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How to Customise the ELAN Home Automation Screen

I have been involved with the ELAN Control System for over 8 years, and in that time I’ve trained installers, provided technical support and sold and programmed many systems and yes I really like the ELAN Control System 🙂 … it just works.

One of the things I really like is the ability to customise the user screen by changing or adding back ground photos. So this blog post is a quick how-to-walk-through.

Firstly, your ELAN system must be one of the SC controllers on a fairly recent firmware version, at least Version 8.4 Release 10 (when you go into the settings page, the version number is on the bottom left hand corner).

So, these are the steps you need to follow to get started:

Step 1 Go to Settings Page

Kanto YU2 Speakers

At AVctrl, we are big fans of the Kanto range of powered speakers. A powered speaker has an inbuilt amplifier which means that all you need to do is connect something to it and press play.

The Kanto range starts with the tiny YU2 which has USB and 3.5mm connections and is best for your desktop setup. The YU4 and YU6 add Bluetooth and turntable inputs and the TUKs are just better at everything. They are available in a range of finishes and you can add a sub-woofer to add a bit more oomph to the bass.

On our last order for a client (YU6, 26″ SP stands and a SUB8) I added a pair of matt white YU2s for my own desktop along with a pair of the 16° desk stands, laptop is connected via USB and this morning (Friday) I’ve been trying to get a proposal done, however I’ve a little problem…

What do you need to listen to your vinyl collection?

Vinyl is currently going through a purple patch and really is the new “cool”. You can buy new albums in trendy fashions stores, supermarkets or bargain dive in charity shops. You may even have a collection of LPs, EPs or 7” singles hiding somewhere in the attic from back-in-the-day.

If you want to get back into vinyl or just want to see what all the fuss is about, what do you need to get started?

You will need four things:

Turntable
Pre-amplifier or phono stage
Amplifier
Speakers

Controlling Sonos from Alexa

It has been possible to control Sonos from Amazon Alexa for some time. The Play One and Beam come with Alexa built in, but you can use any Echo device to control your music on Sonos. You do however, have to remember to say the right words in the right order.

You can make controlling your Sonos system from Alexa much simpler by creating Alexa groups. So, for example, instead of saying “Play Bruce Springsteen in the Kitchen”, you just say “Play Bruce Springsteen” or “Volume up/down” and Alexa also knows to turn the Sonos volume down automatically when you’re asking something.

Follow these simple steps to set it up…

Rediscovering Rex Bob Lowenstein

It has been a very long time since I posted on this blog and we have been keeping ourselves very busy making buildings smarter, but something happened recently which has inspired me to get back.

A parcel arrived at home from that rainforest company which was around 12 inch square, thin and looked suspiciously like a long-playing record addressed to Number 2 Son. It turned out to be a Foo Fighters vinyl LP and no2 son now wanted a turntable to play it on. Now I have a large-ish record collection but like most people around my age, it has been in the attic for a very long time and have no working turntable.

So, no2 son and I are proud owners of Pro-Ject turntables. No2 son alsp added the Stereo Box S amplifier and E-Line speakers which sound amazing for a very resonable price and I setup mine as part of the Living Room Home Cinema system.

AVctrl is now an authorised Sonos dealer

We are delighted to let you know that AVctrl is now an authorised Sonos dealer.

Sonos is the leading wireless multi-room music system, it has a great app for both iOS and Android and you can enjoy any music in the world in any room of your home. And because it’s wireless, there is no mess and no new cables to run. We have been using, selling and installing Sonos since it’s UK launch and love it.

Please contact us if you have any questions or require any more information.

Elegant Heating Control

We all need to control our heating systems so it is important to make sure that the thermostats are easy to program and cater for our changing use of the rooms during the day. However, thermostats are probably the most ugly and boring pieces of kit we put in our rooms.

So what are the options?

KNX is a complete building automation system and includes lighting and heating control. There are currently 339 manufacturers producing 8000+ products which all talk to each other. It is possible to have the KNX switch combined with an internal room stat or just an LCD display for a simple and elegant finish.

IP CCTV

AVctrl is passionate about designing and supplying the best solutions. CCTV camera solutions have traditionally been either very poor quality (you know there is a dark shadow there but no idea who it is) or very expensive. IC Realtime supply a superb range of high quality cameras and DVR’s which have a host of features and are remarkable affordable.

Solutions include:

Residential and commercial
IP Megapixel Cameras and NVRs
Analogue cameras and DVRs
HDCCTV – full HD over coax
Hybrid – combining analogue and IP technologies
Access from iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices
Supports any platform, Windows, Mac or Linux
Remote access via a secure Internet connection
Complete integration with RTI and ELAN g! home automation systems

Please contact AVctrl to see what you can do.

Recent ELAN & KNX Project

I have just finished programming a cool job in Dublin 4. Spectrum AV have had a high end residential project which covers just about everything you would want in a home automation system – multi-room music and HD video distribution, dedicated home cinema, IP CCTV and KNX lighting, heating and curtain control. KNX also integrates gates, door access to the pool area and the intruder and fire alarms. Sitting on top is the ELAN g! home automation system which provides overall control of the system via TS7 in-wall touch screens, HR2 Wi-Fi remote controls and iPad/iPhone.

The home cinema rocks with Sunfire in wall cinema speakers and 2 of the new HRS-IW8 in-wall sub-woofers but the most unexpected bass came from the Niles GSS10 outdoor sub. The sound on the patio is now really amazing – just don’t disturb the neighbours and earth worms too much!

This is the second ELAN g! system that Sprectrum AV have installed for this client and they are really delighted with it. The client especially likes the secure remote access via their iPads and iPhones.

Check out more details on the installation here.

ELAN g! and Heatmiser

I have just returned to a system which was installed about 18 months ago and consisted of ELAN g!, home cinema, CCTV and KNX lighting. Just a service call – upgraded ELAN g! to latest version and added a few new scenes and buttons to the lighting interfaces. So far, so good.

As part of the original install the client had installed a Heatmiser heating control system and the latest update from ELAN included full 2-way support for the wired and IP wireless Heatmiser thermostats.

Heatmiser UH1

All that was required was to route a Cat5 cable from ELAN controller to Heatmiser UH1 wiring centre, connect to the RS485 port, give each thermostat a unique address and run auto discovery in ELAN Configurator – job done.

The client now has full 2-way control of his thermostats from anywhere in the world, schedule control and history data 🙂

To learn more, please get in touch.