Connected for the Holidays

In This Edition:

Angie’s List Super Service Award - Awarded 4th Consecutive Year.
True Theater in your home... and for a lot less than you might think.
Kirk's Corner: Blu-Ray All the Way
Technology Spotlight: Rhapsody and Carbonite
Tech Top 5: Hottest Technology Holiday Gifts
Costco and TechConnectors: A Great Match!

Tech.Connectors earns coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award 4th Consecutive Year.

Award reflects company’s consistently high level of customer service

Tech.Connectors, the Illinois headquartered Home Technology Installation & Services Company, has been awarded the prestigious 2008 Angie’s List Super Service Award!

The Super Service Award, now celebrating its 10th year, is given to companies who have achieved and maintained a superior service rating on Angie's List throughout the past year. Fewer than 5% of the companies on Angie's List meet the eligibility requirements to be considered for the award. “Our Super Service Award winners are the cream of the crop when it comes to customer service, said Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List.

Tech.Connectors is a provider of Home Technology Installation Services offering Installation, Integration and Support of Electronics in the home. Founded in 2004 Tech.Connectors has provided nearly 15,000 installations to happy customers in Illinois, Indiana and Texas. Our Brand Promise is “Making Home Technology Work” and whether it is a basic installation of a flat panel TV or home theater system, or a complex multi-zone audio/video system; we’ll work until we’ve installed a smile!

“Winning Angie’s List ‘Super Service’ award is something we consider a great accolade” says Tech.Connectors President Sean Storin. “Angie’s List is the Consumer Reports of the service industry and the utmost authority.”, “Actual customers supply all the feedback, so it provides tremendous unbiased insight into our performance.” “The fact that we have won it 4 years straight is a serious badge of honor.”

Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have maintained a total and overall grade of "A;" have received a minimum number of reports; are NOT in the Angie's List "Penalty Box” and do NOT have an unsatisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Service ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List, but members can find the 2008 Super Service Award logo next to company names in search results on AngiesList.com.

Angie’s List is where thousands of consumers share their ratings and reviews on local contractors and companies in more than 425 different categories. Currently, 750,000 consumers across the U.S. rely on Angie’s List to help them find the right contractor or company for the job they need done. Members have unlimited access to the list via Internet or phone; receive the Angie’s List magazine, which includes articles on home improvement and maintenance, consumer trends and scam alerts; and they can utilize the Angie’s List complaint resolution service. Get more information about Angie’s List at http://www.angieslist.com. Get more consumer tips at http://www.angieslisttips.com/.

True Theater in your home...

and for a lot less than you might think.

Last month Tech Connectors installed over 600 HDTV’s for our retail partners like Circuit City, Sears and Costco, and many more directly to customers like you. The majority of these installations are a 32-50” LCD or Plasma installed on the wall in a family room. We love to perform these practical installs that have become affordable to most families, but sometimes we like to take on a bigger challenge and that is when we call upon our Custom Installation Division.

When John & Melissa from Glen Ellen, IL decided to transform their unused basement into a truly dedicated home theater we were excited for the challenge. The basement was finished, but like many had been slowly taken over by kids toys and storage; certainly not a place to show off to guests.

It was an open concept so we had to close off a dedicated area. We brought in a contractor to construct 2 walls and a riser for the rear seats and had another company come in to replace the old carpet. Tech.Connectors ran all the necessary cables for the projector and installed the speakers flush (inside the wall) around the screen.

We then installed a 125” screen with a special “wide screen” aspect ratio (2.35 to 1) so we could avoid the black bars on the top and bottom (letterbox). When watching with this format the movie fills the entire screen, it is the same as you would find at the local movie theater. We used a Panasonic projector that supported the new wider screen; the combined cost of screen and projector was very reasonable at $4500. This is still a bit pricey, but a fraction of what it cost in the recent past and an amazing value for the technology.

We wanted to warm up the room and help with sound so we designed custom wall panels that served to absorb sound while adding contour and style to the room. We added a Control4 remote control system that allowed the family to easily control the room wirelessly, as well as automatically set the lights when they enter and exit the room. Custom “scenes” were set to allow the room to quickly transform from room to theater at the touch of a button.

Once an unused space in the basement it is now a place to enjoy with friends and family and yes… show off! Tech.Connectors teamed with John and Melissa to understand their needs, even allowing them to work with us to stay within the budget. By working together we were able to see the room built for much less than they ever imagined.

Tech.Connectors has named it the install of the season, but John & Melissa can enjoy it for years to come.

Customize your own installation online, or contact us for more information.

Winter Promotion - $50 Rebate

$50 rebate for any purchase of the large flat panel mount package ($249.99) at Costco. A $50.00 check will be mailed to customers within 10 days of completion of the work order. Also $50 can be applied to in-home purchase of accessories.

Blu-Ray All the Way

Even if you didn’t know it ever started… the High Definition DVD war is over. The Blu-Ray format has won. The first time I heard about it I was skeptical, it seems like there is a High Def everything these day, but after I watched a Blu-Ray disc on a high definition TV… I was a believer. It looks amazing.

The Blu-Ray technology allows the DVD to store considerably more content (roughly 10 times that of a standard single layer DVD) which is needed for the robust data requirement of HD programming. The picture it provides is far superior to standard DVD’s and in fact delivers more than twice the number of lines of resolution.

Initially there was an absence of real content so the cost of the, albeit far superior picture, was tough to justify. However now that the Blu-Ray format has prevailed content is flooding into the market. By the end of this year (2008) there should be roughly 1,300 titles released in Blu Ray so the selection has vastly improved making it more appealing.

The cost has also come down. The original HD players cost a staggering $3,800,but have long since plummeted to far more reasonable prices (as low as $189.99). Shop around Amazon for a price index as well as the features of each model. CNet can also provide some good research for your purchase. A great holiday gift for the movie lover in your life! Enjoy.

Technology Spotlight

There is lots of cool new stuff we wanted to highlight, but we will limit it to 2 really cool technology treats.

Rhapsody – Nowadays it is not uncommon to have a digital music collection (think iPod), but even with the greatly improved process… it can still prove cumbersome. Just transposing your CD collection into the digital world is a pain and unless you are willing to do more legwork you often lose much of the information and data associated (ie liner notes/cover art). Wouldn’t it be cool to have virtually every song out there on demand?

Launched by RealNetworks in 2001, Rhapsody is a “celestial jukebox” providing an enormous music library with unlimited access for a monthly fee. It is like having access to god’s record collection! This is way cooler and far more economic than trying to acquire every song you think you may want to listen. Let’s face it… It may have seemed like a great idea to buy the Beatles entire body of work, but… years later you only occasionally listen to a few song from it. This way you can take what you want, mix it up, try before you buy and never worry about scratches, broken cases or bad purchases again. You can access the system several ways and can even integrate it through an automation system to enjoy throughout your home. Very Cool. Rhapsody Website

Carbonite - If you have ever turned on your computer and the blue screen of death has appeared, you know that empty feeling… you just lost all of your important information. This new technology is all about laughing at the blue screen, because you are one step ahead!

I think we all realize that backing up our computers is important, and some of us may have even been proactive enough to hire in the local computer guy to set up a fancy backup drive to do just that. The big drawback to external backup drives is that you have to have to remember to perform the backup and even if you are lucky enough to have it automatically copy the files, how do you know that the backup actually happened?

What if I’m working on an important file and my computer decides to crash later that day, and my backup isn’t scheduled to happen until midnight? What if I’m on the road with my laptop, how will my machine be protected then? Enter a new service out called “Carbonite”.

Carbonite is an online backup program. You sign up for Carbonite on the web, download a small program, and the software automatically runs in the background and backs up your files automatically to the web. You don’t have to schedule backups, they happen within minutes of saving your file and there is a cool feature that places a tiny little colored dot on top of all of your files indicating whether they have been backed up or are pending. The best part is that the service costs only $49 a year (would you pay 4 bucks a month to foil the blue screen of death?!?). I had the opportunity to recover a machine using Carbonite and it worked very well. My laptop had died, so I simply logged on to Carbonite with my new machine, downloaded the software and put it in “recover mode”. The software knew to go online and fetch all of the data that was stored on the web.

The downside is that the initial backup and full recovery is not fast, it can take up to an entire day to complete, but considering the huge amount of data (in my case it was almost 10GB) it was much better than the alternative. Now I know what you might be thinking, “My personal data, on the web? Is this thing secure”, well Microsoft includes it with their financial software “Money”, which is a personal finance software package with very sensitive information. It is also used by other high profile companies, so while nothing is absolutely safe in this world, this looks pretty good. Don’t wait for the BSOD to come calling… protect yourself today! Carbonite Website

Tech Top 5 - Hottest Technology Holiday Gifts

5. Rock Band 2
4. Apple TV
3. Blu-Ray
2. iPod “Touch”
1. Installation from Tech.Connectors HoHoHo

Costco and TechConnectors: A Perfect Match!

We are excited to announce a partnership between Costco and Tech.Connectors. Costco has long provided excellent goods and service to their Members and we have admired and sought to emulate their business processes. Therefore it was a tremendous honor for Tech.Connectors to be the first company in the U.S. to be selected as the beta test for Costco’s “In-Home Electronics Installation Services.”

For many years now Costco has offered low prices on electronics. The company has been in the top 5 Retailers for TV sales in the US for several years. Costco took the chance on another small company, a manufacturer of TV’s named Vizio and it really paid off. Costco played on integral role in Vizio becoming the top selling brand in America.

Tech.Connectors also has a great reputation for quality in-home installation of TV’s so we knew it would be a great fit. Costco was adamant that TC provide the Members with best pricing and we are proud of the fact we undercut the major competitors by a considerable margin. Now Members get low priced TV’s with the industry’s best priced professional installation.

It is reported that nearly 20% of people with HDTV’s are not watching them in High Def. Costco recognized that people often returned their TV’s because they believed they were broken; Tech.Connectors provides a way to help Members with that issue. Tech.Connectors highly trained “Connectors” ensure your system is installed to your expectations so it will look just like it did in the store. By assuring you get what you paid for Tech.Connectors and Costco are a perfect match for great value.

View Costco Preferred Pricing