Posts

Why Fiber Optic

/in /by

How do you determine if a fiber optic infrastructure is appropriate for your next Home or Business?

  • Does your internet service provider offer fiber to the home?
  • Do you stream audio and video from the internet?
  • Is internet streaming speed important to you?
  • Is video resolution and image picture quality important to you?
  • Do you anticipate upgrading to an 8K television or projector in your home?
  • Is AV and internet system stability important to you?
  • Do you live in an area prone to lightning strikes and storm activity?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, fiber optic cabling may be appropriate for you. Fiber future-proofs the home / business and ensures it can leverage the latest internet and audio-visual technology. Plus, it provides the best system stability and increases the resale value.

8K displays are getting prepped for the holiday season, and 8K with all its pixel-popping glory requires up to 4x the bandwidth of traditional twisted pair cabling. That means Cat 5 and Cat 6 won’t deliver the signals your customers expect.

8K was designed for fiber optics. Fiber supports virtually unlimited bandwidth, it terminates in half the time of twisted pair, and it’s incredibly affordable. Plus, fiber is the only way to truly future-proof your home/business

Traditional twisted pair cables work great for 480i, 1080p and even 4K30 signals — all of which require less than 10G of bandwidth. That’s why twisted pair cable and twisted pair extenders (such as HDBaseT product) have worked great for years.

4K60 HDR and 8K are a different story. 4K60 HDR requires up to 18G of bandwidth and 8K requires up to 48G of bandwidth — both exceed the physical ability of Cat 5, Cat 6 and even Cat 6A.

But is 8K worth changing your installation practice? In short, yes. 8K or more appropriately HDMI 2.1 offers a host of features not available in previous signal generations, from dynamic HDR to eARC.

What is Dolby Atmos?

/in /by

Introduced in 2012 to commercial cinemas, Dolby Atmos incorporates height effects speakers to create special effects which emanate from above the viewer. This brings a new and thrilling dimension of realism to the movie theater experience.

According to Dolby Atmos this is the first audio format based on audio objects rather than channels. In Dolby Atmos, any sound such as a helicopter, a blaring car horn, a yelling child can exist as an independent audio object, free of channel restrictions. Sounds can be placed and moved anywhere, including anywhere where they would occur naturally in a scene. Sounds move in three-dimensional space flowing above and around the listener in step with the visuals to bring a new sense of height and reality. The Atmos speakers bring out many different nuances and another dimension to the listening experience.

Dolby Labs has also partnered with many major consumer electronic audio brands to add Dolby Atmos decoding capability to home audio AV receivers and processors. Several Dolby Atmos capable AV processors and Atmos speakers are already available in the marketplace, and Atmos is generating a lot of excitement with home theater enthusiasts.

A nice bonus is that Atmos content does not require a new codec, and instead is an extension of the lossless Dolby True HD codec. This means new/recent Blu-ray players will support Atmos without requiring a firmware upgrade (older players may experience compatibility issues). An Atmos-capable AV receiver is also required.

Implementing Dolby Atmos in a home theater will involve either mounting speakers high on a wall and having them radiate sound directly down, installing them in the ceiling, or adding Atmos height effects speaker modules which fire upward at the ceiling, thus relying on boundary reflection to provide the illusion that the special effects are originating from overhead.

Dolby offers the following five speaker layout recommendations for an Atmos-capable home theater. Each of these configurations covers direct radiating, up-firing and ceiling-mounted applications.

Dolby refers to two-speaker configurations as essential or the minimum requirement and four-speaker configurations as premium. This means adding two or four speakers to your existing 5.1 or 7.1 speaker configuration.

The excitement and buzz about Atmos has continued to drive the demand for Atmos encoded Blu-ray discs. This collection of thrilling home theater content grows more and more with each new movie release. Currently titles are available on Blu-Ray, Ultra HD Blu-Ray and 4K players. VUDU a streaming content provider has many different titles to choose from.  Adding a new Dolby Atmos receiver and speakers to your Theater Room or Media Room will guarantee that you are listening to your movie choice the way the Director intended.

Is it time to upgrade to a 4K TV

/in /by

Have you gone to somebody’s home recently to watch a sporting event on their new 4K TV and thought to yourself, that picture isn’t much better than my LCD or Plasma TV.   The reason may be that the movie, cable programming or sporting event you were watched is only broadcast in 1080p vs 4k. When you view content that is broadcast with 1080P signal the 4K TV image will look very similar to that of an LCD or Plasma TV. The real advantages of purchasing a 4K TV is when you view 4K broadcasts from services such as Amazon, Netflix, Fandango Now, Sony Ultra, Vudu and You Tube. Matching 4K content to a 4K TV is the best way to experience your 4K TV. These streaming services will broadcast their imagery at 3,840. Multiplied by the 2,160 pixels on each vertical line, that makes for a total of 8.3 million pixels. By comparison, high-definition TVs display 1,920 horizontal and 1,080 vertical pixels, for a total of 2 million pixels. So 4K TVs display four times as many pixels—that is, they have four times as much detail and resolution—as HDTVs. Service providers know how many 4K TV’s have been sold in the last three years and are now providing more 4K content and will continue to grow their 4K content offerings.

4K Content:

If you look at your Netflix account, you will see that there are close to 400 movies and shows combined that are broadcast into 4K technology. As time goes on more and more content will be created in 4K. The good news is that our local service providers are starting to broadcast in 4K. DirecTV was the first service to provide 4K sports and Movies and now Cablevision’s Altice is providing 4K APP services and a 4K Channel (CH 200) which means that the new set top boxes can broadcast the 4k signal. The XBOX One X and Sony Play Station can play 4K disc’s as well as 4K video games.

Conclusion:

If you are thinking about upgrading to a 4K TV, now may be a great time to do it. With so much more content now available in 4K through service providers at streaming providers you TV experience will be greatly enhanced! Reach out to your Integrator that can help you to select the right 4K TV to meet your needs, as well as, making sure that you have the proper source components.