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When you hear the term home automation, do words such as accessibility and affordability come to mind? Well, they should now! Once a luxury, home automation is now becoming a way of life for millions of American families.

At The Sound Room, we have been embracing the home automation movement for years—elevating home technology for hundreds of St. Louis families. The benefits of a fully integrated home range from HVAC control to security and lighting control—all powerful enough to transform your at-home living experience.

Let’s begin with safety. Integrating your home with a fully automated home security system will not only greatly reduce the risk of unwanted intrusions, but will also allow you to check on your home while you are away. Features such as video surveillance, automated locks and motion sensors will make your home the safest on the block.

Affordable home automation also pays dividends in reduced worry for families with children. A system installed by our home security division, Sound Security, allows the homeowner to check on their family from a Smartphone or tablet device remotely.

In addition to 24/7 video surveillance, the homeowner will also be afforded the power to lock doors with their Smartphone—no matter where they are. The way it works is quite simple: Your system allows you to remotely lock and unlock your doors so you can let people in without giving them a key or a code. You can also receive e-mail or text messages to your Smartphone every time someone unlocks or locks your door, giving you the peace of mind that your home is secure at all times.

Think lead paint doesn’t affect your business? Think again.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to protect children from lead exposure mandates that all renovation and repair contractors working in pre-1978 homes, schools, and day care centers who disrupt more than six square feet of lead paint are required to become EPA Certified in lead-safe work practices. Renovation contractors are required to take a one-day training course and firms must send a short application to the EPA. If not, they could face thousands of dollars in fines, and – even worst – be responsible for harming their customers.

Research shows that renovation contractors like carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters and window replacement experts can inadvertently expose children to harmful levels of lead from invisible dust disturbed during jobs they perform every day.

Renovation contracting firms must register with the EPA and pay a fee to become an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm. In addition, individual renovation contractors that will be doing the work or repairs must take a one-day training course from an EPA-accredited training provider to become a certified renovator. EPA certification for both firms and individuals is good for five years. Re-certification will be required beginning in early 2015 for many renovation firms and individual renovators.

“Getting lead-safe certified is the right thing to do for renovation contractors, their customers, and their employees, and especially for children who spend time in or near spaces that are being renovated,” said Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Father’s Day is almost here, and if you’re a procrastinator, never fear! At The Sound Room we have the gifts that will make Dad’s jaw drop and leave him speechless.

In case you missed it, David Young was on KMOV’s Great Day St. Louis this week with Kent Ehrhardt giving him a closer look at our topic gift picks for Dad. Hot items this year include speakers, headphones, turntables and more. Don’t waste your time at any big box stores, stop by The Sound Room and let us help you become the gift giving master.

Our top priority is the health and safety of our employees, clients and the communities where we live and work. Both our showroom and operations facility will remain open if you need to place orders or speak to a representative, and our hours of operation will remain the same with the exception of Sunday. We are closing on Sundays until further notice to give our staff extra time to deal with personal issues. We will continue to update the community if anything changes.

LED INDICATOR ON THE FRONT OF THE TV BLINKING

If it is Red:

Blinking 2-6 or x8 times? Try power cycling the TV

1. Disconnect the TV power cord from the mains
2. Unplug any device connected to the TV
3. Wait 1 minute and connect the power cord back to the mains
4. Turn on the TV again

Blinking x7 the TV may have overheated due to insufficient ventilation

AN APP STOPS WORKING

Just like with your smartphone, things can go awry with apps on Apple TV. Sometimes they lag or stop responding altogether. When this happens, your best option is to simply force close the app.

To force close an app, double-press the TV or Home button swipe left or right to highlight the app and swipe up on the Siri remote touchpad.

TIP #1

Some Roku Ultra owners have reported that there is no sound to be heard when streaming content.

Potential solutions:

The issue generally seems to be caused by the wrong setting being enabled by default. The audio settings can be found by going to Settings – Audio. If you are using a S/PDIF (optical) cable for audio output to a receiver, try setting the audio mode to Dolby Digital. If you are connected via HDMI to the TV and optical to AVR, change the audio mode to Dolby Digital/DD+

If multiple devices on your network can not connect to the internet yet they show they are connected to the home network your modem, which is provided by the internet provider, and your router may not be sync’d properly. Try power cycling the equipment.

As home technology has evolved, so have the connectivity expectations of today’s homeowners. That’s why The Sound Room is launching a new construction division to help builders capitalize on the current and future potential of connected home technology.

According to Tony Pratte, Director of Builder Relations, the new division will allow The Sound Room to serve builders with the same agility and adaptivity as other trade contractors.

THE SITUATION

Aron Zoellner always wanted a home theater but didn’t know if he would ever have the right space for it. But when he and his wife purchased a new home, they made the decision to renovate the basement and the home theater dream came back into the discussion.

A do-it-yourselfer by nature, Aron’s first thought was to try to tackle the project on his own. With a major in computer animation, a minor in sound design, and a career in computer graphics and visualization, he knew enough to consider the possibility. But realizing the volume of decisions that needed to be made he didn’t want to make one he’d regret. Aron decided that to get the home theater experience he’d always wanted, he needed the expertise of someone who helped clients make decisions like these every day. He turned to the St. Louis AV experts, The Sound Room, for help.

This project began when a longtime retail customer reached out for help after moving in with her aging mother. With a teenage son attending school virtually, her mother’s use of technology for entertainment, and her own desire for high-speed connectivity when working from home, she recognized the bandwidth of their current network wasn’t cutting it. The Sound Room suggested and ultimately implemented a network upgrade in the home, bringing all her existing electronics into the system and making it all work together.

The client was extremely happy with the outcome and asked if we could do the same thing for her business, Heritage Veterinary Hospital in Creve Coeur. The company was getting poor performance from their network and the devices on it. They were preparing to make a serious investment in fiber optic cable upgrade as a result. They brought us in to evaluate the network and determine if there were opportunities to improve performance inside the building.