Award-Winning Home Automation & Electronic Control Systems Integrators in Michigan

War is so messy. Mayhem, destruction, and casualties. The same has been true of the great format conflict between the two opposing camps of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Both vying for the privilege of replacing the ubiquitous video DVD as the next generation of digital high-definition movie media, the struggle had been going on for two years. Primarily the big beef was between Sony (Blu-Ray), and Toshiba (HD-DVD). Similar to the epic videotape clash of the late 70’s and early 80’s, only one media format would ultimately come out on top. Avenging for the death of the superior BetaMax videocassette, Sony’s perseverance paid off with Blu-Ray, and won over the heart of the market.

The Blu-Ray format is truly superior in that it uses blue lasers to bounce off the disc’s reflective layers. Blue light has shorter wavelengths, therefore allowing smaller dots on the substrate, which equals - more data! It has taken many decades for manufacturing technology to advance enough to mass produce small blue lasers and LEDs. Besides, blue is just a really cool color when associated with techy stuff. BlueTooth for your cell phone stuffed in your ear, blue lights on your satellite receiver - so soothing…

So now is the time we can go ahead and upgrade our home theaters and media rooms with a brand-new, high-definition, all-digital, uber-blue, movie watching MACHINE! Just make sure your fancy LCD TV has an HDMI connection for the highest resolution signal possible. Yeah, I know… but you really need a bigger one anyway - don’t you?
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Sean Hotchkiss
shotchkiss@grandhome.com

Bill Langejans, one of our Grand Home Automation client consultants, was recently interviewed by WWJ 950 News Radio in Detroit. Check out the article on their website for some great tips on home theater setup, as well as some tips on what not to do (hint: avoid putting that expensive flat screen TV over your fireplace!)

Grand Home Automation is proud to announce the launch of this website dedicated to assiting people with Home theater and media room installation related issues. As the primary contributor to this blog, I hope to cover topics that are of concern to those who are contemplating the building of a new home theater, or wish to improve upon the one they already have. Harmonizing with Grand Home’s general philosophy, a strong emphasis will be placed on planning, design, and engineering. With so many factors to consider, it’s just too risky to buy a bunch of gear, wire it up, and hope everything works out alright.

As a CEDIA certified home theater design specialist, I will be stressing the importance of getting the room design right. Extremely expensive equipment will perform quite poorly in an uncontrolled environment, while even modest electronics can perform wonderfully under the right conditions with proper calibration. Some of the primary considerations for any home theater space that will be discussed here are:

• Acoustic treatment - sound control inside the room
• Acoustic isolation - keeping theater sounds in, and house sounds out
• Audio processing and amplification
• Video technologies
• Visual formats and layout
• Lighting control and effects
• Climate control and ventillation
• Interior furnishings and decor
• Control systems - doesn’t matter how great it performs if you can’t turn it on

I’m looking forward to exploring and sharing my favorite topic - Home Theater!
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Sean Hotchkiss
shotchkiss@grandhome.com