The Atticus Hotel

What's happening on Ford Street?

For all of you living in Yamhill County, you may have noticed all the construction that has been going on for the last year on Ford street in downtown Mcminnville. The construction will soon be coming to an end and a beautiful new boutique hotel called the Atticus will be opening and serving guests with a unique lodging experience.

Lewis Audio Video had the privilege to be a small part of this awesome project, by providing the background music system for the lower commons areas. We were tasked by the owners with providing a simple to use music system that provided even music distribution throughout the Reception, Library, and Guest Restroom areas and that's exactly what we did.

The Music

Many business owners are shocked to find out that they legally can't play their personal Pandora account throughout their business for background music. Using a commercial licensed music source is vitally important for a commercial facility because it ensures that the business is in compliance with the many copyright laws pertaining to playing music in public venues. Ignoring these usage laws can cost you significantly with fines ranging from $750-$150,000 per song played! There are several commercially approved music sources available for businesses to use for background music applications. If your a business owner and you need help figuring out what service or hardware you need to be in compliance feel free to contact me and I can help answer these questions for you. 

The Install

Our installation team deployed eight speakers throughout the facility. These speakers all wire back to the mechanical room where the equipment lives in a lockable wall mounted rack. Having a lock on the system ensures that only people who have been given permission and training on how to use the components have access to changing any of the settings. This helps minimize service calls generated by misguided button pushers.

Music for this system is derived from a Russound Xstream player. This streaming media player allows the Atticus to use legally licensed content from SiriusXM for business. In addition to being able to control the content from the provided 5" color touch panel Russound has a  simple application that can be installed on key employees mobile devices so that they can adjust the music on the fly from anywhere in the facility.

Powering the eight speakers is a powerful 300 watt Episode commercial amplifier that not only provides crisp clean sound to the speaker, but also enables Lewis Audio Video to remotely keep an eye on the health of the sound system. The amplifier connects to the network and allows us to see from off site vital information like amplifier temperature, power status, and signal level. Having this off site visibility can be vital in remotely troubleshooting a potential issue and restoring service as quickly as possible to the facility.  

The Atticus Experience

A genuine reflection of the rich and iconic McMinnville, Oregon community, the Atticus Hotel embodies the local spirit. The 36-room, full-service luxury hotel is set in the heart of Oregon’s much- adored wine country. With knowledgeable staff, locally-sourced art and goods and a pronounced pulse on its surroundings, the hotel offers a unique insider’s perspective not often seen in the luxury lodging circuit.

The Atticus Hotel wears its independent ownership proudly, evident in everything from 36 unique rooms to carefully curated furniture and a bona fide sense of generosity. Of and for the community, the Atticus Hotel weaves the collective story of a small Willamette Valley town into its very fabric and warmly invites you to experience the Oregon lifestyle.

“Instead of passively witnessing our vibrant McMinnville and Willamette Valley location, we set you up to live it from the inside out. We believe the soul of a place is best discovered when you’re staying in its heart,” Erin Stephenson, co-owner of the Atticus Hotel.

The Restaurant

The latest concept from esteemed Toro Bravo Inc. restaurant group, Bless Your Heart Burgers is inspired by acclaimed chefs Drew Sprouse and John Gorham’s home states of North and South Carolina, featuring classic Americana cheeseburgers and fries with flavors to take you back to your childhood. Thrillist recently named Bless Your Heart Burgers as one of the Top 31 Burger Joints in America.

The Bless Your Heart menu in the Atticus will include all of the favorites from the original Bless Your Heart Burgers location in downtown Portland, Ore. and will be expanded to include biscuits from Toro Bravo’s other popular restaurants, Tasty n Sons and Tasty n Alder. Pancakes, granola, fried chicken breakfast sandwiches, soft serve ice cream, and a signature Bless Your Heart radicchio salad along with the signature burgers will all be available through room service. Jamal Hassan will curate the bar with a strong whisky program, throwback slushies, and draft cocktails with fun and playful riffs on well executed classics. The bar program will also rotate local Willamette Valley wines on draft.

Lets go!

The Atticus will be opening to the public in April 2018. So if you or your family are planning a trip to Oregon wine country make sure to check out this wonderful hotel and restaurant while your here. Make your reservation today!

4K Video Demystified

I have several conversations a month with clients wanting to either purchase a new 4K capable TV, or upgrade their current A/V systems to 4K. Often after only A few seconds of discussion it's very clear that most people don’t really understand what 4K is, and why it may, or may not be worthwhile to upgrade current 1080P devices.

To help answer some of these common 4K questions I was prepared to sit down, and write an article explaining 4K technology and help demystify all the industry jargon. Then I stumbled on this well written article by Stephan Jukic, and realized it had already been done! If your Serious about upgrading your system, or buying a new 4K system you should take a few minutes to read Stephen's article before you part with your hard earned cash.

One other fact worth mentioning that Stephen doesn’t touch on is that often upgrading an existing system to 4K requires replacing additional devices that will be connected to the new 4K TV. A true 4K upgrade may require new HDMI cables, home theater receiver, or source devices to actually get the 4K performance your after. Often equipment that was designed for 1080P video can not handle the huge amount of additional bandwidth that 4K requires. If your unsure of your current equipments capabilities don’t hesitate to reach out to me, and I can help you design a system that will get you the 4K performance you are after.

Cheers!

-Matt

LED Lighting Friend Or Foe?

    Being the responsible earth loving citizen you are, you decide one weekend that its time to replace your old fashioned light bulbs with the new LED bulbs. And why not? LED bulbs are super efficient, and last on average five times longer than conventional bulbs. So you jump in your ride and head to your favorite retailer, and see a 6 pack of LED bulbs for $20 bucks. “What a deal” you say. So you purchase a couple packs race back to your pad, and go to town replacing your inefficient incandescent bulbs with new super energy efficient LED Bulbs. After climbing around on a ladder replacing all the bulbs in your home you are eager to flip the switch to see the fruits of your labor!  Only to find out that they don’t work like the old bulbs did! You have some that work fine, but others wont shut off all the way (ghosting) or flicker horribly when you try to dim them. What the heck?!  Did you get a batch of bad bulbs? Is your house possessed? Well I can’t rule out possession, but here is what is likely happening.

    First a  little history. Back in 2007 to encourage energy efficiency, Congress passed a law mandating that bulbs producing 40 watts, or more worth of light meet certain efficiency goals. Conventional incandescent light bulbs don't meet the required standard, so the law prohibits manufacturing or importing them into the United States. This legislation opened the flood gates for Chinese manufactures clamoring to get a piece of the U.S. LED pie. The problem is that there are little to no regulation, or standards in place policing this industry. Any factory capable of making an LED bulb is shipping them into the U.S. to take advantage of this new lucrative market. Consequently this loose regulatory environment has lead to inconsistent performance from brand to brand. The most notable issues are color accuracy and dimming capability.

    So why don’t LED bulbs just work? Well the the very feature that makes LED bulbs so attractive to customers, and drove the 2007 legislation is at the heart of most of these problems. The LED bulbs are just to efficient! Yup you heard me right. Most of these problems are caused because LED bulbs don’t draw enough power for your dimmer ,or switch to function appropriately. Modern Dimmers, and switches that were not built specifically for LED lighting loads were (in most cases) designed to work with bulbs that had a minimum wattage of 40 watts. In the old days of incandescent lighting a 40 watt bulb was a relatively low output bulb with 65 watt and 100 watt bulbs being more common for primary light fixtures in a home. Now if you want a new LED bulb that has comparable output to a 65 watt incandescent bulb the new LED equivalent bulb only uses 5-7 watts. So the problems you are experiencing with the new LED bulbs is more than likely because the electronics inside your dimmer or switch cant function as designed because the load you are presenting to the switch falls way bellow the minimum wattage of what the manufacture intended when they designed the switch or dimmer.

    “ I need new LED compatible dimmers then?” The short answer is yes. You should always make sure you are using LED compatible dimmers or switches when controlling LED lighting, but here is the frustrating part. Just because you buy an LED compatible dimmers/switches to go with your new LED bulbs doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your not going to still have problems. Remember earlier when I said there little, or no standards in place for the manufacturers, well this presents a real problem for consumers. Unlike their incandescent counterparts LED bulbs are much more complex devices. LED’s by their very nature run on DC voltage not AC. So in order for the new LED bulbs to work with the existing lighting fixtures LED manufactures have to build a ballast circuit into the light bulb itself to convert the high voltage AC electricity to low voltage DC electricity so the LED bulbs can work. These ballast are the rest of the problem. The design and tolerance for the ballasts very greatly from one manufacture to another, and often are even different between wattages from the same manufacture! Because of this lack of standardization you can often still run into lighting problems when you are using LED approved Dimmers or switches. The problems stem from the fact that between the different switch/dimmer designs and the inconsistencies in LED manufacturing process it is not uncommon to still experience compatibility issues with certain combinations of dimmers and LED bulbs.

All hope is not lost! One of our partners Lutron Electronics  is a leading provider of Lighting control systems and has lead the way with several online tools to help consumers pick compatible products before they purchase them. If your project is more involved or you just don’t have time to figure out the details you can hire a Lutron certified professional like myself to help you design and procure the appropriate lighting products for your applications. When designed and executed correctly LED technology is a great way to conserve energy and reduce a home's carbon footprint.

Planning Your Smart Home

I would say 60% of my clients consider themselves to be technologically illiterate. The thought of re-working an existing home or building a new residence that incorporates smart home technology is overwhelming to them. That's where partnering with a Integrated Systems Designer like myself can make things easier. We can guide you through the process, and help you Identify what features are available, and what technologies would best suit your family's needs. 

To streamline the design process I go through a checklist of questions that help me understand what my clients expectations, desires, and needs are. 

Below is a form with several of the questions I will ask when doing an initial Design consultation. Having answers to these questions will help greatly with designing a custom system for your family.  

This is a live form so if your wanting to set a time for a consultation feel free to fill this out to the best of your ability and hit submit, Then I will have it prior to our meeting. You can also print the form out and manually write in the information at your convenience and then share it with your Integrator when it comes time to start the design process.    

The truth about voice control

One of the most common things I get questions about from clients is voice control. Most often clients are referring to being able to control various device throughout the home with Alexa or Google Home smart speakers. These devices offered from Amazon, Google, and soon to be Apple are inexpensive  devices that can, play music, answer basic questions like "what's the weather like today", set timers, play games, and other menial tasks. However these novelty devices are quickly transitioning into more powerful interfaces to control the smart home.    

All of the major home automation systems Lewis Audio Video installs are able to integrate with these voice control devices , but it's important to have a good understanding of what the limitations are of the current voice control technology. 

The biggest shortcoming of current voice control devices in my opinion is in how you have to structure the verbal commands for them to work. For instance if you wanted to be able to turn up the volume of your surround sound system using Alexa you think it would be as easy as building a command like "Alexa turn the volume up" but herein lies what I consider to be the biggest limitation with the current state of voice control. If you were to say "Alexa turn up the volume" Alexa would respond by by turning up the volume of the internal speaker and not your external surround sound speakers. Any command that can be an internal service of Alexa can not also be used to control an external service, because if the service names are the same as a native service built into Alexa, the smart speaker will always assume that you are talking about controlling the internal version of that service. In addition to being careful with what you name your service you also always need to remember to initiate service commands with the words Turn On or Turn Off for Alexa to understand how to execute the service.

Here is an alternate way to achieve our volume up command. "Alexa turn on speaker level up". Because "speaker level up" is not a valid internal service Alexa will issue the programmed command. The problem with this fix is that often the way we have to structure these verbal commands so they work is not conducive to how we normally would speak. The sometimes awkward sentence structure required to verbally control services can end up creating a bit of a learning curve to remember what the voice commands are to control the desired services.  

In my opinion the best way to utilize voice control is to task it with managing scenes rather than focusing on individual device control. The term "scene" refers to a preset that is a common configuration we want our home to be set to. For instance we could create a scene that is called "Turn off house". The " turn off house" scene could be configured to shut off all of the interior lights and TV's in the home, and turn on the porch light. To enable this scene we would say "Alexa turn off House" and Alexa would issue the command to turn off the lights and TV's in the home. We alternatively could make scene that is "Turn on House". We could make the "turn on house scene" turn on predetermined lights throughout the house. This would be useful if you were coming home at night and didn't want to walk into a dark home. You could issue the verbal command"Alexa turn on house" as you enter the home and Alexa would turn on the predetermined lights as programmed.  

While we are a few years out from Star Trek style voice commnads with a little thought voice control can be a useful tool to manage many common tasks around the house. Just know that we aren't at the point of being able to speak conversationally to our house and have it always understand what we mean.  

If you have specific questions about integrating voice control into your existing, or new Smart home send me an email or give me a call and we can discuss your project in more detail. 

-Matt