Author: GMI Automation

When you are competing in a high end market such as that of Crestron automation systems, it is incredibly important that you separate yourself from the pack by providing a unique value experience for your clients. The reason we refer to ourselves as the #DoneRightNotEasy crew is just that, we take the time needed to do a job the right way, even if it isn’t the most direct or easiest solution. This is especially critical when it comes to home audio systems, either distributed throughout a home or centralized to a home theater or listening room. Our audiophile clients come to expect the highest of sound quality in both of these systems and to do so we must utilize our knowledge and experience in unique ways.

When it comes to home audio, either distributed or local to a home theater or listening room, any integrator can purchase, install and leave high end speakers and they will still sound great to the untrained ear. Where the #DoneRightNotEasy crew shows our value is by specifically calibrating every speaker in the home ecosystem to the room or area it is located. Speakers aren’t designed for rooms, they’re designed to be set up in rooms. Without calibration, the audio won’t be optimal, which means where and how the speakers are set up is almost always more important than the quality of the audio system itself.

In a home theater or dedicated listening room, calibration starts with the room itself, which we prepare by custom designing acoustic panels and placing them strategically along the walls and ceiling of the room, testing as we go to ensure the perfect soundscape. We then cover the acoustic treatments and speakers with acoustically transparent fabric walls for an extra clean look coupled with the ability to access and repair a system competent with as little intrusion as possible.

For distributed audio the process is a bit different, but just as critical. Calibrating small rooms, like your living room, hallway or bedroom, is surprisingly more complex than calibrating larger rooms such as a full home theater. Small rooms have much more distortion because bass-frequency wavelengths do not fit inside the room. The subsequent folding of the bass sound waves causes severe resonance, which is the common ‘boomy’ or ‘ringing’ bass commonly heard in consumer speakers. We work to solve these issues and create full home deluxe sound through proper speaker placement. Since Crestron distributed audio systems tend to utilize hidden speakers, either in ceiling or in wall, a deep knowledge of how these alternate speaker styles work and produce sound is required for appropriate placement. Once the measurements and specs are created for speaker placement, each speaker is individually calibrated, then the system calibrated as a whole, for the highest quality sound throughout the home.

The last piece of the puzzle for quality distributed audio in a home comes from the source itself. With so many streaming options available to consumers these days, each streaming at different bandwidths, it’s important to optimize these streams for consistency of quality. This means utilizing our go to streaming device, the powerful MMS-5 streaming server by Autonomic Control, which allows our music loving clients to stream from pandora, spotify, and any other streaming music service they desire with optimal sound quality throughout their home. Source quality is also important because it is the most common cause of distortion and speaker degradation.

Interested in a home theater or distributed audio in your automated home?

With the official end of the summer season behind us, It’s time to set our sites on breezier days and chillier nights, which for our clients, means more time inside their luxury homes enjoying the comfort and ease of the Crestron Automation systems. With a successful summer under our belts, we decided it was time to look forward to what the fall would bring for GMI Automation and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew.

Here are just some of the topics you can look forward to the Crestron Doctors blog exploring in the coming months.

Deeper Dives

As we approach the end of the year, you will begin to see us revisiting topics from the past several months, taking a closer look at how the #DoneRightNotEasy crew brings value to our clients through our mastery of all parts of Crestron automation. We will take a deeper dive into such topics as wireless networks, shading and lighting, integrated security, and many more. These systems are integral to a well built automation system and we can’t wait to bring a deeper level of knowledge about them to our readers.

New and Unique Topics

Revisiting and going deeper on old topics is one thing, but that won’t stop us from talking about some of the new and unique ways in which we provide our customers with a home automation experience they can’t live without. We will explore how home gyms can be automated with distributed audio and video for the ultimate in ease and comfort in your home workouts. We will also discuss how Crestron automation integrates with your kitchen to help take the pressure off of holiday meals.

Case Studies

In the next few months we will continue to highlight specific automation projects GMI builds throughout the country. We have a specialized custom system built for a clients New York City home office, a full home automation renovation, and more. We will also continue to give updates on our multi office video conference system overhaul, as well exploring more of the relationships we keep with vendors of all kinds when working on this large scale jobs. We also will be submitting some of our work to the CEDIA Best of the Year awards and will be sure to keep our readers informed on how they can help us bring the trophy home!

GMI Office Renovation

Followers of the #DoneRightNotEasy crew on instagram will have seen updates in the past few weeks of the total renovation and modernization of our office and soon to be working Crestron commercial showroom. Our renovations will include a two by two planar video wall, multiple connected conference rooms, and fully automated lighting, shading and distributed audio throughout the professional designed open floor plan by our in house interior designer. All of this will be powered by the latest in Crestron automation hardware as well as top of the line secure network solutions. This will serve as not only a work space for our employees, but as a working showroom for potential commercial clients.

When working on a luxury full home automation project, it is of the utmost importance that integration professionals take a holistic view of the job site. Crestron control systems, by their nature, connect directly to every part of the home, which is why working closely with other vendors on a project is vital to our success, as well as the end user experience. We recently began highlighting how we work on site with specific types of vendors to ensure our clients experience white-glove level service during all parts of the installation process.

In the previous entry in this series we covered our relationship with landscape professionals. Today we continue by discussing how we elevate the vendors for one of the most critical systems in the home: HVAC.

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, shortened to HVAC, is the technology of indoor environmental comfort. The goal of a full home HVAC system is to provide comfort and acceptable indoor air quality throughout a home or office. To integrate these comfort systems into the automation system at large, we connect thermostats directly into standard residential HVAC systems using industry standard wiring, and back to a Crestron control system processor for integrated control. The control system automatically adjusts temperature settings, based on multiple factors, to provide complete comfort to the home’s residents without the end user having to lift a finger.

Due to the specialized nature of their work, it is unlikely that even a high end HVAC professional will have much experiencing handling the nuance that goes into proper Crestron automation. Since the systems connect directly to one another through the standard thermostat wiring, we make sure to work with the vendors to acquire appropriate documentation of the existing HVAC system. Part of this is working with the vendor to replace any wiring or terminations that could create a failure point in the control system. Additionally we make sure to educate the vendors on how the complete home environmental ecosystem does not end with HVAC, and extends to lighting, shades, and security devices.

Proper integration into the HVAC system is critical to the our success as luxury integrators, as we strive to build automation systems that bring comfort and simplicity to our client’s otherwise very hectic lives. The fact of the matter is, that no matter who installed or serviced the HVAC system in the past, a professional integrator like GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew needs to take ownership of everything their system touches. If something in the connected HVAC system were to malfunction, the automation system will oftentimes be blamed, making it even more critical for everyone to be on the same page throughout the full cycle of the project.

This is just one of the many ways we create value for our clients, by integrating not only the physical systems of their home together in a simple and reliable way, but also by integrating our experience and knowledge into every system we touch. Ensuring that our fellow vendors on every project are working to our level is an integral part of providing concierge level service to our end users.

As the calendar inches closer and closer to Labor Day Weekend, and school supplies begin to line the shelves in area stores, it becomes more and more apparent that summer is nearing its end. For our luxury homeowner clients this can bring headaches, preparing to protect and restore vacation homes for the fall and winter months. Pools, landscape work, heating and cooling systems, and other vital home systems need to be prepared for the off season, quickly turning the end of the summer into a chore. Luckily, GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew help solve many of these issues for our clients with our simple and reliable Crestron automation systems.

Swimming Pools

While you should always hire a licensed and experienced pool operator to winterize your swimming pool effectively and safely, automating part of your pool ecosystem into your Crestron system will help ensure a worry free off season. Armed with the proper knowledge and ability to work closely with vendors of all kinds, GMI has learned the ins and outs of providing full swimming pool automation. Allowing you to use the pool heater to automatically adjust the temperature based on the weather forecast, or have the automation system instantly trigger a pool chemical feed based on pool conditions.

Energy Use

When the #DoneRightNotEasy crew builds out a Crestron control system, energy efficiency is at the top of our priority list. Shading and lighting systems are central to this principle, as a connected lighting control system reduces energy consumption through dimming lights to use only the necessary energy, and harnessing the energy of the sun through light sensors and motorized window shades. These factors are essential to protecting your vacation home and keeping energy use low while you are away for weeks at a time. Other automation solutions rely on direct user interface in order to adjust and monitor these environmental systems, but GMI understands that our end users time is valuable, so we create and program systems to work effortlessly in the background leaving the end user to focus on their primary residence.

Security and Back End Support

It goes without saying that protecting your vacation property from robbery or vandalism is incredible important. This is one of the many reasons that all of our automation systems are integrated into monitored security systems. The protection doesn’t stop there, since your vacation home is unoccupied for weeks or months at a time, back end system maintenance becomes vital to keeping things safe and secure. This comes in the form of proactive monitoring systems which keep track of the system and notifies us of any device failure or latency. They can even be programmed to notify of negative trends, allowing us to address system failure before it happens. Even greater is the the ability to remotely access the system and address issues regardless of how far away we are from the physical location. Since our systems are comprehensively documented, if an issue pops up when your vacation home is unoccupied we can oftentimes address and repair without you worrying about keeping track of the system yourself.

The last thing on a busy luxury homeowners mind during the last weeks of summer is how their vacation home will be maintained during the off season. In the end, our custom build Crestron automation systems are about creating a simple more efficient life for our end users, allowing them to enjoy the vacation home for which they work hard all year.

GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew are no stranger ambitious and large scale projects. We pride ourselves on the ability to build customized automation, network, and communication systems for our clients, at the highest level in the industry. Our expertise has gained us access to some of the highest profile homes and businesses in the country, and financial companies more often than others have sought us out to handle projects for them after other integrators have failed. Recently we previewed the total overhaul of the video conference system for a large financial company with offices in New York City, New Jersey, San Diego, Florida and Texas. Today we will be looking at our progress on this job, and how we use our tools to manage a project with this type of geographic scope.

New York City Office

Our client’s New York City office is their newest location, and is currently being built in the extremely high profile One World Trade building. As one can imagine, the security and access control in this building is at the highest level. This becomes a challenge when attempting to bring control equipment, monitors, wires, and other hardware needs on and off site when they are needed. The extensive planning and documentation we employ on every project allows us to plan ahead effectively to ensure that these additional levels of security are navigated properly by our team on the ground.

Working in high rise buildings not only requires proper organization and logistics, it also requires a deep level of knowledge of the type of space. Unlike a home or a stand alone office building, where we can take control of the entire site, high rise projects means working closely with the building management, as well as an army of already existing vendors and contractors. Many less experienced integrators lack the site management skills needed to excel in this environment.

San Diego Office

Despite being based in New Jersey, our work routinely brings us to some of the most high profile homes and offices up and down the east coast. However bringing a crew across the country to handle a large job is a logistical challenge for even the best in the business. We are able to tackle this due to our ability to plan ahead with our team to ensure that the appropriate engineers are on site at the appropriate time, accounting for travel, tools and equipment.

The ability to do this and do it successfully comes from the unique way in which we build and manage our team. While our engineers each have their individual fields of strength, we take time to cross train each engineer on every aspect of the project allowing us to work more effectively as a unit while simultaneously drawing from each of our individual strengths. In addition our organization and experience allow us the flexibility and tools to send teams across the country without losing quality or efficiency.

Both working in a stunning New York City skyscraper and managing a remote team across the country require a high level of project management experience. Luckily for our clients the #DoneRightNotEasy crew has the experience and knowledge to be prepared for anything.

This project will continue into September, keep following along with the #CrestronDoctors blog for our next update as we continue to work to build this system for our client.

When you work in the types of luxury spaces like the ones the #DoneRightNotEasy crew do, you are no stranger to stunning homes with beautiful views and even more beautiful automation technology. The interior design of a home is one of the most important items on many of our client’s agendas, and how the automation system will affect their overall design aesthetic is one of the main causes for concern we hear when meeting with clients for the first time. Today we will be discussing some of the ways we work together with clients to ensure the interior design of their home is as beautiful as the control system is reliable.

Effective interior design is no small task. A great interior designer takes into account many factors such as building codes, health and safety regulations, traffic patterns, floorplanning, electrical needs, interior fittings and furniture choice. These areas of course align directly with Crestron home automation, which routinely touches every part of the home in some way. Making interior design and home automation two very closely related disciplines.

As readers of this blog will know, GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew strive pride ourselves in building beautiful, reliable and powerful Crestron control systems, and in doing so we take great care to maximize the usable space and maintain the interior design elements that meet the customer’s aesthetic. This starts with our system design, and with consolidated and centralized control racks. Rack consolidation starts with the removal of all video content devices from TV locations to a centralized control rack, immediately returning this valued space back to the homeowner for storage and aesthetic purposes, allowing devices and pieces of technology to be second to beautiful interior design.

When bringing a Crestron control system throughout a home, even after equipment is consolidated and centralized, work still needs to be done to ensure that all panels, switches and devices meet the specific interior design aesthetic of the end user. This makes wall real estate an incredibly important issue as well. Be it full screen control panels, lighting panels or even televisions, the design and look of a client’s wall requires careful planning when building out a full home automation system. One of the largest devices regularly mounted on walls are obviously television sets. Even the most flat panel high end television can be unsightly if it doesn’t match the aesthetic of the user’s home. Two ways we get around this this issue are by mounting televisions behind wall art, which can roll away at the touch of a Crestron remote button, or by deploying a projector system that drops down from the ceiling when ready to use.

As we have discussed many times, the true foundation of a great Crestron automation system is effectively designed, built and installed shading and lighting systems. GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew’s commitment to a great looking home means that we work directly with you to select the appropriate shade patterns and lighting fixtures that meet your aesthetic. To do so we utilize our in house interior design specialist, who works with both the client and the crew every step of the way to ensure design elements are at their best.

It is clear that interior design and Crestron automation go hand in hand towards making a luxury home beautiful and comfortable. It’s easy to see why the combination of our experience, knowledge, and in house interior design specialist make GMI the right choice for not only a great automation system, but a beautiful home inside and out.

There’s no denying that we live in a wireless world. It seems that everywhere you turn there is a new device that is equipped with wifi designed to connect with other devices to make your life easy in some new way. With many different wireless devices bouncing around a home or office, it becomes increasingly more and more difficult to ensure a powerful and reliable wireless signal when it matters most. While on a smaller job, this may not be a problem, once you get into larger jobs wireless networks become an undertaking that can constantly fail, no matter how great your hardware is. This is GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew take the extra steps in understanding and designing our Crestron control systems to work effectively with reliable Wi-Fi signals throughout the space.

The most important thing to understand about the ubiquity of wifi equipped devices and how they work together with your Crestron automation system, is that not all Wi-Fi is created equal. Wi-Fi routers and devices operate on one of two frequencies, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The primary difference between the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies is range as the 2.4GHz frequency is able to reach farther than the 5GHz frequency. This is a result of the basic characteristic that waves attenuate much faster at higher frequencies. While 2.4 GHz frequency may travel farther, 5 GHz is a wider band that is more stable, carrying more data from more devices with less interference. Unfortunately though, there are many devices and situations that require the use of a 2.4 GHz frequency, making it unavoidable.

This is where having the appropriate training and experience with Wi-Fi and connected devices allows the #DoneRightNotEasy crew to effectively design a system for a large home or estate. While many of the primary devices in the Crestron control system will be hard wired, that doesn’t eliminate the end user’s need to have functioning and fast Wi-Fi on their handheld remotes, smart phones, tablets, and laptops when moving throughout the home. To ensure this, we take care to design our system properly to make sure that all wireless components can communicate properly with one another, and play nicely together. This means understanding the concept of co-channel interference.

Co-channel interference is where devices take turns talking, so the more devices on one channel, the longer it takes for a device to talk since it has to wait for its turn. This interference isn’t a major problem until there are too many WiFi devices on the same channel. Luckily, these interferences can be reduced or eliminated by selecting the proper WiFi channel. Each channel on the 2.4 GHz spectrum is 20 MHz wide. The channel centers are separated by 5 MHz, and the entire spectrum is only 100 MHz wide total. This means that the 11 available channels have to squeeze into the 100 MHz available, and in the end, overlap. However, there are three channels that don’t overlap: 1, 6 and 11. Understanding how the network at large as well as individual components are operating on the network, and which specific channels they are on, allow us to ensure the reliability of an end user’s wireless signal.

Issues can arise however long after we’ve left a job site, thanks to the ubiquity of wireless devices on the market. Accessing the network from the back end and using a spectrum analyzer, we can identify what frequency and what channel a particular device is operating on, and how it may be affecting the system at large. We can then reorganize the network devices onto the appropriate channels, restoring the system to it’s proper level of functionality.

Readers of this blog know how complicated a Crestron automation can be on their own .Adding the additional complication of reliable and stable Wi-Fi throughout a large job can create pitfalls that will trip up a less experienced integrator. GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew have the knowledge, tools, and experience necessary to simplify your life through reliable and intuitive control, every single time you reach for a device.

Crestron control systems, when built and designed properly, are powerful tools used to simplify and streamline not just a home, but the lives of the people inside. Shades, lights, environmental systems, security, and access control all combine to deliver simple, reliable and intuitive automation. What really sells many people on a powerful Crestron control system, though, is the ability to bring streaming audio and high resolution video throughout the home. Despite this, even the most experienced audio video professionals often wrestle with effectively designing and programming these automated systems, as a properly built Crestron system requires the years of experience and teamwork that only those at the level of the #DoneRightNotEasy crew can provide.

In our experience diagnosing, repairing and replacing these poor installs, we have seen first hand the many mistakes made by less experienced engineers, and today we will be highlighting 4 of the most common issues with distributed audio and video.

Source components not centralized.

When you bring video or audio source components, such as cable boxes, Apple TVs, or streaming devices, to a central location they are no longer locally connected to a specific device. This allows the end user to access any device from any screen or pantel in the home. These redundancies are also created to protect against failing equipment, if one piece of equipment fails the user is immediately moved to a backup device with zero downtime. We see all too often integrators and a/v professionals placing these components local to each room, cluttering the physical space and over complicating the system at large.

Failure to understand the needs of 4K

When your control and distribution system is dealing with high resolution 4K video, you inevitably run into issues with HDCP. Short for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, HDCP is put in place at the content level as a measure to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. As digital piracy becomes more and more sophisticated, HDCP protocols change, which means control systems need to be built in such a way to accommodate these changes without the end user noticing. This is the number one point of failure for high end video distribution through Crestron control systems, and can only be combated by the proper programming and design of the automation system itself. Simply expecting 4K video to seamlessly stream to devices throughout the home is a recipe for failure.

Too much power to remote speakers

When integrating and distributing audio throughout a home or office, it is important to have a consistent sound quality and level throughout the space. Many other vendors will make the mistake of pushing out too much voltage from the system core, causing potential failure throughout. The reality is that proper distributed audio systems should be built around 70 and 100 volt systems, also known as “constant-voltage”, 70 Volt and 100 Volt speaker systems allow for long wire runs using small-gauge wire, and provide the potential for connecting numerous speakers per circuit. This technology allows us to run a single wire and hook up as many speakers to it as our heart desires, as long as we are putting out the proper wattage on the head end.

Not designing to expand

When building and programming our Crestron control systems, it’s important to anticipate the client’s needs even years down the line. This means building our systems with room to be expanded and upgraded, without sacrificing the user experience. Our code is written and the system infrastructures are built to allow for a video or audio component to be upgraded or replaced, without the end user needing to learn any new commands or build any new habits. The only difference to them will be the increased quality of their video or sound. Systems are segregated from one another and operated through a central control hub, which allows these upgrades and expansions to be done quickly and efficiently.

As we enter August and the summer season begins to wind down, thoughts or sending the kids back to school and settling in for the autumn start to drift to our minds. This is perhaps why August is one of the most popular months for professionals to take family vacations, often up to two or three weeks at a time. When a homeowner hires GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasy crew, they know they are working with the best, which means when they go on vacation away from home, the last thing they need to worry about is their automation system.

Here are 3 ways that GMI automation makes your vacation more relaxing through our powerful Crestron control systems.

Access Control and Security

Leaving a luxury property for any amount of time can leave a homeowner stressed about protecting it from crime. Not only does GMI integrates all of our Crestron automation systems into top of the line monitored security systems, we also program our systems to know when the home is unoccupied. This allows the lighting and shading systems in the home to operate on a regular pattern which would deter would be home invaders. Integrated camera systems also allow users to look in on the property whenever they choose.

Integrated access control systems can also allow for housekeepers, pet sitters, or cleaning crews to gain entry to the home using preprogrammed codes. GMI has the knowledge to program the Crestron system in such a way that upon entering their code, the alarm system in only the parts of the home a crew would require access to is armed, while the remainder of the home would remain protected.This code is written directly into the Crestron control system, providing additional peace of mind to clients without having to worry about managing the process themselves. The user can even set up alerts so that if a scheduled visit is missed they are notified via text or email.

Environmental Efficiency

Rather than thinking of all the environmental systems of a home as separate and independent, the #DoneRightNotEasy crew looks at the home like a delicately balanced ecosystem. We combine all of the home’s systems to create the most comfortable, convenient and energy efficient home possible. Our systems are built from the ground up to properly manage power use at each and every component, ensuring not only the reliability of the control system, but also its effect on the overall energy efficiency of your home.

When away from the home for a prolonged period of time, these systems run behind the scenes to ensure your home temperature is kept regulated, and that power consumption is kept to minimal levels. Shading and lighting control, which form the foundation of any comprehensive automation system, are programmed to work directly with HVAC and other environmental systems to effectively manage the home ecosystem, even in the event of an unexpected storm or heatwave.

Concierge Level Customer Service

Perhaps the most important way we create peace of mind for our client’s during their well earned vacations is through our concierge level customer service. This includes proactive monitoring of their system to ensure we can stop issues before they happen, which allows our customers to rest easy knowing their Crestron automation system will be working properly even in their absence.

In the event that these preventive measures fail, causing any kind of system malfunction of failure, we have the ability to remotely access the system to address issues regardless of how far away we, or the client, are from the physical location.

So this August, while they beat the heat at a mountain get away or hit the beaches in a tropical paradise, our clients can rest easy knowing that their systems were built, monitored and maintained by GMI and the #DoneRightNotEasyCrew