Smart Home IO

1.  Within the Sonos application (app) press the menu button in the upper left corner. 2.  Navigate and scroll down within the list and press the alarm option. 3.  Select and press new alarm. 4. Set the time, room, music, frequency and volume for the alarm. Once all settings are complete press the save button in the upper right hand corner of the app and you have completed setting an alarm on your Sonos system.

The new driver from MyDevice  is now available on their website to integrate Amazon Alexa voice commands with system macros on an RTI smart home control system. The new driver allows you to use the Amazon Echo, Dot, Tap and Fire TV product to trigger events based on your voice commands. The voice actions that can be integrated with this driver are on, off, up, down, raise, lower, brighten and dim. Each voice trigger is given a unique name usually room location based to trigger the macros that are specified within your RTI system programming. The driver is purchased and downloaded for $100 but a free demo driver is available for download to test out this great new control driver from  MyDevice . "Alexa, turn on the bedroom lights" My Device RTI Amazon Alexa Driver Download

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If you live in the Southern California area the best FM station around is KCRW  which is 89.9 on your FM dial. If you are listening to the radio from the Coachella Valley than you tune your dial to 89.3 to catch the NPR affiliates music and news programs.  KCRW  is also available from the Tunein radio service for free which can be conveniently streamed from your Sonos system. For the best news, information and music recommendations  KCRW  is your choice not only in Southern California but all over the world with their streaming service online 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

When using the Sonos phone or tablet application press the room name at the top of the Sonos application. If you have a Sonos Playbar playing your TV audio you will see the TV icon as shown above within the respective room that it is located in. Press the group button next to the room audio you are trying to distribute out to the other rooms. IE Living room audio is going to be sent to the rest of the Sonos zones within the house. Press each room name and put the red check mark next to all the areas you would like to distribute the TV audio to. Press done in the upper right had corner of the Sonos app and now you have successfully distributed the TV audio to all the Sonos areas of your house.

The Audioquest Dragon Fly Red & Black Version USB digital audio converter is a new great gadget that can greatly improve your personal music listening experience. This cool device can allow you to connect to your laptop or smart phone to your preferred headphones or earbuds to greatly enhance the audio quality when listening to either Mp3 or high resolution music files. The DAC's are also preamplifiers and headphone amplifiers with great 32-bit digital performance. In the image above you see the dragon fly red edition which has a high gain output at 2.1 volts to power even the most needy headphones which is also paired with the Apple USB adapter to allow the DAC to connect to your iPhones lighting connection. The Red edition also has an improved DAC chip which is a little more higher performance than the Black edition. The Audioquest Dragon Fly Black edition gives us a medium power output at 1.2 volts and also has a built in analog volume control  ...

When putting together a smart home it can be very easy to skimp on the important stuff that can really enhance your smart home system like the quality of the wiring you are using. There can be a huge gap in cabling costs when it comes to options for your house. It is highly recommended to not just go with the cheapest cables and cabling as you get what you pay for as they say. Having a base line of quality to your smart home cabling infrastructure goes a long way when bringing your system together. Check out the company Audioquest for a look into the variety and options available to you and your smart home wiring needs. Audioquest has a high focus on audio quality including analog and digital cables to suit all the connection varieties you will need.

The newly released Sonos 6.3 system update brings new features to the Sonos eco system further advancing the application and streaming audio service. Now with the new iPhone 6s or 6s plus you are able to gently press the Sonos app icon from the home screen of your phone to get access to the short cut menu. The shortcut menu allows you to play and resume what you last listened to, choose a favorite from your starred favorites and/or search your Sonos system for music. The update also gives the Rhapsody streaming service a higher quality audio stream enriching and enhancing the sound With the new Sonos update you are able to now control the music from your iPhone or iPad lock screen. This gives easy access to changing the track or station, play and pause quickly and also the ability to adjust the volume on the fly. Sonos has also given the ability for the app to be shared via the split view and slide over Apple service. Finally with this updat...

The Sonos Update 5.4 arrived and included many improvement upon the Sonos sound system eco system. The Sonos user interface music experience has been enhanced to now add the upcoming track preview when in shuffle mode. There were also enhancements made for the Google Play and TuneIn music services. The Sonos Play 1 audio sonics have also been updated to improve the tonal qualities of the vocals when playing music tracks. The equalization of the Play 1 when paired with a Sonos subwoofer has been modified to allow for better performance with the Bass frequency spectrum. The Sonos home theater speaker pairing has also been updated to now work without having to hard wire a Sonos Boost which was previously required for the Sonos surround sound installation. The Boost installation can certainly still help in many installation situations, but the Sonos 5.1 surround system can now be run completely on the wireless network. Update your Sonos system to the 5.4 version today to...

To sign up for Deezer Elite follow the link to start your free account today. Deezer Elite Deezer Elite  on Sonos is now available as the go to high fidelity streaming source on the Sonos  music platform. Deezer allows you to create your ultimate music library from the largest music catalog in the world, with over 35 million tracks. In June 2014 Deezer launched Deezer Elite on Sonos where users are able to choose between HQ (320kbps) and Normal (128kbps) music tracking streaming quality. Deezer Elite on Sonos also allows for tagging of music and tracks to run in offline mode which is very handy when cell towers are no where to be found.  Deezer Elite is available on all major mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Deezer is not limited to just mobile devices and can be used with Google's Chromecast, Samsung TV's as well as XBOX 360. Device support is also available via networked desktop and laptop machines a...

Apple Music is now offering a free trial for their new streaming music service. The free music trial is good for 30 days and after the trial ends the Apple Music membership service is $9.99 for you or you can also get their family membership for $14.99 per month. <a href="http://analogtechdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/apple-music-phones.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-418" src="http://analogtechdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/apple-music-phones.jpg" alt="apple music phones" width="740" height="644" /></a> The Apple music streaming service can easily be started with any iOS device running the current iOS 8.4 software version. Open the music app on your device and in the upper left press the profile icon and then tap join apple music. Within the new Apple Music streaming app the option tabs on the bottom are as follows: For You - Offers you handpi...

Amazon Echo is now shipping from Amazon. The smart hub is primarily controlled with verbal commands which was built in to be the primary source of control over the device. Amazon and the Echo hub is banking on verbal commands being the preferred method for control rather than using your smart phone as many other system utilize. The Amazon echo has a long way to go to be the main smart hub to control your house as it lacks the ability to communicate with many other smart devices currently used in the home. As of now we see the device as a novelty device with many nice features and uses but let's see what future updates will bring to this novelty but still cool device.