A Typical Day

In the past year, we have seen a spike in the return of “defective” extenders.  This trend upset our sales and management team because there had to be a reason.  The technical support staff collected all the defective units, ran some tests and came to an interesting conclusion.  So interesting, that I wanted to include it on this blog as an example of the lengths our customer service team goes for our customers. 

The technical staff found that all but one was NOT defective and after talking with one of the installing companies’ job supervisors on how these were being installed our tech staff cleared up the entire issue. 

The problem: Improper installation leading to overheating.

When you look at the vast majority of HDBaseT extenders that are on the market there are vents on the long sides of the chassis and on the better units a heat sink on the top of the processor. These are very important to the flow of air that provides the ventilation and cooling of the HDBaseT “Valens” processor. 

Over time without the proper ventilation and cooling the multi-layer circuit boards will start to heat in an uneven fashion, when this happens the layer impedance will start to fluctuate and since a stable 75 ohms is needed to carry the video signal the unit will fail. If the unit(s) are unplugged and allowed to cool they will once again function, that is until they get hot. Each time this happens the interval between failures will decrease due to the minute damage sustained during heat related  of the circuit board. Eventually the unit will suffer irreversible damage and not reset and work again.

Here is how you can prevent this from happening on jobs.   First and most importantly make sure there is 4 to 6 inches of space between the units. A very good way to achieve this is with our new CS-RV2U, this is a 2U Hook and Loop rack plate for rear of rack. The CS-RV2U comes with Hook and Loop, the hook side is already mounted to the face of the plate in the package. Just cut and adhere the corresponding loop to your extender and press it into the hook at a 45 degree angle (this will allow for ventilation) you can then attach more units at the same angle with 3’ of spacing between the units. Installing your extenders in this manner allows for multiple units in a tight space while at the same time providing all of the needed ventilation.

Just another day supporting our customers with answers as well as great products.

Introducing C.I. Scource

In an effort to better engage and inform our customers, Metra Home Theater Group would like to introduce our mascot - C.I. Source ! C.I. Source (appropriately named after the Custom Integrator audience he will serve), is an adorable, approachable, tech-savvy, and slightly frazzled-looking, home theater enthusiast created to provide brand recognition for Metra Home Theater and serve as a tool to educate and provide solutions to our customer base.

To ensure customers fully appreciate our new mascot, we gave C.I. Source a rich history:

C. I. always had a passion for technology dating back to the days of turntables and loudspeakers. While selling Hi-Fi in his college days, C.I. decided to turn his passion into his life’s work. After an illustrious career in the car audio business, he expanded into other areas including home automation. C.I. was right in the middle of the mix when digital came along and changed the home entertainment industry forevermore. Instead of boxes going out the door, customers wanted video and audio in every room, with custom functions ranging from automatic draperies to home monitoring.  This meant new electronics – distribution amplifiers, projectors, switchers –- and it all had to be designed to work seamlessly in the home. C. I. was thrilled to take on this challenge, which would be the first of many as he was faced with wider bandwidths, fascinating new delivery systems and extreme home theater advances. C.I. – who is married to his high school sweetheart, Sandy Tereo aka S.Tereo (now hyphenated Stereo-Source.) They have one son, Di’Gital. C. I. is passionate about making home theater and home automation accessible to all.

Metra Home Theater Group strives to be a problem solving resource for CIs by sharing a wide range of content and actively communicating with our Custom Integrator audience.  By creating C.I. Source, we hope our customers past, present and future will find him an accessible, fun way to get the guidance and support so many crave in setting up and operating their home theater and automation systems exactly to their specifications, needs and wants.

Most asked Spyclops Tech Questions

Our Spyclops tech department is busy helping customers and I happen to sit in the same room.  So the thought came to be one day, “What are the most asked questions?”    I fired off an email and asked “What question do you answer the most regarding our Spyclops line?”

I was given the top three most asked Spyclops tech questions:

1.       I am having issues connecting on my phone with ESEE, HELP? 

Make sure you have full signal on your Smartphone or tablet to pull the video through, especially if you have more than four cameras connected.  Videos pull more bandwidth than games or regular apps.

2.       I have an Android but I can only view four cameras, where are the other cameras?

Make sure you selected the correct number of cameras when you added your DVR.  If you did, then simply swipe the screen left at the camera view to scroll through all the cameras views.

3.       How do I verify my DVR is recording:

After you set up your recording information, you will see one of the three icons in the upper right hand corner of each camera view that is actively recording.  You will see a clock for timed recording, a red dot for manual recording or a yellow running man for motion recording.  If one of these icons are showing, your camera is recording.

Metra Home Theater's Smart Service

If you saw our ad in this month’s CEPRO, you saw our own Technical Support and Product Specialist Brent McCall featured as the figurehead for the Smart Support we provide our customers.  In fact, he is one part of an extensive package of smart support we provide.  Our Smart Support includes a designated tech support professional for our Spyclops product, a highly trained sales staff on the latest technology as well as Brent McCall providing Custom Integrator support.

Notice that Brent is described as the “Custom Integrator” tech support, not the Metra Custom Integrator Product support.  This is an important distinction because Metra Home Theater believes in supporting the CI – not just selling our products to the CI.  In other words, he will try to help no matter what the issue.  Brent is available to take your call from 8am-10pm*.  The asterisk is there because Brent will not answer his phone if he is at dinner with his wife or in his convertible Miata for obvious reasons. You can leave him a message and he will return your call promptly. 

Deanna Miller is tech support primarily for our Spyclops product line but provides tech support on all Metra Home Theater products.  She is available to answer any and all of your questions related to either installing or operating a Spyclops system in addition to being another tech resource for all of our products.  Deanna also assists in product development of the Spyclops line with her input coming from feedback she gets from the customers like you who she speaks with every day.  She is available Tuesday thru Friday 9-6:30 pm and Saturday 10-4:00 pm.

Our dedicated sales staff works hard on staying on top of the latest in technology.  Monthly meetings as well as constant access to our product development team keep our sales staff well-informed on all of the technology we offer.   We are very proud of the fact that our staff here at Metra Home Theater Group actually understands how our technology works.  We are not interested in the canned sales pitch telling a customer why our products are better than the competition.  Our staff spend time in the field routinely to meet with customers to stay connected with your technology needs.

Metra Home Theater Group, Brent McCall, Deanna Miller, and many others are here to support you, whether it’s a question on the latest in HDMI to installing a television mount, we’re standing by to help! Metra Home Theater Group remains dedicated to meeting the needs of a wide array of customers -- from Custom Integrators, to the Spyclops customer as well as the many other home theater brands we offer (and then some) which is why our Smart Support stands out from the competition.

New Spyclops Videos

Good Morning!  It has been crazy here in sunny Holy Hill, Florida and we have been very busy. This week's post will be short, sweet and hopefully free of errors!  I apologize for the mistakes in my last post.  It was nice to hear so many people point out the mistakes.  It means Metra Home Theater Group has an audience.  I like to look on the bright side. :-)

We have uploaded our latest videos highlighting our Spyclops products on our YouTube Channel. Go here  and view all of our videos.  Feel free to comment on them and suggest more video topics.  We listen to our customers.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Welcome Changes to Metra Home Theater Group

Metra Home Theater Group has made some changes to continue providing our award winning customer services.

•                     Please welcome our new Northeast US Territory Manager, Bob Pancari.  Bob brings with him 15 years of sales experience. 

•                     We also have a new Regional West Coast Sales Representative, Zak Yarnell.  Zak has worked in the manufacturing industry for last 5 years and brings with him extensive sales and supply chain knowledge.

•                     Miranda Grantham has been promoted to National Sales Manager. 

•                     Jason Lundell has also been promoted to Southern U.S. Territory Manager and Product Specialist.

•                     Erika Baily has been transferred to the Southeast Region with Jason Lundell from the West Coast.

To stay informed on all the exciting things that Metra Home Theater Group does, follow us on social media.

CES 2015 Wrap Up

Whew!  CES 2015 was a whirlwind of excitement and it set the tone for 2015.  The booth was the best one yet.  Professional booth builders were shocked to learn we build our own booth. Some booths built by professional booth builders did not look as great.  Our booth got some attention at CES which lead to a great way to kick off 2015. 

In addition to a fantastic looking booth, our product 4K Ready HDMI Cables won an award from TWICE.  It is always exciting to win an award during a show.  We would like to give a big thank you to the judges for the TWICE Picks Award for bestowing this honor on our new cables.  

CES is held in Las Vegas every year and every year the staff suffers because of the environment change. Going from gorgeous Daytona Beach, Florida to dessert-dry Nevada is a blow to the sinuses.  If the staff does not get sick at the show, we get sick upon return.  This year most of the staff stayed healthy while in Las Vegas and got to do some of the wacky, tourist attractions in their down time.  Here is a picture of staffers at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

Currently, everyone is back in the office after an annual post-show visit to the physician for medicine.  This is a step in the right direction!  Next year’s goal is to stay healthy during and after CES.

It is now back to work!

Customer Service: Our Edge Over the Competition

Have you ever purchased a product and got home or to the job site and found that you have issues but can’t get support? Then you call the help line only to get a computer or even worse some foreign help center? 

This is one example of how Metra Home Theater Group stands out from the pack when it comes to customer support.  We have (GASP!) live people in our office that answer the phones, one of which is our head tech and product guy Brent McCall.  Brent has been in the electronics industry for 40+ years playing every role from sales and support, to product design and installation.  He is an important part of the exemplary customer service that Metra Home Theater Group provides to its customers.

Brent provides extended hours tech support for Metra Home Theater Group’s customers.  In addition to seven day a week tech support, he follows several online forums to offer help for all brands.  At this year’s CEDIA Show in Denver, one of our customers had wonderful things to say about our products and Brent.  See her video here.  Brent was recently featured in December CEPro’s Magazine article recognizing the unsung heroes of the custom electronics industry.  Brent is just one part of the sales and support team that makes us different.

If you are attending CES 2015 in Vegas January 6 – 9^th, put booth #12434 on your agenda.

Come see for yourself why people call Metra Home Theater Group for custom integration and retail electronic needs.