Go Ahead, Search Our Blog...

Nothing Beats Watching the Game on a Quality Home Theater System

With the 2017 football season right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to evaluate whether your home media setup allows you to enjoy game day to its fullest. Whether you want to add a home theater system to a dedicated private cinema, an outdoor theater, or a multi-purpose media room in your Tampa, Florida home, there’s no denying that a high-quality projector combined with surround sound speakers is the next best thing to sitting in the bleachers. Below, we cover the most popular devices and setups for football aficionados. 

The Smarter Approach to Collaborative Meetings

Conference room audio video technologies are evolving every day. This is good news for Tampa, Florida businesses – the latest technologies give opportunities to make everyday operations more efficient and effective. One business AV trend in particular that we’re watching closely is wireless display technology for conference rooms and huddle rooms. It’s amazing how easy it is to collaborate wirelessly now, and one of the best platforms for achieving that collaboration is Solstice by Mersive.

A Smart Way to Cut Down Your Energy Bill Each Month

Ah, Florida. The fun weekends at the beach and snow-free winters come at a cost: blazing hot summers. If you’ve resigned yourself to paying ridiculously high energy bills each month to keep from breaking out into a sweat in your home, we have some good news for you. Here it is: your smart home automation system can help reduce your energy bill and cool down your home during these summer months. The key to cooler summer months lies in motorized shades. Whether you’re in Palm Harbor, Clearwater, or another Tampa area, you’ll want to keep reading to learn how this smart technology works.

Elevate the Worship Experience with High-Quality AV

If you’re considering giving your house of worship an AV upgrade, or perhaps preparing for installing a system in a new building, there are a few things you should know. The first thing is that the quality of the AV setup can make a big impact on the quality of the worship experience, so it’s important to make sure you’re doing it right the first time. We’ve been doing professional audio video installations throughout the Tampa, Florida area since 1995, and in that time we’ve learned a thing or two. Keep reading to learn the key to making your house of worship’s AV system perform well and reliably for years to come.

The Best Theater Experience Requires the Right Furniture

When you read about home theater systems and how to improve the movie-watching experience, a lot of articles focus on the 4K visuals or surround sound. And while those aspects are incredibly important, there’s also an element of the theater that often doesn’t get the attention it deserves: the furniture. That’s why we’ve put together this guide for St. Petersburg, FL homeowners that goes over the most common types of furniture and how to choose the best styles for your theater.

Sound Masking Can Make Your Tampa Office More Efficient

As anyone who works in an open concept office knows, noise can make it incredibly difficult to get anything done. From coworkers chatting in a nearby cubicle to office machinery running throughout the day, noise tends to run rampant in businesses. If you’ve grown to accept high noise levels in your Florida office as a fact of life, then this information is for you. Keep reading to learn about sound masking and how you can use it to easily get noise down to a healthy level.

If you’re like many of the people who have purchased a vacation home in the sunny St. Petersburg area, you’ve probably experienced the struggle of maintaining a second property from far away. It’s tough to make sure the house is in good condition when you live up north – you either have to hire someone to watch the property for you or fly down yourself to check on it. 

Fortunately, the latest trend for vacation homes solves this problem. The solution is to install smart surveillance cameras throughout the home. These cameras offer many more benefits than you might think. Keep reading to learn why they’re a smart investment for your vacation property.

1. Peace of Mind

Is your vacation home okay? Has there been a leak or a break in? Did you forget to lock the front door when you left it last? Everything is likely fine, but that doesn’t change that nagging worrisome thought in the back of your head. Smart surveillance cameras allow you to immediately put your mind at ease. Simply pull out your smartphone or tablet, open up the app, and select the camera you want to view. Instantly, you can see real-time footage of the home and know exactly what is going on in each area.

2. Easier Property Management

Instead of paying a property management firm to monitor the vacation home on a regular basis, you can use the cameras to check on things in seconds. For example, you could use the camera footage for the outdoor areas to see if it’s time to schedule lawn maintenance. The week before you’re scheduled to visit the vacation home, check through each surveillance feed to see if any areas need cleaning or repairs.

SEE ALSO: Is A Home Surveillance System Worth It?

Trust experienced church AV installers and make the experience at your house of worship more memorable!

Have you ever arrived late to church on a busy Sunday, only to be relegated to the back, unable to hear the whole service? While we are definitely not advocating for coming late to church, we don't think anyone in the congregation should be straining to hear what's going on up front. 

Do you find this happening often at your house of worship? No worries! In this blog, we'll explore a few elements that will help you deliver the message properly to every member of your church. Keep reading to find out more.

SEE ALSO: STREAM LIVE CHURCH SERVICES TO EXPAND YOUR REACH

The Right Speakers

For a good auditory experience, you need more than just high-quality speakers—you need the right positioning. Plus, you should take into consideration that the concepts of voice and music reinforcement are critical. A minister's voice or musician's guitar should be heard evenly and clearly throughout an entire church or hall.

A professional church AV installer can help you choose the right speakers and integrate them into your space, ensuring detailed and clear sound in every area of the room.

Conference room audio visual systems have finally become a viable option for business meetings. In their infancy video conferences were considered by some to be a sketchy and risky proposition. That is no longer the case. Today's state of the art video conferencing systems incorporate a variety of technological advantages to produce crystal clear audio and video suitable for any meeting or conference environment.

Have you ever found yourself seated at one end of a conference table completely unable to hear what's going on at the other end? If you've ever worked in an office, at some time you've probably attended a meeting or conference with poor acoustics, bad temperature controls, a too-small screen, or some other issue that made it difficult to concentrate on the meeting itself. Maybe you've even found yourself fantasizing about how you would fix the room to make it perfect.

Sports Entertainment in Bars and Restaurants

The sports entertainment industry has become an integral part of the bar and restaurant experience. With the increasing demand for live sports broadcasts, patrons expect high-quality video displays to watch their favorite teams. Providing a top-notch viewing experience is no longer an added benefit but a necessity to stay competitive. 

Investing in advanced video distribution systems can significantly enhance customer satisfaction, leading to increased foot traffic and longer stays. 

The workplace can be quite chaotic, and the last thing you want to worry about is figuring out how to set up and control the technology. When you have an important meeting, you need to make sure the system is working and easy to use. Otherwise, you may end up looking disorganized and unprofessional. The team at AV Specialists is experienced on how to customize your boardroom with the newest technology. We'll make it easy to operate and intuitive enough so that anyone can figure it out. Continue reading to learn more about our boardroom automation solutions.

I am on a constant quest to make my portable music sound better. Unfortunately, that sometimes involves large sums of money or an inconvenience to simplicity of use. However, every once in a while you find a true gem, a diamond amongst the coal that is the modern music listening landscape. The AudioQuest Dragonfly is just that. It’s something that costs very little for the amount it gives in return.

Find the Home Theater Installation Style that Meets Your Needs

Everybody wants a space in their home where they can enjoy the latest Oscar-winning flick or Netflix original show. But there are a lot of options in how you design that space. The two most popular options are to do a dedicated home theater installation or a multipurpose media room. Each option has its own merits, which we’ll discuss below. Maybe you’re building a new property in St. Petersburg, FL or simply renovating an existing home in the Tampa area—whatever the reason, keep reading to discover which media experience is the best fit for your lifestyle and personality.

Smart Home Automation and Alexa are a Perfect Match

The Amazon Echo really is an amazing device—just plug it in, connect to Wi-Fi, and enjoy having your own voice-controlled assistant! The smart device hit more than 10,000 unique skills in February of this year, so there certainly are plenty of things you can take advantage of.

But get this: late last year, Experian did a survey to find out exactly how people were using Amazon Alexa. The most commonly tried skills were setting a timer (84.9%), playing a song (82.4%), and reading the news (66%). Those are useful skills, but if you want to do more with your Alexa in your St. Petersburg, FL home, then it’s time to explore smart home automation. Keep reading to learn about these creative ways to put voice control to work.

Bring the Latest AV Equipment into Your Conference Room for Truly Successful Business Meetings

With so many employees now working remotely, either from home or while on business travels, conference room AV systems have become an increasingly popular tool for modern offices. Conference rooms are now designed not only for face-to-face meetings but also to make the most of virtual meetings! This allows employees outside the office to remain involved in every aspect of the business.

Want to learn more about how you can keep communication flowing and collaboration running smooth among your team? Keep reading our blog to find out!

The newest version of the Crestron iPad™ app is available from the iTunes® App Store, where it has been ranked the #1 Top Grossing Lifestyle App. This update includes landscape rotation and gestures navigation on the iPad for both Crestron and Prodigy® control systems. A beautiful graphic template with user-selectable backgrounds designed especially for the iPad is available free from the Crestron website, and there are also infinite possibilities for customization. Dealers can create their own branded designs and clients can enjoy the same look and feel on their iPad as on their Crestron touchpanels thanks to Crestron tablet integration.

When I'm out and about I often run into poor AV installations. There are many reasons that I would consider the installations poor. Sometimes it's merely an ugly or sloppy installation. More often than not, it's a sloppy installation and also a poorly chosen product. 

The best speakers money can buy will never live up to their potential if they are not hooked up to quality components. That is why I am excited about the Marantz product line. Their single philosophy of "Because Music Matters" should tell you all you need to know about the brand. Your Tampa Bay area home audio system will not be complete without Marantz Reference Series components.

Understanding AV Installation Costs

Starting a discussion about AV Installation can feel intimidating, particularly when so many corporate settings are trying to reduce overhead costs. In recent years, there's been a transition from focusing on cost to, instead, focusing on the quality of the system installed.