If you’ve had an Audio Advice Crestron system installed over the last couple of years, then you’re aware of Signature Series™, the Audio Advice designed Crestron system. Under the direction of Audio Advice president Scott Newnam, the Signature Series was developed to offer an easier to use, more reliable, and more powerful home automation and control system than was available anywhere at the time. Signature Series™ was an enormous success among discriminating homeowners who were looking for the very best available home automation technology. Since Signature Series™ was introduced, Audio Advice programmers and system designers have been at work incorporating the latest advances in home technology while keeping an eye to the future. The result: the new Signature Series 2™.
Signature Series ™ represents thousands of hours by Audio Advice and Crestron engineering to make it your ideal home control solution. You indulge in luxury with one touch. Using one button, your lights dim, shades close, the plasma TV turns on and you relax as your favorite movie begins. Listen to music while you read in the den, the kids play video games in the media room, and your spouse listens to the radio outdoors. Control music from any room – choose a component, select CDs, change tracks or adjust volume.
Watch what’s going on around the house on security cameras from your Signature Series™ touch panel. Monitor your front door, watch the kids by the swimming pool, or check on the baby napping in the nursery. These are just a few of many enhancements the Signature Series™ experience can bring to your home and way of living.
Signature Series 2™ builds on advancements and learning from over 2 years of use by Audio Advice clients and user focus groups, greatly increasing ease of use and power user functionality Signature Series 2™ adds support for iPhone, advanced security systems, user programmable capability, lifestyle customizable presets for lighting, audio and others. Advanced green living features shade control, HVAC control and more. Signature Series 2™ now includes Mac and PC support for highly advanced networking and synchronization of all music across as many as five home computers.
Contact your Audio Advice system consultant here and arrange a personal home demonstration of the ways Signature Series 2™ will make your time at home easier and more rewarding.
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Updated Event Presentation Information Below!
Fri., Feb. 26, 6 pm to 9 pm and Sat., Feb. 27, 12 Noon to 6 pm
Music and Home Entertainment Presentation Information
Location: The new Audio Advice showplace
Address: 11409 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville, NC (former Tweeter building near Carolina Place Mall)
Please RSVP if you plan to attend Friday evening by e-mail to: event@audioadvice.com (or by phone to (704) 821-4510
Friday presentations begin at 6 PM with the last at 8:30 PM. Saturday presentations are in a less structured open house format. Wine and food from Born to Cook will be available Friday evening for you to enjoy between sessions.
Presentations will be every half-hour (unless noted) as shown below. (All presenters may not be present both days, presenters are subject to change.)
Outside Room James Loudspeaker Keith Parke
Station A Peachtree Audio and Era Speakers Jim Spainhour and David Solomon
Station B How Audiophile Recordings Are Made Rick Dior/Acoustic Barn (Friday evening only. Hourly at 6, 7, and 8 PM)
Station C Digital Projection Keith Parke Stewart Filmscreen Steve Merritt Bowers and Wilkins B&W Jim Scatena and Doug Henderson
Station D Magnepan Wendall Diller Sumiko Bill Peugh
Station E Sim2 Chris Hobbs Integra Daryl Jenkins Universal Remote Bobbie Bradley
Station F Control4 Scott Salzman Salamander Steve Merritt
Station G Bowers and Wilkins B&W Jim Scatena and Doug Henderson JL Audio Randy Wagner
Station H Audio Research Dave Gordon Wilson Audio Jerron Marchant Martin Logan Russell Woolfolk Transparent Cable Brad O’Toole
Station I Niles Dave Robinette
Station J Crestron Joe Laurin Lutron Jeff Zemanek, Maria DeVirgilis, Rodgers Hill, Kevin Grissler, Jason Feus
Room K Kaleidescape Rick Lozano Screen Innovations TBD
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Two days of presentations of the best hi-fi audio, home theater, and home control components and technology. Fri. Feb. 26, 6 pm to 9 pm and Sat. Feb. 27, 12 noon to 6 pm. (See details for each day below.)
The new Charlotte Audio Advice showplace
Location: The new Audio Advice showplace
Address: 11409 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville, NC (the former Tweeter building, near Carolina Place Mall)
Friday, Feb. 26th from 6 pm to 9 pm
A special evening celebrating the pleasures of great music reproduction
The enjoyment of music will be Friday evening’s focus, with representatives from some of the finest high performance audio components and loudspeakers in the world on hand. We will offer presentations of their latest and best offerings every half hour. Born to Cook will provide wine and food for you to enjoy during this special evening.
Please RSVP for Friday evening by e-mail to event@audioadvice.com (or by phone to (704) 821-4510)
Saturday, Feb. 27th, 12 noon to 6 pm
An open house featuring the latest home entertainment technology
The world of home technology is on view Saturday in an open house setting with even more representatives on hand, showing you today’s newest and very best entertainment and automation possibilities for the whole family to enjoy!
Meet audio/video and home technology professionals from :
Audio Research
Bowers and Wilkins B&W
Classé
Control4
Crestron
Digital Projection
Era/Decco
Integra
James Loudspeaker
JL Audio
Kaleidescape
Lutron
Magnepan
Martin Logan
Niles
Panamax
Salamander
Sim2
SpeakerCraft
Stewart Filmscreen
Transparent Cable
Universal Remote
Wilson Audio
(Attendees subject to change)
Register to Win Grand Opening Prize Drawing! (do not need to be present to win)
We look forward to seeing you on Feb. 26th and 27th!
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Scott Newnam, Audio Advice President and CEO, will host a special evening at his beautiful Prestonwood home in Morrisville on Thursday, Nov. 12th from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. We call this evening Home for the Holidays, and we invite you and a guest to join us. Scott uses his home to showcase our latest home entertainment and control innovations, usuallyby appointment only. We’re very excited about some of the new products and system improvementsthat are now available, and we want you to have the chance to experience them in a home setting where all the benefits can be fully appreciated.
Wine, light food and refreshments will be served, and everything will be shown in a relaxed, low-key atmosphere. We’ll show you the latest upgrades we’ve made to our Signature Series Control System, the most advanced, reliable, and easy to use Crestron home control system now available.
Experts from Ayre Acoustics, B&W, Classé, James Loudspeakers, McIntosh Labs, Peachtree Audio, Transparent Cable, and Wilson Audio will also be at Scott’s. They’ll talk with you about the new things you’re seeing and hearing throughout the home, and answer your questions.
Because of the evening’s unique home setting, the number of people we can host for the evening is limited, so we ask that you RSVP if you plan to attend as soon as you can, so we can reserve your place. Please RSVP by e-mail to event@audioadvice.com or by phone to (919) 881-2005. After we receive your RSVP, we will send you directions to Scott’s home. (As this is an evening at a private residence, we will not be posting directions here on our website. RSVPs by phone should leave either an e-mail address or a mailing address in order to receive directions.)
This evening will be unlike anything Audio Advice has done before, and should be a lot of fun.
We hope you can make plans to be with us at Scott’s home for what promises to be a memorable evening. We look forward to seeing you there.
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Click the link below to access the latest edition of HD Living Magazine.
http://hdliving.htsa.com/go/AudioAdvice/Fall2009
The sitting room from the Fall issue's featured installation
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YOU’RE INVITED to DIGITAL HOME 2009 – JULY 1st
On Wednesday, July 1st at our Raleigh, NC showroom,
Audio Advice hosts Digital Home 2009.
Join us from 6 PM to 9 PM and see first hand the ways today’s latest technology improves your life at home.
We’ll have special giveaways from vendor participants (see below) and
Bella Monica will provide food and wine to help start the 4th of July weekend early!
This year’s event features ease and affordability. For the first time our annual digital event features a complete home control system: Control4 – a full-featured, practical, reliable home-automation system at affordable pricing. You can start with a basic system and upgrade over time to fit your lifestyle and your budget. Control4 products install easily in new and existing homes – you don’t have to tear open walls or completely remodel. Control4 home-control solutions can be installed and programmed in a matter of hours or days for you to enjoy right away. You can easily manage lighting, security, music and entertainment in your home without dozens of remotes, a degree in programming or a library of manuals. Control4 brings the interactive future to the present.
Two lucky event attendees will each win an HC-200 Home Controller provided by Control4.
You can also talk with Audio Advice consultants about our Crestron Signature Series home automation system that can take you to another level of control and interactivity. The Crestron Signature Series makes you the beneficiary of hundreds of hours of Audio Advice programming that makes the Signature Series unique among control systems and positions it as the ultimate in home automation solutions.
In addition to Control4 and Crestron, Digital Home 2009 will feature several other great presentations for you to enjoy.
B&W will have Jim Scatena in attendance for the premiere of the stylish B&W Panorama soundbar.
The Panorama combines great performance with great design in a single sleek, compact speaker housing. Check out Leon’s blog post for his thoughts on the Panorama.
Apple will have representatives sharing iTunes insider tips for having the most fun with your music collection.
Ayre Acoustics will demonstrate the outstanding new solid-state QB-9 USB DAC with Steve Silberman.
The QB-9 got rave reviews at this year’s CES, and Steve will provide additional insights into digital media.
Peachtree Audio will have Jim Spainhour débuting their Nova integrated amplifier – a great compact unit with USB input for your computer. The Nova has digital inputs for sources like Squeezebox, Apple TV, Airport, and XM or Sirius tuners and analog inputs for docking stations, CD players, tape decks or phono preamps. If you want to add a subwoofer or outboard amplifier, the Nova lets you do that as well.
Thanks to Peachtree Audio, we have a Nova to give away at evening’s end to a lucky Digital Home attendee!
Again, food and wine will be provided by Bella Monica. We hope you’ll attend (and bring guests) to our Raleigh showroom at 8621 Glenwood Ave. (about 1.5 miles east of I-540 and the Angus Barn) on Wednesday July 1st from 6 PM to 9 PM. To help us plan, RSVP by e-mail by clicking this link for event@audioadvice.com or call us at (919) 881-2005 and let us know the number of people in your party. For up-to-date details, check www.audioadvice.com
We hope you’ll keep Digital Home 2009 in the front of your mind, and hope to see you on July 1st.
(Even If you forget to RSVP, you’re still invited to join us!)
Sincerely,
Your friends at Audio Advice
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The accompanying system profile will appear in the forthcoming edition of HDLiving magazine:
Audio Advice returns dividends to one partner’s home
By Brian Ploskina
There are challenging customers and there are challenging, highly educated customers with maximum expectations. Such was a successful technology CEO who moved to North Carolina’s Research Triangle area after selling the company he started while at Harvard Business School. Upon relocating, he did extensive research to ensure he found the right home entertainment and automation experts for his new home.
The client, Scott Newnam, was so impressed with Raleigh-based Audio Advice he did more than choose the company to do his work. He became a partner with founder and chairman Leon Shaw to help accelerate the growth of the company, turning a first-class organization into a world-class one.
Scott Newnam, President and CEO (L) and Leon Shaw, Founder and Chairman
“The result was a partnership that included the development of the automation system used in my home along with substantial operational and customer service advancements,” says Newnam, now Audio Advice president. “The collaboration has produced a fabulous outcome, our Signature Series control system that is now our highly sought after flagship product.”
When Scott first came to Audio Advice, he wanted to enjoy great sounding music and highly enjoyable automation throughout his home. Everything had to have a purpose, however, whether that was improving lifestyle, lowering energy costs, or enhancing the experience of the home. Scott’s wife required that the technology seamlessly integrate with the visual and interior design of the home.
Audio Advice designed different, complementary visual experiences throughout the home to help achieve these goals. These included the central location – a great room measuring 30 feet by 40 feet overlooking a world-class golf course, designed with amazing sound and video but with virtually all equipment concealed. “With retractable art covering the flat-screen television, almost all audio and video is hidden in the room,” Newnam says. “However, when the artwork vanishes and the music comes on, the entire room comes alive with vibrant video and sound.”
Simple user interface and ease of use were recurring themes throughout the system development. This mandate led to the first Audio Advice home control innovation. A combination of wall control panels with four floating Wi-Fi panels was installed. The wireless floating panels can be carried around the home to control any room. This concept dramatically changes the user experience, allowing any level of basic or advanced control from any location in the home.
To achieve true floating panel capability the Signature Series control system and home network needed to be designed together, and needed to exceed any prior performance capability. “Network engineering and programming had to work closely to achieve a rock solid home network, with seamless handoffs from network access points throughout the home,” Scott explained. “Programming then created a back-end solution that could control any part of the home from any panel.” The end result is that level of functionality and ease-of-use not previously possible. But it wasn’t simple getting there.
One décor challenge faced by Audio Advice engineers was the sun setting behind the home in afternoons and evenings. It was difficult to preserve the spectacular golf course views without exposing the interior to heat, glare and sun damage. The answer Audio Advice developed was a combination of a Lutron lighting control and shading system that transforms the home throughout the day while saving energy.
In the afternoon, automated near-transparent shades descend, preserving the view while blocking 90 percent of the sun’s rays. Shades are set with astronomic clocks to change with the seasons. For watching movies, full blackout shades transform the daytime recreation area into a high performance theater room. Blackout drapes are used at the top of the home in the exercise room overlooking the golf course. Finally, lighting control is synchronized with the shading and VisionArt retractable artwork at energy conserving levels through the home for movie viewing, dining, and other activities.
“The automation system required tremendous design and engineering,” says Newnam. Because we do everything from audio, video, and lighting and shading automation to security and networking, with the Signature Series we created a system anyone visiting our home can understand and use within minutes.”
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