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Commercial audio and video are changing the way consumers enjoy a night out. On top of offering great food and drinks, restaurants and bars must take advantage of cutting-edge audio and video solutions that make the difference in making or breaking a business. Whether you offer personalized menu screens, a fantastic sound system and dance floor, or sports entertainment, the ability to…

Perhaps you've heard the term "mesh networking" recently. Mesh Wi-Fi systems extend your Wi-Fi coverage through connections between the main router and its satellite nodes, allowing more devices and users to be on a single wireless network. It's quickly becoming the new way to enjoy your home networks without worrying about dead zones again. While mesh networking began hitting residential…

Your home is your refuge, and as the place you spend the majority of your day, you should feel a sense of ease as you walk through the door. Why would you waste time stressing over the tedious day-to-day schedule when smart home technology can take care of everything in milliseconds? Home automation doesn't just improve your quality of life at home, but it also empowers your family members to…

The smart home experience begins when you walk through the front door, and the new Chime Video Doorbell does so much more than see who is at the door. The sleek new smart home solution fully integrates with Control4’s OS3 platform, allowing users to interact with their front door like never before.

At $400, the Control4 Chime Video Doorbell features a 5-megapixel camera with a…

Once you own a lighting control system, you get to operate your lights like never before. With a centralized system, it's simple to organize light sets, control their brightness and color, and use your creativity to brighten your house in endless ways. Here are five ways to control your lighting system with Saavi.

Safe and Sound

As unusual as it may seem, a lighting control…

As 2020 has been a year mostly spent inside our homes, it's become more important than ever to achieve wellness of mind and body within the home. Though it may seem surprising, it's the little details that can transform a home. Smart home technology will change the atmosphere of your home, so your whole family can embrace relaxation.

…

As our world undergoes advancements in technology and connectivity, we’ve been able to enjoy further conveniences to our lifestyle. A computer in our pocket can access endless information, buy and sell items, run a business, and even get food delivered to our homes. However, our home’s structure generally remains the same as that of our parents and grandparents. It’s…

Raising tweens and teens in the digital world we live in can be frustrating, confusing, and overwhelming. Keeping up with the latest social media platform, messaging app or smartphone can feel like a full-time job at times. As parents, keeping our kids safe online and in real life is always a top priority.

Bark gives families a digital safety net for their kids by helping protect their…

Here is a great write up from TIME about the current state of streaming. Here's Your Comprehensive Guide to Apple TV+, Disney+ and More. Content really is KING! 

https://time.com/5703656/best-streaming-services/

Streaming Services 6

YouTubeTV

This service, owned by Google, is not to be confused with You Tube, although it has many things in common with it. After trying all the services listed in this blog except the PSVUE, this is the one we selected.

First of all, we got a 30 day trial with our Roku stick. Since the stick only cost $30, that was a pretty good opportunity to…

PLAYSTATION VUE

PSVUE was originally developed by Sony for the popular game system, and has since been developed as a separate app that will run on most streaming players, so don’t be put off by its gaming name or background. The number of channels varies depending on which plan you choose and range in price from $44.99 for the entry level (Access) up to the $79.99 for the Ultra…

Streaming Services 4

HULU

Hulu is one of the earliest streaming services, and initially was known for its catalog of sit-coms and other weekly TV series that would be available several days after they initially aired. Many people with smart phones or pads used Hulu to get their TV content this way. Since then, Hulu beefed up their service by investing in its own content library,…

Streaming Services 3

DirecTVNow

This streaming service is (not surprisingly) an offshoot of DirecTV. If you are familiar with DirecTV services, you’ll become quickly acquainted with this service, including the channel selection and the interface.

DirecTVNow has the widest selection of channel “options” of any of the services. This is very similar to…

Streaming Services 2

SLING TV

Sling TV was announced in 2015 and is a division of DISH network. You don’t need a DISH subscription, a satellite dish, or any relationship with DISH to subscribe to the service. However, the channel selection and some elements of the interface are very similar to what you see in the DISH service. So if you are familiar with DISH, you’ll…

Streaming Services 1

In this post, we’ll begin a discussion of various streaming services and some of the pros and cons of each. As mentioned earlier, note that not every streaming service is available on every hardware platform. This is because some of the BIG content owners prevent their content from being used on a competitor’s hardware. For example, you can’t get…

Hardware for Streaming 2

In our previous entry, we listed a number of hardware products that you can use to stream various video content to your TV in case you want to supplement or replace your Over The Air (OTA) local channels. Here are some of the pros and cons of each device.

ROKU: This hardware product has been around for a long time (it was originally developed by Netflix…

Hardware for Streaming 1

Once you’ve decided that you are not content with just your Over The Air (OTA) channel selections, you will need to understand your options in the streaming universe.

The first thing you will need is a piece of hardware that is connected to the internet (wired or wirelessly) that will support the streaming service you desire. Because not all…

Intro To Streaming

As mentioned in Part 5, you can stream local channels into your home over the internet without an antenna. If that’s all you need, and you don’t care about recording, as long as you pay for your internet connection, you can get that for free.

However, perhaps you’ve gotten used to having certain cable channels like HGTV, SyFy, or sports…

Streaming Local Channels

If you don’t want to bother with installing an antenna, and your only concern is getting your local channels, there is another option. Available in Denver and just a few other cities is an app called LOCAST. This is a non-profit organization that installs antennas in local cities and then streams the stations directly to any device that has the app.

Another Antenna Option

If you don’t want to hang an antenna in your home, or repurpose the cables used for satellite or cable TV, you do have another option.

There are several devices available that contain QAM tuners (needed to decode the digital video signal) AND have hard drives to record your shows. These devices also can stream this content to other receiving devices…

ANTENNA LOCATION OPTIONS for Over The Air (OTA) signals

If you have a good signal and want to install an antenna, you have several options.

The simplest is to locate the antenna right next to the TV. This might not work for aesthetic reasons, as it does not always look great. It also won’t help if you have multiple TVs unless you buy an antenna for each TV.

If you…

OVER THE AIR TV

In 2009, the FCC mandated that all TV stations that broadcast over the air switch their antennas to broadcast digitally in High Definition. Because most TV’s manufactured since 2006 are equipped with a QAM (digital) tuner, this meant that many people could receive their location stations with just a digital antenna.

When TV was originally popularized in…

According to the FCC, Cable TV subscribers in the US peaked in 2000 at 68.5 million. Since then, cable TV subscriptions have been declining. There are a variety of estimates on the number of current subscriptions, but what is not in dispute is that the numbers are heading down.

In 2017, a total of 22.2 million U.S. adults will have cut the cord on cable, satellite or telco TV service…

The outbreak started Tuesday and froze computer systems in several European countries, and began spreading to the U.S., the latest in a series of attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security's…

SaaviHome Awarded Best Of Houzz 2017

Over 40 Million Monthly Unique Users Nominated Best Home Building, Remodeling and Design Professionals in North America and Around the World

Denver, CO, January 17, 2017 – SaaviHome of Denver has won “Best Of Customer Service” on Houzz®, the leading platform…

AT&T Inc. said its internet-based television service DirecTV Now will go on sale this week and cost between $35 and $70 a month based on the package of channels that customers select.

The service, which will be available Wednesday, offers four tiers of channels that are delivered to web browsers, mobile phones and streaming devices like Amazon's Fire TV stick or the Apple TV. The…

If you are like many homeowners, the concept of a connected "smart" home can be intriguing, but can be worrisome regarding budget. Asking how much an automated home can cost is like asking how much is a car? As you can see, there are a lot of variables that go into the answer, but we will give you our best guide to start.

For new construction, we see costs range in the…

Massive study by home remodeling website Houzz reveals home automation is third most planned system upgrade, but still less than 1% of homeowners plan to hire a 'media' contractor; however, 4% are seeking 'window treatment' professionals.

Integrators or "media" contractors as the term used in the Houzz study, continue to be invisible among consumers. The average amount…

Written by Crystal Watts on August 11, 2014

For securing businesses such as legalized/medical marijuana distributors, some insurance policies do not cover an alarm contractor if a claim is filed against them.

By …

Press Release

Denver, CO – The Home Builders Association of Metro Denver welcomes our newest member, SaaviHome. The end of the year brings with it many transitions, which includes a new HBA president, executive committee and board members. In addition to these internal changes, the end of the year is a busy time for most of us, filled with holiday festivities and the anticipation…

Julie Jacobson · January 26, 2016

Control4 (Nasdaq: CTRL) has spent the last few years focusing on its core business of providing reliable ZigBee- and Wi-Fi-enabled home…

Jonathan Blackwood · January 8, 2016

Control4 leverages SmartDeviceLink to demo a proof of concept control solution allowing homeowners to safely control smart home devices right from their vehicle dashboards.

Robert Archer · January 6, 2016

This year during CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Control…

by Rick Goodman, CSP

The words “leader” and “boss” may have pretty similar dictionary definitions—but in the business world, their practical distinctions are crucial.

Just think about their connotations. Most of us think of a boss as someone who makes demands, yells at us when we screw up, and ultimately…

If you are looking to build out a new grow operation or retail facility, here is what you need to know to comply with the Colorado law in terms of surveillance:

THESE ARE PARAPHRASED MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR MARIJUANA VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS taken from the Marijuana Enforcement Division

1 CCR…

HomeWorks QS and RadioRA 2 enhancements provide greater aesthetics and functionality for the connected home

Coopersburg, PA (October 15, 2015) – Lutron Electronics, the leader in wireless lighting and shade control, today announced several expansions to its signature lighting control systems, bringing fashion and functionality to the forefront of lighting control.

Lighting…

Control4 OS 2.8 expands the lineup of native music services for Control4 smart-home owners.

Control4 Corporation (NASDAQ: CTRL), a leading global provider of smart home solutions, today announced that Pandora, Deezer and TIDAL are now automatically available as part of Control4 HC-250 and HC-800 systems, without requiring additional streaming devices or software, so…