Wired 1 Consulting

As most of you know I have been in the custom electronics business for a long time and a lot of my clients are on their 3rd or 4th evolution of their home electronics. Television technology, wireless integration, streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, Apple Airplay, HDCP, network streaming… the list goes on and on! In today’s electronic world these are “must have” features for your entertainment system.

These innovations were just ideas 10 years ago but today they are commonplace and relatively easy to integrate if you have the right equipment and the expertise of Wired 1 Consulting.

Here’s a before and after view of a clients system transitioning from a 42″ projection TV to a wall mounted 63″ flat panel TV,  new wireless network receiver that is ready for Ultra High Resolution with built in Wi-Fi and Blue tooth connectivity and a beautiful

NEW Ready for the today and tomorrow’s technology

cherry cabinet. As you can see, and this client will confirm, the result is gorgeous!

When you are ready for YOUR upgrade Wired 1 Consulting has your solution!

OLD Hitachi rear projection system

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Many, many, years ago a guy by the name of Thomas Edison patented a wax cylinder device that actually recorded and played back sound, this quickly evolved into a circular lacquer flat disc that morphed over time into the vinyl record. Along the way many magnetic tape recording devices came and went, the reel to reel. the 8 track, the cassette. All of these devices have faded into museum pieces, with the exception of vinyl records, which are enjoying a bit of a renaissance, why? Because they sound good! A well pressed record on a better than average turntable can still provide fantastic sound. But they have to be handled with care and eventually friction and fingerprints will prevail and you are left with a ticky muddled version of the original, not to mention the “skips”! Digital recording emerged to the consumer market in the early 1980’s (although digital recording had been around since before world war 2). The Compact Disc all but killed competing audio formats with it’s almost instant access and portability – but man, did those early CD players ever sound “BAD”! As the technology developed elaborate filtering systems were introduced to try and smooth out the sound but because of the size of the disc itself and the recording and manufacturing technology of the day the CD was destined to be usurped by advances in technology that allowed for higher sample rates and longer digital words. Enter the MP3. Early digital devices used for audio playback didn’t have much storage capacity and extra storage was very expensive so in order to get more music stored for playback a compromise was taken in that the early MP3’s were far from the quality of the original. Today we have extremely fast processors, storage is cheap – it’s time we stopped listening to compromised renditions of our favourite tunes! If you are listening to MP3 as your music file format (even at 320kbs) you need to change. MP3 reduces the size of the music file by using compression and “throwing away” portions of the original that the algorithm in the compressor that it mathematically calculates that we can’t hear. This is called “lossy” compression, and as the name implies, you are losing information. There are now, and have been for some time, “lossless” compression systems (flac, apple lossless or aac, monkey audio etc.) that simply squish the file size without compromising the original content. There are difficulties with these file types however as all but Apple lossless are NOT supported by ITunes and most portable music players and smartphones! Enter higher bit rate: MP3 and most lossless encoders work at 16 bit and a 44.1khz sample rate. To put it very simplistically 16 bit is the maximum length of a descriptive sentence and 44.1khz is the number of “snapshots” or samples taken every second during the recording and playback process. Well, this is 20 year old technology! High bit rate is where it’s at now. You can now download music that is sampled at 24 bit (the sentences are more descriptive) and sample rates of 196kbs (more snapshots every second) so a much better and accurate sampling of the original. Neil Young actually put his money where his ears are and stated that with today’s technology it’s time for the public to hear what the musician that created the music hears. He just launched the new PONO player. A high bit music player that supports this better audio format with a state of the art digital to analog convertor. A lot of the new smartphones are incorporating better audio processors that can play back these higher bit rate files, but sorry to say, not ITunes! A lot of, in fact most of today’s computers have the ability to play back these music files simply by installing a compatible music player on your computer. I use Foobar and VLC media player. Both programs are free on the Windows platform, which is the right price for me. There are also similar programs available for the Mac. ITunes won’t do it. If you like music check it out, your ears will thank you. Search “HD music” on the web.  And remember, Wired 1 Consulting has some great systems to make sure that you hear every detail in these high definition recordings! Call us today.

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Are you looking to REALLY upgrade your theater system? Have you thought about multi room audio? Well this is a great deal for you!!

The Denon HEOS is an incredible expandable multi room audio system that is controlled by your Apple or Android Smart phone or tablet. Have your music and streaming audio every where that you want it to be in your home independently and wireless! The HEOS system is the result of years of development from DENON the leader in digital technology and coupled with either the Denon AVRX4100 or the AVRW5200W – YOU get a HEOS LINK for FREE!!

Contact us at Wired 1 now for details and to take advantage of this incredible offer! www,wired1.ca or (506)470-7510

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We recently had a client contact us for help. They had decided to redecorate their media room but wires were everywhere!

What a mess!

After an assessment of the situation I recommended that the cabling could be concealed in a wire track above the baseboard and with a little care all the wires could be hidden from view. I also recommended an update to a new Harman Kardon digital amplifier http://eu.harmankardon.com/harman-kardon-product-detail_eu/hk-3770.html with network and blue tooth connectivity instead of a TL Audio Fatman Red I amplifier that was originally designed as a computer system amplifier. A Harmony Ultimate Home remote control now gives them one touch control of their Bell Satellite PVR, Apple TV, SONOS music library and their home network or any Bluetooth enabled audio device! It looks and sound marvelous, and no visible wires!!

Almost there.. still some wires to clean up

Finished project – Happy client! Holes are ready for the drywall contractor to fill and paint and with the new Harman Kardon Amp a subwoofer in that corner would be a nice addition!

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We were called in to help with a change of location for Dooly’s in Oromocto. It involved removing the equipment, the electronics, speakers and a number of flat panel televisions from the old location to the new location. at the same time as electricians, carpenters, painters, plumbers etc. were doing their thing!

60″ Dooly’s

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I recently installed a pair of SpeakerCraft outdoor speakers for a client after he bought a pair of “outdoor” speakers from a big box store and was very unimpressed with the sound and build quality. I had mentioned to him when I designed and installed his home theater system two years ago as to what he should have. I had run wires outdoors to his deck for future consideration and just happened to run into him in a store when he confessed that he had just bought a pair of speakers for his deck. I asked him what he got and I told him – you won’t be happy! A week later he called me! I ordered the equipment for him, SpeakerCraft outdoor speakers and a Marantz MM7025 stereo power amp. I installed the system for him and I got this text message last night.

Kind of makes it all worth while!

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SpeakerCraft outdoor speakers rock! These OE8 THREE speakers feature an 8″ bass speaker, a polymer midrange and a film deposited aluminum tweeter. Designed to handle our Canadian climate these bad boys can stay outside all year round. Lifetime warranty and a sound you have to hear to believe. Available exclusively from Wired 1 Consulting. For the sights and sounds of your life!

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For years now I have rejected the existing wireless audio distribution systems that were available on the market, most notable a certain British start-up with no pedigree in audio design, but by utilizing a proprietary Wi-Fi transmission technology they quickly became the darling of the wireless aficionados. If given no comparison, these systems sound OK, but, when put up against a well designed audio system they really fall short!

Rejoice, you can now have wireless technology AND great sound quality with the new HEOS system from DENON. The engineers at DENON looked at competing systems available and designed the new HEOS to literally blow them out of the water! Nobody has more experience and expertise in the world of digital audio than the engineers at DENON and they have pulled out all of the stops on this new system!

Check out the new HEOS system at www.denon.ca today and get in touch with us at Wired 1 Consulting! (506)470-7510 It’ll blow your mind! I’m still picking up brain cells! 🙂

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It’s quite amazing how fast technology moves! It seems like yesterday that we were watching TV on a cathode ray clunker in the corner of the living room and wondering how to stop that VCR to stop blinking “12:00”, nowadays just blink and the tech changes!

A move from that old technology into the new digital age is going to mean a wholesale change in your system, but by making some strategic choices in your new electronics you can help to future proof (to a certain extent) your system.

Rule #1: Buy the best technology you can afford. Low cost, budget brands are everywhere, and the old adage “you get what you pay for” is truer today than it ever was.  Better quality means greater longevity, both in build quality and more importantly in technological aging.

Some of the most dramatic changes have been it the cabling method that is used to connect a TV to a source device. For example:, antennae used to be the way you got a TV station (anyone remember “rabbit ears”?), then we had VCR’s, that used a coaxial cable connection between the TV and the VCR, until stereo came out and that required a video and a stereo audio RCA type connection on the TV and the VCR, VCR’s got better picture with Super VHS and Beta requiring a new type of connection for the picture called S-Video. All of theses changes took about 60 years to transpire… and then things went DIGITAL! The first digital devices used analog connections to the TV, three of them to be precise to transmit the picture to the TV (Y,Pb,Pr) this upped the resolution to the ability to show 1080 horizontal lines of resolution compared to 520 lines for S-video and a measly 200 lines for a coaxial connection. Again a new type of connector that had to be on both the TV and the source device in order to see the better quality was required. This was a very short lifespan as far as connections are concerned (about 5 years) but it paved the way for the first truly digital connection for consumer electronics called HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) now not only was the picture sent over a cable digitally but the audio also was carried on the same cable digitally. A dramatic reduction in the spaghetti mess of wires behind the electronics! But we are not done yet… in very short order the abilities of the HDMI system were upgraded from HDMI 1.0, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.4A, all the way up to the latest standard called HDMI 2.0! With this new performance standard the industry is ready for a new resolution standard called UHD (Ultra High Definition). Again a change in television and source devices is going to be required to see these changes which include approximately 4X the resolution of HDMI and a dramatic increase in the colour depth of the picture as well as the ability to support 11.2 channel audio…on ONE cable! It won’t be long before this can be sent to the TV without any wires!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, but I do know that the innovation and performance of Television in general is not going to stop, but by making the right choices now you will be able to stave off the inevitable obsolescence of the industry considerable longer than if you are buying uninformed of today’s technology!

At Wired 1 we stay up to date with the current and predicted advances in the electronics work so you don’t have to! Contact us today and get ready for the sights and sounds of your life!

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Dooly’s in Oromocto is relocating and Wired 1 Consulting is handling the transfer of the equipment and the low voltage wiring for the new location in the Oromocto Mall. No air conditioning today! Extremely damp!!

This was the scene today getting all the speaker wires and feeds for the flat panel televisions in place. Next step will be dismantling the old location and moving all the electronics – thank God we don’t have to move the pool tables!

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