use the Control4 Video Touch Screen to Stay in Touch

Is your current intercom technology falling short? Are you having trouble communicating effectively with your family or with your employees? Are you ready to invest in the latest communication technology?

Fortunately, these days it is easier than ever to keep in touch with new integrated technology solutions such as the Control4 Video Touch Screen from Control4, a company which some describe as “a leading innovator in residential and light commercial automation systems.” Control4’s newest product is a portable touch screen device, released in February 2012.

Portable Touch Screen Specs

What does the new Control4 Video Touch Screen offer you? The device has a 7-inch full-color LCD screen, full motion video capability with an integrated camera, speakers, and microphones.

It uses G.722 wideband audio and H.264 video for an unbeatable experience. To power the portable touch screen, you may consider a variety of options, such as an AC adaptor, an internal battery, and even Power over Ethernet (PoE). 

For an affordable price, you could own a Control4 Video Touch Screen to stay on top of your home and business communication needs. For full product capability, you will want to purchase the optional special intercom license, which is available for one low price that covers all devices within the same installation. Best of all, the new portable touch screen is compatible with installed in-wall touch screens and door stations to seamlessly integrate your communication needs.

What this means is that your communication options are expanded. If someone approaches your door station and requests entry, you can use your new portable touch screen device to conduct a video conversation from wherever you are in order to determine whether to admit that person. This kind of integration and accessibility may be just what your company needs to improve its competitive advantage or just what your family needs to keep in touch.

Features

Questions about customized communications solutions for your home or business? Call an expert Digitech representative to get started today!

*The Door Station will be available in Q2 2012, but Door Station Back Boxes and Antenna Kits can be ordered now for pre-installation.

Smart Door Locks for Stress-Free Security from Yale Real Living

Imagine coming home from work late one night in the rain. You forgot your keys, and your front light is burned out. You fumble for the right key, then you drop your keys in a puddle. Isn’t there a better way?

If this situation sounds familiar, you may want to consider a keyless entry system. Stop fumbling with keys, and take the next step in creating a seamless digital home with a Control4 door locks system from Yale Real Living. A Control 4 system is a digital keyless entry system for your home or office, or for any other standard doors.

The Benefits of Control4 and Yale Door Locks

A smart door lock system such as Control4 door locks offers many different attractive features for the residential or commercial customer. Choose from a more standard push button system or an elegant touch screen system to enter your code. Leave the keys at home, and simply push in your code into the lighted keypad to gain entry at any time of day or night.

A smart door lock system is just that – smart. Other features include the ability to program the locks on your home or office to lock or unlock at certain times, or you can control the locks remotely from many internet-enabled device. You can also set up your system to determine who enters and leaves each door and at what time, in case you need help tracking teenage curfews or employee lunch breaks. You can even program Control4 door locks to send an alert to your mobile phone to alert you if the doors are unlocked, or if a particular person enters the premises.

A smart door lock system offers convenience, security, and smart technology for your digital home. Imagine not needing to worry about digging your keys out or fumbling for the right key. Imagine a more user-friendly system for employee entrance and exit. Imagine not having to worry that your child lost their house key on the way home from school. Simplify your life today with a Control4 door locks system for your integrated digital home.

Freedom is placed at your fingertips with Yale Real Living—the next generation of home security locks from Yale^®, a trusted name in security since 1840. As part of Control4 home system, owners experience a new type of ‘real living’, the lock becomes the first point of contact for home control on any door the lock is installed.

Experience ‘real living’ possibilities—Enter a user code to enable a welcome scene that disarms the security system, activates lights, and even adjust the thermostat. Know when family members or friends come and go and have the ability to remotely lock or unlock your doors. The lock ensures that your home is always secure. You’re in control with Yale Real Living!

Call us today to schedule an appointment for a demostration in our showroom.

Features & Benefits

• Available in two styles: elegant acrylic touchscreen or durable push button key pad
• Available in three designer finishes—polished brass, oil rubbed bronze permanent, and satin nickel
• Privacy mode locks out the keypad ensuring security
• Remotely lock and unlock doors from any web-enabled device – requires 4Sight subscription
• Receive text or email messages to your cell phone from pre-programmed alerts—requires 4Sight subscription
• Program user access by date and time, confirm the status and remaining battery life of your locks

Technical Specifications

• Yale Deadbolt Keypad, Bright Brass—Model No: ZYA-YRLD210ZB605
• Yale Deadbolt Keypad, Oil Rubbed Bronze—Model No: ZYA-YRLD210ZBOBP
• Yale Deadbolt Keypad, Satin Nickel—Model No: ZYA-YRLD210ZB619
• Yale Deadbolt Touch Screen, Bright Brass—Model No: ZYA-YRLD220ZB605
• Yale Deadbolt Touch Screen, Oil Rubbed Bronze—Model No: ZYA-YRLD220Z0BP
• Yale Deadbolt Touch Screen, Satin Nickel—Model No: ZYA-YRLD220ZB619
• Warranty replacement is through Yale Locks and Hardware and not through Control4.

Sonos VS Apple Airplay

For true luxury - and convenience - many people covet the experience of easy access to audio around their home. Gone are the days where you put a CD in the boom box and then crank up the volume to have any hope of hearing it in another room across the house. Today, it is relatively easy to have wireless speakers installed around your home or office in order to get a more authentic audio experience that doesn’t leave you cringing in one room and straining in another.

Two of the main choices for wireless audio on the market today are Sonos and Apple Airplay systems. Both are similar in that they can use your computer’s hard drive, as well as online music services such as Pandora, to fill your home with sound. And both possess a common convenient feature: you can control the music playback remotely with devices such as an iPhone without leaving the comfort of your favorite chair. There are a few features, however, that set Sonos apart.

Benefits of Sonos Wireless Speakers

1. Sonos speakers allow you to fill your home with the same song in every room – or to experience different sounds in different rooms. Apple Airplay speakers also allow for a whole house audio experience, but they only allow for playback of one song at a time, while the Sonos speakers can simultaneously play five different songs from the same audio source throughout the house. This feature allows you to set different moods in different rooms, perhaps to suit the tastes of different family members.

2. Sonos speakers use a mesh network, while Apple Airplay speakers use your home’s wireless network. The mesh network is a smarter, more stable solution which is less likely to experience interference or other problems. A mesh network is beneficial because it can diagnose itself and automatically correct problems. So if one area of the home is receiving interference, a different device on the network will take over the streaming without interrupting the flow of music, since every linked device on the mesh network can both send and receive signal.

3. The Sonos system can also work on Android devices like phones and tablets not just Apple products. Sonos also has an award winning software interface that seamlessly controls Pandora, your iTunes or mp3's, and also internet radio stations from around the world.

For smart reliability and clear sound quality, many customers prefer Sonos speakers.

What characteristics do you look for in wireless speakers?

Call in the professionals to set up your wireless home audio system today!

 

 

Crestron Upgrade from Analog to Digital

From music to movies to teleconferencing, digital technology is in high demand today – at home and on the job. Fortunately, the time has never been better for performing an analog to digital conversion. Crestron is currently offering a great deal: a trade-in program that can give you as much as 100% value for your older technology analog equipment, even if it is from other manufacturers. You can then use this generous credit towards the purchase and installation of the latest Crestron digital video system. This offer means that now is the time to call a professional Digitech system designer to perform an analog to digital conversion and create a streamlined, modern digital video system you want.

Depending on what equipment you already own, the Crestron trade-in program can make it easy to upgrade from analog to digital. Digitech can create a streamlined system for you using your existing CAT5e cable. You won’t need any new wires or connectors. By simply swapping out your analog switchers and room boxes, your Digitech designer can get you set up with Crestron digital media, including a user-friendly software package filled with useful tools. This analog to digital upgrade package may also give you the perfect opportunity to improve upon a previously installed system to create a more seamless and user-friendly digital technology experience.

How can you benefit from new Crestron technologies? At home, you can create a truly digital HD home theater experience, complete with crystal-clear digital picture and sound. Crestron’s current trade-in program can help you to make an investment in a realistic, theater-quality screening of the big game or the latest action movie with the guys. An analog to digital conversion can also amp up family gaming night or a chick-flick movie marathon with the girls.

As for the workplace, universities, military installations, and Fortune 500 companies nationwide, among others, rely on Crestron technology for their digital needs. From teleconference rooms to projection systems in banquet halls, the analog to digital conversion has helped many businesses and organizations modernize to state-of-the-art digital technology. This switch can make the technology more user-friendly, impress business clients, and even increase efficiency.

So what are you waiting for? Does your home or business need a digital upgrade? Call Digitech today for a free quote on an analog to digital conversion package. An expert system designer will come customize a system that fills your needs and allows you to keep up with the fast pace of digital technology.

2012 Indianapolis Home Show

Come see us at the 90^th Indianapolis Home Show going on at the Indiana State Fairgrounds January 20– 29, 2012.  We will be in the West Pavilion our booth number is 550.  Go here www.indianapolishomeshow.comto view the hours and details of the show.  We’ll have the latest electronic integrated technology on display including products like:

• Control4 Advanced Control System with iPad, iPhone, in-wall touch screen integration
• Control4 Lighting
• Control4 HVAC control
• Pioneer Elite 3D 70” LED HDTV arguably the world’s best TV
• Pioneer Elite Receiver and Media Streaming Bluray Player
• Kaleidescape Media Server System
• B&W Load Speakers
• Lutron Cellular Shades

Come and visit and let us entertain you!!!

Save $4.00 OFF addmission when you purchase your Indianapolis Home Show Ticket at www.indianapolishomeshow.com. Use promo code DTECH.

Go Digital With Your CD Collection

When was the last time you played a CD? A couple years? Longer? The reality is that you invested a lot of time and money in your CD collection, and if you haven’t already migrated them to digital format, now is the time. Get the most bang for your buck by going digital—and you’ll be able to enjoy your collection forever.

Maybe you haven’t converted your music to digital files yet because of the time factor. At a rate of six CDs an hour for six hours a day, it would take several months to convert your entire library of music. Who wants to spend that much time popping CDs in and out of their computer?

Not all CD-ROM drives are equally suited for digital audio extraction, or CD conversion - also known as CD ripping. After extensive testing on a variety of drives, we have selected and implemented hardware capable of consistently perfect rips.

We will rip your CDs for you—in a fraction of the time. Digitech Custom offers this service. Both offer high-quality CD ripping and quick turnaround time. And if you’re wondering if going digital is just a passing fancy, it’s not.

Digitech Custom service includes two very impressive technologies: our technology has an error-correction technology that restores even some of your most well-used CDs. Say goodbye to pops, skips and clicks! ID3 tags and metadata helps organize your music by taking into consideration all the defining characteristics of each song including artist, album, title, genre, and more.

Some may wonder whether this type of CD ripping is legal. No worries: under the Fair Use Copyright law, an individual has the right to convert CD to MP3 for personal use. Digitech Custom merely serves as a processing agent.

Digitech Custom will not rip CDs containing copy protection software, badly scratched CDs, or homemade, copied, or pirated CDs.

Reasons to Outsource CD Ripping

• Higher quality output
• Saves you time and energy
• Professionally organized library

What are the prices? Minimum $100, 0-100 CD’s = $100, 100 or more CD’s is $1 per disc.

Once complete, your digital music library will be delivered on a DVD or on a Digitech purchased external hard drive. All libraries are organized and sorted by artist, album, and song. 

What type of digital format will my CD's be converted to? MP3 - The universal audio format, most suited for portable digital media players as it preserves sound quality with small file sizes.

If you’re thinking about upgrading your home audio system, going digital is a must-do. For more information or to discuss home audio solutions, contact Digitech Custom today!

Taking TV to a New Level: Inside the New TiVo Premiere Elite

Over a decade ago, TiVo hit the market and blew everyone away with their unparalleled digital recording device. It was unlike anything people had seen before and it completely changed the way people consumed TV. It didn’t take long for cable and satellite TV companies to build their own recording devices—and soon DVR and TiVo became the norm.

But TiVo is back—with an even bigger and better product sure to impress even the most discerning television viewer. Introducing the new TiVo Premiere Elite. It’s the only product on the market with four digital tuners. What does that mean to the consumer? You can record up to four different shows while viewing a fifth recorded program!

Not only that, the Elite’s industry-leading two-terabyte hard drive allows up to 300 hours of HD programming. For all those following along at home, that’s more than two times the recording space offered by TiVo’s competitors. Not too shabby.

Tuners and recording space aside, one of the most impressive features of the new Premiere Elite is the best-in-class user interface. In addition to a new HD, wide-screen interface, the Elite also includes an unmatched integrated search. This means you can instantly browse across all channels and sources including TV, Video on Demand and available Internet content to find something to watch or record.

So, if you already have a DVR through your cable company, why should you invest in a new TiVo Premiere Elite? The answer is simple: better, advanced-yet-easy-to-navigate features and an intuitive user interface. Here are just a few of the unique features of the TiVo Premiere Elite:

TiVo Premiere Elite Features

• iPad App: Have the ability to browse the program guide and schedule recordings right from your iPad.
• Multi-room DVR: View one shared list of recordings and playback content throughout your home. Also includes the ability to pause a program in one room and resume playback in another.
• Web Applications: Access your favorite online apps including Facebook and Twitter.
• TiVo Suggestions: During your TV downtime, TiVo uses smart programming to record programs based on your interests. Think it’s too invasive of a feature? You can easily turn it off.
• Wish List: Choose a favorite actor, genre, director, or keyword, and TiVo will record any program meeting that criteria. While this might be available on your cable DVR, this is application is notably more user-friendly.
• 30-second skip: This feature used to require a hack—but now is available standard.

 

If you’re looking to upgrade your current TV experience or in the market for a new custom home theater, TiVo Premiere Elite is worth checking out. It’s the perfect compliment to a killer LED/LCD TV and surround sound. Call us today to schedule a consultation to talk more about TiVo Premiere Elite. 

The Pioneer Elite TV Is Back… And Better Than Ever

After a notable four-year absence in the TV category, the Pioneer Elite TV is back. And while it’s not plasma like its well-received predecessors, the LCD LED set is just as attention grabbing.

The new Elite TV is setting the standard again in the high-end television industry, providing the highest caliber picture and technology available today.  The groundbreaking flat panel is available in 60” and 70” class. A great set to research if you're thinking of installing a new home theater.

Elite LED LCD sets boast a unique and powerful set of features that result in deep black levels, huge depth of color, high brightness and smooth images. Bottom line: it’s the best LED LCD picture on the market.

The Elite TV utilizes FluidMotion, a combination of an advanced frame creation system and scanning backlight technology. What does this mean to the viewer? Incredible picture clarity and smoothness. It also employs Full Array LED that creates a more uniform and brighter lighting versus the traditional edge-lit LEDs.

And there’s more! Elite’s proprietary RGB+Y technology, adds a yellow sub-pixel to the standard red/green/blue palette. This extra sub-pixel enables Precision Color Plus to create more than eight million dots per screen. What’s that mean in layman’s terms? You’ll be watching an unbelievably detailed picture.

But Elite’s shining differentiator is its Intelligent Variable Contrast. Developed specifically for Pioneer Elite TVs, Intelligent Variable Contrast technology automatically controls brightness and backlight to create an unparalleled depth of color, brilliance, detail and dark areas.

Additional Pioneer Elite TV Features

-    Brushed aluminum finish
-    Connectivity to Netflix, YouTube, and others
-    3D functionality and two sets of active 3D glasses
-    THX® certified display
-    720 Hz refresh rate
-    Wireless enabled apps
-    Skype ready

The brand is currently targeting “discerning consumers who want the best home entertainment experience”— and they don’t disappoint. Their four-year hiatus from the TV game didn’t affect the top-notch craftsmanship or best-in-class aesthetic they previously built their reputation on.

"Over the past 25 years the Elite brand has developed a loyal and avid fan base of audiophiles and videophiles," Tom Evans, general manager of Product & Marketing for Elite televisions said in a press release.

"We are confident that our new line of Elite LCD TVs will appeal to the Elite purists who expect the highest picture quality and experience as well as today's luxury technology enthusiasts looking for the most innovative products to outfit their digitally connected homes."

In the ‘90s, Elite paved the way for top-of-the-line rear projection displays. The following decade, they created the best plasma TV available on the market. And now, the trailblazing company has done it again: creating a standard-setting LCD LED flat panel.

For more information on a Pioneer Elite TV, please call us for a consultation or stop by our showroom for a demonstration. It’s something you have to see to believe.

How Contemporary Lighting Design Can Improve Your Home’s Aesthetic

Did you know that upgrading your home lighting design could not only save you money but also significantly decrease the amount of energy you use? When it comes to lighting your home, simple on/off light switches are no longer the best solution. In fact, one of our leading brands, Lutron, features several innovative solutions that reduce energy output, saving you money year after year.

So what exactly does upgrading your home lighting system entail? There are many solutions available—you can go as small as replacing your standard light switches with dimmers or as big as installing a whole new light management system. Both will save you money and energy almost instantly.


Lutron’s dimmers and keypads allow homeowners to control the amount of light their fixtures provide based on mood, situation—or most important, time of day. When natural light is filling your home, there’s no need to have your lights at maximum output.

Natural light is beneficial in many ways. It creates an inviting, aesthetically pleasing environment for your home interior, and it can also have positive effects on your health. Natural light contributes to your important daily dose of vitamin D and has been shown to improve focus and productivity.

Another way to capitalize on daylight is by using shades in conjunction with dimmers. Lutron recently unveiled new Cellular Shades that help create the perfect balance between natural and artificial light to save energy and create an inviting environment. Cellular Shades are available in varying opacities from sheer and translucent to room darkening—so you can choose just how dark and private you want your space to be.

Click here to view Lutron's New Wireless Cellular Shades Video

Benefits of Home Lighting Design Solutions

- Save energy
- Save money
- Enhance your décor
- Add convenience
- Extend light bulb life
- Help reduce America’s energy costs

Digitech Custom is also excited to offer additional lighting solutions including security lighting, a built-in time clock to adjust lighting for changing seasons and daylight savings, and a bedside all-on button for peace of mind at night.



Call us today to schedule an in-home consultation to discuss the best contemporary lighting design solutions for your home.

Why a Custom Home Theater Is Right for You

Want to experience the energy and excitement of the cinema from the comfort of your own couch? Ready to watch your favorite NFL team play from what feels like the sideline of the field? If you’ve answered yes to either of those questions, Digitech Custom has a home theater solution for you.

Perhaps all you want to do is upgrade your flat-screen and add some surround sound audio to your current set up. Or maybe you want to take your home movie viewing to a whole new level—either way, we want to design the best home theater experience for your home.

From the very first consultation to the design through the completion of the project, Digitech’s sales and engineering staff will help create the ideal entertainment environment for you and your family--while remaining within your budget.

The possibilities of what we can do are limitless. We proudly carry the most up-to-date technologies, highest quality brands, and high-end enhancements to give your home theater system that “wow” factor. Here are some of our most innovative enhancements and options.

Digitech’s Custom Home Theater Components:

-    Video Projection Systems
-    Audio Surround Sound
-    Custom Seating
-    Acoustic Paneling
-    Lighting Design
-    Automated Shading
-    Climate Control
-    Complete System Control

We specialize in audio and video reproduction—our designers and installers have been trained to create the most compelling and engaging home cinema experience for each individual customer. We want you to be amazed at the clarity and quality of the audio and visual components of your home theater.

Call us to schedule a consultation to see our showrooms to see your many options as we collaboratively design your custom home theater. To help you start visualizing the different components and layout of your home theater, check out our Home Theater Gallery featuring some of our latest and greatest home theater designs.