All Products

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Now that home automation is widely recognized as an efficient means of energy conservation, consumers are requiring immediate feedback as to how much of their investment into a home automation solution is yielding in energy savings.

Vantage's Energy Management Solution (EMS) has been engineered to provide that exact information. According to the Utah-based company, some energy management dashboards simply estimate savings, its EMS product however, calculates in real time the exact dollar amount a homeowner is saving on energy.

Vantage adds that its EMS option is also based on a global platform, which makes it compatible with any utility company's smart grid solution.

BTX Technologies, a manufacturer of interface and integration products, has introduced a field-terminatable HDMI cable-mount male connector.

BTX says the cabling solution will allow installers to create custom length HDMI cables that support 12-bit deep color and 1080p resolutions up to distances of 39 feet.

For A/V, home theater, digital signage, or any other application requiring HDMI, the company says its field-terminatable connector can solve the problem of fitting a connector through conduit while eliminating the waste of leaving excess cabling in a rack or wall. This HDMI 1.4 compliant connector is terminated through the insulation displacement connection (IDC) process, which requires only a blade and a HDMI hand tool, and can easily be accomplished with minimal training or skill.

The latest racking option for installers from Middle Atlantic is designed to provide a visual upgrade to a rack mounted electronics system.

Middle Atlantic's Series Residential Designer Rack (RDR) is the company's new aesthetic option for integrating small to medium-sized home entertainment systems, and the company says the single part number rack is factory-configured and ships loaded with the necessary accessories to install a fully loaded rack.

Included with each RDR Series rack are vented shelves and panels that facilitate airflow, built-in cable management to enable system performance and service calls, and a filtered, surge-protected power strip. In addition, the RDR ships with trim strips and hidden casters to enhance its aesthetic design, and four-point mounting shelves pre-installed for fast equipment integration.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

It's surprising the scenarios in which CE Pros often find themselves in and it's the ability of a custom installer to meet the unique needs of their clients within the electronics industry.

Induction Dynamics' SolidDrive line of transducers enables CE Pros to solve some of those unique audio installation situations by transforming nearly any surface into a loudspeaker solution to meet the needs of diverse group of clientele.

Recently the company added anodized titanium and black finishes to its SolidDrive line, and according to the company, the new colors increase the products' temperature handling capabilities to allow for more installation options, and they provide more aesthetic choices for property owners.

With the custom electronics industry shifting its emphasis more towards retrofit home environments, it's important for installers to have the ability to deal with all types of building structures.

Nev.-based Wisdom Audio has just introduced its SE Wall Enclosure, which is a product that facilitates the installation of its Sage Series in-wall and in-ceiling products into solid walls.

The accessory is made of made from aircraft-grade aluminum, and according to the company, when an installer wants to mount a Sage Series in-wall speaker, he would place the speaker into the the mount via screws that grip into the aircraft-grade aluminum extrusion SE enclosure.

The SE Enclosure features Wisdom's flexible rubber-magnetic mounting system then allows for an ultra-thin, stainless steel grill to conform to variations in wall surfaces once the speaker is fitted into the mount to provide the appearance of a flush installation into the solid wall.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Adding to its line of THX-certified products, Ore.-based Runco has announced that several of its latest generation products have achieved THX certification.

Among the products from the company that are THX certified are the company's new LED-based Q-750i and Q-750d projectors.

In order to meet the testing standards established by THX, the Q-750i and Q-750d had to pass THX image quality tests in several categories, including luminance, contrast, color gamut, gamma, picture uniformity, image solution, as well as video processing functions like de-interlacing, video conversion and noise reduction.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

When the Da-Lite JKP Affinity line of products were first introduced a couple of years ago to the custom installation market, CE Pros had the option of either 0.6 or 0.9 screen gains.

With the company's announcement of a new 1.1 screen gain material, custom installation professionals now have another tool in their installation toolboxes to provide consumers with an optimum home theater video experience.

The company says the new screen material can be used to suit a variety of installation applications, and Da-Lite offers the screen in seamless heights up to 16 feet, as well as fixed frame or retractable.

You could say that the West Coast-based Lotus Group USA is excited about its latest product.

The two-channel specialty distributor's reason for excitement is the SMc Audio VRE-1 Preamplifier, which the company is now offering to the enthusiast audiophile market.

According to the company, the preamp took five years to develop and it features a circuit designed that's engineered to highlight the best attributes of a passive and active performance through the use of a JFET circuit, Lundahl and Jensen coupling transformers, and input transformers that convert all inputs to a balanced operational status.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

With revenue streams extremely tight for most custom installation businesses, the concept of adding the steady flow of recurring revenues is an appealing thought to most business owners.

Visonic says its new PowerMax Express security control panel makes the concept of recurring revenue streams through the sales of home security products a lot more appealing.

According to the company, its new panel installs in half the time of a traditional security panel, and it includes features such as standard built-in PSTN communications. Additionally, it offers the ability to add an internal, field-upgradeable GSM/GPRS communication module and CE Pros can expand the capabilities of the panel through a range of accessory options, including safety detectors, personal emergency transmitters, one-way or two-way keypads, keyfobs and wireless sirens.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Texas-based AMX has just introduced a new line of digital television (DTV) products that are designed to distribute DTV content over an Ethernet network.

One of the products within the AMX Television Distribution System (TDS) line of products is the DTV Gateway. This product delivers TV content to the AMX Vision² system by pairing TDS transmitters with the DTV Gateway. It works by converting the DTV signals to a format compatible with Vision² to allow the content to be made available for later
playback on demand.

The gateway supports as many as six streams with multiple channels per stream. AMX says the solution can be used for education installations such as schools and colleges that need to distribute content to video displays and PCs.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Calif.-based Elite Screens offers a variety of screen products for both the residential and commercial markets and its new Slowed Retraction Mechanism (SRM) is an affordable solution for basic commercial installations.

The SRM product is available in a choice of 1:1 or 4:3 aspect ratios, and the company also offers the screen in sizes ranging from 85 inches to 120 inches.

Elite Screen says the key to the screen's uniqueness is a built-in mechanism that enables the user to pull a lanyard without holding it, which allows the SRM mechanism to engage automatically to retract the screen.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The concept of all-in-one disc players certainly isn't a new idea, but since the dawn of the new millennium the quality of these products has gotten exponentially better and a good example of this improvement can be found with the Cambridge Audio Azur 650BD Universal Blu-ray disc player.

This new disc player incorporates BD Live 2.0, HDMI 1.3 12-bit Deep Color support, Crystal CS4345/CS4361 24-bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converters for audio playback and built-in Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio processing.

In addition, the company says the player powers up and loads quickly, and for the pure audio enthusiast, the Azur 650BD also supports the SACD and DVD-Audio formats.

Audio Plus Services distributes Cambridge Audio in the U.S.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Many people know the Fender name for its iconic products like the Stratocaster and Jazz Bass, but the company also offers a complete line of sound reinforcement products too.

The company's flagship Passport 500 Pro PA system is a turnkey product that includes a newly redesigned mixer layout, a new reverb function that is said to sound more natural than the previous version and speaker enclosures that incorporate 35mm stand sockets for easy setup.

Fender says the new Passport 500 Pro is also several pounds lighter than the previous version and it also includes USB and sub out options to facilitate recording and system expansion.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

With the news that Blu-ray players will soon do away with analog component outputs, CE Pros are going to have to deal with the problems of the HDMI format whether they like it or not.

Sencore's new MP500 HDMI Tester has been updated with new features to enable electronics professionals to troubleshoot systems that incorporate HDMI cabling connections.

Highlighting the tester's list of features are a cable test function, which uses pseudo-random noise to test HDMI distribution paths for bit errors to determine whether a problem is caused by the source, cable, display or repeater, and an expansion of the tester's pattern generator to accommodate multichannel HDMI audio systems. This option provides the patterns required for room acoustic measurement and analysis, including pink noise, impulse, polarity and sine waves.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Located in the middle of Wolverine country, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Leon Speakers is known for its one-off custom loudspeakers products.

The company does more than just unique custom products and its new Aaros (A10-UT) subwoofer is a good example of its regular product line.

The slim footprint 4.5-inch deep subwoofer incorporates a 10-inch aluminum woofer and when paired with the company's new L3-1K 1,000-watt, class A/B subwoofer amplifier, the subwoofer can be used for a variety of applications.

Leon offers the subwoofer package at a cost-competitive price and installers can also order a dual enclosure version that adds more value to the solution.