Blackfire Research Blackbook

Re-Broadcasting Spotify Connect Throughout Your Home With The New Harman Kardon Omni+ Speakers

Blackfire Research partner, Harman Kardon, recently released an updated version of their Omni Wireless Speakers, which they are calling The Omni+ Series. Like the first generation, the new series features the same lightweight, portable design of the Omni 10 and Omni 20, but this time, they’re trading in the glossy exterior for a more sophisticated matte finish (in both black and white.) Additionally, Harman Kardon has added another speaker to the series: The Omni 50+, a wireless HD indoor/outdoor speaker with a rechargeable battery, perfect for your next backyard BBQ. And of course, all speakers in The Omni+ Series feature Blackfire wireless multiroom technology built-in, so your favorite song can follow you from room to room.

One of the most exciting updates in the Harman/Kardon Omni+ Series is the addition of built-in Spotify Connect which lets you play your Spotify library through the Omni+ wireless speakers directly from the internet – freeing up your phone to take calls and do other things. But what if you have one or more of the first generation Omni wireless speakers and want to play music from your Spotify account throughout your home? With the addition of one or more Omni+ wireless speakers to your home, re-broadcasting Spotify Connect to your existing Omni collection is as easy as pressing a button. Literally.

Whether you have an Omni 10, an Omni 20, or Adapt, the process will be exactly the same. After you add any speaker from the Omni+ Series to your collection, initiate normal setup (make sure you have the latest version of the Harman/Kardon App first):

Place the speaker in your desired location
Connect it to a power source
Open the Harman/Kardon app and follow the easy setup instructions
Make sure you have added the new speaker to the same Wi-Fi network as your other speaker(s) and your source device(s)

Now that you have chosen a location, a name, and the correct network for the new speaker, you can begin to re-broadcast Spotify Connect throughout your home!

With all your Omni and Omni+ wireless speakers on and connected to the same Wi-Fi network, open the Spotify App from your phone, tablet, or desktop
With the Spotify App open, click on “Devices Available” at the bottom of the page
Find the name you’ve given to your new Omni+ Wireless Speaker on the list of available devices. Since the Omni+ speakers all have Spotify Connect built-in, it will show up as an available device on the Spotify App automatically
Choose your Omni+ Speaker from the list as your playback device
Test the connection by choosing a song to play from your Spotify account – music should now be playing from your new Omni+ speaker

While music plays from your new Omni+ speaker, you have two options of how to re-broadcast Spotify Connect from you Omni+ speaker to your Omni speaker(s). You can either:

Press and hold down the “Slash Button” on the top of your Omni+ speaker until all of the Omni speakers in your collection start playing the same song

OR

Press the “Slash Button” on each individual Omni speaker so you can control which specific speaker(s) to re-broadcast to (in case you don’t want to re-broadcast Spotify Connect to all of your wireless speakers.)

These same steps apply if you want to stop re-broadcasting Spotify Connect to your Omni speakers: simply press and hold down the “Slash Button” on your Omni+ speaker, or, press the “Slash Button” on each individual Omni speaker to stop the re-broadcasting.

And that’s it! Re-broadcasting Spotify Connect from an Omni+ Wireless Speaker to your first generation Omni collection is as easy as pressing a button. Now you can enjoy music from your Spotify account played from any speaker, throughout your entire home. Did someone say “Party?”

July 25, 2017

The Tech

FireCat

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Re-Broadcasting Spotify Connect With The Harman Kardon Omni+ Series

Blackfire Research partner, Harman Kardon, recently released an updated version of their Omni Wireless Speakers, which they are calling The Omni+ Series. Like the first generation, the new series features the same lightweight, portable design of the Omni 10 and Omni 20, but this time, they’re trading in the glossy exterior for a more sophisticated matte finish (in both black and white.) Additionally, Harman Kardon has added another speaker to the series: The Omni 50+, a wireless HD indoor/outdoor speaker with a rechargeable battery, perfect for your next backyard BBQ. And of course, all speakers in The Omni+ Series feature Blackfire wireless multiroom technology built-in, so your favorite song can follow you from room to room.

One of the most exciting updates in the Harman/Kardon Omni+ Series is the addition of built-in Spotify Connect which lets you play your Spotify library through the Omni+ wireless speakers directly from the internet – freeing up your phone to take calls and do other things. But what if you have one or more of the first generation Omni wireless speakers and want to play music from your Spotify account throughout your home? With the addition of one or more Omni+ wireless speakers to your home, re-broadcasting Spotify Connect to your existing Omni collection is as easy as pressing a button. Literally.

Whether you have an Omni 10, an Omni 20, or Adapt, the process will be exactly the same. After you add any speaker from the Omni+ Series to your collection, initiate normal setup (make sure you have the latest version of the Harman/Kardon App first):

Place the speaker in your desired location
Connect it to a power source
Open the Harman/Kardon app and follow the easy setup instructions
Make sure you have added the new speaker to the same Wi-Fi network as your other speaker(s) and your source device(s)

Now that you have chosen a location, a name, and the correct network for the new speaker, you can begin to re-broadcast Spotify Connect throughout your home!

With all your Omni and Omni+ wireless speakers on and connected to the same Wi-Fi network, open the Spotify App from your phone, tablet, or desktop
With the Spotify App open, click on “Devices Available” at the bottom of the page
Find the name you’ve given to your new Omni+ Wireless Speaker on the list of available devices. Since the Omni+ speakers all have Spotify Connect built-in, it will show up as an available device on the Spotify App automatically
Choose your Omni+ Speaker from the list as your playback device
Test the connection by choosing a song to play from your Spotify account – music should now be playing from your new Omni+ speaker

While music plays from your new Omni+ speaker, you have two options of how to re-broadcast Spotify Connect from you Omni+ speaker to your Omni speaker(s). You can either:

Press and hold down the “Slash Button” on the top of your Omni+ speaker until all of the Omni speakers in your collection start playing the same song

OR

Press the “Slash Button” on each individual Omni speaker so you can control which specific speaker(s) to re-broadcast to (in case you don’t want to re-broadcast Spotify Connect to all of your wireless speakers.

These same steps apply if you want to stop re-broadcasting Spotify Connect to your Omni speakers: simply press and hold down the “Slash Button” on your Omni+ speaker, or, press the “Slash Button” on each individual Omni speaker to stop the re-broadcasting.

And that’s it! Re-broadcasting Spotify Connect from an Omni+ Wireless Speaker to your first generation Omni collection is as easy as pressing a button. Now you can enjoy music from your Spotify account played from any speaker, throughout your entire home. Did someone say “Party?”

July 25, 2017

The Tech

Blackfire Research

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Music Review: Katy Perry, “Witness”

The Leading Lady of Pop, Katy Perry, is out with her fourth album, “Witness,” a jumble of lackluster, out-of-touch singles trying to pass off as a cohesive pop album. Perry rose to prominence in the early 00’s when teens would download the latest chart-topping single off iTunes for .99 cents and play it back on their iPod Shuffles. Back then, it was all about the single, and Perry was the artist on top. Now, in the era of music streaming, the album is making a comeback, and it seems that Perry’s attempt at a throughline (empowerment and “wokefullness,” a timely motif) is overshadowed by cringe-worthy lyrics and tired, jumbled metaphors. That’s not to say Perry isn’t a talented performer, but when it comes to creating an album (as opposed to a catchy single) a certain subtlety is required to keep the album buoyant- and subtle, Perry is not. “Witness” is weighed down by clichéd lyrics and overproduced styles that are too much – even for pop music. The album’s first single, “Chained to the Rhythm,” (which was first released through a PR stunt of singing disco balls literally chained to park benches in Brooklyn) and accompanying music video, sets the stage for the album’s heavy-handedness. Ironically, on the one track that fans and critics would’ve allowed, even welcomed, an overzealous approach, Perry misses the mark completely. “Swish Swish,” Perry’s highly anticipated Taylor Swift diss track featuring Nicki Minaj, is a dull shot in the dark. Perry has been building up this rebuttal-track for years, and what should have been an album highlight (and tabloid fodder) winds up being just as lame and insignificant as the feud that inspired it. Perry’s lack of success off her fourth album and her awkward promotion of it (see: video of Katy Perry surprising fans but no one recognizes her/knows who she is/really cares) shows just how out-of-touch she is with the genre. In the wake of artists like Lorde and Beyoncé who have transcended pop music from catchy gimmicks made for radio to an all out, soul-bearing artform, Perry has stalled – chained to the rhythm of the prior decade.

July 21, 2017

Featured Music Friday

FireCat

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Throwback Thursday: Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”

On this day in 1965, iconic American folk singer, Bob Dylan, released his most influential single “Like a Rolling Stone.” The song is a condensed version of a ten page verse Dylan had written upon returning from a tour in England that left him exhausted. The song was hailed as revolutionary due to it’s cynical stance and the repeated direct address of the question “How does it feel?” “Like a Rolling Stone” was the first song Dylan performed with an electric guitar, which shifted him from niche folk singer to mainstream rock and roller. However, this shift alienated many of his die hard, folk fans. In fact, the first time he performed the song live (a few days after it’s release) he was booed by the audience for using an electric guitar. Rolling Stone Magazine has twice placed the song at Number 1 on it’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

July 20, 2017

This Day in Music History

FireCat

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Getting the Most out of your Router

In my two previous blog posts, I recommended purchasing either the ASUS RT-AC56U or the ASUS RT-AC68U; explained why I chose the ASUS RT-AC68U router for my own home; and walked you through the setup of 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands for best performance. In this post, I’m going to show you how to tune your router to avoid wireless network traffic from other routers near by.

First off, how do WiFi frequency ranges and channels work?

The 802.11 standard allows wireless devices to be backward compatible, interoperable, and to work internationally. After WWII, the radio frequency spectrum in most countries was strictly controlled by the government, and was mostly allocated to police, military, and emergency service use. By the 1990’s, gradually, some of the high frequency (or “microwave”) spectrum was being derestricted. The 2.4GHz band became available in most countries around the world, and so it was adopted for several wireless technologies, including cell phones, Bluetooth devices and of course – WiFi. Now, nearly 30 years later, 2.4GHz band has become a very busy part of the spectrum indeed. The newer 5GHz WiFi band still has the advantage of much less data traffic – but due to physics, has the disadvantage of having a shorter signal range, meaning, the rooms in your home furthest from your router will have a noticeably weaker signal.

Both WiFi bands (2.4G and 5G) are divided into individual channels, each spaced a few megahertz from the next. By default, your router will automatically jump to the first channel it finds. However, you will get the fastest WiFi performance if you first check which channels have the least traffic and then manually set your router to that channel.

Avoiding the Busy Channels

First you’ll need to download a WiFi Analyzer app. If you have an Android smartphone, there is a free WiFiAnalyzer app that works very well. Unfortunately, there is no convenient free app like this for my iPhone, so I used my Windows 10 laptop to download an equally effective WiFi Analyzer app from my browser, free from the Microsoft App Store.

Once you download an app, you can see which channels are currently being used. Let’s start with the 2.4GHz band.

Here is the WifiAnalyzer app screen for the 2.4GHz band. My router is the one called BFRX-BUTTERS (the SSID I chose for the 2.4GHz band):

The ASUS router had auto-selected Channel 3, which is right on top of two other routers – probably my neighbors’ WiFi. As you can see from the image above, the channels above 6 look much clearer. So I opened up the ASUS router Configuration Page, which you can find by typing this local address into your web browser: http://router.asus.com

Under Advanced Settings, I selected the “Control Channel” pull-down menu, and instead of “Auto,” I selected “Channel 11” to force my router to operate in the clearer part of the spectrum:

which means my router is much less likely to conflict with 2.4GHz band signals from other routers:

Next I checked the 5GHz band, which is much less busy; it looks like my neighbors have not yet taken advantage of newer routers like mine:

In the image above, my router (BFRX-BUTTERS_5G) has been auto selected to Channel 161 which is in a clear part of the band (note that the channels between 48 and 149 are not available for WiFi). To make sure it doesn’t auto select another channel, I decided to change the 5 GHz band setting from “Auto” to fix it at “Channel 161” anyway, using the same method as before:

Once you’ve switched your 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to clearer channels, you’ll experience less interference from other networks – meaning that you can seamlessly stream music or videos throughout your home, wirelessly, with much less chance of pesky dropouts.

July 18, 2017

The Tech

Ruben Mookerjee

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