Wired 1 Consulting

Everything electronic these days is touting the “SMART” designation. Just how smart these devices are has yet to be determined, but one thing is for certain, the end user needs to be “smart”, in a tech savvy way, in order to get all these devices doing what they should be doing! One thing that the informed consumer needs to know is that in the design strategy of electronic manufacturers the ultimate goal is to have all of your devices “linked” via the internet or over Wi-Fi networks and using their system. That not only means that all of these devices need to be connected to the internet on your home network, either hard wired or wirelessly (Wi-Fi), but they also have to speak the same language!

Computer manufacturers and operating systems manufacturers are not just making computers these days. They are making phones, gaming consoles, tablets etc. and the marketing strategy of these computer manufacturers is to get consumers to embrace their ecosystem. This make perfect sense if the consumer “likes” all the products that the developer designed for their ecosystem, but these days that isn’t the case. You may prefer a phone from one system developer, a computer from another and a console from still another! Starting to sound confusing? It is!

There are currently 3 main computing language platforms that are available to the consumer, but there are also quite a few others that are being used out there in the tech/computer world. The most prevalent platform is Microsoft Windows. It is still, by far, the most prevalent computer operating system on the planet and most electronics manufacturers will place Windows compliancy at the top of their design platform. Apple also gets considerable attention, mostly due to the popularity of their “I” series of  products like the IPhone, IPad and IPod. The Apple computer operating system, or IOS, is a very good system and with Apples’ move to using Intel based chip sets in their computers they have increased the compliancy of their systems, particularly with the Windows operating system which has always used Intel based chip sets in their operating systems design. There are still some proprietary issues between these operating systems but they generally can be forced to get along with each other. The new kid on the block is Google and the Android operating system. The Google/Android system is based on what is called open source software which means there is no proprietary license fees involved in the use of these devices unlike Apple and Windows. Because it is free to use and implement, hardware manufacturers and consumers have gobbled up Google/Android devices with increasing fervor. Developers and programmers like to work with the Google operating system because it is based on the Linux kernel (another free open source system). Open source software is generally pretty good and is regulated and controlled by the governing bodies at both Google and Linux and not as tightly controlled as Windows (Microsoft) and Apple programming.

In a perfect scenario these operating systems would communicate flawlessly with one another and in reality they do to a certain extent because of the rules and regulations that are in place to govern the internet. All of these devices have to use the same protocols to connect and communicate over the wired and wireless network universe. Thank God there’s a cop on the beat!

There are still a lot of things that you can’t do with a mixed marriage of devices because frankly these companies are in competitive business with each other and they all want to be king of the hill. I am not here to tell you which is the best system, but depending on your requirements one system might be better suited than the others and you will have better integration with your devices.

As always, Wired 1 is here to help you every step of the way. Give us a call or contact us on line at www.wired1.ca and we’ll make your system communicate!

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Here is a link to AVS Forums, a great site reviewing all things “Home Theatre”. Ever since the arrival of LED flat panels I have been asked “What set has the best picture quality?” My answer all along has been “Plasma”. I am not alone in this judgment. Most professional reviewers have the same opinion. LED is getting better all the time but currently Plasma is the king of the hill. Contrary to what has been reported in the press Panasonic is NOT pulling the plug on plasma production although they are scaling back on the research on their plasma developmental technologies. From this article it is clear that they can afford to sit back and see if the LED technology can catch up!

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1467720/panasonic-zt60-is-potential-kuro-killer-plasma-not-dead-yet

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These are a few pics from our most recent job. This is the 4th theatre that we have designed and installed for this client! He flips homes ever 3 or 4 years and will not go without his home theatre. We already ran all of the wiring before the sheet rock was installed and customized his built in electronics cabinet. More pictures to follow…

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Spring for the sports fan means hockey and basketball playoffs, March Madness, the start of baseball, golf, soccer and football seasons. The video quality of these live broadcasts are amazing on a high definition TV. The audio quality of these shows is spectacular on a perfectly adjusted surround sound system and transport you to the arena, stadium or golf green, close your eyes and you would swear that you were there.

At Wired 1 Consulting we can’t guarantee that your favorite team will win every game, but we can make sure that you are seeing and hearing every detail of every game from your properly tuned audio video system.

If you already own a good system there is a very good chance that it is not optimized to it’s full potential. The experts at Wired 1 Consulting can squeeze out every ounce of performance that you paid for.

Or, maybe you just don’t know what to buy in this confusing home electronics world – we can help. Wired 1 Consulting is an authorized dealer for some of the most prestigious and respected manufacturers. We can put a system together for you that will make your eyes, ears and your budget happy!

Give us a call today (506) 470-7510, or drop us a note at www.wired1.ca you’ll be glad you did!

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It just boggles my mind that I am still seeing homes wired  for sound with wire that would barely ring a doorbell. These contractors have no idea what a disservice they are doing for their clients!

Audio signals carried over wire have to compete with some pretty nasty things. First there is electrical resistance; what you get out of a wire at one end is less than what you put in at the other. Audio systems and speakers work on AC (Alternating Current) power, in simplistic terms, the speaker pushes out (positive) and pulls in (negative) in order to make the music we all enjoy and the amplifier has to control this movement of the speaker. So, what ever length of wire is run to the speakers you have to consider that the electrical signal has to run through twice this length as the amplifier tries to push and pull the speaker attached at the other end. The best way to ensure that the amplifier has the best control of the speaker is by using a good conductor in the wire itself and by increasing the gauge or diameter of the wire. Good quality speaker wire will be usually made out of copper. Copper is one of the best metallic conductors of electricity, the only metal better than copper is silver. I can wire your house with silver wire but you don’t want to even guess how much that costs! Good copper wire will be rated at the percentage of pure copper in the wire – good wire, like Ivory Snow, will be 99% pure or better. That means that there are very few impurities in the wire that don’t conduct electricity. Most of these better wires will further state that the are OFC. That stands for oxygen free copper. This wire is formed in a vacuum so that air does not mix with the copper. Oxygen does not conduct electricity and you don’t want that getting in the way of your music, although it is good to breathe!

There are of course limits to how thick a wire you can use in any system, but the normal wire sizes, or gauges, of wire are from 18 to 10 gauge (the 10 being the thicker wire, I know it looks like we are backwards but that’s how the  wire gauge measurement works). Of course there are limitations to wire due to cost (pure copper IS expensive) so most of the installations that we do at Wired 1 Consulting use 14 gauge wire, which is an ideal compromise between conductance and capacitive loss and most importantly, price. This wire is also made of multiple small strands of copper wire that make up the total gauge. The reason why you need to use stranded wire instead of solid core wire has to do with a nasty thing called capacitance. Not only will there be a resistive loss in wire but you will also get a bass loss (tinny sound) as this wire gets longer – now that really sucks! There is no way to avoid it other than to take steps to lessen it. Resistive loss you can counteract by simply turning up the volume of an amp but even the best equalizers on the planet will not properly correct for capacitive loss. Science to the rescue: Many years ago scientists studying signal transmissions in copper wire for the Trans Atlantic undersea telephone lines found that there was a difference as to where in the copper wire a frequency would like to travel. They found that the lower (bass) signals liked to ride on the outside of the wire, called the “skin effect”, and the higher frequencies (midrange and treble) liked to travel on the inside (core effect) of the copper wire – weird, but true! Which brings us to the reason for using stranded speaker wire and not solid core like your electricians wire your house with or use for doorbell wire! By having multiple strands of copper you give the low frequencies (bass) more area to run  on the cable, thus lessening the capacitive effect that the wire imparts on the audio signal.

More to come…

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It seems that there are more issues when using a Display Port source device to an HDMI viewing device than just having the right adaptor to do the job.

When VESA (the Video Electronics Standards Association) designed the Display port specifications and released it as a new “standard” for the interconnectivity of display devices they neglected an integral part of the broadcast industries HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection)! HDCP is incorporated in HDMI to HDMI data transfers It’s a kind of electronic “handshake” in that the source device confirms that the device receiving the data is a display device, not a recording device, and then lets the data transfer take place. Without this “handshake” no data gets transferred. That’s a BIG problem! If you are sending video to the display device, especially if this is produced content you will probably get a nice blue screen. Spread sheets and Word documents will work just fine but if you feel like taking a break and watching a Netflix movie you might not see anything!

VESA is working feverishly on this problem. It is sort of like barring the door after the horse has left the stable. They will get the standards adjusted and working eventually but it’s just one more example of technical industries not talking to each other thus causing more headaches for the end user – the consuming public!

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The last couple of years has brought some new connector ports to the computer industry and an update to a port that was lagging behind the technology of the day. The Apple computers with their Thunderbolt port, and both the Apple and PC camps with Display Port connections and USB 3.o connectivity.

For awhile video connections seemed to be “getting along” between the computer and the CE camps with everyone using the HDMI 1.4a standard in either regular, mini or micro versions. The problem happened when Apple introduced the Thunderbolt port.

This port was designed to eliminate the need for wires and distribution devices to connect devices of various configurations to one port on the computer by daisy chaining one device to the next device, to the next device etc. Your printer connects to your monitor and your external hard drive connects to outboard audio system… you get the drift.

This is a great idea providing that all your devices are Thunderbolt ready. In reality most of us are not willing to run out and replace  perfectly good working devices with  new ones simply to daisy chain our devices together, so, we need adaptors.

The same thing happens when we look at Display Port. Designed by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) to enable the daisy chaining of multiple monitors together eliminating the need for video card manufacturers to have to put 2 or more output ports on their video cards or use an outboard video distribution device to send signals to multiple computer monitors.

These are all really great ideas and allow the main computer to “talk” to each one of the Display Port or Thunderbolt connected devices individually over a single cable connected to the computer. But it seems no one talked to the Consumer Electronic manufacturers! They just keep rolling along with HDMI, well, maybe we will start to see some display port inputs and outputs on TVs, but not this year! I can imagine that the rumored Apple TV will have Thunderbolt connectivity. We’ll have to wait and see.

All these changes create chaos for the even the most informed consumer. With screams of “I just want to watch Netflix on my big screen with my new laptop computer!”

This is what Wired 1 Consulting is all about. Give  us a call. We can make it work!

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Netflix has just announced that they are now streaming their movie catalogue in Super HD if your internet service provider is capable of providing it. This new service increases the size of the download stream so if you are with a metered system from your service provider this option might not be a good idea but if, like me, you have unlimited 50mb/sec download service with Bell fiber optic internet and you make sure that the video quality in your Netflix account is set to high quality you can now watch movies that are just about Blu-ray quality!
There is a list of compatible devices, including Sony PS3 and Windows 8 computers, on the Netflix website.
Wired 1 will be happy to help you out with getting the best performance out of all your entertainment products.
Give us a call!

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Lately things have been pretty busy in Redmond Washington! Microsoft has launched their new Windows Phone 8, the new Windows 8 operating system, the new Surface RT and Surface Pro super tablets and a complete revamp of the office suite. With all of this going on it’s small wonder that they are having some issues!

I have been a follower of Microsoft as long as I have owned computers and they eventually get things straightened out. But it still baffles me as to why they can’t release a product to the public that doesn’t need a major update before it works properly. I recently purchased the new Surface Pro 128. It’s an amazing device. A real work of art!

I decided that my old copy of Office 2007 was due for an update so I downloaded the new Office 365 home premium edition from Microsoft. It’s a great deal if you have multiple computers, PC and Mac, as you can install it on up to 5 computers for $99.95/year. The install went cleanly until I checked my contacts folder and discovered that I only had 44 contacts on my Surface and 87 on my desktop main machine! I contacted tech support and they have escalated the problem to tier 3 support and still haven’t solved this known issue.

Then I started sending emails and, before I knew it, I had sent one poor client 4 copies of a quotation because Outlook 2013 was not populating the “sent” folder properly so I thought the mail had not been sent. Microsoft’s response to this is that it’s a new program and there are a number of issues that will be fixed in the next update! This is something that should work right from the get go! It’s not as bad as Apple Maps sending people down dead end streets and almost into lakes and over cliffs, but at a time when everything Microsoft does is being scrutinized by the entire tech industry it’s a black mark that they certainly don’t need.

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Anyone considering a new home theater system or projector should check out the latest on line video broadcast at T.W.I.T.tv from Home Theater Geeks. http://twit.tv/show/home-theater-geeks/148
This gets a little on the techie side but what it boils down to is what to look for in order to get a great projector for your theatre.

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