And Breathe...

Well it looks as if Santa has come early for the ex-pats of Southern Spain with news that the proposed transition of the BBC and Freeview channels onto the new UK spot beam has hit problem. This is not to say that it won´t happen in the future, dates in March are now being bandied about, but for now Eastenders is safe.

The reason for this has been given as a faulty transponder, but this will not be the end of the matter and the satellite signal will eventually find its new home. There has been a kind of official word on the BBCblog, they even acknowledge the non UK views, but I am afraid not with good news.

So what are we to do? Future Lifestyle will continue to test various systems to find the best way to continue to get UK programming. We believe that this is a good thing the delay will enable people within the industry to find a good, reliable solution. We have been approached by several suppliers of IP solutions in the past couple of weeks. Some are viable solutions, some were chancers hoping to cash in on the hysteria of the people (how very Costa del Sol).  This rest bite will hopefully make the opportunists get bored and move on allowing us to do our jobs.

Another upside to the delay is that members of the team had notice an increase in Christmas party invitations in the last week or so, something we believe was linked directly to the impending changes. What better way to try and get the best deal than ply us with drink and mince pies!

So for now panic over, but rest assured that we will be working behind the scenes to make sure that when the transition happens (and it will happen) it is smooth and as painless as possible.

  

To keep up to date with this and other goings on of Future Lifestyle why not ´like´ our Facebook page (facebook.com/FutureLifestyleSpain) or follow us on Twitter (@FL_Spain)

Installation Spotlight

Puerto Banus Style...

Woking alongside one of Marbella´s premier (Quay Property Group) and Banus´s Fendi interior designer (Interiorissimo) we created a one of a kind beach front apartment.
 




HD distribution to all of the screens in this three bedroom apartment. Mulitroom audio playing the clients MP3 collection or streaming internet radio stations from around the world. LED lighting keeps the electricity bill down as well as lighting the apartment beautifully. And the air conditioning not only regulates the temperature, but with air filters and sensors will keep a clean air circulating even when the client is not in the property.




Read more about the installation and see photos of the project in Puerto Banus Apartment or browser some of our other installations in the portfolio section of our website.

If you would like to know more or to book a free consultation contact the Future Lifestyle team at info@futurelifestyle.es or call +34 902 107 227

Installation Spotlight

“Technically Traditional”

 

Future Lifestyle gives a hillside Spanish style townhouse a technical makeover and a cool entertainment area in the basement.

The property in a quaint white village on the Ronda Road Marbella was going through a refurbishment from top to bottom when the client approached us for some advice on installing a home entertainment system.

HD satellite signals around the home, surround sound in two areas, a media server full of movies streamed to multiple TV´s, mulitroom audio and all controlled from one remote or iPad. Are just some of things incorporated within this project.

Read more about the installation and see photos of the project in La Heredia Townhouse or browser some of our other installations in the portfolio section of our website.

If you would like to know more or to book a free consultation contact the Future Lifestyle team at info@futurelifestyle.es or call +34 902 107 227 

Up and running...

         

Well people we are finally up and running with our new website. There are still a few bugs to iron out (god bless Microsoft & IE) and translations to complete, but please drop by and have a look.

We have updated our portfolio page with some of our latest project, also made some of the articles and white papers we have created over the past year or so available online.

In the coming weeks we are going to be throwing a spotlight on some of our installations in the portfolio via our blog and Facebook page. This will present us the chance to give a little more insight into the background of the project and some of the problems we had to overcome.

Next stage

Now that the website has had a clear out and a lick of paint, we´re now going to do the same with our stores. So to make space we are going to be offering discounts on TV´s, DVD´s and even control systems throughout the month of October. This offer is for the components we have in our store room, so once it’s gone its gone.

To qualify for the clearance deals and to keep up to date with what´s happening with Future Lifestyle become a friend of our Facebook page by pressing the like button or become a follower of the blog.

Contact a member of the sales team on +34 902 107 227 or email sales@futurelifestyle.es to pick up a good deal on all sorts of home entertainment equipment.

What a Whopper!!!!

In the war of “my TV is bigger than yours” Sharp has been winning in the LED/LCD TV category. Producing screens of 80 and 90-inch , but now a favourite of Future Lifestyle, Samsung is making a stand with its new 75-inch ES9000 series TV (UN75ES9000), which was unveiled in New York recently.

The new Samsung UN75ES9000 has the thin bezel-less design that we like and incorporates LED Edge-Lighting, along with Micro-Dimming, 2D and 3D compatibility (four pairs of glasses included), and extensive Smart TV features (both internet streaming and DLNAcontent access), supported by a built-in dual core processor.

In addition the ES9000 also has a built-inSkype-compatible camera for video phone calling, as well as support for gesture and face recognition control (mmmm not so sold on as yet) and voice recognition.
Another innovative feature of the new screen is Sound Share which provides Wireless Bluetooth streaming from compatible portable devices.

In the States the 75-inch UN75ES9000 is priced at $9,999, and is expected to be available in August (US).

But the festure that really caught our eye is the new gesture-enabled Angry Birds App, taking the most adictvie game to a whole new level... worth 10K just so you can play a game... maybe..

To read the Official Samsung Announcement click here

LED TV´s explained

Now you may of heard of the newest TV format, LED. As with all new technology there has been a lot of confusion and hype regarding these screens.

So let us try and help you understand this latest in TV buzz words......The LED designation refers to the backlight system used in some newer LCD Televisions, the LEDs do not produce the image you see on the screen.
LCD chips and pixels do not produce their own light. In order for an LCD television to produce a visible image the LCD's pixels have to be "backlit". In fact LED TVs are still LCD TVs, it is just that these new sets use LED backlights rather than the fluorescent-type backlights used in most other LCD TVs. To give them their correct name they should be labelled LCD/LED TVs. In truth the only true LED-only TVs are the ones you see in stadiums, arenas, other large events and "high-res" billboards.

So how does it work?

The are currently two main ways that LED backlighting is applied in LCD flat panel televisions.
One type of LED backlighting is referred to as Edge Lighting. In this method, a series LED backlights are placed along the outside edges of the screen. The light is then dispersed across the screen. The advantage of this method is that the LED/LCD TV can be made very thin. On the other hand, the disadvantage of Edge lighting is that black levels are not as deep and the edge area of the screen has a tendency to be brighter than the centre area of the screen.

The other type of LED backlighting is referred to as Full-Array. In this method, several rows of LEDs are placed behind the entire surface of the screen. The advantage is that these sets can employ "local dimming". Local dimming means that each LED or a specific group of LEDs can be turned on and off independently within certain areas of the screen, thus providing more control of the brightness and darkness for each those areas, depending on the source material being displayed. On the other hand, LCD TVs that employ full array backlighting are thicker than LCD TVs that employ an Edge-lit LED light source.

If you are considering the purchase of an LED/LCD Television, find out which brands and models are currently using the Edge or Full Array method and take of a look at each type when you go shopping to see which type of LED backlighting looks best to you.

So what is the difference?

Since LEDs are designed differently than standard fluorescent backlight systems, this means that the new LED backlit LCD sets offer the following differences with standard LCD sets:

1. Lower power consumption.
2. No Mercury used as in some other LCD backlight systems.
3. More balanced colour saturation.
4. In LED/LCD TVs using the Full Array blacklight method, there is little or no light leakage in dark scenes. This contributes to even better black levels than traditional or LED Edge-lit LCD televisions.
5. LED/LCD TVs that use the Edge backlight method can be made much thinner than both standard LCD and Full Array LED/LCD televisions. 

LED backlight does represent an advance in technology, mostly in bringing LCD TVs up to the performance levels of Plasma Televisions in terms of black level performance, and, at the same time, making even thinner LCD TV designs possible. On the other hand, because LED backlighting is new for LCD TVs, these sets are more expensive that non-LED backlit sets.

The LED/LCD screens I have seen (edge lit) all have a good sharp picture, with colours to match most normal LCD´s and the designs of these screens are bound to be a winner for the design conscious among us. At Future Lifestyle we have begun to see a swing towards these LED/LCD screens with their online capabilities and with ´super slim´ brackets. And it looks as things will only get better for this version of the flat screen.
If you would like to know more about LED/LCD screens please contact a member of the Future Lifestyle team at info@futurelifestyle.net or on +34 902 107 227

Still watching standard TV?

The BBC have stated recently that around 91% of households in the UK are still watching standard-definition television and video and this despite 56% of households have an HDTV. It says that some people are not using HD not because of added costs but because of a lack of technical understanding. In some cases, the article mentions, people may just not understand how to properly connect their sets.

The thing is people think they are happy with standard definition in the same way people were happy with their 28” CRT TV or their old VHS video players.. A lot of this revolves around what you grow accustomed to. I now find it hard to watch any kind of TV unless it is played through a amp of some kind, to me it just sounds flat.

There of course economic factors influencing the decision to embrace HDTV. I agree that the Sky HD service does cost that little extra and to be honest the shows we want to watch aren´t always in HD. But this doesn´t stop you getting on the Blu-ray wagon....movies on Bly-ray come with loads more extra features and watched on HD plasma or LCD with a surround sound system will enhance your movie experience no end.....

Do you want to know more, then call the Future Lifestyle team on +34 902 107 227 and ender 2010 in HD!!!!

As Prices Fall, the technology of Blu-ray is welcome Home...

Blu-ray, a high-definition variation of the DVD format introduced three years ago, was initially met by a collective shrug from most consumers. Who needed another black box to connect to the TV, the thinking went, even if it did promise to play movie discs in clear, crisp high-definition?

But this year, even as the world moves tentatively out of a recession, consumers are buying the devices at a faster pace than they bought previous generations of movie players like the VCR and the DVD player. Analysts predict that sales of Blu-ray machines will be up 112 percent over last year, one of the true bright spots in retailing this holiday season.

In addition to superior picture quality, Blu-ray also offers features not available on standard DVD players, like pop-up menus during play. Some Blu-ray players can also connect to the Internet; the player can then receive additional information about a movie, offer movie-related games, provide updated trailers, and allow friends to simultaneously watch a film while writing comments on screen.

The newest generation of Blu-ray players lets viewers receive streaming movies and TV shows from online providers like Amazon Video on Demand, CinemaNow, Netflix and YouTube.

As a result, Blu-ray manufacturers have placed themselves in a seemingly awkward position: They are selling a device that relies on people to continue to buy discs, but the same device gives them a way to download videos — bypassing the discs the machines were built to play.

Consumer electronics companies believe that this strategy makes sense. The additional programming will add to the Blu-ray experience, executives say, which still offers superior picture and sound quality to what can be currently streamed over the Internet.

And since most HDTVs do not yet come with their own built-in Internet capability, a Blu-ray player can become an inexpensive but essential all-in-one content source. Yet, as high-speed broadband becomes common place, the ability to quickly download Blu-ray-quality content will become a reality.

But the electronics consumer market is used to product life cycles and things becoming obsolete. Already, manufacturers are producing the latest version of Blu-ray players and TVs displaying video in 3-D. It is expected these will be available by end of 2010.

State of the art offer.........

The flat screen market has been taken over by Samsung with its LCD TVs, well at least in the last few years. And just as everybody else was catching up, the company has further flexed its technology muscles with its LED-backlit panels, and therefore taken a significant foothold in a new, unexplored sector.

As well as releasing a whole range of LED-lit LCD TVs while most rivals are still struggling to get one or two models out, Samsung has upset the apple cart by proving with the UE40B7000 that LCD TVs using edge-mounted LEDs aren’t necessarily a poor relation to the original direct LED approach.

The B8000 is a step up from the B7000 – the main step being 200Hz processing. This is a genuine system, too, where the picture really does refresh 200 times a second, rather than the pseudo 200Hz trickery employed by Philips and LG that combines a 100Hz refresh rate with a scanning backlight. The only other real difference between the B8000 and B7000 ranges is the addition of a metallic desktop stand and eye-catching edge trim to the already chic design.

The UE46B8000 delivers all the picture strengths of its stablemate while also injecting extra quality courtesy of the 200Hz system and with 4 HDMI inputs, twin USB and a LAN port all squeezed in a depth of just 30mm. Blacks are deep and natural, and deliver a robust two-fingered salute towards people who reckon edge-mounted LEDs struggle in this area. Colours excel, too, achieving intense saturations without looking unreal – provided you avoid the Dynamic picture mode, at least.

Furthermore, since Samsung’s 200Hz engine is genuine, there’s little of the flickering and ghosting that can mar pseudo 200Hz systems based around scanning backlights.

Future Lifestyle are offering a deal on these incredible screens until February 2010 as part of a package deal.

1 * Samsung 46B8000

1 * Flat wall mount bracket

1 * 3m HDMI cable

Installation & Calibration (subject to site survey)

For only €2,499 inc all taxes!!!!

Contact a memeber of the sales team for more infromation on +34 902 107 227 or sales@futurelifestyle.net