Learn What a Technology Integrator Can Do for Your Winery

Energy management is becoming an essential component of a business’s strategy. For some, it’s about reducing costs. For others, it’s about minimizing their carbon footprint. For many, it’s a combination of increasing profits and caring for the Earth and future generations. At Pacific Audio & Communications, we’re uniquely positioned as an energy management consultant and electronic systems integrator to help companies achieve their energy goals. 

We not only help businesses come up with an energy management plan but also install and implement the system. An example of this integrated approach can be found at the Del Dotto Winery, our clients in Napa Valley, CA, and a project that won the CEDIA Award for Best Innovative System.

Let’s look at the possibilities and how to reduce your energy load. 

PACIFIC AUDIO & COMMUNICATIONS HIRES ANDREW KISSINGER AS SENIOR SALES MANAGER, KAUA’I & NATIONAL ACCOUNTS, HAWAI’I.

Lihue, Kaua’i, Hawaii. – March 30th, 2021 – Pacific Audio & Communications Hawai’i, has expanded their executive team with the hiring of Andrew Kissinger as Senior Sales Manager for the Kaua’i Office, while managing National Accounts for all islands.

Andrew brings a solution-oriented mindset with a partnership approach and wealth of knowledge to go with it! He leads an accomplished career engaged in the distribution of premium electronics, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience in the performance audio and custom integration fields. Andrew has held positions with The Good Guys retail stores selling audio/video products at multiple Southern California retail locations, AudioQuest as Regional Sales Manager for the Southwestern US and Mexico, and most recently Bowers & Wilkins as Strategic Account Manager for the Western US.

He has received numerous industry accolades including Dealerscope Magazine’s 40 Under 40, and has earned a reputation for excellent customer service, developing high-caliber client relationships, a passion for the luxury electronics channels, and a proven track record of strong sales growth across multiple companies.

In his new role, Andrew will oversee the sales effort for the Kaua’i Sales Office, and lead Pacific Audio in developing and maintaining national relationships with key builders, architects, and clientele.

Philip Mulligan, CEO Pacific Audio & Communications Hawai’i, said “We’re extremely excited to have Andrew join the Pacific Audio team. His depth of industry experience, knowledge of the premium audio and custom integration channels, and territory management capabilities will complement our ability to serve our clients and partners in Hawai’i.”

• Identify Problem Areas With Home Monitoring Solutions• Help Out Your Air Conditioning With Smart Shading Control• Eliminate Excess Usage With Motion Sensors


Why Do You Need a Smart Home Monitoring Solution?
There are a lot of things that could make the energy bills in your Kauai, Hawaii home skyrocket. There’s the rising temperatures as spring approaches, the tendency to embrace the beautiful landscapes with large windows and doorways, and excess usage while you’re away. Alleviate these issues with a Crestron home monitoring system that brings all your technology together to find your biggest problem areas and design simple solutions.



How to Find Your Biggest Problem Areas
 The first step in crafting a successful energy-cutting solution is to figure out the rooms and technology taking up the most resources. Below we explain how to best find these problem areas. 

• Using Your Energy Dashboard
  
  • Crestron’s Fusion EM Software lets you see how lighting, entertainment, climate control and security affect your usage.
    
    • Create historical reports: Look at your usage over time to see if certain months or even hours result in higher energy use.
    • Project future consumption: Once you start thinking of solutions, input them into your software to see how they would affect your consumption. These projections will help you pick and choose which solutions are best for you.

 How Can You Resolve Problem Areas?
 Once you’ve pinpointed issues in your home, it’s time to come up with a solution. Below are some common problem areas and potential solutions for each:

• Reducing the Load on Your Air Conditioning
  
  • Make sure to lower your temperature when you’re not in your home or a specific room.
    
    • Install motion sensors so your thermostat rises in unoccupied rooms and automatically drops when you return.
    • Your home monitoring solution also lets you make changes remotely. Turn up your thermostat from your smartphone as you leave and turn it back down when you’re heading home.
    • We know most homes in Kauai are vacation homes. Pick out the months you’ll be away and let your system know the thermostat can be turned off or set to a higher temperature during that time.
  • With smart shading, you can use photo sensors to close shades as soon as they’re hit by direct sunlight to help cool down your home.
• Reducing the Impact of Your Lighting
  
  • Adjust your default settings with a smart lighting control
    • Reduce the default settings on all your lights from 100 percent to 90 percent. Play with your Lutron dimmers to see which could go even lower.
  • Eliminate Excess Use
    
    • Use your tablet or touchpad to see if lights were left on in other rooms and turn them off at the press of a button.
    • Use motion sensors to ensure lights and appliances turn off as soon as a room has been unoccupied for a length of time.
    • You can also incorporate scenes that help you manage your lighting.
      
      • Away Scene: Turns all your lights off when you leave the house.
      • Goodnight Scene: Turns all your lights off at a given time every night.

Pacific Audio Communications Inc. crafts a home monitoring system that helps you keep tabs on your energy usage and lets you create effective solutions. Contact us today to set up a consultation!

• Design a Room Optimized to Get the Most Out of Your Technology• Receive Expert Advice on What Works Best for You• Find Equipment that Matches Your Stylistic Preferences

 How Does a Custom Home Theater Differ From Retail Options?

A custom home theater system is an immersive entertainment experience. Every inch of your room is planned out to get the most out of your technology and space. We find the best equipment for the room, optimize it for sound and visual quality, and even work with you to design a unique theme. Below we take a look at some of the benefits of a professionally installed home theater.

Figuring Out the Layout for Your Room

The success of your Maui home theater system comes down to having the right layout in place as well as the right technology. Below we take a look at some of the things you need to consider when designing your brand-new entertainment system:

• What kind of screen do you want in your home theater?
  • The size of your screen will affect the seating arrangement for the room, which will then determine where to place your speakers:
    
    • Screen Size: As a rule of thumb, for a 120" screen you want to be at least 12 feet from the images to reduce strain and to see the picture clearly without having to move your eyes.
    • Screen Viewing Cone: Image quality will diminish as you move away from the center of the screen. Once your screen is installed, we ensure all seating is neatly placed within your screen viewing cone: this signifies how wide you can go before you start seeing a drop in image quality.
  • What kind of surround sound do you want in your home theater system?
    • This will determine how many speakers you’ll have in your room and where they need to be located. We ensure all speakers are equidistant to the viewers, so no one is stuck with audio that is too loud or too low.
      
      • Traditional Surround Sound: These systems include five or seven speakers and one subwoofer. Speakers are installed in front, to the side, above, and behind the viewer.
      • Dolby Atmos: For the best, most –realistic sound you should upgrade to a Dolby Atmos system.
        
        • Separate sounds into distinct objects so they can move within a 3-dimensional space:
          
          • For example: Hear a plane literally flying overhead as the sound travels from speaker-to-speaker above the viewer.

Expert Advice on What Equipment Works Best For Your Space

Once we have a general idea what you’re looking for in your home theater system, we help you find the right equipment:

• Choosing the right screen:
  • Depending on your room's limitations, we help you find the right size, color, and texture for your screen. For example, in places with a lot of ambient light, you want to go with a darker gray or black screen. If you want a discreet option, we can offer motorized screens that retract into the ceiling.
• Choosing the right speakers:
  • We offer the latest state-of-the-art technology when it comes to your speakers. Invest in Dolby-Atmos enabled speakers for truly realistic sound and, if you have space restraints, we also offer in-wall and in-ceiling speakers.

Don’t settle for a second-rate discount theater from your local electronics store. Contract Pacific Audio and Communications to create a truly immersive entertainment space in your Maui area home.

• Enjoy hands-free technology
• Effortlessly control every aspect of your home
• Customize your system to fit your lifestyle

Total Control of Your Home is Possible with Crestron

Just a month ago, CEO Facebook Mark Zuckerberg achieved his 2016 goal of creating an artificial intelligence system to run his home. Aptly named Jarvis, the smart home technology controls everything from the lights to the surveillance cameras to even a T-shirt cannon. Zuckerberg even commissioned Oscar winner Morgan Freeman to do the audio recordings for the voice control system. If the idea of having your own Jarvis is appealing to you, read on to learn how you can add a voice control system to your Honolulu, HI area home.

Say Hello to Jarvis

Zuckerberg’s Jarvis system has a lot of fantastic elements that make it easy for his family to enjoy life at home.

• Lighting: All of the lights, from the landscape lighting to the bedside lamps, are connected to Jarvis. The Zuckerberg family can turn lights on, off, or to a specific brightness level in any area with a single voice command.
• Climate: They can set the thermostat to a certain temperature, turn the HVAC on or off, or simply request to make the room cooler or warmer.
• Appliances: Zuckerberg’s Samsung televisions, smart refrigerator, and even the toaster can all be voice-controlled.
• Music: To enjoy music throughout the home, Zuckerberg chose the simple yet high-quality audio brand Sonos. To listen to a favorite Spotify playlist, all he has to do is ask Jarvis.

SEE ALSO: Why Invest in High-End Audio?

• Security: When leaving home, Zuckerberg can ask Jarvis to arm the security system or lock the front door. Using Nest cameras, Zuckerberg can also keep track of his loved ones while away just by pulling up his smartphone.

Creating Your Own Voice Control System

The backbone of Jarvis is formed by Crestron, the biggest name is smart home automation technology. Crestron has the largest collection of home control devices, which makes them the obvious choice for a custom system like Jarvis.

Zuckerberg gave a personal shout-out to Crestron, saying “I recommend using a system like Crestron as a common interface to all those basic devices to simplify things.”

You may be thinking that having an artificial intelligence system in your home is only for the likes of moguls like Zuckerberg, but anyone can experience the comfort and convenience of smart home technology through Crestron (minus the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman).

Pacific Audio & Communications is Hawaii’s top choice for Crestron smart home systems. Contact us today to learn how to we can help you transform your home with the power of voice control technology.