Your voice in the cloud

C-IX can move your phone system to the cloud.

Watch "Hosted PBX from Intermedia" on YouTube

Get your head in the clouds...

Did you know C-IX has been in the cloud since 2006, and can help to put your business there too?

Watch "Google Apps for Business Overview" on YouTube

Season's Greetings 2012

C-IX would like to thank Southern Colorado for a 12th year in business.  We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Support your favorite small business!

This November 24th is Small Business Saturday®, a day to celebrate and support the local small businesses that boost the economy and invigorate neighborhoods across the country.

C-IX is proud to take part in Small Business Saturday, and we’re
encouraging everyone to Shop Small® on November 24th.

Plus, we’re having a special Small Business Saturday offer! Visit www.nerdav.com on November 24th and you’ll get 15% off a Sonos system for your home or office.  Enter coupon code  "s0n0s_201211" at checkout for instant savings.  What's Sonos?  [Watch Demo]

Most importantly, get out there, Shop Small, and let’s make this November 24th the biggest day of the year for small business!

AXIS Camera Companion is Brilliant!

This is a fantastic option for smaller camera systems (16 or fewer cameras).  IP camera systems have traditionally been cost prohibitive for smaller businesses.  AXIS Camera Companion does a stellar job of reducing the cost of ownership by eliminating the NVR.

Smart Home of 2012

Traditionally our game (or claims to fame) in residential systems hinged heavily on moving the source content where the people were. The sales pitch was something like "Each one of those little islands of confusion nested next to each television around the home represents a problem, as in each stack carries it's own idiosyncratic baggage that likely warrants users to have an intimate understanding of that particular system." The pitch resonated, and the answer was always "unified distribution and control". [click here to learn more]

To accomplish this, it was commonplace to connect source components (satellite receivers, DVD players, etc.) to an Audio/Video matrix in order to route content throughout a home. The system would usually be coupled with third party control, and it didn't take much system at all to rack-up (pun intended) a $250,000 install, but that was way back in 2010 and modern day technology make it a completely different game these days.

How different? Well, soon there will be no satellite receivers, no cable tuners, no DVD players, and very little left to integrate. Instead there will be APPS; there's already an application for most anything you can dream up, why not an application to put the remaining residential integration companies out of business? Not to be misunderstood, this is a necessary evolution of the residential system simply because the bulk of the population doesn't have $250,000 laying around, and the app-based architecture is not only much less expensive, but will continue to be relevant for a long time.  Whereas the matrix ideology (static or virtual) of yesteryear has taken it's final breath (for residential systems).

However, in fairness to our roots, there are things the matrix does that the app-based architecture does not.  The most dramatic of these things has to do with whole-house audio.  When audio and video distribution were driven by a matrix, it was assumed the audio was going to follow the video, but that's not so much the case under this new paradigm.  Sure, we could implement an audio-only matrix to distribute audio content, but do we then use a source redundant to the app-driven video displays located throughout?  Do we use audio feeds from one or several of those displays as potential sources to the system?  If so, how do we control the content from another room or zone?  Obviously, there are answers to these questions, but unfortunately they're not yet as cut and dry as they should be.

To make a short story long, the industry is currently at odds with itself, and therefore your integrator remains relevant for the following reasons:

• If you want audio and control throughout your home, you need a plan that makes sense.
• A wired infrastructure is and always will be more reliable than wireless, and you need a plan that makes sense.
• Lighting control isn't yet as easy as screwing in a light bulb, and you need a plan that makes sense.
• The room is and always will be the most important component of a home theater, and you need a plan that makes sense.

That's it for today!  Hope this makes sense?

Game Night w/ ClearOne