You may have noticed some not-so-subtle changes to the ACS online presence. We are in the midst of an exciting expansion to further promote our national reputation as a factory-authorized and trained dealer and installer of the finest A/V, Lighting Control, Motorized Shading, Network and Home Integration equipment anywhere on the web. Part of that development includes this new blog presence.

We’re going to be using this space to announce important ACS company news, spotlight preferred manufacturers and components, and generally keep in touch. If you have a need for custom electronics design and integration, whether for your home or business, this is going to be an excellent resource for you.

ACS has an expansive array of services, including:

• Automated Shading
• Home Theater Design
• High End Audio
• Lighting Control
• Managed Home Networking
• Integrated Living Solutions and much, much more!

With offices in the New York Metro region, Los Angeles and South Florida, ACS is among the largest residential Audio/Video, Lighting Control and Home Integration companies in the country. Anyone anywhere, from Maine to Washington, who’s looking for technology solutions that respond to their lifestyle while maintaining their home’s architecture and interior design, should give us a call! We’re here to build lifelong relationships with our customers and look forward to demonstrating our expertise.

Having problems with home network lagging? ACS, the factory authorized and trained dealer and installer of the finest A/V, Lighting Control, Motorized Shading, Home Integration and Network equipment has the solution.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all developed an expectation to be wirelessly connected at all times. Everywhere we go, we look for updates on our smart phone, tablet or iPad, all while working on our laptop. We use these devices to access today’s vast array of digital media such as streaming music, HD video, or even accessing our home integration and security while away.

At the heart of today’s residences, a well-engineered secure wireless and wired network is essential.  As we continue to depend less on traditional entertainment sources (radio, CD, DVD, cable TV) and more on cloud-based entertainment (internet radio, Pandora, iTunes, Netflix, AppleTV, and others), along with Gaming, Remote Access to Work, and everyday on-line activities, a faster, more secure and dependable home network is essential.

High-bandwidth devices place increased pressure on home networks. To meet these requirements, service providers are delivering advancements in internet speeds, but many home networks aren’t equipped to make use of the speeds they offer. Technology evolves at such a rapid pace that we have to evolve with it or get left behind. Our homes need a strong network to meet the demands of the digital age.

Looked at another way; consumer networks were never meant to handle the high demands of the audio/video components currently used in modern homes or businesses. The results being unacceptable WiFi performance, data loss, constant reboots, product failure, and the always-annoying customer service phone calls to internet providers. ACS fixes that by providing industry-leading technology that combines wired/wireless data and IP power with local and cloud-based management.

IMAX, the industry leader in immersive cinematic experiences, is now launching the IMAX Private Theatre system. The program enables select custom integrators across the U.S. to bring The IMAX Experience to their most discriminating clientele, and we wanted to take the opportunity of this blog edition to announce that ACS (with locations in Metro NY, Los Angeles and South Florida) is one of the first!

This new home theater system utilizes the same technology that IMAX uses in commercial multiplexes: a curved floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screen; a high-resolution, dual-projection system that can accommodate 2D and 3D formats; and an audio system with laser-aligned loudspeakers and microphones that perform daily calibrations to ensure the highest quality sound possible. Altogether, the package is modeled after the relatively small screening room IMAX built in Santa Monica for filmmakers to see their movies in the immersive format before a general release.

Homeowners who can take advantage of this opportunity will have a team of IMAX specialists playing an integral role in the entire process, working alongside ACS to ensure everything is built to IMAX’s exacting performance standards while catering to your specific design preferences.

In addition to the main theater space, there must also be space for a projector room large enough to accommodate at least two projectors (5 feet tall, 2.5 feet wide and 4 feet deep) in an area separate from the screening room, and an equipment rack.  Each room is then custom-designed to IMAX specifications and engineered for perfection.

With ACS and IMAX, you’ll receive a peerless level of service and support to guarantee the best presentation every time:

Talk to custom home technology professionals throughout the country and one common philosophy emerges: Taking over a project can be more trouble than it’s worth. Unless, of course, you’re talking to ACS.

Project takeovers happen when the original firm is either unable to complete the work, or maybe even goes out of business mid-build. This can be frustrating for the client (to say the least), but it can also be treacherous territory for a company that jumps in to complete the job. Since the takeover firm didn’t order the components, they don’t hold the original warranties. Without being involved in the initial pre-wire or technical design, the new integrator is starting from scratch while the client anticipates the project is close to finished. It’s easy to see why integrators hesitate getting involved. Thankfully, ACS has a solution at the ready.

Due to a variety of circumstances, ACS takes over an average of 2-3 projects a month. Why, when so many view the act of completing another professional’s work a thankless job at best? Maybe it’s because, after nearly 40 years of custom electronic design and integration, ACS has the process and the people to make it right for those in need of expert assistance.

Ex: Last year, ACS lost a bid to work on a home. These things happen and there are never any hard feelings. However, after many months of planning and progress, the integrator who won the bid was no longer able to work on the build. Worried about what would become of the investment they’d made so far, the client reconnected with ACS to see if we could help.

As is the procedure, we completed a full investigation of the project. To everyone’s relief, ACS determined that the only issue unresolved was the HVAC. We provided a quote for the completion, the new client readily agreed, and ACS was able to complete the work they required to get their system working.

Why does experience matter? It gets you invited to the Netherlands, for one thing.

ACS has a client for whom we’ve integrated 4 different homes. It just so happens that the client’s 5th home is a 95-ft yacht…and it’s being built in Amsterdam. You can’t win them all, right? Well…

While the client explored integration options overseas, a priority for the family was for the controls within the yacht to have the same look and feel as the other homes on which ACS had previously worked. This meant viewing the same menu – regardless of the location – to set the music or raise the shades or view the status of any room in that home or across the globe. To aid in this endeavor, the client brought their world-renowned yacht builder to Los Angeles to review the systems in the 85,000 sqr ft home in Beverly Hills (which also happened to be the most recent work ACS had completed on their behalf).

This location has the advantage of the features that have made ACS a Crestron Gold programmer. More than a decade of development has gone into our template, featuring options many integrators don’t make available as their base offering. ACS has found it’s easier to include more options (and edit out what isn’t optimal for the client) rather than add what we consider basic functions at an additional cost. To demonstrate, the client took quite a bit of pleasure adjusting the volume in surrounding rooms while we conducted our meeting, as well as showing off the “home-at-a-glance” feature that displays the status of every zone from a single screen.

After the meeting, ACS was asked to review the company chosen for the integration overseas. Frankly, it was a quality organization, and we didn’t feel it made sense for us to be involved to any greater degree. However, there’s a peace-of-mind component to all such work. So, when the client offered to fly us to Amsterdam for 3 days to review the system with the chief engineer, who were we to argue?