Outdoor Electronics Make Staying at Home Fun

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The pandemic has put a damper on vacationing, socializing and entertaining. With everyone home more, it’s a great time to add outdoor electronics.

Watching a movie or TV outside is so much fun and makes for a great “night in.”

A covered patio/deck or a three season room are great locations for a TV. Some ACT customers have installed a media room in their pool house. Other families want a drive-in movie experience in their yard with a giant screen and projector. If your family would watch movies, TV or sports outside regularly, a relatively small installation makes sense.

It will be easier to watch new releases at home with this week’s agreement between Universal Pictures and AMC Theatres (7-28-2020). Some movies will be available on-demand just a few weeks after their release in theaters. Other studios and distributors are expected to follow suit.

Music is another way to enjoy electronics outside. All weather audio systems let you enjoy music, radio or sports outside and can be designed to disappear into your landscape. ACT’s outdoor music systems offer even coverage and great sound without disturbing your neighbors.

There are options for outdoor entertainment at multiple price levels. Call us at 781-741-5959 to discuss what’s possible at your home. Consultations are always free of charge.

Stay-At-Home Traffic Jamming Your Home Network?

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The Stay-At-Home Advisory has really put a strain on… home networks. We’re only half kidding. Social distancing is really difficult. On top of that, people are realizing their home network can’t handle the sudden increase in traffic and activity, which is causing extra frustration. And no one needs added frustration right now.

Today’s home networks are mainly wireless, but the equipment that service providers use isn’t designed to handle multiple, simultaneous connections to the same access point. When an entire family is using the Wi-Fi at the same time, it downgrades each connection point.

Think of the bridges to Cape Cod. Only so many cars can get through at once. In light, off-season traffic, it’s not a big deal. But when summer comes, it’s a huge inconvenience. A home network is the same. Parents and students all working from home at once is like 4th of July weekend. Using the right equipment is like having four bridges plus a couple tunnels.

If your home network is more than three years old, it would likely benefit from an upgrade. Once equipment is three years old, it usually can’t get the software updates it needs. Older hardware also can’t keep pace with the higher speeds ISPs offer today.

Another reason homeowners may want to improve their network is if they live in an area that doesn’t have great cellular coverage. When you don’t have good coverage, using Wi-Fi dialing can greatly improve the quality of cell phone calls.

What Can Homeowners Do?

A first step homeowners can take is to make sure they have the most current modem offered by their service provider. Newer modems have much higher bandwidth offerings. If your cable modem hasn’t been replaced in a couple years, now is the time.

Homeowners can also check their network speed. Fast.com is a great site to use for a quick network speed test.

Some things that signal it’s time for an upgrade include:

  • A Wi-Fi signal that’s strong in some rooms but weak (or non-existent) in others
  • Video/streamed content that buffers, lags or downgrades from high definition to standard definition
  • Wireless speakers that just stop playing
  • Weak signals, slow connections and dead zones
  • Signal dropout (when you lose connections)
  • Audio dropout during video calls and meetings

ACT installs secure home networks that provide a strong signal throughout a home and property, and can handle the household’s traffic. ACT also installs managed networks, which allow homeowners on mobile devices to walk throughout a home and property without losing a signal.

If you are experiencing performance issues or think your home network needs an upgrade, please call us at 781-741-5959 to discuss your needs. You can also fill out our contact form. Consultations are always free of charge.

Multi-Room, Hi-Res Music Made Easy with Bluesound Music Systems

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ACT is happy to offer a new music system option for our customers: Bluesound hi-res sound systems.

Bluesound was started by designers, engineers and other music lovers who spent their lives in the music industry. They set out to create a system that could deliver high-fidelity audio. The result is audiophile-grade wireless HiFi speakers and digital players that let homeowners stream music to any (or every!) room in their home.

Homeowners can use Bluesound to supplement or replace an older audio system, easily add more rooms to an existing system or install a music system without opening walls to run wires. With a Bluesound wireless speaker, you can also bring music outside with you.

Bluesound systems play music from CDs, records, digital files or streaming services, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal, iHeartRadio and many more. You can listen to your own music stored on your phone, tablet, laptop, computer or any networked hard drive.

The system is controlled with an app, which makes it very easy to operate. The BluOS Controller App is available for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows and Mac desktops. Bluesound supports voice control and works with Alexa and Siri.

In addition to wireless speakers, Bluesound offers soundbars, a subwoofer and stereo components. The NODE 2i, a multi-room, high-res music streamer, has digital and analog input/output options and can connect to any existing stereo amplifier, AV receiver or powered audio system. It can also play music from a CD player or turntable. The NODE 2i works with Amazon Echo and AirPlay 2. The POWERNODE 2i does everything the NODE 2i does, but also adds amplification to a system. It works with existing speakers as well as Bluesound’s speakers. The VAULT 2i can store thousands of tracks and also rip CDs in FLAC, MP3, WAV, WMA and many other formats.

If you’d like to hear a Bluesound system in action, please stop by ACT and we’d be thrilled to fire it up. And as always, call us at 781-741-5959 with any questions or for more information.

How to Keep Your Home Electronics Up and Running Through the Winter

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Winter is the season of power outages in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for home electronics to misbehave after an outage. If any of your electronics stop working — whether it’s after a power outage or any other time — the first step is usually to reboot the equipment.

A reboot means turning the power off for at least 10 seconds. With cable boxes and other components, the power cord needs to be disconnected from the device or the device needs to be unplugged in order to completely power off.

Usually, rebooting is an easy fix. Sometimes devices are located within cabinetry or an equipment rack, which makes it difficult to access the cords. It can also be hard to pinpoint which device needs to be rebooted, especially for homeowners with robust electronic systems.

There are several new products available that allow ACT to assist customers remotely, preventing the need for a visit from a technician. These products can help tell which devices need to be rebooted and perform the reboots. They also help ACT get diagnostics for Internet speeds and help determine if network problems stem from an issue on the Internet Service Provider’s end.

ACT can also set up a user-friendly app our customers can use to fix common issues on their own. With the app, you can see all of your components in one place and reboot them right from the app. This can also be done remotely, which is a nice feature for second homes, homeowners returning from vacation or anyone who knows their home has lost power when they’re not there.

We know our clients don’t enjoy making service calls or waiting for repairmen or technicians. With this new class of products, in most cases, our clients can either fix home electronics issues on their own or have problems resolved via a phone call with ACT.

For more information and pricing, please call ACT at 781-741-5959.

“Alexa, Turn on Family Movie Night”

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Savant Pro Can Now Be Controlled with Alexa

Savant Pro users can now control their homes using any Alexa enabled device! Alexa can control lights, music, video, shades, temperature and more using Savant Scenes.

Alexa will recognize any scenes captured with Savant. Simply say, “Alexa, turn on <scene name>,” and the scene will be activated. Tell Alexa to turn off the scene and everything will be shut down.

Alexa can also be used to turn rooms on and off, turn lights on and off and to dim or brighten lights. Say, “Alexa, set the <Room> lights to 50” to dim the lights halfway. Telling Alexa to brighten or dim the lights changes the level by 25%.

The setup is intuitive for current Savant and Alexa users. Homeowners with Savant Pro running 8.4 or higher who also use Alexa can simply download and enable the Savant Skill in the Alexa app, link the Savant Skill to their account and then tell Alexa to discover their devices.

If you’d like integrate your Savant system with Alexa and you’re not currently using the Savant Pro app, please call ACT at 781-741-5959 to discuss your needs.

Has Traffic Slowed to a Crawl on Your Home Network?

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Is the Wi-Fi signal in your home strong in some rooms but weak (or non-existent) in others? When you stream movies or TV shows, does the video buffer, lag or downgrade to SD? Do your Sonos speakers just stop playing? These are all signs that your home network is not up to snuff.

Many homeowners ACT speaks with experience wireless network issues. Other common problems include weak signals, slow connections and deadzones.

If a home network is more than five years old, it probably can’t handle the traffic of an average family. Households are connecting more and more devices to the Internet. Phones, tablets, laptops, printers, gaming consoles, streaming devices, speakers, lighting, cameras, thermostats and even appliances all compete with each other for bandwidth.

ACT installs wireless and wired networks that provide a strong signal throughout a home and property. ACT also installs managed networks, which allow homeowners on mobile devices to walk throughout a home and property without losing a signal.

If you are experiencing performance issues or think your home network needs an upgrade, contact ACT to discuss your needs. Consultations are always free of charge.

ACT Wins Two Awards from Local Builders’ Groups!

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ACT was thrilled to win two awards this fall from two local builders and remodelers associations! In October, ACT was a gold winner in the Best Use of Smart Home Technology category at the 2016 PRISM Awards Gala. Hosted by The Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Boston (www.bragb.org), the PRISM Awards recognize the finest projects and outstanding achievements of professionals in the home building industry. BRAGB received almost 300 entries for the PRISM Awards this year, which was the highest number of entries in the program’s history.

Weeks later, in November, ACT was again a gold winner for Excellence in Smart Technology at the 2016 BRICC Awards Banquet. Presented by the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod (www.capecodbuilders.org), the BRICC Awards recognize and celebrate excellence in building, remodeling, design, sales and marketing on Cape Cod & Martha’s Vineyard.

We are thrilled to be recognized for excellence in our trade by the builders, remodelers, architects, designers and other industry professionals we partner with on a day-to-day basis. The entire team at ACT looks forward to working closely with both homeowners and our industry partners in 2017 to continue to provide home technology solutions that exceed client expectations.