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Home Technology, Entertainment and Automation Experts in the San Francisco & North Bay!

Fall 2010 HD Living – Available Now!

Posted on: 09-20-2010 in: Blog, Inside SoundVision, News

Fall 2010 HD LivingThe Fall 2010 issue of HD Living magazine has been mailed out to select homeowners around the North Bay area. If you weren’t one of the lucky ones who received one in your mailbox, don’t worry! We have your online copy available right here.In addition to an updated profile all about SoundVision, some of the other topics inside this quarter’s issue of HD Living include:

  • Lifestyle Control: Touch screen devices for home automation
  • Home Networks: A complete guide to home networking
  • The Everything  Gadget: How the revolutionary iPad is reshaping home entertainment and control.

Plus much more. It’s all waiting for you in the Fall 2010 issue of HD Living Magazine!

Home Theater Upgrade in 6 Phases

Posted on: 09-3-2010 in: Blog, Inside SoundVision
This week we’d like to showcase a home theater upgrade from Mill Valley.  For this project the customer had us swap out an old CRT TV with a new high performance 50″ Samsung Plasma HDTV and a surround sound system upgrade.  Below, is an exclusive look at the installation broken down into 6 phases:Here is the modest home theater setup prior to the upgrade.

SoundVision Installation - Before

Phase 1: The first order of business was to clear out the old TV, AV gear, and shelving to make way for a more streamlined AV cabinet.

SoundVision Installation Phase 1

Phase 2: The next step was to place the Polk speakers and subwoofer in the cabinet for a compact, but well balanced system.  The cabinet also provides clean cable management for the speaker wire and cables.

SoundVision Installation Phase 2

Phase 3:Following the speakers placement, we placed the Wii game console, Denon turntable, Sony Blu-ray player and Comcast HD cable box in the cabinet for an easy connection to the receiver.

SoundVision Installation Phase 3

Phase 4: After all the cables were fished through the cabinet we wired them up to an Integra surround sound receiver.

SoundVision Installation Phase 4

Phase 5: The Samsung Plasma HDTV was then installed and the Wii motion sensor was mounted on top of the display.

SoundVision Installation Phase 5

Phase 6: The final step was to mount the acoustically transparent panel doors onto the cabinet for a clean finish.  The Universal Remote was then reprogrammed for simple operation, then the audio system and TV were calibrated for optimal performance.

SoundVision Installation Phase 6

Final result is a cleanly designed, robust and reliable, easy to use media system that fits into the room’s décor.

James Outdoor Landscape Speakers

Posted on: 08-23-2010 in: Blog, TechNotes

Local speaker manufacturer James Loudspeakers (of Napa) offers a truly stunning line of outdoor landscape speakers that are designed to not only blend in with your garden, but also sound amazing.  Never before have we seen speakers that seamlessly integrate with landscaping this well and sound so perfect.  Here are a few of their options.Satellite SpeakersThe James satellite speakers are the driving force behind the Landscape speaker line.  They are designed to resemble outdoor lighting and can easily be mounted in the ground, on the wall, or even on a tree.

James Satellite Speakers

There are many installation options for the satellite speakers

3-Way Planter SpeakerThis attractive speaker is built into a teakwood planter box.  Its weather treated, sounds fantastic, and best of all it’s fully-functional as a planter box.

James Planter Box Speaker

Subterranean Subwooferthe James line of subwoofers truly completes the outdoor entertainment environment.  This powerful subwoofer is built to be installed underground.

James Subterranean Subwoofer

James Subterranean Subwoofer shown here with unit installed underground.

Installing Outdoor Landscape speakers will ensure that your next BBQ will amaze your guests as the music seemingly emanates from the garden.

Why Apple TV is Just Too Darn Cool

Posted on: 09-30-2009 in: Blog

AppleTVOK, let’s face it: Apple TV probably isn’t the most popular product to have ever come out of that sometimes mysterious place at 1 Infinite Loop. However, Apple TV’s relative lack of popularity is confusing to us here at SoundVision, especially since it’s such a cool product. Now that our friends at Crestron have updated their line of home automation products with the ability to control Apple TV from an in-wall touchpanel or handheld remote, we’re recommending Apple TV to all our customers as a simple way to access your iTunes library and photos through your SoundVision system. And now that Apple just dropped the price on the 160 GB version by $100, purchasing an Apple TV has never been easier. Here’s just a few of the reasons why we’re so enamored with this product:It “just works.” – I’m sure you’ve heard those two little words in reference to Apple products in the past, but believe us when we tell you that it absolutely applies to this product. Using Apple’s Bonjour technology, Apple TV will automatically find an iTunes library on your local network and instantly make your digital music files available to listen to through your SoundVision media system. Select music by browsing through rich, detailed album art on your TV, or use a touchpanel or handheld remote. And if you’re an iTunes user on a Windows PC, there’s no need to worry–this also “just works” for you as well.Your family photos, in glorious HD. – When was the last time you lugged out a photo album? If you’re like us, it’s been a while. Our photos live digitally these days, whether its in an online photo gallery or on your computer’s hard drive. With Apple TV, we can set it up so it syncs with photo albums on your computer or stored on the Internet in a Flickr or MobileMe gallery.Rent movies or TV shows instantly. – Apple TV makes a trip to your local movie rental store a thing of the past. Renting or purchasing a movie through Apple TV is as easy as a few clicks of the remote, and at just $3.99 per rental, it’s a great deal. Most titles are also available in high definition.Access online content. – Apple TV frees online media like YouTube and podcasts from your computer and puts them front and center in your living room. Whether you want to catch up with your favorite podcast from anywhere in your house via a distributed audio system or watch the Evolution of Dance in your theater room, Apple TV in your SoundVision system can make it happen.Are you using your Apple TV in ways we haven’t mentioned here? If so, leave a comment and let us know about it!