Where: Our showroom – 3360 Tennyson Ave, Victoria BC
When: November 21, 2019 from 4pm to 8pm
Looking to upgrade your smart home experience? Want a holiday gift your whole family can enjoy? Then you won’t want to miss our C4Yourself Day event–––an opportunity to meet with our team of experts, ask questions, get demonstrations, see new products like the Neeo remote for Control4 Smart Home OS3 and win prizes!
The Control4 Neeo Remote
Control4 Neeo Remote – A smarter remote for the smartest homes
The new Control4 Neeo remote is made from machined aluminum with silver and black finish options. It includes:
Hi-res 3.2 inch touchscreen display
Physical buttons
Built in accelerometer
Charging connectors and docking station for charging
The Neeo remote is designed to work with popular platforms already compatible with Contrl4: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, etc.
With the remote, you can control various aspects of your home automation system simply and easily, including your TV channels/streaming services and other equipment in your home.
C4 Yourself Day – Nov 21 2019
Don’t miss out! C4Yourself attendees will be eligible for exclusive promotional offers and will be entered to win a FREE Neeo smart remote.
Whether it’s an immersive home theater, a comprehensive security system, multi-room audio and video, or whole-home lighting––the Control4 Smart Home OS can automate, enhance, unify the technology in your home.
Visitors who wish to attend will be eligible to receive exclusive offers such as a FREE Neeo Remote and discounts on system upgrades (eligible until December 31 2019).
RSVPs must be done in advance through the link below. We look forward to seeing you there!
With the Control4 SR-260 remote, you can have the full power of home automation and smart homes at your fingertips.
When paired with a home automation controller, you can use the SR-260 remote to control lighting, audio sources, TV, cable boxes, projects, shades, thermostat, and much more – all from one device.
OneTouch House curates and provides the best automation products and accessories to help simplify your life. We’ll be providing regular product reviews, news, and tutorials/tips for for all skill and interest levels.
So you’ve moved into a new home or just got the keys to your new business location? Depending on the area you live or the type of property you have, one of the most common items on any new property “to-do list” is install a security system.
There are many obvious advantages to a good security system. The basic features, such as alarms and motion sensors, do a great job of alerting you or your neighbours that there was an unauthorized attempt to enter your property. This, coupled with 24/7 monitoring, ensures that your property is guarded around the clock and the authorities will be automatically notified if they don’t receive the “false alarm” from you.
People also enhance their security system with cameras, virtual fences, intercoms, and a variety of other components to ensure their property and family is 100% secure.
Aside from security, there are other advantages to a reputable security system. Perks like lower insurance rates and integration into other intelligent-home features within the building can help you be more proactive in preventing loss from burglary or vandalism.
With the hundreds of security systems, companies and features available on the market, how do you decide what’s best for you? We’ve put together a short guide on some things to consider before you invest in your new system.
1. Cellular or Wired?
With the rapid movement towards wireless systems, many people will often opt for a wire-free approach when connecting their security system together. Most often, wi-fi is the most common way to link your systems to the internet.
The main advantages of this are simplicity and cost. You are already paying for your home internet connection, so adding additional items to it has very little impact (if at all) on your monthly bill.
Most internet connections today are also high-speed, meaning there is very little latency between the communication of each device.
The one drawback to a wi-fi based system is that your internet connection is dependent on two things: the high-speed connection coming to your house and the power grid that supplies your power. Unless you have a generator to keep everything running during a power outage, this usually means your internet modem will be down as well – affecting the power to all of your security devices.
Bad weather or fallen trees can also impact the lines to the building, so if your security and alarm system is dependent on power and the internet, you’re in trouble.
A remedy to this is choosing systems with built-in emergency batteries and dedicated cellular connections. Both of these systems turn your security devices into mini smartphone-like devices, allowing them to operate on portable power and connectivity for some time until your main power connection is restored.
A cellular connection is usually a marginal increase in your monthly monitoring expense, but worth it if you rely on your security system to protect you in all circumstances.
2. Integration into the Rest of the House
Another popular trend is the introduction of the “smart home” – or intelligent home, as we call it. The intelligent home uses a variety of devices to automate various aspects of your home or business and simplify your overall experience.
Some of these features include automated lighting and climate control, remote-controlled door locks, and interactive notifications sent to various mobile devices.
When selecting a security system, you may want to consider how your system integrates with other features of your home. When used together, all of these systems can be a powerful force in protecting your home from damage or intrusion.
Imagine a scenario where you have an automated HVAC system installed alongside your security system, which features moisture and smoke/CO detectors throughout your property.
In the event of a fire, the smoke detection system triggers an alert which sends a notification to your phone and notifies the authorities. In the meantime, it turns off the HVAC system to prevent smoke from being distributed throughout the building.
If you had additional features such as automated lighting and door locks, the system can also trigger the lights to display a “path” to the nearest exit and unlock the doors to allow for easy escape.
Home automation systems work much better when they can “talk” to each other and work to not only add convenience to your daily routine but also protect you and your family in the event of an emergency.
3. Prompt (but not Overwhelming) Mobile Alerts
With the emergence of smartphones and widespread connectivity, the ability to monitor your home/business remotely is now easier than ever.
Being able to see and control your various systems is a gamechanger for home security and gives you an added advantage combined with conventional alarm monitoring services. You can proactively contact any family or occupants of the building to inform them of any emergencies before emergency services arrive. You can also detect false alarms and avoid fees or penalties for unnecessarily involving a third party.
With services like Alarm.com, you can receive customizable mobile alerts when certain systems are triggered.
Imagine a motion sensor in your backyard is triggered. An alert is sent to your phone and you open your Control4 app and take a look at your backyard camera. You notice a squirrel or deer has entered your yard and innocently tripped your motion sensor. You can relax and continue on with your day knowing your home is safe.
Another example may be your kids coming home from school. Your security camera notifies you that something has been spotted on your front porch. You remotely access your camera and intercom, greet your kids, and remotely unlock your front door to let them in.
Despite getting dozens of notifications on your mobile device every day, being able to customize and control the number of alerts you get from your security system allows you to rest assured that you’re only notified when you need to be.
4. Monitoring & Response Times
Even though new technology has allowed for an easier self-monitoring experience, third-party monitoring services can still be essential and valuable in many situations.
Security systems that are installed and monitored by professional teams ensure that you are looked after 24/7/365 and emergency services are notified as fast as possible in the event of a bad situation.
Imagine your phone is on silent or you’re in an area with no cell reception. Any alerts from your system may go unnoticed, leaving your home or business vulnerable to a potential invader or emergency. By having a third-party service monitoring your system, you can relax and rest assured that you’re in good hands.
With an average response time of less than eight (8) seconds and competitive monthly monitoring fees, it’s very difficult to beat the security, convenience, and value of a third-party alarm monitoring service.
There are a variety of companies and services to choose from, so make sure to weigh up their value vs. reputation when considering which company to sign up with. Companies that have a good reputation and experience in the local community can sometimes be advantageous over national chains.
Arguably the most important aspect of any security system is the durability of its components and the frequency in which they need to be maintained.
There are dozens of products available at consumer electronics stores that suit a variety of applications. However, the biggest drawback to these products is that they are very often “cookie-cutter” products that are used in different situations despite every customer’s requirements being unique.
Systems like Nest offer great flexibility and reliability for a reasonable price. For someone looking to add some DIY security features to their home or business, these products fit the bill quite well.
For customers who are looking for robust systems that communicate together and can be relied on 365 days out of the year, a professionally installed system is the only solution.
Professional-grade systems very often require installation by trained technicians who can tailor the solution to your specific requirements. They understand the products inside and out and will ensure they are installed to maximize effectiveness and reliability. Building a relationship with a professional installer also ensures that you are proactively notified when systems require maintenance to avoid failure in critical circumstances.
If a security system doesn’t work properly when you need it the most, is it really a “security” system?
In conclusion, security and alarm solutions are available with a variety of products and features and can be custom tailored to meet your specific needs. The most robust and effective systems used technology and services that not only ensures their reliability but also simplifies your experience so you feel confident that your property is being looked after properly.
To learn more about OneTouch House’s Alarm Monitoring services, visit this page.
There are several video doorbell options available in the market. With the rapid increase in popularity of home automation or “smart home” devices, there is no shortage of ways to use the technology to increase the security and convenience of your home.
For starters, it integrates fully with your existing Control4 system and 4Sight subscription. Control4 is a high-end home automation system that ties all of your devices together to create a truly intelligent and integrated experience. This is far more powerful than Google Home or HomeKit-style home automation, and is designed for more than the home automation hobbyist.
We’ll explore some of the other features of Intercom Anywhere and why they are a great addition to an existing Control4 system.
1. The Screen Looks Beautiful
Your home is likely one of the biggest assets you own. When you invest money in furniture, flooring, lighting and other decorations, the last thing you want to see is a bulky and out-of-place technological addition to your decor.
Thankfully, the Intercom Anywhere touch screen/video doorbell is sleek, modern, and importantly (for some) low-profile.
The interface is well-designed and easy to navigate and it gives your home a 21st century feel without screaming Star-Trek.
The doorbell system is also well-designed and complementary to the exterior of your front entrance or gate system. It features a microphone, hi-res camera, and connects to your 4Sight system.
2. Set Programmable Routines for Different Scenarios
The main allure of home automation is the ability to link multiple actions together in order to simplify repetitive tasks. Intercom Anywhere goes a step further and lets you program different routines based on what you want your home to do based on the type of visitor at your front door.
For example, assume you have a delivery from Amazon while you’re away from the house. The courier can ring your doorbell, which sends a notification to your phone. You can answer the doorbell and press the “Delivery” preset.
The action will disable your alarm, unlock your door, and turn on your entrance light. Once the package is placed inside and the door closed, the house will turn off the light, lock the door, and re-enable your alarm – all with one tap.
The feature will also work on any of the touchscreens inside your home so you never miss a house call, wherever you are.
3. Communicate with Your Guest From Anywhere in Your Home
Have you ever had to experience running from the other side of your home when the doorbell rings? You have to stop what you’re doing and bolt across the house while your visitor continues to impatiently push the doorbell button until you show up at the door.
Intercom Anywhere solves that problem.
Using your phone or the conveniently placed Control4 touchscreens, you can hear your doorbell ring from any room in the house. The camera on the Control4 door station will show you who’s calling so you can decide to answer (or not).
Once you answer, hi-res video and crystal-clear audio will be transmitted between you and the visitor so you can communicate with them. You can also choose from a set of predetermined actions depending on who your guest is.
4. Two-Way Connection to Different Devices/Areas in The House
Intercom Anywhere lets you stay connected quickly and conveniently from anywhere – inside or outside of the home.
Let’s assume you’re away from your home on a night out and the babysitter hasn’t checked in for a while. Using the Control4 app on your phone, you can call a specific room in the house for a direct line to a specific person. No more calling phones and hoping the person picks up on the other end.
You can also use the service to broadcast that dinner is ready to the whole house. You can even call your phone from the touchscreen if you’ve misplaced it.
In Summary…
Home automation systems are designed to make your life easier. Complicated technology and hard-to-use interfaces don’t accomplish that simple goal. Control4’s entire suite of automation systems are designed to create a truly integrated experience and turn your house into and intelligent home.
Intercom Anywhere is a welcome addition to home automation and does a great job at combining ease of communication, security, and peace of mind for you and your family.
OneTouch House
OneTouch House is a Platinum Control4 Authorized Dealer and Installer. If you have questions about how Intercom Anywhere can be integrated into your home, don’t hesitate to contact us!
You can also subscribe to our newsletter for home automation tips and news on the latest industry trends and products.
Spotify and Apple Music – these are two of the most popular music streaming services on the market today. They offer an affordable and convenient way to access on-demand music from thousands of artists all over the world, on almost any device.
For the general consumer, these services have dramatically changed the way people consume music. But how does it work?
Essentially, as long as you have an internet connection, a Spotify or Apple Music subscription, and a streaming device, you can access the content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (more or less) commercial free.
There are some drawbacks to the way Apple Music and Spotify provide content to the consumer. Have you ever wondered why your favourite songs sound so much better when played from your car’s CD player versus when you listen to them on the radio? That is due to compression.
Compression is the process of shrinking the audio file to optimize it for transmission over a radio frequency or, in the case of Spotify or Apple Music, a data network. This process compresses the song by removing “unnecessary” data from the audio file in order to shrink down its size. This produces a smaller, more efficient file that is streamed at 256 kbps or 320 kbps to the music streaming service.
For most people, this makes a very marginal difference to the quality of the song. For an audiophile, however, this is like looking at a blurred photograph. You get the idea but miss out on all of the dynamic details of the song that the artist had intended you to hear when the song was produced.
As CDs are decreasing in popularity, this raises questions for people with high-end audio listening equipment. What is the point of high-end equipment if the music is being “dumbed down”? How do I continue to enjoy my favourite music in the best possible way?
Fortunately, that’s where MQA comes in.
What is MQA?
Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is a high-resolution audio standard that provides the listener with an exact replication of what the producers and the artist had painstakingly created in the recording studio.
You can listen to lossless audio files without swallowing up your data plan or using CDs. It can be packaged inside current lossless containers such as FLAC, WAV, and Apple Lossless, removing the need for a whole new audio format. It can also be accessed through existing apps such as Tidal,Amarra, and Audirvana+.
But what’s the difference? Will it be really that noticeable? The short answer is: yes.
Benefits
When hi-def (and subsequently 4K) TVs were first released, people often asked what the difference was and why they would pay so much more for a TV? If you asked anyone to go back and watch a standard definition, 480p movie today, you would undoubtedly hear complaints about the awful, almost unwatchable quality.
The truth is, you don’t really know what you’re missing out on until you try it. Just ask any audiophile.
MQA provides a lossless audio listening experience. It retains the quality and dynamic range of the original song and lets you enjoy it with flexibility and ease, without huge amounts of bandwidth.
While several Android smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S8/8+/9/9+, Sony Xperia XZ2, LG V30/S Thinq) support the format, the iPhone still lags behind. You can overcome this with the right app and equipment, but it does require some workarounds.
Extremely popular music library software like iTunes don’t support it, but there are alternatives such as Pure Music and Amarra (Mac) and JRiver Media Center (PC).
As the popularity of hi-res music continues to grow, the compatibility of our various consumer devices will continue to develop with it. For the avid audiophile, we’ve taken our years of experience in audio and home entertainment and put together our recommended list of equipment for the best MQA/hi-res audio streaming experience.
The Best Setup for Streaming and Listening to MQA Audio
Our favourite pick for streaming hi-res audio is the Marantz SR7011. With it’s 9.2 channel, Dolby Atmos, and network capabilities, it will surely provide an excellent experience for a variety of scenarios. The HEOS wireless multi-room music network expands its functionality to allow you to enjoy hi-res music from anywhere in your home that has speakers installed.
The SR7011 has the ability to decode up to 24-bit/192kHz ALAC, FLAC, and WAV lossless files as well as DSD 2.8MHZ and 5.6MHz tracks via the front USB port and network sources, such as the HEOS app – available free on Android and iOS devices – which can stream music from hi-res services like Tidal.
Considered the top of the line in the Marantz receiver series, the SR7011 is a must-have for the best audio streaming experience.
Arguably one of the most important factors in enjoying high quality audio is the pair of speakers being used. Without good speakers, every chink in the audio chain will essentially be for nothing.
The Triton series towers are high-performance loudspeakers that feature a built in subwoofer, eliminating the need for an additional subwoofer in the audio arsenal. The speakers are engineered for unparallelled performance in both two-channel stereo systems as well as multi-channel home theater and music systems.
From a technical perspective, the Triton towers use a high-velocity folded ribbon (HFVC) tweeter design that moves the air by squeezing it with an accordion-like diaphragm. Unlike a conventional speaker driver that pushes the air to generate sound, this results in greater efficiency, lower distortion, improved dynamics, and and incredibly detailed sound experience.
By using Goldenear’s amazing and innovative technology, the Triton series are the perfect piece of audio equipment to consider when consuming hi-res audio content. They also look stunning.
The ongoing debate around expensive versus cheap cables is still raging. Is there really a difference? How much of an improvement am I getting over a $5 cable vs. a $50 cable?
The argument is the same for hi-def and standard definition TVs – when you hear the difference, you can’t un-hear it.
From a technical perspective, all of the components in your audio system contribute to a closed electrical circuit. Signals are created and received by the amplifier, speaker, DAC, and other devices – these signals are all transmitted electronically throughout the system via speaker wire.
Changing the resistance and capacitance of the cable can change how the amplifier and speakers interact. A high quality signal travelling through high quality cable ensures minimal signal loss and a pure, high-resolution result at each point in the chain.
AudioQuest cables espouse a “Do No Harm” mantra in their cables. This means that the integrity of the signal generated at the source is kept through the transfer between components, reducing noise, distortion, and signal loss.
The years of research and development into how signals are transmitted and encoded, how wires are engineered, and how insulation technology can be designed to reduce the degradation of the signal throughout the entire chain are all major parts of AudioQuest’s philosophy.
Using AudioQuest cables is a surefire way to ensure you are getting the best audio experience possible. Why would you invest in the best equipment only to skimp on what’s needed to connect it all together?
AudioQuest’s Dragonfly Fly Red Digital-to-Analog (DAC) converter is one of the best ways to ensure a sonic upgrade to your audio system. Converting a digital signal to analog allows for a higher resolution, maximizes the audio sampling frequency, and gives the digital signal a boost that can be audibly detected by the human ear.
The majority of devices that can be used to stream, receive, and output audio today don’t have efficient DAC circuits. They are designed to be cost-effective and small, which inevitably leads to signal degradation and a less-than-optimal listening experience.
By incorporating a Dragonfly DAC, you’re ensuring that the audio signal coming from the source and being transferred to the amplifier is 100% maintained. When listening to MQA audio files, that component is key as you want a completely unaltered, lossless audio file to be transmitted through all areas of your audio equipment.
Having a high-quality DAC as part of your home audio setup ensures that no part of the listening experience is compromised.
Though the equipment listed above will surely provide an incredible way to enjoy MQA and other hi-res streaming formats, some people want to go a step further. Entire rooms are acoustically designed to maximize the auditory experience. When you invest in a high-end audio system, you want to ensure that your listening room is equipped to make the most of it in the best way possible.
There are many factors that can alter how music and movies are listened to within a room. Hard walls can reflect sound throughout the room and create echo, muddying individual instruments and negatively affecting the audio experience. Because of the random way that sound is reflected within a room, the sound can be interpreted differently depending on where you are sitting in the room. This creates an inconsistent experience that is a problem for the avid audiophile.
Acoustic panels can be strategically placed on the walls to absorb first-order reflections, reducing flutter echo and trapping the reflecting low-end signals.
The Primacoustic London 12 room kit is a great starting point and can make a huge difference in the the way the sound reflects with in the room. The goal is to create a listening space that is sonically neutral in order to maintain the experience that the artist intended, while ensuring the excitement of the song still shows through and immerses the listener.
Conclusion
High resolution audio is more accessible than ever. Advances in technology can be leveraged to deliver a vast collection of music directly to our homes, completely on-demand. Harnessing that technology and implementing the right source material, amplifier, speakers, digital-to-analog converter, and cabling creates a symbiotic eco-system of sound that will redefine the way we enjoy our music.
Contact us to learn more about how we can build your perfect home audio setup.
