CEDIA announced recently that they will be teaming up with NARI.
NARI is a natural partner for CEDIA members. Many members had already sought out NARI memberships and realized quite a bit of success from the partnership. This “official” alliance will help broaden the relationship between the two groups.
Wilmington, DE, December 18, 2009 – Wunderhome is proud to announce that it has advanced to Full membership status with the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA). With the rapid growth of the residential electronic systems industry, becoming a Full CEDIA Member ensures that the company is the “best in the business.”
Electronic systems include media rooms and home theaters, automated lighting and privacy/security, whole-house audio, and other integrated electronics.
“CEDIA Membership offers electronic systems contractors instant credibility with homeowners, builders, architects, interior designers and others involved in the home design and build process,” said Don Gilpin, executive director of CEDIA. “CEDIA Members are required to
meet the highest standards in business and training, such as carrying all of the required insurance, satisfying state regulations and having at least one staff member who has achieved professional certification from CEDIA University.”
CEDIA offers resources for its members that include a state-of-the-art training facility and education opportunities to further their knowledge and professional skills. CEDIA’s mission focuses on helping business owners and their employees prepare for certification and career advancement. Full membership status is reserved for companies that employ at least one CEDIA Certified Professional, present industry references, and have remained in business at least two years.
Wunderhome is an emerging solution company for anything audiovisual. Wunderhome designs and installs state of the art audiovisual systems for the home. Wunderhome employees are certified by national organizations such as CEDIA, Microsoft, Infocomm, and the Project Management Institute. For more information on Wunderhome, visit the company’s website at www.wunderhome.net.
CEDIA is an international trade association of companies that specialize in designing and installing electronic systems for the home. The association was founded in September, 1989 and has more than 3,000 member companies worldwide. CEDIA Members are established and insured businesses with bona fide qualifications and experience in this specialized field. For more information on CEDIA, visit the association’s website at www.cedia.org.
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Speakers come in many levels of quality. You will not need the same quality of speaker in every area of your house. You will want better quality speakers in gathering areas of the house such as the kitchen or a living room. You will not need premium speakers in a walk in closet or a foyer where you will just be passing through. Lean more toward the middle of the road in quality for your background music. A great trick is take the paper you have with all of your room names and mark the rooms with the quality you will be looking for. Use the following:
Most folks who are into critical listening will probably have a dedicated music system for that with top shelf amplifiers and audiophile quality speakers. The majority of us will be able to separate our areas into Background Only and Gathering Area. The gathering areas will get the better speakers while the background only areas will get the more entry level quality.
Once you have your list of rooms and you have grouped them by common areas, you can begin assigning zone
numbers. Initially, go ahead and give each group their own zone. It is easier to start with the maximum number of zones and then figure out as you go where you can add some stray areas into your existing groups.
Most audio systems that are designed to be Whole House Audio Systems offer scalability. This means you can expand them to allow for many independent zones. An example of this would be the Niles Audio Intellicontrol ICS System. The Niles System is a 6 source/6 Zone system. If you link multiple chassis together, you can expand the system to up to 30 zones. That would be one incredible system.
If you find that you have too many independent zones and you do not have the budget for multiple expansion units, you can begin to add in the stray rooms to existing groups. Typical systems will have anywhere from two to six zones.
Define Where You Want Music
The first step in designing your audio system is to decide on where you would like to have music in your home. Get out a blank sheet of paper and write down all of the rooms that you spend a lot of time in. Some of the most common rooms for speakers are:
KitchenYou can put speakers pretty much anywhere. At Wunderhome, our motto is “You Dream it. We’ll Install It.”
Group Common Areas
Once you have decided on all of the rooms that you would like to have music, you will need to group common areas together. You want to make sure you will not have any conflicts where rooms are close together. For example, if your kitchen and family room share the same room space you will want to “group” them together so that you are always playing the same source in both areas. In other words, you will never want to play different sources in these areas at the same time because they will be easily overheard. You might have your bedroom and a walk in closet grouped together because there will never be a situation where you will be listening in the closet independent of the bedroom.
Grouping these common areas will help you choose how many zones of music you will want your system to be capable of.
Whole House Audio is becoming one of the most sought after luxuries that consumer electronics has to offer. More and more builders are offering pre-wired audio systems and many homeowners are hiring highly skilled installers to retrofit existing homes with speakers throughout the house.
Designing the right Whole House Audio System for your home will take a lot of careful consideration about how you will use your system and the quality of sound that you are looking for.
You will want to think very carefully about how you will interact with your system. Today’s modern systems offer many options for control and feedback.
Finally, you will want to consider how your system might be able to grow with you and your home as automation makes its way into the residential market.
Over the next few weeks we will guide you through the design steps necessary to choose the right system for you and the right integrator.
We will concentrate on systems capable of multiple sources and multiple zones.
Wunderhome is proud to announce that they will be authorized to sell the entire line of Niles products. This includes the very exclusive Intellicontrol ICS product. IntelliControl ICS brings together all of today’s entertainment sources and puts them right at your fingertips. With independent access and control of your music, movies, and videos throughout the home, you’ll enjoy soothing jazz in the den, spicy sounds in the kitchen, and cinema classics in the home theater. It’s home entertainment the way you always dreamed it could be. Experience IntelliControl ICS.
If you have children and you have taken them to the movies recently, chances are you have seen a movie in 3-D. 3-D has brought new interest in going out to the movies. TV manufacturers have caught on and are looking to bring this technology into the home.
I have seen Bolt and Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D with my daughter and found the technology to be very interesting. It definitely added to the experience and was well worth the extra few dollars.
I have also read that the NFL has done some testing with the technology and could one day present football games in 3-D as well. I suppose we will not be very far from the holographic TV sets that we used to envy while watching the Jetsons.
For more information visit this Yahoo/AP Article.
The cinema is a good place to watch movies and relax. This is because you watch the movie in a wide screen with sound
that can make you easily get lost in the movie scene. The picture and the sound is the most entertaining part of the cinema experience. However, if you can bring this technology home and with lesser expense, this is definitely something you will enjoy. This is the concept only a few American homes acquire in the past years. Lately late, however, a good number of American homes are starting to be less interested in going out of their abode to watch movies. This is due to the evolution of home theater systems.
A simple home theater is easy to set up. All you need is a television set that measures bigger than 32 inches, a DVD player, receiver, five speakers, and a subwoofer. These are the basic components of a home theater. This may already give you the home entertainment you can enjoy with the almost theatrical experience. Why do I say almost, when I am sure you want the perfect feeling of a movie theater. This is because there are other equipments you might add to complete the home theater experience that will ensure a cinematic experience right in your own living room. As mentioned already, you may still enhance the basic components by adding home entertainment furniture; however, everything is dependent on the budget you set for your home theater. The size of the room is another consideration of the complete package of your home theater.
A neat advice however by home theater experts is that you need to find a good size television set for your home theater set up. A good size does not mean the biggest you can find in the store. A good size television is dependent on the place in your house where you will set up the home theater. Big is not always good for your home entertainment system. It is a recommendation, however, that the television set should not be smaller than 32 inches. This is because the projection on a smaller television might be too inferior for your home theater.
Another recommendation is for you to find speakers that will give you the surround sound from a high quality brand of speakers. In addition, you may need to choose a good quality DVD player. It is however a belief by home theater experts that all DVD players deliver clear and crisp images, although there are those that promise a flicker-free picture, almost all DVD players provide this feature.
Knowing how big the room where you will set up your home theater will be the basis of how big the television needs to be. The size of the room is another consideration for the number of speakers. If the room is somewhat big, you may need more than the basic three speakers. Adding a subwoofer may also do good to achieve the best surround sound if your home theater is place on a huge room.
All these will give you the best home theater experience only a few in the earlier year’s experience. A home theater designer may be of big help in ensuring you will have the best home theater set up that will give you the best possible movie experience right in your own living room.
Your home theater project may require multiple phases, many weeks or months, or coordination with more than a couple of associated trades. If this is the case, you’ll want to ask your home theater company if they use Project Management. True project management uses a methodology that will ensure that your project is done on time and under budget. This is what really separates the men from the boys in this industry. You want your home theater contractor to look you in the eye and promise that they will make sure your project does not go over budget. This can only be possible if they have a great plan and are able to implement that plan. Project Management will make that possible.
