Entertainment
I am going to divide this section into three parts. First we shall cover our computing facilities; secondly, I will cover the entertainment facilities and finally we will examine security.
Computing Facilities
Hardware
First we believe in quality and I am a firm believer in either doing it properly or not doing it at all - this is a policy I follow in my personal and business life. Therefore, I always build my own computers from components and always use Creative Labs or Logitech Loudspeakers and always use Creative Labs sound cards. My main computer is an Asus motherboad based machine with an Intel quad-core Q9550 processor, 8GB RAM; 2TB of disk storage and a Creative Labs Xi-Fi Titanium sound card powering a Creative Labs G500 sound system. The operating system is Windows Vista/64 Ultimate.
If you are wondering why I use so much storage, it is because we have gone paperless. All documents and letters are scanned and then shredded and burnt; I take data security and back-ups very seriously as we do not have paper records to fall back on.
We have a 100Mb wired network serving all rooms in the property which will probably be upgraded to a 1Gb network soon and a 16Mb ADSL connection terminating on a Draytek Vigor 2820Vn router with its sophisticated filtering, firewall, logging and bandwidth management. We have a second router connected as a wireless access point that provides additional connectivity coverage.
We have no local printers. All printers are networked HP lasers with one connected via a wireless bridge. All printers are old but built strongly.
For laptops, I always use IBM/Lenovo "T" series models as they are the best; currently I own an IBM "Butterfly" 701, an IBM 600D, an IBM 560, and IBM T42, and an IBM T60. For my business, I am fortunate in having a good employer and the use of a 4GB Lenovo T61P which is a superb machine running Vista Ultimate and this is a great productivity aid.
Music Server
I have literally hundreds of CDs which I greatly treasure, but they take up too much space, so I have ripped them all and placed the content on my mp3 music server running Linux. Now, any computer on the Redoak, wired or wireless network can play any music at any time. The music server is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device consisting of 4 hard drives in a RAID array and it runs 24/7.
Entertainment System
Distributed Audio System
In each room of the bungalow, loudspeakers are hung in the corners of the rooms controlled by a three position toggle switch by the door.
Inside the study, a "Nelson Jones" radio tuner that I built while at Southampton University reading my electronics degree is left switched on 24 hours a day. The tuner is connected to a power amplifier (that I built 30 years ago) controlled by a "black box". Four core telephone cable runs from each room of the house to the black box. If all toggle switches are in the off position, the mains to the power amplifier is off. If one switch is in the middle position, the power amplifier is switched on. When any switch is down, the sound is switched through to the loudspeakers in that room. So, how do you switch both 230 volts and stereo audio signals off and on via low voltage telephone cable?.....e-mail me if you would like to know, but THINK about it first.
Music Server
All my CDs have been ripped and stored onto the NAS device with a separate directory for each artist. Within each artist's directory I have separate directories for each CD. We have a quiet computer in the lounge that is also network connected and the sole function of this computer is to access the mp3 server and using a Soundblaster Xi-Fi audio card, the sound is output to our surround sound Sony receiver. We use Microsoft Media Player for the audio streaming and because this computer only has "read" access to the server files, there is no risk of corruption.
Main Audio System
In the lounge we have a Sony STRDB925 AV receiver that is capable of delivering 100 watts per channel into each of the left, right, centre and two rear loudspeakers. The Sony has an excellent DSP which can create superb surround sound effects. The main loudspeakers are a pair of Cambridge Audio R50s standing 1.5m high.
TV Distribution
We have VHF and UHF radio aerials in the attic that pass into the lounge and after switching are routed back into the attic where they are fed into a UHF distribution amplifier and then routed back down into all rooms via low loss co-ax cabling. So, for instance in my study my LCD TV, VHF receivers and computer can all receive TV and radio signals.
TV, Blu Ray and DVDs
This will be undergoing a major change in 2009 as we want High Definition TV, but not from Sky and also a Blu Ray player and recorder in the lounge. I also want some kind of facility to distribute the video signals around the bungalow but have not decided yet on how to do this.
Security
Just in case anyone has any ideas on stealing any equipment, we have hidden movement sensitive IP cameras taking snapshots of activity that are accessible remotely through the router firewall. On the left is a photo of the X-10 Telephone Interface - a magical device.
The Apple iPhone is a wonderful device which I synchonise with Outlook to maintain my calendar, addresses and phone contacts as well as accessing remotely the cameras on our property.
We are part of the local Neighbourhood Watch group, and I would urge everyone to set up and join similar groups. We have social evenings; we know almost everyone in the road and we all look out for strangers and odd events. Being part of the Community Board means I have contact with our local Safer Neighbourhood Team (Police, PCSOs and ACSOs) who do a superb job here.
