A sad day for classical music (commentary)

WMFE 90.7 recently made the decision to switch from a music and NPR format to an all NPR news and talk. It is sad to think that a major metropolitan area like Orlando cannot sustain a classical music station.

In their defense, WMFE has not cancelled their musical programming altogether, they have shuttled it to 90.7-2 for those of you with HD Radio capability. It is also available over the Internet for live streaming.

My business is entertainment technology and while I can manipulate my browsers, Apple TVs and HD Radios to find WMFE's music, my belief is that a radio station's presence is still defined by what they play on their primary signal - regular old FM radio. By de-emphasizing classical music, WMFE (more to the point-the majority of WMFE's listening audience) has decided classical music is no longer important (or at least commercially viable).

Personally, I like NPR and its programs, but am saddened at the loss of a classical music FM broadcast.

P.S: If you are going to force me to explore the options available online and from Apple TV, I think I'll switch my listening, and support, to WGUC 90.9, a station that recently sent its news and talk to a smaller sister station so that it could broadcast nothing but classical music!

net: www.wguc.org

Oprah and the Obamas

In a recent Christmas special, Oprah asked the Obamas how the children liked living in the White House. The president's answer was "the kids love the movie theater."

Good answer, kids. Pictured is the White House home theater (and wow is it RED!).

Before and After

Pictured are the before and after photos of a project we completed with Jonathan McGrath Construction. The cabinet pictured shares a wall with the staircase and is only 6 or so inches deep at the top, but 24 inches deep in the space under the stairs.

Storch coordinated with McGrath to make sure the electronics and speakers would fit in the deeper part of the cabinet (under the stairs) with the upper cabinets and TV section in the areas that had less depth. This provided a good look for the millwork with minimum intrusion into the room.

In addition to the TV and surround sound system in this room, we installed speakers on the summer kitchen pictured in the right of the photo and at the dock beyond.

Deland theater update

The Deland theater pictured prior is finally finished. We installed basic acoustic panels to the front and side walls to improve the sound quality. Acoustic treatment is the easiest and most cost effective way to improve the sound in any room.

In this theater, we coordinated with the owner as to the color and size of the panels and then glued them to the walls. It was a simple process that made everyth

ing sound better!

The overall cost of the acoustics and installation was about 10% of the total electronics budget, but the impact on the quality was at least 30% better. Dialog is now more intelligible, pans and audio steering are more dramatic and the soundfield is more distinct.

Often overlooked, acoustical treatment can turn an average home theater into a great one!

What does that jack do?

Pictured is the in-progress installation of a wall jack. Have you ever wondered what some of those jacks on your walls are for? Do you have to remember the jack on the right is for the fax? Or do you have a smudgey handwritten note in marker?

Storch Entertainment wants to make sure our customers understand the purpose of everything we install down to the ports on a wall jack. In addition to labeling the ports, we also use precision test instrumentation to ensure that the jacks and wiring will work properly.

TECH TALK: At best, most installers will test the continuity of their wiring to make sure it is not broken or damaged. Storch Entertainment uses precision test instrumentation to qualify the actual bandwidth of our network computer jacks. The blue network jacks pictured were tested to ensure that they will work reliably for 10/100/1000(gigabit) Ethernet speeds.