CONTENT is the media you want to watch or listen to.  There are thousands of choices of media today and they are all delivered over different media and various electronic black boxes. 

For TV, your cable or satellite service is your primary high definition subscription content.  This will include On Demand movie rentals and Pay-Per-View.

For movies and TV shows, Netflix and AppleTV and  are the most popular Internet streaming services, while YouTube and Vimeo are popular sources of user created content.

Music content and libraries span several types of media.  While most families have a fair collection of music in Apple's iTunes, streaming Internet services like Pandora, Spotify and TuneIn are very popular. 

Content may also be photos on your computer, phone or tablet.  It is also popular today to run a Flickr slideshow of interesting photography as a screensaver while streaming music on an AppleTV. 

Audiophiles and movie enthusiasts who will only accept the highest quality audio/video will choose Kaleidescape, the exclusive and legal way to store and playback Blu-Ray quality movies on a local server. 

There is a myriad of content choices.  How do you get the content you want to play where and when you want it to, easily?  You need the other two C's  - connectivity and control.


 

CONNECTIVITY is all of the gear, the black boxes, the wiring, the power - everything that connects everything to everything. 

Content begins at The Source. The Source may be an AppleTV, cable DVR, iPhone, iPad, media server, computer, or anything that displays or plays audio/video.

A Switch is a device that routes audio/video signals around to the right place.  This is often a home theater surround sound A/V receiver in family rooms or a distributed audio system for whole house music. 

The connections between sources, switches and other gear may be hard wired or wireless (in many cases).   However, if a robust, reliable system is important, hard wired connectivity is always better than wireless connections. 

Planning for connectivity is important to do very early in your project, because the opportunity to run wires is narrow during a construction project and usually impractical to retrofit.

Power is an important part of connectivity, especially with larger systems.  Pay careful consideration to the placement of electrical outlets with ultra-thin displays, otherwise, your sexy thin TV will look funny.  

Well designed homes feature a centrally located space that houses nearly all of the audio/video hardware into seismically secured equipment rack.  This space is air conditioned and kept dust free to prolong the life of the electronics.

_It's all about CONTROL, isn't it?   Well, if you don't do the other two C's well, control doesn't matter.  Assuming that you have all the content you want available to you, that all that content is well connected to your systems, then great CONTROL is what will make everything easy to use.

There are three components to a great control system:   1)  System Controller, 2)  Interface and 3) Configuration

A universal remote control is the weakest system controller, because it stores all the commands in the remote and communicates to the system devices via infrared signals wirelessly.  This is an unreliable way of controlling your system. 

A system controller is the brains of a control system.  This is where all the connections are made between all the devices.  It sends commands to the equipment and provides feedback. Systems like Savant, Crestron and Control4 are processor based control systems, which are very robust and reliable.   

The interface may be an RF based remote control or an iPad, iPhone or Android enabled device.  Remotes with buttons are a must-have for TV watching.  However, it is possible to totally control all your systems from your phone or tablet.  (You may find the display a bit bright while you're watching a movie though.)

Your phones and tablets communicate with your system via wifi, which takes us back to connectivity ... better have great wifi signal throughout your house, otherwise you won't be able to control your TV.