Another Living Room Theater System

This is going to be a another great sounding system with in ceiling speakers (all in containment housings!). The clients liked the concept so much that they removed a proposed corner  propane fireplace in the corner of the room and opted for a slim line electric fireplace directly below the television wall placement in the room. All of their electronics will be hidden away in a closet and operated with a radio frequency remote control system. This is the way to go! No exposed wires, no dust bunnies and nothing to trip over!

Building or renovating Wired 1 Consulting should be your choice for quality audio/video installations that you’ll love to brag about!WP_20131004_002 WP_20131004_003 WP_20131004_004 WP_20131010_008 WP_20131010_009 WP_20131010_010 WP_20131010_011 WP_20131023_001 WP_20131023_002 WP_20131023_003 WP_20131023_004 WP_20131025_001 WP_20131025_002 WP_20131113_001 WP_20131113_003 WP_20131113_005 WP_20131113_006 WP_20131113_007

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Speaker Installation Day #1 and Finished Day #2

WP_20131007_003 WP_20131007_007 WP_20131007_006 WP_20131007_005 WP_20131007_004WP_20131009_006 WP_20131009_003Day one of the trim out. All the speakers are installed. The theatre has a 7.1 surround system with SpeakerCraft AIM series 6.5″ round speakers in the ceiling and SpeakerCraft AIM Cinema speakers for the center, left and right. A 12″ SpeakerCraft subwoofer provides the bass foundation for the system. Another set of AIM ceiling speakers are installed in a second zone. The 125 pound 80″ Sharp Aquos TV gets mounted in 2 days – if I can find 5-6 guys to help me lift it! 🙂

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The Ongoing Evolution of Television

If you have been keeping an eye on what’s going on in the electronics industry you have probably noticed a lot of talk about 4K or Ultra High Definition (UHD).

4K is the next generation of television/video and cinema production. The 4K standard produces approximately 4 times the resolution of HD (High Definition) televisions that are the predominant television on the market today. Unlike 3D television that had it’s detractors when it was introduced 4K has the industry buzzing with it’s stunning picture clarity and enhanced (particularly sound) features.

As with any new development, the 4K sets are currently very expensive sets to purchase and they are currently available in screen sizes larger than 50″. The peripheral equipment required is also on the pricey side but manufacturers are getting ready for the transition. Netflix has already announced that they will start streaming via the internet select programming in 4K!

4K also means a change in the standards of delivery technology from the source to the television (display). The current standard for high definition delivery is via HDMI cable. The current standard is version 1.4a, but less than a month ago a new version was finalized as HDMI 2.0. The information will still travel on an HDMI 1.4a certified cable but the transmission and receiving protocols will change in the electronic components. We will probably see Full HDMI 2,0 compliant electronics as early as this fall season.

For a more in-depth discussion of this new technology and what it means to the 4K introduction I encourage you to visit Leo LaPorte’s excellent streaming broadcast service at www.TWIT.tv the link to the specific broadcast is: http://twit.tv/show/home-theater-geeks/179

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They were great speakers…

Yes, the definitive word here is “were”!
Time is hard on speakers. Even if you have treated them with tender loving care after about 10 years it’s usually time for a new set.
Even if physically the speaker looks OK on the outside, time is chewing away on the inside!
Inside every loudspeaker that has more than one speaker in the cabinet there is an electronic dividing device called a crossover. It’s this device that sends the proper sound to the appropriate speaker (bass to the woofer, treble to the tweeter) and the crossover is the device that your amplifier “sees” electronically. Over time the electronic characteristics of the crossover will deteriorate from the designed specification of the speaker to the point that it won’t be sending the proper frequencies to the proper driver component inside the cabinet. This aging also may change the electrical characteristics of the speaker which is critically important to the amplifier that is connected to the speakers.
There is also physical wear and tear that happens when a speaker plays sound. Inside almost every kind of speaker there is a magnet and a round coil of wire, called a voice coil, that move the speaker in in out of the cabinet and this vibration creates the music we hear. Magnets get old. Just like that fridge magnet that used to hold a ream of paper to the side of the refrigerator when it was new but now slides to the floor, the magnets inside your old speakers are slowly losing their charge. As the magnetic charge decreases the damping factor (the speaker’s ability to stop itself when the music stops) decreases. This has an adverse effect on the accuracy of the music played.
If your speakers are more than 10 years old it’s likely time to retire them!

Wired 1 offers a wide variety of speaker lines to suit any budget. Check out our suppliers section on our home page.

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Another new living room theatre!

Let’s face it, sometimes you don’t want to be in the basement to enjoy your favourite movies or that Sunday afternoon football game. All those big speaker boxes can really ruin your décor. Not when the speakers are in the ceiling! No dusting, no “knock-overs”, no kitties sharpening claws on the front grills! The technology in today’s in-ceiling speakers makes the sound come down into the room, especially SpeakerCraft’s AIM series speakers. They can be aimed. Not just the tweeter, but the whole speaker gets aimed for the best result in your room.

Book your theatre system today with Wired 1 Consulting – You’ll be glad you did!WP_20131010_008 WP_20131010_011 WP_20131010_009

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This is a great looking theatre!

We finally finished the panel installations for this clients theatre and living room. Looks great and sounds tremendous!

All control is via a Harmony Ultimate remote control that allows you to download a free app for your IPhone/IPad or Android device that lets you operate the system from anywhere in the home with Wi-Fi access.WP_20131009_003 WP_20131009_004 WP_20131009_006

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How to make your home theatre sound better!

Here’s a great webcast that explains a lot about how room conditions can adversely affect the performance of your home theatre or stereo system.

http://twit.tv/show/home-theater-geeks/177

You can spend a lot of money on speakers and electronics for your system, but if the room adversely affects the performance of your investment Wired 1 can help you out. We offer a wide array of absorbing and diffusing panels, bass traps and custom calibration.

Give us a call or drop us a line to find out how you can finally enjoy the sound of what you paid for!

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Theatre Construction 101

As you can see in the pics we now have all the speakers installed on this project with the TV’s (an 80″ 3D Sharp Aquos in the Theatre and a 60″ upstairs in the living room) being wall mounted WP_20130827_002 WP_20130827_003 WP_20130827_004 WP_20130827_005 WP_20131007_001 WP_20131007_002 WP_20131007_003 WP_20131007_004 WP_20131007_005 WP_20131007_007in 2 days. The Sharp is a heavy one – 126 pounds! Time to eat my Wheaties!

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Another Dynamite System from Wired 1 Consulting!

WP_20131004_001This is going to be an awesome system! Going in Monday. The 80″ and 60″ flat panel TV’s are already at the client’s home waiting for us.

Using SpeakerCraft in-ceiling speakers (in containment housings!) for the rear 4 speakers in a 7.1 surround system and SpeakerCraft AIM Cinema speakers for the front channel array. Powered by DENON’s awesome AVR-4520Ci digital receiver with 150 watts of power to 9 channels, that’s 1350 watts! Coupled with a 12″ SpeakerCraft powered subwoofer this system is going to be incredible! Just in time for football, hockey, basketball season!

More pics to come!

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What the heck are these?!

WP_20130731_006 WP_20130731_007These are one of the most important devices in an in ceiling speaker system.

These are speaker containment boxes for new and renovated ceiling speaker installations.

They are installed in your ceilings between the joists BEFORE the dry wall is applied. They provide the ideal “box” for the in ceiling speaker to operate in, thus providing the best performance for the speaker. If you don’t have containment housings the back of the speaker fires sound out the back, with the same volume as what comes out the front, into the open joist space above your finished ceiling. This sound travels between floors, interferes with other ceiling speakers in the array and causes all sorts of nasty problems when you try to “tune” the system. It also makes listening to the system when someone is sleeping virtually impossible! A speaker containment box reduces the room to room transmission of sound by more than 20 decibels (that’s a lot) and allows the speaker to perform the way it should.

There is also the safety factor to consider. In ceiling speakers usually have speakers made of some sort of plastic or polypropylene that have a very low melting point. If, God forbid, you ever had a fire in the room that has in ceiling speakers these speakers melt, creating a chimney for the fire to whisk it’s way to the next floor! Not if you have containment housings. The housings have a fire rating far in excess of the rating of the gyproc or blue board that is on the ceiling – so, no chimney!

But the best advantage that these boxes provide is the clean, easy and fast installation of the speakers after the room is painted. If you just have speaker wires sticking out of the ceiling your electronics contractor has to guess where they can cut a hole in the ceiling in order to install the speaker. It’s a time consuming and messy proposition – the money that you spend on containment boxes will more than pay for the extra labour charges you will incur if the contractor has to cut the drywall to install the speaker!

At Wired 1 Consulting we strongly recommend containment housings. They make a HUGE difference!

If your electronics contractor is not offering fire rated containment boxes – you now know who does!

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