The right lighting can turn any location from something nice into something amazing. It’s a generalised fact embraced by many. The right lighting is important in art such as movies and photography, as well as in daily life such as the workplace and even shops.

So why is lighting so important in this sense? The answer is mood.

How a room is lit can play a big part on our mood, big supermarkets are normally well lit and bright to make us feel alert and awake, able to see everything around us, and the products on the shelves most importantly. Restaurants normally have lower soft lighting, as do pubs and bars, as this promotes a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere, just what they want to achieve.

In this sense the right mood lighting can be the perfect finishing touch for any room in your home. How so? Well let’s take the bathroom for example: If you are nipping in for the cell of nature, you want it bright and well lit, however if you are planning a long soak in the bath, a bright light can make the whole experience less than relaxing, almost clinical especially in a white bathroom. Just lowering the lights somewhat can make it much more calming and relaxed.

The kitchen/diner can be very similar; when cooking, you want to see what you are doing, that’s the safe and sensible approach. But once the meal is ready you may want to dim the lights so you can relax and enjoy the meal in a calming atmosphere, maybe even a romantic atmosphere.

The living room is often where you’ll entertain guests. When they arrive you want it bright, let them get settled, then soften and lower them while everyone chats and had a drink or two.

Isec Solutions have a great range of mood lighting from Lutron and Dynalite, but we offer more than just the lighting control, we can actually design and implement the solution for your entire house, giving you complete control of the whole house at the touch of a button; of course if you only want a room or two fitted with lighting control, then we can do that as well.

It’s not just remote control dimming and brightening of your rooms, you can pre program the lighting for each room using lighting control keypads, so if you are throwing a party, having a romantic dinner or relaxing in the tub it will switch to the mood you desire without finding that right lighting level every time; it can even detect when you arrive home from work and set the lighting accordingly.

The other benefits of mood control lighting and the high efficiency fittings they have, are the reduction of energy usage, which can help both economically, saving you money, and environmentally, saving the planet.

So if you like the idea of having your whole home, or even just a room or two, providing the perfect mood lighting, visit our website or contact us and we can show how lighting control can make you home into something even more special.

If you are designing a restaurant, office or looking to enhance the feel of your home, installing mood lighting control should be a definite consideration.

Lighting control will give you unlimited freedom over the ambience of your surroundings. Variable lighting can induce a pleasant environment in your home or workplace, whether you are lounging on the sofa, enjoying a romantic meal or entertaining guests. Having a light control system that can be dimmed at your will is not a luxury but something to improve the quality of your life.

Thanks to Isec Solutions, having control over the lighting throughout the home at the touch of a button is a reality, affordable and is becoming more prevalent in the workplace and home.
Isec Solutions use forward thinking manufacturers such as Lutron and Dynalite offering a simple building block system. This allows for future expansion and caters for new technologies, allowing for connection to other systems such as security or audio visual equipment.

Isec Solutions can integrate Lutron or Dynalite products with the Philips Pronto remote control or colour touch panels to give you lighting control over the whole house. Our keypads are wired using category 5e cabling which is an enhancement over category 5 and this supports faster data speeds.

Imagine walking through your front door after a hard day at work and your home detects your arrival and adjusts the light conditions appropriately. Not only will your home look more appealing, the use of lighting control and the high efficiency fittings provided are better for the environment due to the reduction in the consumption of energy.

If you have any questions regarding mood lighting control or any other form of home automation then see the Isec Solutions website for further details.

The EFOY range of fuel cells is an innovative invention from SFC (Smart Fuel Cells). These fuel cells are a means to keep appliances such as CCTV cameras, mobile homes, temporary traffic signs and more running for longer than their average battery normally will allow.

Normally once the battery runs low on these devices it needs someone to come out and recharge it, and this is time consuming and resource intensive (especially in industrial sectors and businesses). However these fuel cells allow the batteries to recharge themselves when it is required, again and again.

One of the biggest areas where the EFOY fuel cells are an advantage is in surveillance and CCTV systems. These are areas where the constant need for regular recharge visits can be cut down dramatically. Rather than sending out an engineer, in a van (that’s manpower, fuel, resources and time all used up in one swoop) every few days to recharge the batteries, these clever cells allow the cameras or monitoring equipment to recharge themselves when it is deemed necessary, and depending on the cells this can mean not having to visit the site of the equipment for a month (30 days); once a month compared to every few days makes a lot more sense!

These handy fuel cells come in different sizes for different applications based on your needs. Large companies dealing with surveillance would typically utilise the larger sizes, as might someone looking to power their holiday home. A medium size might be used in a mobile home, whereas the smaller one would be good for home surveillance systems and security measures. Of course this can vary completely depending on your needs.

To sweeten the deal EFOY fuel cells can be refuelled themselves with the available fuel cartridges and are designed to be as user and eco friendly as possible.

For a great range of EFOY fuel cells and information on their uses and on home security, surveillance and CCTV systems, visit www.isec-solutions.co.uk

 With technology becoming more and more prevalent in people’s homes having a network set up to cope with all the different functions you use is becoming a necessity. Access to the internet in any room or live CCTV footage from around your home streamed directly to you is becoming harder to achieve with little knowledge of setting up a network.

 

Home Automation is the term that refers to controlling the environment of your home electronically or by remote control. When a home is automated various systems are put in place to control actions. These can be as simple as a remote control for the television to a complex light and climate control system in a house. As technology progresses more and more forms of home automation are possible.

Certain systems can now be considered during construction of new houses for example blinds that close when it’s dark. Often people don’t want to modify walls in their property so there are also wireless systems that can be implemented.

The main systems that can be controlled by home automation are HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), lighting, natural lightning, audio, video, intercoms and security systems such as CCTV and intruder sensors.

Isec Solutions offer a range of home automation solutions. There is a wide range of wireless cameras, ip cameras for indoors and outdoors as well as cables and screens to make up a complex yet easy to use security system.

While automating home security is important there are other additions you can make to your home to make it a more comfortable place to live. You can install lighting controls to set the light level in your home to suit your mood, you can create dim lighting for a dinner party and detect your settings for different times of the day. The use of lighting controls can make you use lighting more efficiently as lights can be programmed to sense movement and switch off when there is nobody around.

Audio is something else that can be controlled, you can use a sound server to listen to music throughout a house or put different music on in different rooms, that is ideal for a party. A music server controls the audio distribution to speakers by creating an audio network. You can access various sources of music including iPods CD’s and mp3 players.

So if you are looking to automate some systems in your home be it security, lighting, audio or even creating a home cinema system. Isec Solutions has the home automation and know how, to create a system suitable for your home.

 

With the advent of the digital music revolution and most notably the MP3 file format, the way we listen to music has been completely revolutionised over the last 10 years. With DRM free music now freely available from companies such as iTunes, Napster and Amazon, we can all enjoy music when and where we like and most importantly transfer music from device to device.

So how do we enjoy our favorite digital music in the home, well the answer has to be using either a Music or Media Server, both these devices are essentially the same thing, the only difference being the Music server can only play music whilst a media server, can also deliver other content such as photos, video and DVD's. These very handy devices normally come fitted with a large hard drive, allowing users to store large amounts of Music and Video with ease. Nearly all these products require an internet connection and can automatically retrieve useful information such as album art work, track listings and film reviews.

There is a huge array of products available from a variety of Manufacturers including iMerge, DFSolutions, MediaMax, kaleidescape and Escient. For those seeking just to store and play music, the iMerge S3000 comes in a variety of hard drive sizes ranging from 160GB to 400GB and is available with either a single zone output or can be specified with multiple outputs upto 4 zones. The range starts with the S3000-160, with those models with mulit zone capability carrying the S3002 and S3004 designations respectively. The imerge S3000 is ideally suited to customers with both average and larger homes alike or those properties fitted with a multi room audio system such as those offered, by Sonos, Systemline and Xantech. The imerge music server is also favored by many custom install companies because of its slick user interface and robust and reliable performance. In addition, the S3000 can also be controlled by the Philips Pronto TSU9400, TSU9300, TSU9600, TSU9800 home control panels, with a pronto script available allowing 2 way control and feedback for the imerge S3000 and MS5000 servers.

For those of you who are looking to store more than just music, DFSolutions is a media server manufacture based in Northern Ireland, who have carved a niche in the home media server market with the hugely popular iDyl Media Server. DfSolutions have now launched the successor to the iDyl, named the DF Base, the Base Media Server allows users to store and play music, photos and DVD's as well accessing internet radio stations. The Base Media Server is the central unit that stores media and can supply up to 17 independent audio streams if required. In addition, the DF Link player or DFLInk acts as a slave to the DF Base allowing a further zone of video and music to be streamed into another area of the house.


For further information regarding Home Media Servers, please visit www.isec-solutions.co.uk

 

Ceiling speakers are becoming hugely popular in the Modern Home. With a significant shift in customer expectations, people are now looking to integrate audio far more discreetly into there homes without using large and often obtrusive cabinet speakers. For example 10 years ago it would be normal for your average person looking to play music in the home to go to his local hi-fi shop or electrical retailer and purchase the latest piece of hi-fi equipment whether it be an all in one system or a system comprised of separate components.

This system usually consisted of a CD player and maybe radio, tape player and of course an integrated amplifier. With the advent of the digital music era and in particular MP3’s and other compressed file formats, access and storage of digital music is now far easier. These means music can now be distributed around the house in digital format far more readily, a great example of this being the Sonos Digital Music System. This means consumers also no longer want to see speakers stacked on the floor or book shelf or even hanging from the wall. In the modern home, with the less is more concept, consumers seek neat and integrated solutions which are now more affordable and accessible to everyone.

To meet this growing demand for integrated home audio there are now many manufacturers in the ceiling speaker market, some of the main players in the UK market are KEF, QED, Systemline and Sonance. KEF have a broad range of ceiling speakers to suit most people’s tastes and budget. Starting the with the KEF Ci50R, a clever speaker solution which disguises the speaker as a small 50mm spotlight and is available in a range of finishes including Chrome, Brass, White and Brushed Steel. These speakers are also available as part of the KEF Soundlight system kit which comprises 4 x Ci50 speakers and an in ceiling subwoofer unit to deliver the brass frequencies. KEF also offer more traditional ceiling speakers in the range starting with the Ci80QR, an 80mm rounding ceiling speaker. The range then extends all the way up to a 200mm ceiling speaker with a variety of sizes in between including the Ci100QR, Ci130.2QR, Ci160.2 QR and Ci200.3QR. All these speakers are a superb choice for customers looking to integrate both multi room audio and home cinema installations into their home. Similarly QED and Sytemline have a range of speakers of varying sizes and prices to suit most people including the popular Systemline CLS2 and CL20 models. Sonance also offers a range of speakers including an extensive range of outdoor speakers including. Sonance ceiling speakers are ideally suited to multi room and home cinema applications, whilst the outdoor speakers are perfect for patios, hot tubs, spas and swimming pool areas.

For further information ceiling speakers and outdoor speakers why not visit www.isec-solutions.co.uk

Picture the scene, you are on holiday and your alarm has triggered at your home or business address. Using your laptop or internet ready phone, you can gain access to your security camera, pan and tilt and zoom the camera to investigate your premises and check whether or not the police need to be alerted.

There is no doubt that IP cameras or network cameras are an extremely powerful tool. But, I here you saying, well I can do that with a normal analogue CCTV system comprised of cameras connected using coax cable and a digital based recorder and, of course, you would be right. But, where the IP camera really makes sense is the cost in implementation and the skills required to implement the technology. Just think about it, to install an analogue based CCTV system, first you need a pan/tilt camera, then you would need a digital based recorder and maybe a joystick to control the camera along with cabling, power supplies and associated paraphernalia. All this equipment would conservatively cost at least £1500 and you would require specialist skills and tools to install the system. With the IP based camera system you simply need the camera, a PC or Laptop and a patch cable to connect to an Ethernet switch or router. The IP camera is connected to the network and then setup is normally achieved by running a simple setup disk. With a camera such as the Panasonic BL-C131, which offers wireless connectivity and Pan/tilt functionality, all this can be purchased for less than £200 and you don’t even need a patch cable. It’s really is that easy!!

Once setup is complete, all IP Cameras come with a built in web server, which is the equivalent of a website based within the camera. This web based control interface can be viewed from any device with an internet browser including a PC, laptop, phone or PDA. Simply type the IP address of the camera into the address bar in your web browser and view your camera. All settings can also be adjusted in the same web browser.

IP Cameras are a relatively new technology with more innovative models appearing on the market all the time. There are many manufacturers in this sector, but the main manufacturers with largest model line ups are Sony, Panasonic and Axis.

Between these manufacturers there is a camera to meet most people’s needs including Wireless IP cameras, Outdoor IP Cameras, Mega pixel IP cameras and powerful pan/tilt zoom cameras suitable for retail stores, schools, banks and hotels. In addition supporting hardware such as IP Camera recorders and software based recording software is also available to capture your IP Camera footage.

So as you can see the argument for investing in an IP based surveillance system is now very compelling and it’s easy to understand why large enterprises, schools, hotels, banks and small business’s alike have invested in this technology.

For further information regarding IP Cameras why not visit www.isec-solutions.co.uk.