TechBlog

Lilly Levy Designs

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:28:05 -0400

Lilly Levy Designs is run by a woman who helps you find out what you want. Her design is your taste , honed and amplified. She is highly regarded by her clients, and for good reason. She is great at what she does, and a pleasure to be around . . she also happens to be my mother.

You might think that everything i just wrote is just my blood speaking . . .
If you saw her work, you would understand better. Its her life. She works 27 hours a day . . for her clients. She is in constant communication with the people she needs to be. She is design.

On that note, i want to share with you the reason she is on my website.

Collaboration . . .

When you are building your new home, you have so much to worry about. The reason you hire a contractor is because he handles a big bulk of the project for you. Which is less for you to worry about . . . You communicate with the contractor, and he communicates with everyone else on the job . .

but what happens when communications drop? you end up with errors, and a final look that may or may not look like it was intentional . .

We have worked many projects with Lilly Levy Designs, and we are always in constant communication, checking on furniture layouts, getting the aesthetics of some our electronics pre approved before presenting to the client, working together on automated systems and their final look, figuring out the proper placement for volume control knobs, final tv placement, etc.

She is great at what she does, and she makes our jobs even easier.
Having us as a team when you build your home . . its just one less thing to worry about.

On that note . . i would also like to mention Level Construction , run by Alan Levy - my brother.
Between the three of us , we can build your entire home . . but more on that in another post . .

- Mosey Levy

Colorado vNet - Builder Software

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:31:25 -0400

Colorado vNet
a home automation solution that beats em all!
Includes control of lighting, shades, security, hvac, surveillance, audio, etc

Creating a new electrical plan for approval by the architect. Creating lighting patterns, eliminating multiple dimmer switches with one smart pad... the video speaks for itself.
This is my first day of electrical design, and its amazing stuff . .
Keep in mind, all the lights you see being controlled by this smart pad, can also be controlled from anywhere in the home via in wall touch screens . . . more on that later . .

Apple TV Updates to 2.02

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:02:48 -0400

Apple has updated the software on the Apple TV's to version 2.02
this usually means new features and/or just bug fixes . .

either way, we highly recommend updating
all the Apple TV's in your home as they will
most likely lead to a more pleasant experience.

How To:

•Go to the Settings section on your apple tv (main menu , bottom left)
•Once in "Settings", goto "General"

•Then choose "Update Software"

(Settings>General>Update Software)

• Once you choose update software, the apple tv will then search to see if updates are available.

• the Apple TV will prompt you asking you if you want to download the update or not, choose yes.

• the download will take between 5-20 minutes depending on your internet connection and the size of the update. note some updates are larger and may take 40 minutes to download

leave the tv and apple tv on as they download and update through the entire process (ie do not switch to cable or shut system off)

• check back on your apple tv 5-10 minutes later to see if the download has been completed .

•once the download is completed, it will ask you if you want to actually update the software now
or later. choose now . . the apple tv will update and restart within 5 minutes. after that you can shut
the system down. . .

• repeat for all apple tv's in home

• enjoy : )

health clubs - expanding to philli and boston

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:55:59 -0400

The health clubs job has been expanding at an amazing rate. The number of clubs has risen weekly. We have completed near 80 health clubs, in different areas. These areas include
Brooklyn
Queens
Manhattan
Bronx
Staten Island
Long Island
Across all of NJ
Upstate NY
CT

The exciting part is that we are ahead of schedule, and we have taken on two new locations.
•Philadelphia
•Boston

We already started Philli about a week ago, and we just got approved to do boston as well.

as we continue to do excel with residential work,
we are simultaneously pumping out excellent commercial work . . .ahead of schedule.

The Future Looks Exciting From Here . . . .

Equipment Phase - Manhattan Luxury Building - Siedle Systems

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:10:11 -0400

When we start a large project, we usually split it up in to two phases.

Wiring Phase
this is the phase when the building is still under construction, no walls (sheetrock) yet.
we go in and wire for everything at this point. we carefully position our speakers, wall jacks, intercoms etc with gang boxes and speaker brackets. to some people this might be a boring phase, but it sure is a lot of fun. our wiring guys love it, and so do i . . but the really exciting part? well . . . .

Equipment Phase
yes, this is the exciting phase. all the walls are up, the home or building is being painted and getting prepped for functionality . . elevators, heating / cooling , electric, and ofcourse - Technology. Install speakers, tv’s , phone systems, intercoms, surveillance, etc...

one of our larger projects, an unnamed residential luxury building in manhattan, is now entering the equipment phase. we are doing some exciting things in this building.

the third floor is ready for equipment, the rest of the building is still being worked on.
on the third floor, we proceeded to install all the ‘in ceiling’ speakers. we are also going to install the intercom/access control aspects for the third floor, and for the elevator...

for the third floor apartment, we are putting in a video intercom unit by the front entry door.
the intercom systems we use on the higher end buildings are by siedle.
they have the best designed components with amazing levels of functionality....

a great example of this systems functionality is the video entry cam. everytime someone rings your apartment, the video entry intercom will automatically save a snapshot of the guest, for you to review later in cased of missed guests etc . .

another great example of functionality is the electronic key solution we are implementing . . .
with a little orange key fob (goes right on your key chain), you wave it in front of the front entry panel, it will automatically unlock the front door for you, call the elevator down, and set what floor the elevator is allowed to go to (taking you right up to your floor). we are also putting a key fob station in the elevator itself so that you can wave key fob in elevator and unlock your floor as well if needed. you barely ever have to ever press a button to get around . .

we are very excited for this phase, as we love to push in to new boundaries all the time.
we became siedle certified specifically for this project, and look forward to implementing similar solutions in to future projects.

mac tutorials

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 23:58:39 -0500

got a new mac? or maybe you had it for a while?
either way - the point of owning a mac is to create!
to edit photos, video, create music, websites , flyers and more!
you can do it all with two applications suites.
the first one is called “iLife”
the second one is called “iWork”

they both come with your mac and are made by apple - so you know they are easier then most . .

iLife consists of the following applications (programs):
iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, & Garage Band
with each of these you can really create some amazing stuff!!

iWork consists of the following applications:
Pages, Number, & Keynote
Pages is similar to microsoft word - but much more.
its a full featured word application, but where it really shines is layouts.
create menu’s or flyers or resumes - make them look amazing really easily.
Numbers is like microsoft excel
Keynote is like microsoft powerpoint, but again, much easier to use - and graphically stunning . . .

check out these two web pages, they both have great videos showing you
how to get the best out of both suites.

just remember that when trying to learn something new, the best way to learn is through patience and through paying attention to what you are doing. dont be afraid to read instructions or watch videos.

if you have any additional questions on how to use the apps please feel free to email me - i will do my best to answer them . .

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/

http://www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/

Update: a few weeks after i posted this, apple released a new section on their website for people that are new to mac. great video tutorials on how to use all aspects of your mac, including saving files and navigating around your system . .

check it out here:

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/

health clubs

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 14:48:41 -0500

We have been contracted by a california company to install Digital Signage in over 70 health clubs in the tri-state area. Each monitor is connected to a computer that is fed content from a central station in california. The monitors display current news, weather, stocks tickers + video feeds. Each club gets the setup for free, and is actually paid monthly to have it in the club as the it displays advertisements as well. If you are interested in a similar setup please contact us.

Technologists on the WWW

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:34:21 -0500

soooo . . we gots a new website . .we’re on the web. i know i know, 2008 and we’re just getting here? well not really - but kinda. we made several attempts at making a website - but they really did not do the job. this time around we are very excited about the new site. so many great features and its now easier then ever for us to add photos and news.

i want to thank everyone for the great comments on the website or through conversation . . we hope to continue pushing ourselves in to the market and hope that our clients and friends help us grow. we’ve been pretty much a “word of mouth” company since the beginning and that has worked out great! we dont want that to change, we just want to start being a bit more recognized . .

so on that note, we are going to wrap the van with our logo etc . . signs in front of houses not far after (finally right?) - and maybe even one of these days - business cards! (our third stab at it).
its just so hard to commit to a design !!!

ok thanks again everyone . .

- your neighborhood technologists