Multi-Room Video Today

My new motto is “Sources are meant to be enjoyed, but not seen”. Since our homes are now being filled with elegant flat screen displays, why on earth would anyone want to clutter a room with bulky equipment furniture to store the sources, DVDs, and speakers? Why not hang the display (Plasma or LCD), recess the speakers, and centralize all of the sources in one location (usually a closet or equipment room)? This would make your ‘significant other’ extremely happy and make your room appear bigger.

Although there are a large number of high definition sources available today, and more coming as outlined in my previous blog post, there are not many methods that support the distribution of high definition video/audio signals. The video distribution solutions offered by structured wiring centers, found in most new homes today, are not suitable for distribution of high definition video. The splitters and amplifiers found these structured wiring centers are OK for the distribution of cable or satellite TV signals, if you plan on installing a set top box in each room, but even then, these products can’t distribute the signal without some signal degradation. If you centralize your set top boxes and redistribute the signals over coax, then you not only lose picture quality, but you also lose the 5.1, 7.1, Dolby or DTS audio signals offered with some of the new programming (broadcasted movies/games).

For large homes, the best method for video distribution has been to use matrix switches and a lot of cabling to each room for multiple signal types. These systems distribute the video using analog methods. This means that the further your video signals have to travel, the more video performance you are sacrificing. In many cases, these systems also require other equipment like converters and scalers to optimize the picture for each type of display, attenuators and a lot of tweaking. And after you have the video working, a control system must be installed to direct the video from each source to its destination(s), whenever the user presses a particular button in the control system. These control systems require a lot of design, programming and the cost of installation and programming can many times exceed the cost of the distribution equipment.

Several manufactures now offer high definition video distribution solutions over CAT 5, and NetStreams is one of these companies, however, not all CAT 5 systems are created equal. Performance should be compared by your professional integrator. Our Panorama video system is designed to distribute high definition video from sources to multiple rooms, and does a great job at that. Until recently, this is what I used in my home for video distribution and control and my family and I were very pleased with the quality. We married Panorama (video distribution) with DigiLinX, which we use for audio distribution and control, and the experience was seamless. Although we distributed the video over Panorama and the audio and control over our home network, we had no delay or lip-syncing issues between the audio and video. We simply would select any source from any room, and we could count on solid performance and the highest in picture quality, every time. If your home does not require any runs that are longer than 1,000 ft. from the head-end to the room, than NetStreams’ Panorama video distribution will meet your high definition distribution needs.

In addition to distributing video, Panorama saved us a significant amount of money by also handling the control of the video sources and displays around our home. This eliminated the need for additional runs of cable to control (IP, IR, and/or RS-232) the displays and sources, and a lot of programming to control what signals go where and when.

Panorama simply requires one CAT 5 from the head-end (where your sources are located) to each room. This CAT 5 then plugs into a Video Port, which fits into a one-gang electrical box behind your display. Your display then plugs into Panorama’s Video Port; Composite, S-Video (better), or Component (best). Panorama allows you to switch between four video sources. If you marry Panorama to DigiLinX, you can distribute up to 8 sources to each room, if you double up on the Video Ports. Two video ports will fit in one two-gang box, and a standard 2-gang Décora plate.

Recently, I upgraded our video distribution system to NetStreams’ DigiLinX IP video products. Honestly, if you are on a tight budget for the electronics in your home and you don’t have any runs that are over 1,000 ft, our Panorama system will offer you everything you could want in a high definition video distribution system. But, if you have the discretionary budget and want to have the *best commercial grade video distribution system available today, then DigiLinX IP video is for you. I try not to turn my blog posts into commercials, but our DigiLinX IP Video products have received so much recognition over the last 12 months, that it is worth mentioning it here. I will post these at the end, in case you are interested.

Although most people may not see a video image difference between Panorama and DigiLinX IP video, there is a difference and it does offer some very nice control and audio options. The biggest benefits of owning an IP-Based video distribution are yet to come. For NetStreams, its IP Video products are a platform for which it will build a lot of applications for and offer as upgrades. On my wish list (but not committed b NS yet) are, live thumbnails of all of my streaming sources, a custom guide where I can mix channels from any source (i.e. Chan. 1 = My firefly channel to display my family photos from the Internet, Chan 2 = My uTube channel; another Internet channel, Chan 3 = CNN from Satellite, Chan 4 = HBO from my cable box, Chan 5 is My Blu-ray player, etc…), and an onscreen control panel to view my security camera and control my lighting, HVAC, and more.

A common mistake that most people make is to assume that CAT 5 makes it an IP system. That is simply not the case with most CAT 5 systems today. In fact, most are merely using CAT 5 cable for line-driving analog video signals from point to point. To capture the full benefits of streaming sources, IPTV, and the new networked source arriving, if you can, you will want to have IP Video.

DigiLinX IP Video is comprised of a source encoder (MediaLinX A/V) and a decoder (ViewLinX) for each display. Each source and display are given their own IP address, and the home network not acts like a matrix switch, allowing any source to be viewed on any one or more displays, at anytime. DigiLinX IP video products will accept Composite, S-Video, Component, or VGA (1280 x 768). It wil even transcode video signals in real time (i.e convert VGA from a computer to Component for viewing on a Component display).

In my next Blog, I will talk about the many exciting video sources available today, including some of the ones that I am currently enjoying: Blu-ray DVD, Vudu, Apple TV, HTPC (Home Theater PC), and multi-room DVR from my DirecTV.

*NetStreams DigiLinX IP Video Solution:

• In June of 2007, commercial integrators voted DigiLinX IP Video as ‘Product of the Year’ at InfoComm 2007. the industry’s leading audio/video and now networking tradeshow.
  
  
• Audioholics.com named DigiLinX as its 2007 Consumer Excellence Award winner.
  
  
• Electronic House Magazine honors NetStreams with 2007 Products of the Year Award
  
  
• The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®) selected DigiLinX as a 2008 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award winner.
  
  
• DigiLinX IP Video products won a Perfect Vision's Editor's Choice Award in the Emerging Technology category. Named as the “Most Forward-Looking Multi-room Video System”.
  
  
• Robb Report Home Entertainment Magazine awards NetStreams DigiLinX a “Top 10 Best Gear Award for 2008” The magazine’s editors who evaluate several hundred products, called DigiLinX the “world’s most advanced entertainment system,” and highlighted the unique benefits of NetStreams’ DigiLinX Multi-Room IP-Based A/V solution, including superior audio/video quality, modularity, easy expandability, and future compatibility of the IP-Based A/V solution.
  
  
• Most recently, CEA’s TechHome division honored NetStreams with two ‘Mark of Excellence’ awards: ‘Best Distributed Audio/Video Product’ and ‘IP-Based Product’.

Herman Cardenas

If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com

Distributing Video Sources Around Your Home

When I was growing up, distributing video was simple; buy a new TV, add a rabbit-ear antenna, then tweak the antenna several times until the TV’s picture looked as good as it could get. Depending on the day, and the weather, sometimes you had to stand near the antenna, in a certain position, just to get a picture on the TV. If you had the money and a house, you could install a roof-mounted antenna and run a cable from each television to the outdoor antenna. This typically required professional installation.

(This is off the subject a bit, but does anyone besides me remember the poor man’s color TV? This was very popular in NYC. It was a multi-color laminate overlay that was taped onto the TV’s picture tube to give the impression of a color picture. I don’t remember the exact order of the colors, but I think that the bottom was brown (for ground), next up was green for grass, red for faces, and the top was blue for skies.)

Then came Cable TV, and what a delight that was; many channels, all clear, and you didn’t have to futz around with the set top antenna. The downside was that you had to pay for the service. Later came Satellite TV, but for the most part, it was the same as Cable TV, except that it required the installation of a satellite dish. For people that did not have access to Cable TV, this was a godsend.

Today, although you can still get your television programming off the air (even in HD), and from Satellite and Cable service providers, there are new players like AT&T and Verizon offering television programming through your telephone wires or new fiber optic cabling. And then there is the brand new frontier of IPTV, which is television-like programming, distributed through the Internet.

The quality of the programming and movies that we watch has and continues to change, and improves every few years. New televisions and players now offer high definition, and the industry has gone mostly digital. In fact, by February of next year, all analog broadcasting will cease and televisions will have to be digital in order to view any programming.

Movie distribution to the consumer will change very fast over the next few years too. Movie-on-demand boxes are now available from other companies beyond our Satellite of Cable companies, and there are some unique advantages with going to these new movie providers. The most important point is that you can select a movie-on-demand from thousands of movies instead of a dozen. You can also buy or rent the movies and even store them on your movie box. Trailers for each movie are also available. Most of these boxes will get their content and meta-data via the Internet. Soon, these same companies will offer network television on demand. So if you missed an episode of Lost, you won’t have to sit in front of your PC to watch it.

But In order to truly experience the benefits of digital programming, online movies, IPTV, and the myriad of new sources that are becoming available, your home’s video distribution infrastructure must also go digital. So far, this has not been the case. Our industry is still pushing analog technology. Can you imagine using the large brick Motorola cell phones, today? Well, most homes today still use 40+ year old technology to distribute video around the home.

Although I love the concept of ‘structured wiring panels’ when it comes to video distribution, they are just about obsolete, because they still use splitters and RF amplifiers to distribute Cable or Satellite Television around your home. Coax will be around for a while longer if you are getting your content from the Cable, Satellite or Telephone service providers, but this does not mean that you have to distribute the content they provide, around your house using coax once it comes out of the set top box. It also doesn’t make sense, today, that you have a set top box in each room. They don’t look good, you pay a monthly charge for each box, and with wall mounted flat screens, why would you want to clutter your room with bulky furniture filled with black boxes? Why not locate all of your sources in a dedicated closet, but controllable from anywhere in your home? With the right system, this is now very simple to do.

Let’s take a look at the video sources available today:

• Television Programming: Available from Satellite, Cable, and telephone companies. My favorite is DirecTV because they have more HD channels than any other Satellite or Cable service provider: 100+ and growing.
• High Definition DVD players: High definition DVD players are here now and some selling for under $200. In my opinion, Blu-ray is the clear winner. I have several of these players, but my favorite Blu-ray player today is Sony’s S301 Blu-ray DVD, because it is inexpensive and outputs HDMI and Component video simultaneously (not all do). This is important if you want to distribute a movie to multiple displays at one time. I have been asked by many people if a Blu-ray player can play standard DVDs and CDs, and the answer is yes. In fact, most players will up-convert a Standard Definition (SD) DVD, which means that the movie should look much better.
• Movie boxes: These are the most exciting sources to appear in a long time. For as little at $229-$1,000 you gain access to thousands of movies-on-demand (some in high definition) and you pay no monthly services. No more trips to the video store or waiting for movies via mail. You can either buy the movie or rent it for as little as $2.99 each. The top two online service providers are Apple TV and Vudu, but In my opinion, VUDU is a company to watch. They are the TIVO of the movie world, and they got it right. Not only are there no monthly service fees with their box, but they make the movie buying or renting experience fun, and with a rich user interface, and you don’t need a PC or MAC. Their solution, married with some of the NetStreams products that I will describe in an upcoming post, rivals some of the high-end video server solutions found in the market today.
• Video Servers: These are dedicated servers that are designed to take user own movies and store them for playback. Most of these solutions run on Windows or Linux platforms. Many of these manufacturers are now combining music storage with movie storage on the same box.
• Media Center: This is a PC based entertainment solution that continues to get better with each passing year. Using Microsoft’s simple to use Media Center interface, you can access your libraries of pictures, music, movies and games.
• IPTV from the Internet: IPTV is content that is available (some free and some by paid subscription) via broadcast or on-demand streams from service providers that distribute over the Internet. Although most IPTV watchers today are doing so on a PC, tomorrow’s watcher will be watching this programming on any display device in their home. IPTV will experience huge growth over the next decade, and many predict that it will overtake content distribution over Cable and Satellite, for many reasons.
• Distributed Picture: Many companies are popping up everywhere with digital picture frames. The second generation of these allow you to pull pictures from your home server. So we need to consider this application as a source, because you may want to display pictures on your televisions too.
• Gaming Sources: Let’s not forget gaming as a source. Although gaming has been primarily a one room experience, methods of distributing the video output of gaming boxes, along with their control signals are being developed and some released now. If you are able to store your games in your box, and access them and control them in any room, this will make gaming a more widely used source.
  

So... with all of these sources in play, how do you distribute the video from these around your home while maintaining the same quality that is outputted from the source? How do you control the sources from any room? For these answers and more, you will need to read my next post – Multi-Room Video Today.

Herman Cardenas

If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com

The Celebration

Dear readers,

Today our company celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Our team thought it would be great to share this with my Blog readers. The following is a letter that I read to our NetStreams team, at our celebration today.

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To the NetStreams Team,

Today we celebrate two significant milestones – the anniversary of the Company, and the anniversary of our Startup Team. It is not often in life when we can stand back to look at an accomplishment and say, “If I had to do it all over again, I would do it again with the same team”. As I think about the things that I would change if I had to do it all over again, to achieve a better outcome for this Company, the one thing that I would do exactly the same, is to hire the same startup team. The accomplishment want to highlight for a moment is – the building of the foundation that allowed our beloved Company – NetStreams, to reach its five year milestone; one that most startups never get to see.

The Startup Team (2002)

Mike Braithwaite
Paul Bryson
Kirk Prisock
Buzz Goddard
Tim Burks
Bill Levene
Peter Radekevich
Dan McGauley

As I stand back today looking at five years of this Company’s history, the many trials and tribulations, challenges and achievements; the stressful times, the sad times, and the happy times, which of course outweigh the bad times, it is easy to see now what has shaped this Company’s culture. So what allowed us to get to where we are today? – It was our passion and love for what we do, our unshakable faith – knowing that we were the team to do it, our tenacity and courage – which never allowed us to throw in the towel when times got tough, and our commitment to change an industry by changing the rules with compelling products and technology that solve real problems and bring joy to people’s lives.

What is music to me? It was one of the first things that brought joy to my life and wooed me to fall asleep as a baby. It is the element that stirs my memories and has left markers at some critical, and some not so critical junctures in my life. It is fuel to my inspiration and joy to my soul. It moves me and it makes me move. But as life gets busy and time speeds up, we often forget much of the music and the impact it had on us.

So, ‘who’ is NetStreams to me? It is the Company that developed the products that made me ‘fall in love with my music all over again’. Soon, NetStreams will do the same for our movies and videos. ‘What’ is NetStreams? It is a team of spectacular people with a diverse set of skills, every one of which is needed in order to accomplish this most important mission – helping people re-discover their First love – Music.

Thank you all for being part of our NetStreams team.

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Over the last 5 years, NetStreams has experienced an overwhelming amount of growth and has seen a lot of changes, both inside and outside of the company. We now ship into 45 countries around the world, and continue to lead the industry in IP-Based audio, video distribution products and control. It takes great people to build a great company, we have that here.

I’d like to thank our customers out there for being a part of our success. If you are one of them, and would like to share some thoughts, feel free to drop me a note.

Herman Cardenas


If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com

Falling in Love with your Music All Over Again

My family and I have recently realized that our multi-room system has made us fall in love with our music and movies all over again. CDs that I haven’t heard in 5-10 years, because they were in a box somewhere in the garage, now appear on my list of hundred of CDs and I am rediscovering them all over again. You name the genre, and we probably have it.

The same is happening with our movies. One point of caution though… once you go High Definition (my preference is Blu-ray… more on this in another post), you’ll never want to watch anything else. Well….never is probably too strong of a word. But I will say this, “When we watch DVDs that are in SD (Standard Definition) now, the different between them and HD is obvious to us; even our 10 year old daughter recently said “Daddy, that’s not Blu-ray® right?”, the last time we watched an standard definition DVD movie, and she was right. But…I’ll talk about video and our video distribution in my next post.

The audio distribution in our IP home was accomplished though a NetStreams®’ IP-Based DigiLinX™ system which offers an amazing and very satisfying performance. Instead of brute forcing analog audio signals through long runs of big cables around our home, which causes the audio to degrade over distance, picking up noise and distortion along the way, DigiLinX uses our home’s network to distribute a virtually unlimited number of digital IP streams from our audio sources, to any room(s) or groups of rooms, of choice. The quality of the audio is very impressive and it is largely due to the fact that NetStreams’ StreamNet™ technology reproduced the audio, bit-for-bit, exactly how it comes out of the source component; so the better the source and source content, the better the audio will sound. I should mention that the side other of great audio is having great speakers. In my case, I am using Polk Audio speakers.

Sources:
I used to think that our XM Radio source, which receives compressed audio, sounded pretty good, and even better than our MP-3 music files, but now that we have compared it to the music content that we have stored in WAV (uncompressed audio format), on our NAS (Networked Attached Storage), the difference is amazing. Our WAV files sound great and equal to the quality of music that comes out of our high-end CD player, directly. The reason this is that WAV is the format that music is natively stored in, on all CDs. We still listen to our XM Radio stations, for songs and artists that we don’t have music for in our NAS, but our best sounding source is now our NAS, which delivers WAV audio streams.

To organize all of the MP-3 and WAV music found in our PCs and network attached storage, we installed another NetStreams product called “Streaming Music Manager”, which simply plugs into the home network. This product then locates all of our music stored on PCs, MACs, networked attached storage, and other computing devices around our home, and aggregates the music into one list of Songs, Artists, Album, Genre, and Playlists, for easy playback. Now we don’t have to remember where the music is stored. It doesn’t matter. We can also choose any of the individual computing device where some of our music is stored, for playback.

Another cool source that we have is our iPod®. To select, control and listen to the music stored in our iPods, we use an in-wall docking station called iPort, made by a company called iPort™ – a Sonance® company. Our friends like to bring their iPods over, dock them in our iPort, and play their music around the house. People find this way cool!

For local only radio stations and sporting events, we also have a Parasound® FM tuner, whose audio is also distributed and controlled from any room in our house.

And finally, we also distribute the audio from our (3) satellite boxes, located in our equipment rack in the theater.

How our NetStreams DigiLinX system works:
There are two methods to accomplish multi-room audio distribution. The first and more traditional method is to distribute the audio from centrally located amplifiers. The downside to this method is that the audio is pushed up to its destination through copper cables that allow the audio to pick up noise and distortion along the way, and also losing a significant amount of the power produced by the amplifier(s). This results in a lower performance. The other method is distributed amplification. In a distributed amplification system, the amplifiers are placed in each audio zone or at the speaker. The closer the amplifiers are to the speaker, the less power will be lost and the less audio noise and distortion will be developed. This is the method that that NetStreams DigiLinX system uses.

In our home we have about 20 distributed audio zones; each capable of playing music from any of the audio sources that we have configured to play in that room. The wiring from each zone where we have installed a SpeakerLinX IP-Based amplifier, to the ’head-end’ (the place/rack where our equipment is centrally located), is CAT 5e + 14-4 (4-conductors of #14 gauge), which is the industry standard for distributed audio – CEA 2030.

In my home I used two types of SpeakerLinX IP-Based amplifiers, available from NetStreams. The SL220 is a 20 watt per channel amplifier and I used these in our smaller audio zones. In the larger audio zones I used the SL250 amplifiers, which are 50 watts per channel.

Each SpeakerLinX amplifier, typically installed in a closet or behind furniture in the audio zones, fits in a backless 2-gang electrical box (installed at electrical outlet height) and is covered with a ribbed plastic plate (available in various colors). Like all amplifiers, they do get a little warm, but are designed and UL approved for installation in walls, but can also be mounted on walls with an optional mounting plate. The small footprint makes it an easy and convenient installation. The CAT 5e cable digitally deliverers the IP streams to the amplifiers and the 4-conductor cable is used to power the amplifiers from a central power supply located at the rack. Where a central power supply is not possible, local power supplies can be used instead. In addition to the latter connections, the audio zone’s speakers are also connected to the SpeakerLinX IP amplifier and after software configuration, the zone is ready to play audio.

I saved the best for last. NetStreams is very proud to be the pioneer of IP speaker technology and to have partnered up with Polk Audio to produce the world’s first IP speakers. Of course you know that as a ‘Toywizard’, I had to have a few pairs of these IP speakers. I had one pair installed in our living room, one pair in my home office, a pair in the Master Suite, and (6) pair in my home theater. All I am say about the audio that comes out of these speakers is “awesome”! You have to experience these for yourself; simply incredible.

Aside from the incredible audio performance that NetStreams technology and products offers, the thing that my family and I enjoy the most is the simplicity of the DigiLinX’s intuitive interface, and the rich experience that that it delivers. As I complete this Blog post, I am sitting in my backyard, listening to some great music, and I am selecting and controlling that music from my laptop.


Cheers!

Herman Cardenas


If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com

Audio / Video Around the World

Hello Readers – Once again I find myself having to apologize for not keeping up with my Blog. Over the last three months, I have been jet-setting around the US and internationally and have managed to travel to many wonderful cities on business, including: Mexico City, London, Dubai, San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Myrtle Beach. At least I found a slot in all that travel to take a cruise with my family on a Caribbean vacation. However, I did get a hard time from the family for taking pictures of the digital signage displays at the port of entry and ship; just could not resist.

The wonderful thing in common that I find, as I travel around the US and internationally, is the love for music and movies. And everyone loves those flat screens. The adoption of high definition movies, however, is a bit further behind the US, but I was told at the CEDIA UK that over the last few months, the buzz about high definition movies has increased substantially. They expect the sales of high definition players and movies to take off now.

Dubai was a wonderful place to visit. I even got to see a ski resort inside of a mall, with people skiing and snow boarding – unbelievable! I have never seen as many modern buildings and new construction in one place as I witnessed there. Over 1,500 new towers, residential and commercial, are either in construction or about to start construction in Dubai, and more behind those every month. And guess what? All planned with digital signage and multi-room audio and video.

Another thing about what I am seeing across the globe is that, where a few years ago custom electronic installers everywhere were saying “IP what?”, now everything is about IP products. The tradeshows also are making it all about the convergence of IP and audio video, or networked entertainment.

There are so many exciting technologies and products in development now, by so many companies, including NetStreams. This coming month we release our IP Video products, and the response at the shows so far has been overwhelming. The future looks exciting and fun, and I am just glad to be a part of it.

I will be busy this week working on the continuation of my IP Home Blog posts.

Cheers!


If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com

Planning and Designing your IP Home

What is an IP Home anyway? An IP Home is a home whose systems and products (entertainment, lighting, cameras, thermostats, etc…) are integrated to work seamlessly over a home network. These systems/products use the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) as their glue. IP Homes typically contain a combination of both wired and wireless products. This all sounds very complicated, and it is, but if installed and configured correctly, for the end-user, this actually translates into simplicity and a lot of convenience – a richer experience.

Ground-zero for most electronic products are the custom electronics industry tradeshows like CEDIA, EHX, and CES, where Integrators/Installers go to learn and see the latest and greatest products and systems. Over the last 5 years, the reaction in our industry tradeshows has gone from – “IP what”? to “This is the future of digital entertainment and control in homes – and I have to have it”. IP is now the new buzz at these shows.

With so many electronic lifestyle products, including entertainment PCs and MACs now available for homes, how does one go about selecting and designing an IP Home? The key to this is research and/or finding a good ‘Integration company’ that understands and installs IP-Based systems. Investing in products that are not IP-Based today is like buying an extremely ripe fruit. It is no longer a question as to whether homes will have networks, or whether TVs will have Ethernet connections in the future. Many consumer products selling today have, or will soon have, Ethernet connections. And in the future, they all will. After making a significant investment in ‘electronic/computing products’, don’t you want these to interoperate seamlessly in your home? Unfortunately, without a professional’s help, even products that are IP-Based, don’t do this automatically.

So… how do we plan for and design an IP Home? The first thing that you need to establish is you budget and your priorities for the products that you want in your home. I tie these two together because I have concluded that no matter how much money you have, unless you have several million dollars to assign to your electronic systems (and some people do), you will probably have to make choices on what you want to spend your money on. These will be different family to family. For my family, because we enjoy music so much, it was multi-room audio. Although we enjoy watching movies a lot too, we knew that the multi-room audio system would get used the most. But let me tell you…. It was hard, because we wanted to do everything possible. Our budget kept climbing every week, until we finally got to the pain threshold. We then had to defer some things and reduce our budget in some categories in order to get what we wanted in our priority categories.

The good news about designing an IP Home is that if you plan ahead and you wire it properly, as per my earlier blog post, you don’t have to do it all at once. You can scale your electronic lifestyle, one system or product at a time.

The most common areas to consider as you plan are:
Multi-room Audio
- Standard Analog audio distribution – for background music (Good)
- High fidelity audio distribution (Better)
- IP-based audio distribution (Best)

Multi-room Video
- Traditional coax RF distribution (Good)
- Balanced-line video distribution (Better)
- IP-based video distribution (Best)

Home Theater(s)
- Combo rooms with a home theater system (Good)
- Controlled-light multi-purpose room (Better)
- Dedicated Home Theater room (Best)

Intercom
- Stand-alone Intercom System (Good)
- Integrated Phone/Intercom System (Better)
- Intercom System that uses your multi-room audio speakers (Best)

Lighting Control
- Power line or RF Lighting control system (Good) – For retrofit (Best)
- Wired lighting control system (Better)
- IP-controlled and wired lighting control system (Best)

Security System (including cameras)
- Wired or Wireless Security System (Good)
- Wired or Wireless Security System with Fire Protection (Better)
- IP-based Wired or Wireless Security System with Fire Protection (Best)

Automated shades and curtains
- Since there are no IP-Based shades available yet, you will have to control these through your lighting system or contact-relay controller

Climate Control (HVAC)
- This one is a touchy one. Although I love the idea of integrating everything in your home, if you are building a new home and you invest in a multi-zone HVAC system with high efficiencies, you should never have to control your thermostat remotely; unless you go on vacations a lot and want the ability to take your home out of temperature setback remotely. In our home, after the first 30 days of tweaking the temperatures and times, we haven’t found the need to touch the thermostats. However, if you have the need to remotely control your thermostat(s), and IP-Based thermostat like AprilAire is a great option.

Other (Pool controls, irrigation controls, fireplaces, fans, etc…)
- RS-232 controlled input/output (I/O) control products are good, but an IP-Based I/O control product is your best option. The products connected to these I/O products can be combined with each other or other products, via programming to accomplish some very convenient things like one button control of your theater (turn on your theater equipment, open curtains, mask the screen, dim the lights, select the right audio mode, turn on the projector or display, and start the movie).

Control System
- This will be your toughest or easiest decision, depending on whether you are being given a sales pitch without good data, or one with good data. Most people, given good data, will make the right decision for them. Of course, no matter which direction you want to take, always look for a system that is IP-Based, as it will offer you the most options, longer life, and most scalability and expandability.

Each of these product categories offers a lot of choices from many manufacturers in the Custom Electronics market. Sorting through all of these choices is not something that I recommend you take on alone. By working closely with a reputable and knowledgeable Integrator, you should be able to avoid the many products/systems in the market that are not ready for prime time and don’t work well, or don’t offer the performance that you desire, or won’t scalable or grow with you, or won’t meet your needs and expectations.

Now that IP is in vogue, some manufacturers are putting Ethernet connectors on their products, and then adjusting their brochures to claim that they are IP-Based, when in fact they are not. At best, some of these products give you simple control over some functions of their product, but that is a far cry from being designed using IP technology and web services from the ground, up. Your Integrator will know how to navigate these dangerous waters.

If my blog has been helpful to you in any way, or if you have any comments or questions, please drop me a note. I would love to hear from you: hermansblog@netstreams.com


Herman Cardenas

Thank you, Readers!

I wanted to take out a moment to express my appreciation to all of the readers of my blog and thank you for your comments. Please keep them coming. Your comments are encouraging and give me guidance as to what my blog readers are interested in me writing about. The number of people interested in IP Homes is growing significantly, and NetStreams is feeling the ground-swell and benefiting greatly from being in the leading position of this emerging and very exciting and market.

I recently had the opportunity to meet a couple of my blog readers at the recent Electronic House Expo in Orlando. Bob – it was a pleasure meeting you and your wife and I am glad that your Integrator advised you to go to this show. Thank you for allowing me to show you what we do. : ) I hope you enjoyed yourself.

As always, feel free to email me at hermansblog@netstreams.com