Home Technology Blog

Recently the Elon Musk satellite based internet initiative has launched and the results seem to be exceeding expectations.  With speeds comparative to your average fibre to the home it's no wonder that more rural customers are choosing this over 4G. We have a custom roof mounting solution to suit any roof so that it becomes a simple transition.

Future proofing your connectivity can be hard with technology advances moving quickly.  We now run more fibre under the ground then ever before so that you can be sure that when 10Gb/s connectivity becomes standard, your extra dwelling / home office / sleepout / granny flat is well covered to have you the fastest speed available.

Somes the Fibre contracting technicians can place the ONT in a location that doesn't suit overall wireless connectivity. Also you may need to shift the ONT because of renovations or cabinetry. We can come up with a fibre solution to re splice this elsewhere without the pressures of your Internet Service Provider

If you find you are always resetting your router to get your internet connection back perhaps you have reached the limitations of your ISP supplied modem.  There is definitely a reason why they give them to you for free! Homes with more users such as gaming teenagers or home offices require a better product to handle the bandwidth and distribute WiFi evenly to devices that require it.  A better Router not only connects to the internet faster but also can greatly improve the WiFi coverage in your home.

A great way to have all your source components hidden away in a hallway cupboard or garage cabinet.  Instead of all the associated cables gathering dust behind cabinetry that makes your lounge smaller. If you are setting up a home from new then the amount you will pay for a good TV cabinet can be more then the job to cable components to a better location! An AV receiver for speakers around the home can switch the HDMI sources sufficiently and we can send the pictures various places in the home with HD and infra-red for controlling them.

Occasionally we get calls from customers asking to get ‘Freeview’ connected.  We usually reply with ‘Are you watching Channels 1, 2 or 3?’ Then you already have Freeview! It is a broad definition though so it can be confusing to the end users.  Freeview can break down down to Digital TV from a Satellite Dish, UHF aerial or the latest which is IP delivered; Freeview On Demand.  We can help decide which is best for you based on your location but note that all smart tvs come with Freeview On Demand built in.

Wireless Extender is a term that is quite widely used now,  the idea of being able to extend the wireless to gain further coverage in larger or multi story homes.  Unfortunately ‘repeating’ the WiFi can greatly degrade the signal quality thus losing you valuable internet connection quality.  If you can get the extender closer to the modem then that may work as a plug and play solution but not as well as a wired to wireless finish.  Also worth mentioning that the wireless being repeated will be getting its source signal from a potentially flawed product such as the service provider free modem option given to you when you signed up.  A data cabled option to feed a secondary wireless access point will always outperform and last when it comes to your IP demands becoming greater. Wifi Extender technician is not required if you want to plug and play something off the shelf but it will always be better to cable.

You can spend a bit on WiFi hardware which delivers awesome coverage for the likes of tablets and smart phones. The reality is though in fact that a plugged in Ethernet cable will always deliver a more reliable connection for more demanding devices. Smart TVS are getting more demanding for apps such as Netflix with 4K movies etc A desktop PC or Mac should always have an Ethernet if you were to connect it the best way possible.

At Mixed Signals Ltd we can run cat6 cables most places for this application thus removing one possible fault with ISP provided routers such as WiFi not reaching the Smart TV.

1 Sky decoder at your place but 4 tvs you want to view it on? It can get quite expensive if you were to pay for 3 or more sky decoders. There are a number of ways to send pictures from a single decoder around the home. An extender over cat6 will deliver 1080p HD pictures over a single cat6 cable and include flawless Infra-Red so you can change SKY channels from any room in the house. If you have more then 4 tvs then a HD Dvb-T Modulator is more cost effective for delivering your SKY stb pictures over coaxial cabling which you may already have in tv locations. This is great if its not possible to run a cat6 such as in multi story homes.

There are more options now for choosing a rural broadband provider then ever before. How do you know which one to go with? ADSL and VDSL is outdated now but still unlimited on the data allowance. How many users in the home and what they are using the internet for can be a deal breaker if your rural broadband is capped at an amount you will go over every month.

To test which is the fastest provider for your farm a good test is to see the bars 3G/4G on mobile phones on your property before selecting. If you can get 4G on yours or a friends mobile phone then its guaranteed you will be able to run your home on it one way or another. Mixed Signals Ltd provides and installs high quality wide band 3G + 4G antennas to suit all providers so that if you are in a marginal area for signal we can customise a solution to improve your signal greatly thus giving you faster internet speeds in home.

We all loving listening to music, but how much that we need to have speakers in every room? UE Booms have come a long way especially for portability but will never deliver a 7.2 channel Dolby ATMOS Home theatre sound.

Floor standing maple wood speakers will always be a better sound produced then in ceiling options but minimalistic aesthetics is a must for some people when building a new modern home. If you are a full audio buff then there is no limit to options you could put into a dedicated home theatre room and shut yourself in for days listening to high fidelity. If you wish to combine your living area with a 5.1 system perhaps a high quality in ceiling option will take nothing away from your floor plan.

All new AV receivers have airplay and Spotify connect so your amp can stay hidden in the AV / DATA hub and you should never have to touch it ideally. Extra zones for audio are much better delivering audio by way of a streaming amp. This way you can choose which audio source and where by only picking up your phone and selecting Spotify or a similar app.

It’s a great idea to smarten up the aesthetics of your home by way of wallmounting your televisions. This can prevent mishaps such as kids or pets pulling / chewing on cords or open up the floor plan by removing cabinetry giving you a larger living area and far more minimalistic look.

What do you do with all the cables though? Anyone can screw a tv bracket on getting it up there but concealed cabling can be even a patient mans nightmare.

We have many methods of achieving this screen only look; Kaon SKY decoder mounted behind tv wall mounted. (Remote works without line of sight) Audio system / SKY decoder / Apple TV / Blu-Ray player into a hallway cupboard style hub. Internet data connections for these can be here also.

It is exciting times to get your house connected to high speed broadband internet that fibre can deliver. Many factors can be considered when getting hooked up by the UFB contractors. Where will the ONT go? Where will my Router be? Can I integrate the analogue phone system for alarms etc. These decisions could greatly impact the performance of the distribution of WiFi throughout your premises if your house has no Ethernet jack points. Especially if you have a large area or multi story home.

A smart recommendation is to try get the technician to cable the fibre to the ONT in the most central location so that when you get your ISP supplied Router you will be up and running as best possible. Mixed Signals Ltd can provide a much faster solution by means of a 1 million packets per second router which can deliver 1 gbps download speed should you wish to subscribe to it. WiFi would be supplied by AC ceiling access points positioned in places conventional routers only dream of.