The Wireless Home: Building Physical Hubs

In Part 1 of my Wireless Home guide I wrote about getting all your media in place to make its sharing as easy and seamless as possible. In Part 2: Building Physical Hubs, I will be talking about actually setting up the devices you want to keep in sync and how to organise them to get maximum utility.

As I have done in my own house, I will be separating these devices into four "Physical Hubs."

Hub 1: The Mothership

This consists of two components, namely your wireless router and the main computer which holds and controls all your content. These are the two most integral components of your wireless home, as one controls the contents and the other is the means to distribute the content. While they are part of "The Mothership," both can be placed anywhere and integrated into other Hubs for convenience. The components you'll need are:

a) Router - For those of you who have routers 4 or more years old, I recommend an upgrade. For the best performance the router should run on 802.11 - N.  For most people any standard router should do the trick, but you should make sure it has a unique name and is encrypted with the best possible encryption. I personally upgraded to the Belkin Share N300 prior to starting this series and an very happy with the boosted performance
    Approx Rs 1,500 upwards

b) Central Computer -  The computer need not necessarily be the most powerful computer on the planet. Any computer with low power consumption will do as it needs to be on all the time. The computer should either have a hard drive with high storage capacity or an external hard drive as digital content tends to accumulate very quickly.
    Approx Rs 10,000 upwards for the computer; approx Rs 4,000 upwards for a 1 TB hard drive

Hub 2: The Music Hub

We all love listening to music and we all have homed music systems that have been languishing in misery now that our phones and iPods give us our music on the go. It's time to resuscitate our music systems with a few accessories that allow us to make full use of our devices in our Music Hub. 

Items required: 

a) One or more Aux cables based on your need.
    Approx Rs 200-300 each

b) Universal iPod dock from your music system's manufacturer - this can sometimes get very expensive (almost Rs. 6,000 with my Bose system) but allows you to control the music playing with the music system's remote control rather than having to physically choose the song on the iPod.
    Approx Rs 1,000 upwards  

c) Other specialized media docks for important devices - I was gifted an iPad dock and didn't use it much at first but I have found it is an extremely convenient way to use my iPad as a large touch screen device for selecting songs (more in Part 3).
    Approx Rs 1,000 upwards

d) Aux cable splitter - If you have multiple docks, use a cable splitter to avoid having to switch the cable between docks.
    Approx Rs 200-500
e) Power strip - By plugging all the devices into a single power strip, you can turn on the entire Hub with just one switch. For more control you can get a power strip with power buttons for each plug point.
    Approx Rs 500

Set up is simple. Just plug the aux cables into the aux splitter and the aux splitter into your music system's aux port. Plug the other end of the aux cables into your various docks and plug your docks' chargers into the relevant sockets. Always try to set up the components so the extra lengths of wires are tied up and the wires are as out-of-the-way as possible.

Hub 3: The TV Hub

Now that we have our audiophilic needs satisfied, it's time to set up the dock around the center of our lives, the TV hub. By setting up this hub we will have a convenient way to stream and play all our videos as well as watch all our TV. As this is a very subjective hub, I will talk about how I have set mine up as it should cover most people's bases.

a) DVD player - The purpose of the DVD player is quite self explanatory: it plays DVD's. As long as you bought your DVD player in the last 5 years, you should be OK. For those whose DVD player is bordering on prehistoric and love watching HD movies, I recommend looking into a Blu-ray player if you have the money to spend.
    Approx Rs 1,500 - 2,500 for a DVD player; Rs 8,000 - 12,000 for a Blu-ray player

b) Set-top Box - As you may know from my earlier review ,I have, and love, the Tata Sky + HD box. If you are really serious about setting up a top-notch hub, you should definitely pick up one of these for your TV Hub as it is, in my opinion, the best in the Indian market at the moment.
    Approx Rs 1,000 - 4,000

c) Streaming box/Game console - I've purposely clubbed these two together because in India there aren't too many options when it come to streaming digital media. For me the two best options are the XBox 360 and the PS3, both which of offer great gaming experiences as well as allow you to wirelessly stream your digital content. As this article relates to the best way to experience your content, I'll lean towards the PS3 as it offers a built in Blu-ray player. 
    Approx Rs 15,000 for the base model of the Xbox 360 or PS3
d) Computer - The TV Hub is a great place to keep your central computer (if possible) as it will make viewing content on your TV much easier. Note: The computer should either be a small laptop or media PC like the Mac Mini else it might be too large to keep near the TV.
    Approx Rs 10,000 upwards
e) Power strip - By plugging all the devices into a single power strip you can turn on the entire Hub with just one switch. For more control you can get a power strip with power buttons for each plug point.
    Approx Rs 500


Set up is relatively easy if you are familiar with the different types of wires needed to connect all the devices. Wherever possible you should use HDMI wires but otherwise the regular RGB wires will work just fine. Most of the wires have colour coded tips or are labelled so you know where to plug them in. If you aren't able to visually identify the wires and can't see any clear markings on them, it's time to break out the manuals so that you don't make any mistakes. Always try to set up the components so the extra lengths of wires are tied up and the wires are as out-of-the-way as possible.


Hub 4: Various Computers

Most people have multiple computers around the house. So this hub isn't a physical amalgamation of computers but a way to share the data among these computers. I'll elaborate in sharing data and the software you'll need in Part 3. Just make sure these computers have something to keep them juiced (read: charged) but other than that there isn't much you need on these computer apart from iTunes. I know many people have both PC's and Macs at home so I will give methods of sharing data between the two.


Thanks for reading and I hope this helped you get all the items you need to set up your physical hubs.


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NOTE: You will already have most of these items available at home so don't buy something without checking whether something else can be converted for use.

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The Wireless House - Media Hub

Before we get started sharing all our content between all our devices we first have to make sure we really do have all our content ready to be shared. That means two things, first digitizing all of the content we own which is on, now, outdated media, and second organizing all our media so that it becomes easier to find what you are looking for on different devices.

Step 1:

Collect all the CD's, DVD's and other outdated media you might have and organize them based on the importance you give to having each one of them preserved eternally. Put the ones which you know will take the longest right at the top so that you don't have to pay much attention to the actual process of burning. Use this opportunity to get rid of those songs, movies and TV shows you're never going to watch again. For the sake of simplicity I will only illustrate the most prevalent forms most of us will have, cassettes, CD's and DVD's.

Step 2:
Start ripping the content to your computer. This is by far the longest portion of building the wireless home and you might feel like giving up time and again, but preserve as the end result is the most seamless, out of the way interaction you will ever have with technology.

a) CD's - To rip CD's simply pop them into your computer's drive and open iTunes. The CD will show up in the left hand pane of iTunes. Click on it and at the bottom right of the screen open the "Import Settings" menu and choose MP3 importer with the quality set at 192 Kbps. Close the pop up and hit the "Import CD" button.
 The settings will remain for all the rest of your CD's so simply keep switching out your CD's as they finish importing. If iTunes doesn't get the names of the songs as you go open the "Advanced" menu and select "Get Track Names". If that doesn't work you'll have to manually right click on every song as it imports, click "Get Info" and fill out the data yourself. (Out of over 1500 songs I only had to fill out about 40 songs)

b) DVD's - To rip DVD's first download Handbrake at http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php Put the DVD into your computer's DVD slot and fire up the software. Click the "Source" button and select the DVD name from the drop down menu. Once it's done scanning hit "Start" and wait for it to finish burning. I personally didn't rip all my movies as most of my recent purchases have been digital.



Step 3:
Once you're done take some time out to correctly label all your files and put them into proper folders and import them all into iTunes by clicking File>Add Folder to Library and directing iTunes to the folder directory.

Congratulations. You've successfully completed the most tedious step in the process of creating your wireless home and you're on your way to having your content everywhere.

For Part 2: Building Physical Hubs check back tomorrow and for more news, articles and videos stay locked on the site.

The Wireless Home

I've noticed that as time goes on and on, I keep collecting more and more electronic gadgets, and with each purchase my home becomes further fragmented. With four people in my house, each with their own set of devices and a few common devices, there are occasions when I'm ready to tear my hair out due to the large amount of data that invariably ends up getting transferred between them. A week ago I decided enough was enough and I have undertaken the process of building "A Wireless Home". In the coming weeks I will be detailing the steps I undertook and writing a detailed guide for those who decide to ease the headache of constantly transferring data and adopt the idea of "The Wireless Home".

In the guide I will include - 

a) The items or tools required for each step

b) The cost of any items that need to be bought

c) Alternate methods (if any) for performing the task

d) The quickest possible way to perform the task

e) Pictures or videos of the steps required for building your "Wireless Home"

The Coming of the Ecosystem..... Wait a minute!

In the 90s it was the coming of the internet to every household. In the 00's it was the emergence of mobile technology. Coming in to 2012 most tech guru's predicted that the next few years will see an emergence of "the ecosystem", where all our devices will run similar software and communicate with each other to make our lives more seamless. They claim that the change has already started and that it will soon take over our daily lives. While I wholeheartedly agree with them I only have one problem; this revolution isn't hitting India just yet.

 The problem with this revolution is that it hinges on two key element, the first of which is the internet, something that, believe it or not, is very much in it's infancy in India. I am on one of Airtel's "high speed" internet plans which gives me internet speeds of 2Mbps, until I hit 30GB when they limit my speed to 256Kbps. Every month, without fail, I cross my high speed limit and an relegated to dial-up speeds. While there are better plans most are too expensive for the average consumer to choose and generally top out at 4-8 Mbps. In the US an "average" plan offers speeds of 42Mbps and download limits of 300GB. If the so called broadband in our home isn't slow enough for the coming revolution, the speeds we're getting on our mobile devices is far, far lower. With not even 10% of the country switched over to 3G, while many countries are looking to switch to 4G, we truly are in the dark ages of mobile internet. It take upwards of half a minute to load up the Facebook app on my phone! 

The concept of the ecosystem is that all our devices are in some way linked. When we get content on one device it magically appears on all the others. This brings me to my second problem with this "revolution". When we have the ecosystem set up all around us we need something to fill it with. In India there is almost no way to legally download digital media. The furthest companies have gotten is allowing us most apps which aren't banned in India by their developers. If they haven't realized, maybe they soon will, that this is why most people download pirated songs and videos. This is why the music industry is suffering so badly in India.If there were a way to purchase music legally at a reasonable price I'm sure most people would, after all we know that the artists deserve compensation for their work. But there isn't.

The ecosystem is meant to make our lives easier to use but the key aspects are missing in India. Why has India been relegated to the back end of the revolution when there are 1.2 billion people who can potentially take part? The era of the ecosystem will come but first India has to truly undergo the changes other countries have experienced in the last 20 years, we need the Internet to become a ubiquitous entity without someone holding us back and we need access to the content to fill our ecosystem. If companies like Apple, Samsung and Google try to bring their ecosystems to India they WILL fail at capturing the larger audience because they will be too early.

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