The autumn is the perfect time to integrate upgrades to your Atlanta home theater system. With the major holidays right around the corner – and don’t forget the Super Bowl hitting early next year – you’ll want to begin upgrading your space with full 4K UHD HDR picture quality. But not all systems are created equal, and there are some issues you’ll want to address before you can enjoy the beauty of higher resolution and color range. In this blog, we’ll show you what to look out for. Read more after the jump.

See Also: The Coolest Things Atlanta Home Theater Owners Will Love From CEDIA 2016

Cabling

The most common – and most frequently overlooked – issue with upgrading your system is ensuring the proper amount of bandwidth. Remember, 4K UHD offers four times the resolution of 1080p HD, and that means your cables need to support four times the information. Throw HDR into the mix and you could suffer from a downscaled signal or even no picture at all.

So upgrading your cables is essential. For any devices contained within the theater, say a local UHD Blu-ray player, you can connect them with HDMI 2.0 cables. For any hardware racked neatly in the basement, you’ll want to fortify your signal with fiber optic cables which, unlike HDMI 2.0, can transmit 4K signals over long distances.

Remember a few months back when we told you that there were big changes coming to your smart home automation system thanks to Control4? One of the biggest was compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa voice-control platform. Now homeowners can take advantage of the well-reviewed interface to easily enjoy the features of their integrated technology. But a successful product is bound to ignite competition. That’s appeared in the form of Google Assistant compatibility with Control4 systems. Find out how this is heating up the voice-control market after the jump.

See Also: Control 4 Now Integrated with Amazon Echo: What it Means

What is Google Assistant?

Much like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant is an interactive voice control platform primarily used for Google Home – a smart home hub similar to the Echo. This past October, Control4 announced that like Alexa and Amazon’s line of hubs, Google Assistant would also work with their latest update.

According to CE Pro:

With the winter holidays right around the corner, it’s time to begin preparing. Whether you’re inviting the family over or heading out of town this year, your smart home automation system can help you enjoy the season with ease. In this blog, we’ll show you how easy it is to take advantage of your integrated technology to make your guests feel welcome or ensure a safe time away from your property. Read on for more.

See Also: This Year, Give the Gift of a Custom Home Theater

How You Welcome Guests

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that your smart home system can help you make your spaces more comfortable. But it can also minimize the stress welcoming guests like friends and family from out of town. Even when you’re out of the house, your home remains hospitable to anyone you invite over.

First, you’ll need to assign your guests a temporary access code. This is a code that allows them entry via your integrated smart locks. When they arrive, you’ll receive an immediate notification. As they walk through the property, the occupancy sensors can tell the lighting to brighten their way and the thermostat can adjust the temperature to a more comfortable setting.

Now that CEDIA has hit, technology season is in full swing. Just in time for the holidays, we’ve seen some interesting things coming out of one of the biggest custom electronics expos in the country. Whether you’re looking to install massive flat-panel TVs to enjoy beautiful Ultra HD Blu-rays or you’re just now considering the perfect additions to your home theater, CEDIA 2016 had something for you. After the jump, we’ll take a look at some of our favorite products.

See Also: Big Changes Coming to Control4 in the New Year

Sony’s Big Surprise

When we say “big,” we mean it. Sony unveiled one of the largest and brightest TV displays at this year’s event: the 100” Z9D. It’s part of their Z-series of TVs, which aim to challenge LG’s OLED units for the best-looking 4K HDR images available.

If you’re a fan of home theater tech, you know that OLED is widely considered the best display technology around. It gained praise from industry professionals in recent years because unlike more traditional LED displays, which use white LED backlighting but LCD technology for color and clarity, OLED does away with LCDs, allowing for a deeper, more natural black and sharper contrast between pixels.

Home Theater Installation Plus Security

With Halloween behind us, Election Day having come and gone, we now turn our attention towards the fun holidays of the year: Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s. The coming two months present plenty of opportunity for merriment, family gatherings, and good times all around. The increasingly cold temperatures outside make indoor activities more fun, and encourage family and friends to gather round, enjoy a drink or two and take it easy. It’s the perfect time to bust out some festive music, sing along, and get into the holiday spirit. Doing just that has never been easier than with Atlanta Audio & Automation. Our home automation allows you to easily crank your favorite tunes or simply create some nice background music while you catch up and create memories to last a lifetime. Plus, with the recent addition of security systems to our arsenal of products you can now outfit your home with everything you need – home automation for lighting, heating, and audio, plus home security and security surveillance capabilities to ensure the safety of you, your family, and anyone you invite into your home.

The Glory of a Media Room

Everyone approaches their home entertainment a little differently. With so many great ways to watch TV and movies, people have become accustomed to carving out their own unique way to settle down and watch in the comfort of their own home. One of the best ways to enjoy your home entertainment is by establishing your very own media room. With our help, it’s a cinch – we can have your media up and running with impeccable audio in no time. Our expert installation team is well experienced and can ensure your experience is unlike any other. A well-equipped media room engenders excitement, because everyone who clambers in knows they are going there for a treat.

Make your Holidays Special with Atlanta Audio & Automation

Whether you are throwing a big holiday bash or a small family gathering, we at Atlanta Audio & Automation wish you a safe, fun-filled holiday season. Be sure to browse our complete collection of services and products, from our delightful home automation products to our reliable security systems. We are happy to help make your holiday season better, safer, and more memorable than ever before.

Atlanta Audio & Automation and Sonos are official partners who provide you with the high fidelity audio and video systems in Atlanta. Sonos brings you a line of wireless speakers that are perfect for any room in your home. Wireless hardware has a reputation of not performing to par with its wired counterparts. Tracking in wireless mouse isn’t as good, wireless keyboard strokes aren’t as responsive and internet speeds aren’t as fast over Wi-Fi. Does this line of thinking apply to wireless audio?

Dispelling The Myth

While people’s fear of poorer audio quality in wireless audio systems are understandable, it is not justified by facts. A wireless audio system can indeed bring high quality audio as well as a wired counterpart. Hi-Fi audio is possible because of lossless coding.

Digital audio signals must be coded, or placed in a format that can be transmitted and received, when it travels from one point to another. The better the coding, the higher the fidelity of the audio. Many wireless systems use lossless coding to output a signal, which means the signal the system is receiving is the same as it is leaving the transmitter. Together with a strong Wi-Fi signal, wireless Hi-Fi audio is achievable.

What Do You Need For Hi-Fi Wireless Audio?

 Besides having a strong Wi-Fi connection, your playback hardware needs to be high fidelity. It doesn’t matter that your audio files are lossless coded if it’s being transmitted through poor speakers. Amplifiers and speakers make up the quality of your wireless system so here is what you need to look out for.

If you are using your speakers for parties, they need to provide enough power to achieve high volume levels without compromising sound quality. An underpowered speaker will clip or distort sound, damaging them if it outputs sound at a high volume. Check the frequency response which tells you the range in which a speaker can reproduce musical tones. This is important for finding a speaker that can give you true, realistic bass. Lastly, examine the sound quality of the speakers themselves; does it produce clean, transparent sound that is tonally accurate?

Smart home automation is about bringing the highest level of convenience into your Atlanta property. With one touch, you should be able to command the lighting, shading, AV, security systems and more. So it’s no surprise that one of the fastest-growing manufacturers of smart home technology would also be a leader in developing systems that are easy to use and fully customizable. At this year’s Custom Electronics, Design and Integration Association convention – commonly known as CEDIA – Control4 announced big things for their new operating system. Learn more after the jump.  

See Also: New Tech to Change How Consumers Watch the Rio Olympics

New Connections

At the 2016 CEDIA show held this September, Control4 announced the latest upgrade to their operating system, the OS 2.9.  The new operating system comes complete with the “Connects with Control4” program, which allows as many as 10,000 connectable devices – including Sonos. This marks a big move for the popular wireless audio company, who famously has avoided getting wrapped up with smart home automation installers in the past.

Plus, one of the biggest developments in the smart home space over the past few years was the introduction of Amazon’s voice-controlled Echo. While many homeowners took advantage of the incredible verbal technology, they were oftentimes disappointed with the limited range of components it could control. That’s why it’s incredible that they’ve collaborated with Control4 to offer the best possible control options in your home.

In our blog, we write a lot about how a home theater enhances your movie- and sports-watching experience. One aspect that we rarely touch on, though, is how it affects gaming. With the recent announcements of the 4K-capable Playstation 4 Pro and Xbox One S, now’s the perfect time to begin planning your video game upgrade. But how does smart automation improve your gaming? We’ll show you after the jump.

See Also: Designing the Perfect Home Theater for Football Season

Earlier this month, Sony announced they would be taking pre-orders for the Playstation 4 Pro, according to The Verge:

“The console — codenamed Neo, which the company discussed in brief just ahead of E3 in June — upgrades the three-year-old PS4 hardware with a faster processor, better graphics, and support for 4K resolution. It launches November 10th, and it will cost $399.”

The new version of the system will also sport HDR compatibility, an upgraded GPU and an improved clock rate. Sony’s console also currently supports Dolby Atmos, and the new version will as well, making it an excellent addition to a modern home theater setting.

In November 2014, Amazon revealed their latest foray into the world of technology and electronics with the Amazon Echo. It serves as the first major-brand smart speaker, boasting a voice-driven interface capable of voice interaction, music playback, alarm setting, streaming podcasts, and providing weather, traffic, and other real time information. The Echo responds to the name “Alexa,” and provided the first peek into what the future could be for users around the world. It essentially took some of the basic functions iPhone users are familiar with from Siri, and adapted them to an in-home speaker.

Amazon Echo and Control 4 Combine Forces

Recently, Amazon Echo made the next step in its own evolution by integrating with the endlessly useful Control 4 system. When Control 4 burst onto the scene in 2003, it served as a leader in smart home automation and home entertainment systems. By meshing it with the Echo, homeowners are able to do much more with their Amazon device – adjust room temperature, shade position, lighting control, security management, and play music, among others.

Invisible speakers delivers unbelievable sound quality that emanates from the wall or ceiling, without any visible signs of a speaker. The space is filled with breathtaking music that seemingly comes from nowhere.  Invisible speakers are speakers that get installed in walls and ceilings, then are covered with sheetrock and painted or papered over, and yes, they can sound great.

See Also:  Whole House Audio Systems

If you ask an interior decorator about loudspeakers, he or she will tell you they should be heard and not seen. Maybe some home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles would disagree, but a lot of people hold the opinion that speakers in a whole housse audio system should be as hidden as possible. Imagine if we could actually have invisible speakers?

Well we can show you the solution to this age old problem.  Speakers can be invisible, at least in the strictest sense, meaning they’re in the room, you just don’t see them.

There are two main ways to make a speaker actually invisible, and both involve putting it behind something else.  The first, and most ingenious way, is with a kind of in-wall speaker that actually sits completely flush against the drywall (or other wall material), and then gets plastered over and painted so the speaker becomes 100 percent a part of the wall—-no visible grill.  The other way is to hide it behind something that is visible, such as a piece of art or behind a mirror.

Atlanta Audio & Automation offers a range of smart-home solutions—including audio, video, lighting, temperature control, security and communications—that let you control your home’s entertainment.  Our award-winning smart systems by Control4 seamlessly integrate into your home giving a new lifestyle experience by connecting everything from climate control to security and manageable by remotes or mobile device. Our entertainment systems can be custom built for projects from single rooms to entire homes and the benefits are endless when you add together comfort, savings, convenience and peace of mind.

See Also:  What is it Like to Live in a Connected Home?

We’ve combined our professional expertise with solutions from top manufacturers like Control4, Sony, LG and Sonos. As we make entertainment systems easy to use and sound fantastic, homes become more comfortable, energy efficient and families feel secure. Inspired by ideas that promise comfort, Atlanta Audio & Automation has been delivering personalized entertainment solutions for homes and businesses in the Atlanta area for over 18 years. Contact us or visit our experience center and we can give your home the smart it deserves.

“We offer entertainment and automation solutions for a smarter home.”   Come visit us at our showroom, and we can demo how home automation can simplify your life.

Sports fans rejoice! Football season is almost here and you’re in for a memorable season. But the one thing that would make it even more perfect is watching the game in the comfort of your very own Georgia home theater. As the season draws near, it’s time to start planning how you’re going to catch every second of the game. In this blog, we’ll take you through some of the smartest solutions for upgrading your system with smart AV. Read on for more.

See Also:  Set up for Spring Championships With a Smart Home Theater

Choose an Aesthetic

Ok, so you know you want a man cave, but you don’t know how you want it to look. Well, that’s perfectly fine, but you’re going to want to get an idea before your designer breaks ground. Whether you want a warm and cozy den, or the ultimate sports bar feel, you just have to keep in mind that the materials and textures you use will ultimately affect the way your AV gear looks and sounds.

For instance, you can integrate rocky textured walls for a nice, modernist throwback facade, but that may disperse your audio more than you would prefer. On the other hand, you can choose a sleek, metallic sheen for the walls, but the flat, reflective surfaces could bounce sound and light right back at you.

Just about every loves to listen to music. If you’re a fan of smart technology, you’ve probably already considered upgrading your Atlanta home with distributed audio via a whole house sound system installation. You’ve probably also debated whether or not to go with a wired system or a wireless setup. In this blog, we’ll show you why it’s smarter to invest in the former, and how it’s possible to distribute crystal clear audio across your entire property. Read on to learn more.

See Also: From Analog to Digital: What’s Playing in Your Home?

Why Choose a Hardwired System?

You probably already know we love Sonos. There are few better ways to enjoy distributed, wireless audio than with a Sonos system. But when given the choice between wired and wireless, we almost always prefer a hardwired connection. Not only are they more reliable, but they sound better too.

You see, while wireless sound systems seem like they might be more convenient to some listeners, their performance is almost entirely dependent on the condition of the network and where they’re placed. A hardwired system never has a problem when it comes to thick walls and multiple device connections.

2012 was so four years ago. Those London Games? Might as well have happened on a different planet. I guess the fact that Rio is half a world away basically means these 2016 Summer Olympics are happening on a different planet. But in all seriousness—technology has evolved so much in the last four years that those of us who will be watching the Games over the next few weeks will, in some instances, have completely different viewing experiences than our selves of four years ago.
Here’s a look at some of the technology that will be introduced to the watching world throughout the 2016 Summer Olympics down in Rio.

Olympics in Virtual Reality

In just the past few months, virtual reality has gone from a gamer’s paradise to a consumerized market thanks to the launch of products like Google Cardboard, Samsung’s Galaxy VR device, and the myriad other headgears available out there. As such, the Olympic Broadcasting Services—the IOC’s official body responsible for coordinating TV coverage of the Olympics—will have VR footage from different venues in Rio, enabling viewers to transport themselves from their living room to Rio. NBC and the BBC already said they will take advantage of the 360-degree footage being made available by the committee.

Drones Return to Rio

As big as the drone explosion has been in the consumer space, it’s been equally impressive among content providers. The spider cam at football games has essentially lost its tethering wires and can present all kinds of different angles—near and wide—for viewers to experience. In Rio, drones will be deployed to cover a lot of the open water events (rowing, for example), among other things. Drones were at the Sochi games in 2014, and made headlines when one nearly took out an alpine skier. Here’s hoping they avoid a similar fate in Rio.

Atlanta’s home theater enthusiasts have heard the news, and now they want to take action – they want Dolby Atmos delivering the best-possible sound in their private cinema spaces. But if you’ve been following our blog, you already know that the conditions of the room you’re in will significantly affect the way the sound system works. That leaves many homeowners scratching their heads over how they can have Atmos integrated into their spaces. In this blog, we’ll answer some of your most frequently asked questions about what’s required to install the best audio gear around.

See Also: How Dolby Atmos Transforms Your Atlanta Home Theater Into an Epic Music Venue

How does Dolby Atmos recreate commercial cinema sound?

As you already know, when it was introduced to the movie industry a few years ago, Atmos revolutionized sound mixing by treating each sound like an individual object. “Sound objects” don’t have to be assigned to specific channels, allowing them to move freely between each speaker. Therefore, the number of speakers in your space doesn’t matter as much as how they are positioned and calibrated. The biggest physical difference is the addition of a minimum of two overhead speakers, usually mounted in the ceiling.

Do I have to have ceiling-mounted speakers for Dolby Atmos?

So you’ve decided to upgrade your lifestyle with smart home automation. Whether you’re planning a system as part of a new-construction project, or you want to retrofit your current home with the latest technology, there’s just one answer: Control4. There are plenty of reasons why you should collaborate with a Platinum-level Control4 integrator when making custom electronic updates to your Georgia home. In this blog, we’ll take you through some of the best ones. Read on to learn more.

See Also: How Does a Smart Home System Protect Your Property?

Connect Your Smart Devices

For some, they think a smart thermostat here and a smart refrigerator there means they’re living in a connected home. But really, it just means you have a few nifty gadgets that speak to your smartphone. If you want to live the connected lifestyle, you need technology that talks to each device and gets them to work together. That technology is Control4.

The reason Control4 is a quickly-growing leader in the smart home market is that it helps connect your existing technology into a single, comprehensive system. If you already have a Nest Thermostat and a Sonos sound system, Control4 integrates them both fluidly under a single interface so that they can work in tandem. For instance, you can have a single button labeled “Chill Time” that lowers your AC and streams a low-key playlist through your multi-room audio system.

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that you can enjoy excellent audio throughout your home or in a dedicated listening room, as long as the conditions are right. Once you have the best speakers for your space, and a room specially treated for appropriate acoustics, it’s time to decide what to play on your sound system installation. Georgia audiophiles will want to take full advantage of all the music available to them. In this edition, we’ll detail the various ways you can enjoy music in your home.

See Also: Why Your Home Theater Needs Acoustical Treatments

Streaming Services

Among the most popular ways to experience music today are streaming services. The upside is that you have virtually endless amounts of music at your fingertips, without taking up any valuable storage space in your home or on a server. Spotify Premium offers a great selection of songs and albums, but other services like Deezer and Tidal promise high-fidelity tracks and exclusive content. The result is hours of music for your enjoyment.

Digital Music

It’s not uncommon for many experienced music lovers to talk about how MP3s are ruining music. The fact is, despite being very popular with younger audiophiles, MP3s are compressed files, meaning you lose a lot of the sound when you save music digitally in the format. The good news is that there are plenty of lossless file formats like FLAC, WAV and ALAC that make digital music sound as good as, if not better than, analog audio.

The biggest problem with lossless audio formats used to be their size. For many years, they simply could not be stored in a reasonable way, because the components were just too large. More recently, however, smaller storage devices have become available and affordable, so you can enjoy every detail of uncompressed tracks without missing a beat.

Over the past few years, Dolby Atmos has been taking over home theater audio systems. The reason is simple: it sounds better than anything you’ve ever heard before. And it didn’t just improve movie soundtracks – it made music sound incredible as well. The only problem was that it couldn’t reproduce live music with the same impact. If you wanted to experience a live concert in your home, you’d have to settle for stereo. But recently, Dolby devised a way to improve live sound mixing, giving you a more immersive experience when listening to your favorite bands.

See Also: Get the Most Out of Your Dolby Atmos Home Theater

Live Music – the Atmos Difference

While movie buffs have enjoyed the detailed sound mixing of Dolby Atmos for a couple of years now, live music has remained behind the curve. Why? Because of the complexity of mixing multiple sounds at once as individual “objects” – the method that Atmos uses to create the immersive effect – was simply too difficult.

Earlier this year, however, Dolby figured out a solution. And it turns out the translation was easier than expected. According to Ian Morris at Forbes, “The files [used to record live music] contain key parts of the track separated out, so vocals, bassline, melody and drums are all given their own tracks. This is much like a multitrack sound system in a recording studio, but greatly simplified.” Ultimately, Dolby realized the technology already existed, and they improved on it.

That means you can hear live music with the same directional sphere of sound reproduced in your home theater. Venues like London’s Ministry of Sound now offer better-than-ever listening experiences. It also means that live concert streams and broadcasts can now air in the format. So if you’re a music buff who loves concerts, you’ll potentially be able to stream concerts with full Dolby Atmos on services like Vimeo.

You know you want it; the eye-catching, pixel-popping clarity of Ultra HD. Today's home theaters won't impress anybody without the sheer spectacle of nearly 4K resolution. But achieving that beautiful look in your Atlanta private cinema is about more than just the latest television or projector display – your home needs the right infrastructure to support UHD content. In this blog we'll take you through the right equipment you'll need to get the most out of your home theater.

SEE ALSO: Why Your Home Theater Needs Acoustical Treatments

A Strong Network

If you want to control any part of your connected home, a strong network is key. Smart home technology – which is commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things" – needs more than just intelligent devices and happy thoughts to work effectively, it needs enough bandwidth to support every connection without slowing it down. The same is true for streaming your favorite content in Ultra HD.

According to content delivery network Akamai, only about 21 percent of U.S. homes had enough bandwidth to support 4K content in September 2015. But there's good news: your home simply needs a network upgrade to support all of those delightful pixels.

Before you know it, the holidays will be over and you’ll have to start thinking about what’s really important: the slew of sports championships hitting in the early months of the New Year. With Super Bowl 50, March Madness, NBA Finals all around the corner, sports fans throughout Atlanta won’t be seen outside of their home theaters until summer. That means now’s the time to prepare with the coolest technology available for your home theater. Read on to find out how upgrading your space now can lead to a winning championship season.

SEE ALSO:  Build a Better Home Theater for the Ultimate Man Cave Experience

4K Sports HFR Compatibility

Between 4K UHD, OLED and HDR you might feel like all of the acronyms surrounding the next generation of video displays are taking precious brain space away from important game statistics and player info. But here’s one you’ll really want to pay attention to: HFR.

HFR stands for high frame rate. Why is that important for a sports fan? The frame rate is all about motion. Movies are generally shot at 24 frames per second (fps), lending a “cinematic” depth to the image, as well as capturing the distinct difference between light and shadow. Sports are currently shot and broadcast in 60 fps, flattening out the plane and capturing movement with incredible detail. But higher resolution allows for even higher frame rates. When you upgrade to 4K, sports can be broadcast in rates well over 100hz, turning your home theater into the ultimate game-watching zone.