Just got back from San Clemente' --- TRUFIG training. A greaproduct & concept. Good company & training. It'll be nice to sell something non-technical that doesn't require call-backs!

I took apart 4 BD players and put emitters inside of them. Hot glue/closed them up and installed them. Nothing works! Oh.. DUH.. :)

Just got back from seeing Corrosion of Conformity play a little venue here in Baltimore.

That is a band I never even considered I would see live, let alone at a small place like The Ottobar, let alone for $12, let alone to hear them play a 20 year old CD from start to finish, let alone with one of my friend's bands opening for them. :)

T'was a good night.

New goodies came in, just finishing up programming 6 remotes. At least updating firmware on rti isn't as tedious as crestron

Just dumped RTI for URC after dumping URC for RTI about 5 years ago. Did this after I had yet another RTI client call with a failed T2Cs (total of about 10 calls in the past year, which is too many).

Done and done.

Just ordered 4 MX-5000's and 2 MSC-400's for a new project. Might be able to use all those MX-3000 paperweights I have had sitting in my office now :)

My first big custom home got an award in a magazine. I did my favorite theater to date, a distributed audio, and 3 surround sound system. I open the magazine to find out it has not one picture in it of any thing I did. The award was for best kitchen! Man was I long faced. It did mention our company for doing the entertainment system. Better than nothing. Still really proud of that house. The funny thing is, I sell completely different systems now. Funny how things change!

Jim, It had to be really cool to be apart of those homes.

It would have been a lot more cool if I didn't have to go back out a couple days later and spend 4 [email protected]%*%#%(ing hours fixing an HDMI balun and Bose problem...... especially since someone else had already spent about 3 hours getting it working in the first place... oh and the next day the customer emails me to tell me he had to take my "fancy" HDMI cable off of the blu-ray and use the one that came in the Bose box to get it to work after I left.

but I digress...

I love this website. I know I am not the only one out there dealing with this stuff!

Looked over 20 applications for our installer job we listed in the paper last Friday.
Hired a guy on Friday who called back and said he was offered more money doing security for another company. He was really cocky anyways. To my surprise, 19 of the applications had absolutely no experience. I decided to hire a former cable tech support guy who was the guy the cable sent out to fix all problems the normal tech could not. He also mentioned he did Audio systems on the side. Who knows what that means? I was reluctant but I have to have someone now. He has his own tools and knows how to use them. What other choice did I have? Is this guy trainable? We will see.

Just tested my soldering skills with some tiny Belden 1508, Neutrik XLRs, and heatshrink (the wire is so small it slides out of the cable clamp without it...it's 0.17mm too thin...yes, that is just over a tenth of a millimeter...). Not only does it work, but I've been beating the crap out of the cable and I can't even break any of the connections on purpose!

Sweet. Tons of soldering fumes for me this weekend... :)

Some pix from a job we did a bit ago and I had to go out today to tweak some programming, reminding me to take this photos off my camera finally.

Used some of clients existing gear plus added some of ours.

60" Pioneer
Pioneer AVR (existing)
Samsung Bluray
APC G5BLK surge
Snap AV Rack with MA Shelfs, blanks & Lacer bars
Apple TV (hidden in rack)
Totem Tribe 1's
Kef small square surrounds (only thing that would fit)
Existing Proficient Sub (not bad actually)
Prodigy Control
4 Episode IC-300-8 speakers in the Kitchen/Dining Area (2 zones of PAMP)
2 Episode 6" outdoor speakers Bridge off of the PAMP
PTL4 Touchpanel for Kitchen
6 button keypad for Patio
Mobile Pro for portable control
PTX3 for Family room
Lighting in Family Room & Kitchen
Game room included a 50" Thin Samsung Plasma with old Yamaha and some PSB towers.

We used the Sanus DD26 mount and side speaker adapter kit, but the kit wasn't big enough so we had to make some custom extension poles to get the speakers to fit the big TV.

TV does not look like it belongs there. Maybe its the angle.

Ya, not the best setup, but the corner was their only option to have the TV at the level they wanted. Sorry for the crappy picture.

 OK so I dont really post in this thread because for some strange reason I prefer to be known as the salty argumentative retard most of you know. For those that know me thats a different story. At any rate we have been working for months and 24/7 for the past few weeks to facilitate a Robotic Symposium at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT. Essentially we designed and installed a Tandberg HD Video Conferencing system and a Crestron Control system that allowed this to be possible. The system interfaces with the Davinci /surgical robot and allows viewers to not only watch the live surgery from anywhere in the world, but also communicate with the surgeon in real time. During this event there were 3 procedures broadcast from the OR at HH to an auditorium in another building on the campus as well as procedures from hospitals in Florida, Ohio, and NY. Of course our installation was the only one in full 1080p and by far the biggest hit of the event. This was the start of what may turn out to be an 8 figure deployment if they go through with what we are proposing. Check out the video from NBC News. The screen you see in the video is a Stewart Trapdoor screen with a 227.25 1.78:1 (16x9) image coming from a 10,000 lumen Panasonic (Thanks Fred!) projector. Behind that screen is a 4x3 rear projection setup for day to day presentations. That glass is 120" which is huge for that format. Also if you look closely you can see the medical data overlay being generated from the Davinci system. This is seriously cool shit I am very proud of. My team was amazing as was the Hospital's. 

www.nbcconnecticut.com/station/contests/Hartford_Hospital_Robotic_Surgery__Goes_HD_Hartford.html

Congrats Vincent,
Thats a great story and will lead to many more.
We recently did a wellness center where the Lab Data and patient monitoring is live transmitted to specialists off site. There is a lot of off-site control that happens via that data. Since that projects completion 1 month ago we have been approached 2 more times for similar projects. The one we are putting together now is a kidney center. Its not robotic surgery but it seems when you find a spot in the medical field they come out of the woodwork so again, congratulations.