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Speaker placement for smart home

Listen To Your Speakers

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Hearing is subjective, meaning not everyone perceives sound the same way. What sounds slightly shrill or bright to one person may be revealing and airy to another, so there is always going to be room for debate over which speaker sounds best. When choosing a speaker, sound quality is ranked among appearance, size, budget, room dimensions and several other factors, so it’s not always as simple as what sounds best.

This article focuses on the audible aspects of choosing a speaker and what to consider when answering the question, “What is the Best Sounding Speaker for Me?” The characteristics listed below are the top priorities for Platinum Vision when designing and installing loudspeakers. We’re passionate about creating sound that is a true reflection of the nuance, artistry and intensity of your favorite music, movies, games, and all audio content.

Clarity
The easiest and most objective thing to listen for is clarity. One way to determine whether a speaker has excellent clarity is to play music you are familiar with, a song or album where you know every note, beat and detail. Are you hearing those details cleanly and clearly? Better yet, are you noticing sounds or layers you have never heard before because the speakers are so revealing? These are the tell-tale signs of a speaker with great clarity.
On the flipside, if the details sound muffled or muddy and the sound is not as expressive as you remember, it is not the best sounding speaker for you.

Imaging & Soundstage
The second thing to listen for in a stereo or home theater system is imaging and soundstage, or the ability to render a sense of place, distance and a three-dimensional sound field. Speakers should convince you there is sound coming from all around, not just from two boxes in front of you. The bass guitarist should be distinguishable from the lead singer and drummer in terms of location onstage when listening to live music. A car racing in front of you should get louder and softer as it goes from right to left or vice versa so you believe it’s zooming across your field of vision.
Soundstage also refers to a speaker’s ability to create atmospheric sound. Even the background noises behind dialogue or action scenes are clearly perceptible and deepen the sense of immersion.

Neutrality & Refinement
Neutrality and refinement refer to a speaker’s ability to sound as close to the real thing as possible. Does a human voice sound exactly like a human voice, or more robotic? Does the pluck of a guitar string, the roar of an engine, or the soft vocals of a female vocalist come through accurately and faithfully to how the original artist or producer intended?

Since the majority of dialogue and instrumental content occurs in the mid-range frequencies, it’s especially important to focus your listening there, but don’t ignore bass and high frequencies for their ability to recreate the full impact and power in a convincing and realistic way. If a speaker can suspend your sense of disbelief and transport you onstage or to the middle of a movie scene, it has superb neutrality and refinement.

Dynamic Range
A speaker’s ability to effortlessly rise to extreme musical and cinematic peaks or to render the quietest moments with detail and clarity is known as its dynamic range. It’s not just a measure of how loud you can crank the speaker with minimal or no distortion, dynamic range is more nuanced than that. The better question to ask is, how well does the speaker show the contrast between the loudest and quietest moments in your content? You want a speaker that can play as loud as you need it to, but that can also be subtle or delicate when the content demands it.

When it comes to choosing a speaker based on sound, you won’t go wrong by listening for the qualities mentioned above. If you love the sound based on these criteria, love the appearance, it fits within the dimensions of your listening room and is priced within your budget, you’ve most likely found the perfect speaker for you.

If you still have thoughts or questions about how to choose the right speakers, write to us at info@pv.ae and our technical team will be happy to assist?

Home Cinema Design & Installation in Dubai

5 Tips For The Perfect Home Cinema

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Who doesn’t love movies? And with the options of home cinema projectors available today, it’s never been easier to create great entertainment in virtually any living space. Here are some tips to get you started.

 

Find the perfect space

Serious cinephiles won’t settle for anything less that their own dedicated home cinema room, designed by a specialist who’ll take care of absolutely everything. But there are other options. Today’s projectors let you transform any space into an entertainment zone that holds its own against a purpose-built home cinema. Elegantly styled, reliable and remarkably quiet, they don’t have to intrude into everyday living. So rethink that storage or extra bedroom as your own movie theatre and get ready for the show to start.

 

Choose the right projector

Here’s where the magic begins. The right projector brings more thrills and emotion to every movie, from latest releases to classic reissues and old all-time favourites. Give yourself a head-start by choosing a projector with true 4K resolution that reveals the finest details and can even upscale HD sources. And don’t compromise on contrast ratio, unless you’re happy with thin, washed out images lacking deep blacks and punchy highlights. HDR compatible models will reward you with an expanded brightness range and even richer, more nuanced colours.

 

Screen presence  

Get the best out of your projector by pairing it with a screen the complements it. There’s plenty of choice out there, from simple wall-mounted screens to motorised drop-down models that magically disappear at the touch of a button. You might be tempted to skip buying a proper screen and project onto a white wall instead. It’ll do for occasional use, but there are drawbacks. It’s unlikely that even a pristine looking white wall will be truly flat – and those tiny imperfections cause shadows that play havoc with getting a really crisp picture. What’s more, ordinary white paint won’t reflect projected light as brightly and accurately as a specially coated screen.

 

Sound all round

Film directors will tell you that great sound matters as much as what’s on screen. So it’s no wonder that commercial cinemas have sophisticated multi-speaker systems that bombard audiences from all angles with ear-shattering volume and thundering bass. Fortunately you can achieve the same thrilling results on a much smaller budget. The chances are your source – like a satellite receiver or Blu-ray player – can output multi-channel audio. Pair it with a dedicated AV amplifier and speakers for a rich, room-filling surround sound. Also consider other tips like laying carpets rather than bare floors to soak up unwanted sound reflections.

 

Light it up

Submerge the room in complete darkness and your audience will struggle to find their snacks and drinks. Some ambient light always helps during the show. Try to keep light sources towards the back of the room, where they won’t distract from what’s on the screen. Dimmers are a great way to fine tune lighting levels precisely. Or go a step further with a complete room automation system that allows lights plus sound, room temperature and other functions to be adjusted from a dedicated control panel, smartphone or tablet.

 

Conclusion

Consult with our team of designers to create entertainment in any living space. We’ll help select just the right projector to match any room size, speakers that won’t rip a hole in your pockets and create an overall home cinema experience you won’t forget.

 

Wireless Speakers

Sacrificing Wires While Saving Sound

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Many of us dream of a wireless home where audio and video components all live and work together without the eyesore of ugly wires. But there is no such thing as a truly wireless home. Electronics need power. Those running on batteries have to be charged or plugged into an outlet. So, at the very least, there are power cords to contend with.

Then there’s the issue of quality and consistency. Most wireless audio and video devices use the same airwaves as cordless phones, cell phones and Wi-Fi networks. When all that data fights for space there are pauses, glitches and dead air. But new technology allows for increasing degrees of wireless connectivity within the home. At the very least, we can now stream music from different sources to various speakers around the home.

Homeowners often sacrifice some simple pleasures, like music, for the sake of good design. But for those who don’t want to make that trade-off, there are ways to get audio throughout the home without threading wires through a wall, hiding them under molding, or leaving them to scurry across the floor.

All of us want cinematic surround sound when watching a movie. Using wireless technology makes the most sense with home theater systems that typically employ between five and seven speakers positioned around the room. An alternative is using a single Sound Bar. A receiver/transmitter uses wireless to transmit sound throughout the room, including to any additional wireless speakers placed on the sides or in the rear of the room.

However, speakers still need a power source, even the tiny ones that get flushed into the ceiling. Wires for speakers flushed into a wall or ceiling still need to be pulled through the wall and come out at the point of connection.

Getting great sound from an audio source, as opposed to a TV for a home theater experience, can be a bit more complicated, especially for audiophiles who prize fidelity above all else. But the introduction of digital music today has made this a lot easier to achieve.

There are a number of ways to stream music from wherever it’s stored, including iTunes, a home computer, a server, backup storage or from the internet. Sonos makes some of the best solutions for streaming music from multiple sources. The Sonos Play:5 and smaller Play:1 deliver digital music from virtually any source. Using Connect you can and get all music stored on a hard drive, in an iTunes library or on Internet radio stations. You can access virtually any subscription music service like Pandora, Apple or Spotify, and stream it to any set of speakers anywhere in the house. It’s easy to use and a good addition for someone that’s either already invested in some basic home audio equipment or starting from scratch.

Technology is progressing at a pretty rapid rate. Audio companies know that consumers want wireless products and are developing them as quickly as possible. But achieving a quality product is a lot more difficult than we’d like. At the end of the day, find a product that meets your expectations and budget and upgrade yourself over time.

Home Automation Professional in Dubai

5 Reasons to Hire a Home Automation Professional

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Despite improvements in the ease of setup, most home automation systems work best when designed and installed by a trained professional.

Home automation has been inching slowly into the mainstream, and with new do-it-yourself focused systems hitting the marketplace hard and heavy, consumers are faced with the decision on whether to tackle the setup of a home automation system themselves or to hire a professional to do the job. While you’ll certainly save money by handling the task yourself, don’t let the cost of a professional sway your decision. There are many good reasons to pay for a professional, and the good news is that most manufacturers have implemented technology into their systems that can streamline the programming and installation process significantly.

Here are five reasons that will make you think seriously about hiring a home automation professional:

  1. They Keep Up with Trends

Technology moves at a fast pace. What’s new today is often old tomorrow. Home automation installers make it a point to stay on top of and ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. They know what’s fresh and relevant, and what new developments are on the horizon. This insight is crucial when selecting systems for your home. You can be rest assured that your automation investment is sound and will stand the test of time.

  1. They Understand Technology

We’ve all experienced the frustration of a home improvement project gone wrong. Whether it’s a shoddy paint job or an afternoon kitchen update that turned into a month-long project, moments like these are when most people wish they would have handed over the paintbrush and drill to a pro. The installation of a home automation system is no different. Rarely is setup as easy as the instructions make it seem. Many times the problems have nothing to do with you or the system, but rather unforeseen obstacles like a weak wireless home network and poor structural integrity. A home automation professional is able to work around these challenges and implement solutions to ensure your system works reliably.

  1. They Customise Solutions

The functionality of a home automation system often hinges on the programming of its software, and nobody does this better than a home automation professional. Through vigorous training and ongoing education, they’ve perfected the skill of software programming so that they can tailor a home automation system to meet your precise needs and expectations. These programming skills also come into play when integrating products with a home automation system. For example, if there’s a particular product that’s incompatible with your home automation system, a home automation professional is usually able to troubleshoot and get the two communicating freely. He is also able to personalise the system’s user interface (the menu of commands that is displayed on the screens of tablets, smartphones and touch screens) to be easy and intuitive for everyone in your family to understand and navigate.

  1. They Manage Integration

The integration of electronics into your home will often involve professionals besides the automation professional. A professional can ensure that people like your interior designer, contractor and electrician all understand the goals for your home automation system and are communicating and working together to achieve that goal.

  1. They Provide Peace of Mind

System snags are bound to happen when there’s technology in your house. A home automation professional can remedy the problem—whether the fix is a simple reboot which he can issue remotely or whether it requires some on-site sleuthing to resolve. Amateurs, on the other hand, may be left scratching their heads.

 

Sanctuary Falls: Home Automation

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Platinum Vision have been awarded a project to deliver home automation, multiroom audio distribution, IT networking, lighting / HVAC control and supply along with other automation related disciplines.

 

The project comprises of 97 villas in the prestigious development known as Sanctuary Falls in Jumeirah Golf Estates Dubai.

 

These villas will lead the way in offering the most advanced homes available from a master developer.

 

The head of Sheikh Holdings, Shamrez Sheikh, personally dedicated his efforts to ensure that Platinum Vision, leading specialist in the region was selected to deliver this project to his discerning clients.