How To Stream Audio Through Your Home

A large number of wireless audio transmitter products have emerged over the years. They promise to cut the cord to your audio equipment. We will examine the impact of new technologies on the performance of these products. Also, we'll examine if they keep their promise of eliminating the cable clutter.
The first form of wireless audio transmission was in the form of AM and FM radio stations. While still being popular today, FM radio is now being replaced by new technologies including HD radio, satellite radio and DAB broadcasts. A range of today's wireless consumer products cut the cord such as wireless surround sound kits, baby monitors, wireless microphones and Bluetooth transmitters.
Setting up speakers in another room and distributing music throughout the house are some of the applications of wireless audio. Many homes are not wired for audio. The technologies used today all have pros and cons as we will examine.
FM transmitters are using the most traditional technology in which audio is sent by changing the frequency of a radio-frequency carrier. The technology, which is called frequency modulation (FM), is fairly simple and cost-effecive to build and offers high range. While most of today's 900 MHz products use FM transmission, FM has some major problems.
FM transmissions will pick up static which is noticeable as a background hiss depending on the location of the wireless receiver. The reason for the varying quality is a phenomenon called multipath fading which is a result of reflected radio waves cancelling each other out. Using two antennae is one method some devices cope with this problem (diversity receivers). Another problem is that FM radios easily pick up interference from competing wireless transmitters.
Another technology which has gained popularity recently is called Bluetooth. Bluetooth was originally designed to connect computer peripheral devices wirelessly. Before the signal is broadcast, Bluetooth transmitters will convert the audio into a digital format. One of the advantages is the high robustness against wireless interference. However, Bluetooth was not designed for audio transmissions. Therefore is does have several problems. Bluetooth only offers a range of 30 ft or less and will compress the audio since it does not offer enough space to transmit an uncompressed CD-quality signal. Due to the compression, the audio quality will be degraded compared to the original. Another problem is that Bluetooth will introduce a delay or latency to the signal during the transmission. This delay is a particular problem for video and surround sound applications. In these applications the sound from the wireless speakers would be out of sync with the video and remaining speakers.

The technologies used for satellite radio and terrestrial digital radio offer high range. However, they also use extensive audio compression. Further, a delay of up to several seconds is introduced.
Another technology sends the audio digitally without using audio compression. The signal will retain the original quality by avoiding audio compression. This technology offers an audio latency of less than 1 ms. Therefore these transmitters can be used for wireless speaker kits in a home theater setup and other real-time applications.
To be robust against interference from other wireless devices, this technology uses forward error correction. This mechanism can repair errors during the transmission. Some recent products use the 5.8 GHz frequency band which is less crowded than the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. The result is high reliability. Other than Bluetooth, this technology can operate and number of receivers per transmitter which is key for sending audio to several locations throughout the house.

5 Tips For Setting Up a Home Audio Recording Studio

When putting together a home audio recording studio, there is no doubt that equipment will play a major factor in the success of the recordings. However, this does not mean you have to pay top dollar for everything you purchase. Most people are going to initially navigate to the well established brand names. And if you have thousands of extra dollars collecting dust, why not? These companies manufacture great equipment. But it is not necessary to limit yourself to these brands. In fact there are countless other companies out there that produce top-notch equipment and at much more reasonable prices. I have made it a point to do my homework before making any purchases. And it has seemed to work well for me. Here are a few tips when it comes to purchasing equipment for your home audio recording studio.
1. Before any recording is done, make sure the recording space sounds good! Test the area with room measurement software. REW Room EQ Wizard is amazing... and free. Adequately treat the problem areas with bass traps and broadband absorbers. There is no point in having quality equipment if the room sounds like crap.
2. Research! This is why God gave us the internet. There are a ton of great recording forums out there that can teach you everything you need to know about equipment. Members of these forums may be able to lead you in the direction of some low-cost gems. Also check out the review sections on music instrument retail sites.

3. Check out equipment shootout videos on the internet. There are plenty of quality videos that compare equipment from different brands. Use your ears. Decide what you like best. It's okay to pay attention to brand names, put don't put too much value on them. There are less well-known companies out there that make excellent equipment. Seek them out. Quality doesn't have to come with a high price tag.
4. Study the fundamentals of setting up a recording studio. Good equipment is of little use if you have no idea how to set it up correctly. Just imagine having several thousand dollars invested in microphones. Now envision an unsatisfactory final project because you neglected to learn the proper placement of these audio-capture devices. Extremely depressing, isn't it?
5. Practice! Learn your equipment just like you would a music instrument. Get accustomed to all the features. Regardless of the quality of the equipment, you have to know how to use it. Being able to get the maximum capability out of your equipment can make all the difference.
These are just a few suggestions to consider when setting up a home recording studio and purchasing equipment.

Working Online From Home As an Audio Transcriber

Working online from home as an audio transcriber has become very popular in recent years due to the internet. A transcribers job is to transcribe an audio tape, CD or file into written words. In this article you will learn what skills that is required and how you can start working from home as an audio transcriber.
When you are working online from home as an audio transcriber you will receive an audio file from the client via the internet. You will then write/transcribe each word you hear into a document and return the transcribed document to the client. There is a wide range of professional fields that are in need of a transcription service, such as medical, corporate and legal, but also authors, students and academics use audio transcribers that are working online from home.
The most important skill that you need is accurate and fast typing skills. Clients usually require you to be able to type 60-70 words pr minute. If you want to test how fast you are, visit typingtest.com to take a free typing test. A common requirement from clients in certain fields is to have knowledge of the terminology used in the profession your clients are in, such as knowledge of medical terminology if you are working for a health care service etc.

You can get started working online from home as an audio transcriber with your own computer with a good word processor such as MS Word installed. You will also need a good foot pedal so that you are able to start and stop the audio files as you are typing. This will speed up your typing a lot.
To find work as a transcriber working online from home, you can post or search for ads at online services such as CraigsList or freelance directories such as Elance and iFreelance.
Working online from home as an audio transcriber requires a few skills, but with a little bit of practice and study, an audio transcription job can make you a nice steady full time income.

If you are looking for other ways to make an income working online from home, please visit

AV Receiver - Heart Of Your Home Theater

Audio Video Receivers are the heart of any home theater systems. They are basically amplifiers that can amplify sound from various sources. Most AV receivers have multiple amplifiers for best results. They can take input from various sources such as Blue Ray devices, DVD players, gaming consoles such as Ps3, TV boxes etc. They can route the video you want to your TV and process, amplify and send the audio to your speakers.
Difference Between Stereo and AV receivers
Stereos can send sound output to only two channels namely left and right and sometimes to the sub-woofer. Audio video receivers, also known sometimes by the name of 5.1 receiver, can send the audio output to five or more speakers. More advanced receivers can do up to 9 speakers.
The main functions of AV receivers are briefly discussed below:
Decoders They are known to have ability to decode sound i.e. process the sound. For example, a they can receive a 2 channel sound but send it to 5 different channels to produce surround effect.
DSP effect They can also manipulate sound to produce different effects, such as equalization and field simulations such as "concert", "hall" etc.
Video upconvertion This is usually called upconvertion or transcoding. They can convert videos from one format to the other. For example, a AV receiver can convert a 480 pixels video(480 lines per frame) to 720 pixels video(720 lines per frame and also change a component video to s-video. For people with incompatible devices, a AV receiver can be very beneficial.

Amplification Last but not the least, amplification. Audio video receivers amply different channels of sound that can be send to individual speakers. a 5.1 amplifier can send sound to a center speaker, left front and right front speaker, rear left and rear right speakers. All of these channels are amplified individually. High quality receiver offers very less distortion of sound offering as clear sound as possible. Thus while buying a receiver you should always consider its distortion level. Distortion less than.1% are really unnoticeable so try not to buy the ones with distortion level more than 0.1%. Louder the sound needed more amplification is needed, meaning more power is used by the amplifier.

Tips on Selecting Home Audio Equipment

Sure, selection is great but in the world of home audio equipment, sometimes too much of a good thing is bad. The great news here is that if you do your homework it should not be that hard of a decision to make. Make sure that you take a list of prerequisites to what you want in the equipment and set your mind before you go check out the selection. Your package and choice selection in this matter can be greatly narrowed if you know before hand what you want.

The major thing with home audio equipment these days that can weed out a lot of the competition is the need to go digital. Everything seems to be going the way of digital and if you cut back on this all important feature of how you are going to listen with your equipment you could be cutting back on a lot of the choices you have in what you are listening too. More often then not you will see a product made with the digital package of home audio in mind.

Next step to narrowing down your choices is probably the second most important and that would be the overall cost to the system itself. And just as there are a lot of different choices, there are a lot of different prices. Good systems that are worth their money typically will start in the $500 range.

Combing the advice to go digital and buy within a specific price range with listening to it for yourself are the three top specifics when looking for home audio equipment. You have narrowed down your selection and now think of how it will be displayed in your house. Put it up in a way that is similar to your needs and listen for yourself.

Keep in mind that the home auto equipment system will most like have at least 5 speakers and 1 sub-woofer. Display all of those speakers according to where they will need to go in the real environment, pick a CD or DVD and give it a try. You have the tools to get started and purchase if you like what you hear.

My Home Audio Equipment Throughout The Years

When I was younger, even though we didn't have that much money, we still had a nice home audio system. This was the early nineties and CDs still had different quality levels of digital recording. My father played Bach loudly on his home audio equipment, and sometimes he mixed in rock 'n' roll. I didn't like the classical music at first, although today I love it.
Growing up, music was important. By the time I was buying my own CDs, my room was a haven. I had my own bathroom, a big bed, colorful lighting and a stereo with a remote control I used whenever there were commercials on the radio or a song came on I didn't like. It wasn't the best home audio system but it worked for me. Then we moved and my stereo became fuzzy and broken with age. I inherited my father's home audio equipment with its still-powerful Japanese speakers and slick black design.
I listened to music loudly during my teenage years, as do most teenagers, but then the iPod came out. This was a different beast. Music was no longer on discs, it was on computer files. So are you telling me I have to convert all my CDs onto my computer? Fine. Ever since then it has been less about buying albums and more about downloading tracks. I still value and treasure my home audio system, but instead of the individual player and receiver I had when I was in high school, I use my computer as my dock. I've invested in nice speakers still, so I have good home audio speakers, but I no longer listen to the radio. What about music in the future?

I want to be able to plug in an iPod or whatever music device I have to a wall in my home and have my home audio speakers blast it throughout the house, according to which rooms I allow it. Same goes for the car. There will be a music subscription service that plays whatever music you want, while also having access to your personal collection, and you will be able to bump it over your automotive electronics. This may take ten years or so but the future will be glorious when it comes. If there's anything I was taught while growing up, it's that music is powerful. It can make you feel better when you're having a tough time, and there's always something to match what you're doing. That's why it's important to invest in it and reap the benefits for years.

Multi-Room Audio: You Have Many Options

Why Choose a Whole House Audio system? Most people choose to have a whole house system because it allows them to take their music and audio with them regardless of which room they happen to be in at the moment. A whole house system allows you to carry on your life without being plugged into an iPod. You can have conversations with your children, spouse, and guests while listening to the ball game or your favorite tunes. What is on your honey do list for this weekend? You have to clean out the garage. No problem. You can take your music with you. You have to do all of the yard work too? No problem, take the game outside and listen while you work. A whole house system allows you to go about your life and still be able to do the things you want to do like just listening to the ball game.
What are my Choices?
The two big choices are single source systems or multi-source systems. Those can be set up as a wireless audio system or hardwired. The biggest difference is in the quality. The quality of the audio you receive goes up tremendously with professional installation. One consideration is the fact that every room in your home has different audio needs as each room responds differently to sound. A professional will be able to recognize the acoustic requirements of every room in your home.
Features include wall mounted volume dials that allow you to instantly adjust the volume of your audio specifically for that room. Most systems allow you to turn rooms on or off with a remote. No use waking your neighbors up at 3 am when you start to watch Jurassic Park and the outdoor system is streaming dinosaurs fighting. Streaming music is another option with built in iPod docking stations that allow the contents of your iPod to be played over your whole house system or multi-room audio system.
Components:
There is a variety of complete audio packages. These pre-configured systems include speakers, wire, keypads, and everything else you need to set up a multi-room audio system. You can build your own system or allow one of our pros to help you select components that fit your audio needs. Start with an Amp and Keypad package or individual components. From there, you can add in power amplifiers to build a custom sound. Speaker selectors allow you to control which rooms receive audio and when. These allow you to control the overall sound throughout your home. Speakers are another area where choice plays a large part in the quality you receive. A professional installation will allows you to add speakers in your ceiling and even add in-wall units. The type of speakers that you choose makes a difference. Wireless setups allow you to broadcast audio without installing wires. These can afford an advantage to really customizing speaker location. Abus Audio components allow seamless streaming of audio via Cat5 cables.

New Builds and Retrofit
It is obviously easier to install a multi-room audio system during construction, but most of us are not building a new home. That means either using a wireless audio system or installing wires. That is where a professional installer comes in handy. Not only do they understand how to run wires the correct way, they know where wires should go and how to hide them. They can also make sure that all of your components are installed correctly and that all systems are working. They can even give you an overview of how to use the system.
There are a lot of advantages of having a whole house system. The systems range from simple to complex, but the grade of sound should always be professional. When you decide you want home audio choose your components carefully. Working with a professional can make a huge difference in the quality of the audio you receive. Understanding that not every room in your home is going to respond the same way to audio is important. By customizing speaker selection to each room, you gain a huge advantage in the quality of the audio that each room receives. No more popping and crackly connections. As you begin to explore all of your options feel free to ask for our guidance, we are always happy to answer your questions or show you what a component does.