Michael Graves

Houston Will Get Limited Muni Wifi Despite Earthlink

March 29, 2008
Michael Graves
Broadband

When last year it was announced that Houston was to get municipal wifi network I had to applaude Mayor Bill White for his vision and drive. There are vast number of people in this city for whom the internet is not readily accessible.

Houston is a huge city with a more pronounced digital divide than many other places. It’s the kind of place where opportunity presented to low income neighborhoods can make a big difference in the lives of people.

The Cisco IP310 Wifi SIP Phone Revisited

March 29, 2008
Michael Graves
VoIP

Matt Brunk is apparently getting a sample of the new Cisco/Linksys IP310. In the comment trail to his blog post he notes that, yes it looks like an 802.11 b/g device. The real question is its support for WMM, which…

Today’s Voip Users Conference About Astlinux Was Rocking!

March 28, 2008
Michael Graves
VoIP

Wow! Today's Voip Users Conference call on Astlinux was great! It's just what I was hoping this group would evolve into. The last five or six of the weekly calls have been very good, and they seem to be getting…

The Path To Whole House Audio: Part 3 – The Logic Behind Powered Monitors

March 27, 2008
Michael Graves
Audio

Speakers + Amps = Powered Monitors

Powered monitors make sense for a lot of reasons. Except for very small models they are generally bi-amped, with an active line level crossover filter dividing the high & low frequencies before the amplifier stage. Then a separate amplifier is provided for each driver. In the case of Behringer’s B2031A, there is 150 watts for the woofer and 75 watts for the tweeter.

This approach allows the designer to tailor each amplifier design to suit the specific driver in question. Amplifier/driver interaction is one of the more complicated things in audio reproduction and optimization here can bring big performance improvements. With the amps right in the cabinets there’s effectively no speaker leads to further complicate the amp/driver relationship.

Is The Cisco IP310 Finally A Wifi Phone That Doesn’t Suck?

March 26, 2008
Michael Graves
VoIP

Not to belabor the point, but SIP Wifi handsets have been a pretty rotten product segment thus far along their evolution. While the concept is good the implementations have been lackluster. I suffered through 6 months with a Hitachi Cable…

The Path To Whole House Audio: Parts 1 & 2

March 25, 2008
Michael Graves
Audio

Part 1 – Death By Canine Misadventure

Perhaps I should title this series as “A Geeky, Mildly Unorthodox Approach To Whole House Audio.” I’m not kidding. That bit about the dog really happened…more or less.

This is Shadow our five-year-old purebred Labrador Retriever. He is responsible for very little around la maison du Espinosa-Graves, being the lesser quadruped of the group. Yet in January of 2006 he brought about the expiry of my older, much loved Carver stereo system. This set in motion a series of events that has me rethinking my understanding of whole house audio, home theater, networking and media.