Blackfire Research is back from Las Vegas, where we spent the entire second week of January at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This year was packed with productive meetings in our official CES Suite at The Venetian Hotel and Casino. However, we did manage to get down to the Sands Expo and Las Vegas Convention Center to check out all the cool, new tech for 2018 – here’s what we saw at CES this year and our takeaways from the show:

Hey Google

If last year’s CES was dubbed “The Amazon Home Takeover,” this year could be summarized by one simple greeting: “Hey Google.” The search engine giant was everywhere this year: literally. They had a massive 3-story booth right outside the convention center, and at every booth that featured products touting Google Home smart speaker/Google Assistant functionality, a Google representative was there, donning a white jumpsuit fresh out of George Orwell’s dystopian vision of 1984. But Google’s overwhelming presence at the show paid off: this year, all eyes were on them. From Whirlpool appliances to smart speakers with video displays, you couldn’t escape the latest “Google Home Takeover.” Amazon was present at CES of course (Whirlpool also featured appliances with Amazon’s Dash Buttons built-in, which is pretty neat and useful) but if a winner had to be chosen for CES 2018, Google would be voted “Best in Show.” Speaking of which…

All (Robot) Dogs Go to Heaven

Sony has brought back their popular Aibo robot dog and everyone at the show couldn’t have been happier. This very good boy is new and improved for the AI age with a camera on his nose so he can recognize members of his family (awww) and find his bone (awww). He also features a camera on his back to help him navigate the house to find his charging station. With touch sensors on his head, back, and chin, he can respond to touch like any ‘ol dog would: by wagging his tail, moving his head, and stomping his widdle feeties. With his adorable LED-lit eyes, this is by far the best, and most realistic, pet robot on the market. Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t announced plans to sell Aibo in the US anytime soon. Doggonit!

A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words…

This year, we’ve officially stepped into the world of 8K. But since 4K is barely a thing yet (because there’s hardly any 4K content available still) Samsung has gone around the issue of total lack of 8K content by unveiling it’s Q9S 8K TV with AI Upscaling, meaning, that this TV can convert any content into 8K resolution. And from firsthand experience, we can tell you that 8K resolution is pretty darn good. The picture was so incredibly clear that jaws dropped during the demo. Another Samsung showstopper this year was their enormous, bezel-less The Wall: a 146-inch modular MicroLED TV.

Honorable Mentions & Takeaways

5G cellular technology, the latest and greatest approved standard, wasn’t on display much at CES this year, mainly because the hardware needed for it isn’t quite ready yet. There were a few booths demonstrating it’s super-fast capabilities, but overall, it was all quiet on the 5G front at CES. But don’t expect that to last long: with 5G technology coming to the main service providers fast, it’s sure to be all the rage at next year’s event.

Once again, this year’s CES felt more like a car show than anything, with a plethora of smart, autonomous vehicles on display (some of which seemed to be taken straight from an episode of Black Mirror). Also, Wireless charging was big this year, especially since Apple announced their commitment to the Qi Wireless Charging standard last September.

Overall, between the rain and loss of power, this year’s CES was a bit chaotic. But we still managed to see some pretty neat tech that was useful, inspiring and – we hope – becomes available soon (we’re looking at you, Aibo!)

Blackfire Research is proud to have their FireConnect Multi-room Technology in the new Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System.

The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System is comprised of two wireless front speakers, a wireless subwoofer, and a main controller unit. The system is “wireless, elegant and extremely versatile.” Besides a power cord, no other physical connections are required, since the system is wireless. With built-in dual-band Wi-Fi, you can access your entire music library, wirelessly, through streaming services like Tidal, Spotify and Deezer, internet radio stations and locally stored music. The FS-W50 also features Chromecast built-in, Airplay, and Bluetooth to accommodate all streaming needs.

The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System is perfect for watching movies or television in surround sound. All you need is a second pair of wireless satellites – the streaming receiver of the FS-W50 is able to decode all current sound formats and automatically adapts to the available speakers. Your television and any existing A/V players can be integrated with the FS-W50 via the ultra-HD-capable HDMI connector panel.

If you’re looking to “kick it up a notch” and want to supply additional rooms with music, you can easily expand the FS-W50 into a multi-room system. With compatible WiFi speakers from Pioneer and other manufacturers, you can share your music to any and all rooms of your house via FireConnect Multi-room Technology by Blackfire Research.

For a full review of The Pioneer Fayola FS-W50 Wireless Home Theatre System, as well as more information on FireConnect Multi-room Technology, check out the review below from AV Hub.

PDF Download: https://i.nextmedia.com.au/Assets/Pioneer_Fayola_FS-W50.pdf

Thanksgiving is finally here! After the parade, the feast, the big game, and perhaps a match of touch football in the yard is over, what’s there left to do? Why, watch a Thanksgiving-themed movie of course! Thanksgiving is the only holiday where it’s acceptable to wear sweatpants at the table, stuff your face with a colossal amount of food, and gather ‘round the TV – so take advantage of it! Here is our list of the top 5 films to watch on Thanksgiving with your whole family!

5) Free Birds (2013)

It may feel a bit strange watching this film about lovable turkeys after devouring the feathered creature that same day, but Free Birds is a fun, animated film everyone in your family will love. Owen Wilson voices Reggie, a Turkey who finds himself the lucky spared fowl at the annual Presidential Pardon of the Turkey. He then meets Jake (Woody Harrelson), who takes him on an adventure back in time to exclude turkeys from the first Thanksgiving, thus saving their kind from mass slaughter each year.

4) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Although technically a Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street begins at The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) notices that the man hired to play Santa Claus in the parade is intoxicated. After that, Kringle finds himself playing Old Saint Nick at Macy’s flagship New York store – but soon, he starts claiming he truly is Santa Claus, and his sanity comes into question. Miracle on 34th Street is a classic family film to kick off the holiday season!

3) Addams Family Values (1993)

The story of the first Thanksgiving has been fictionalized throughout the centuries to be a fairytale gathering of Pilgrim settlers and Native Americans breaking bread together for one glorious, peaceful evening. The real story about what happened before, during, and after that first “Thanksgiving” is nothing like the myth we tell ourselves as a nation, and Wednesday Addams in Addams Family Values is here to remind us that in true Addams Family fashion.

2) A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

This short, animated classic is sure to put a smile on everyone’s face this Turkey Day! Join Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang as they celebrate Thanksgiving with ice cream sundaes, buttered toast, and jelly beans. Good grief!

1) Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Nothing is worse than traveling during the holidays. In this film, Neal Page (Steve Martin) struggles to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Along his 3-day journey, he (reluctantly) teams up with Del Griffith (the late John Candy), an annoying, messy, shower curtain ring salesman. Martin and Candy are a legendary comedic-duo in this hilarious Thanksgiving classic, arguably the best Thanksgiving film to date!

We hope you enjoyed our top 5 films to watch on Thanksgiving. From Blackfire Research, have a wonderful, restful Thanksgiving and start to the holiday season!

At their recent hardware event, Google announced two new additions to their smart speaker agenda, both of which are ready to take on the ever-increasing number of competitors in the field. Say hello to the Google Home Mini and the Google Home Max.

The Google Home Mini has the same functionality as the original Google Home, but at a fraction of the size (and cost). With voice command, you can ask Google Assistant to stream music, control your smart home, check your calendar, and search the internet. The Mini is nearly 4 inches in diameter (roughly the size of a hockey puck), with the top portion covered in fabric, which is available in three colors: chalk, charcoal, and coral. The fabric hides the speaker (1.5-inches) and a far-field voice-recognition microphone. The design is pretty simple and sleek (although as a cat-parent, I wonder how much hair that fabric covering will collect over time). The Mini is a direct response (and a direct competitor) to the Amazon Echo Dot, the cheaper, more popular version of Amazon’s flagship Echo smart speaker. Will The Mini overtake Echo Dot as the most popular pint-sized smart speaker? According to some reviews, The Google Home Mini certainly sounds better than the Echo Dot (it boast 360 degree sound with a 40mm driver), but in overall functionality, there isn’t much of a difference between the two. At $49, the Mini is the cheapest smart speaker option currently on the market.

The biggest announcement of the day, however, belonged to the introduction of Google Home Max, a premium version of the Google Home smart speaker designed to compete against Apple’s HomePod and Sonos. The Home Max is a stereo speaker that runs Google Assitant and looks quite similar to the Sonos Play:5 speaker. The speaker is designed to intelligently adjust audio depending on a user’s surroundings using AI (or what Google calls “Smart Sound”), similar to what Apple’s HomePod speaker does. The Max has two tweeters and two 4.5-inch woofers and the company has emphasized the speaker’s powerful bass. The Max supports multi-room audio via Chromecast Audio only, but supports many streaming services including Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. In terms of connectivity, the Home Max supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Chromecast. At roughly 12 pounds, this is by far the largest smart speaker on the market, and the priciest as well. The Google Home Max will set you back almost $400, but Google is giving away 12 months free of YouTube Music with every Home Max purchase. The speaker will be available in two colors: chalk and charcoal, and can be displayed both vertically or horizontally via an adjustable silicon base.

The real question is: will the Google Home Max sound as good as the company claims? The answer is, most likely, no. Smart speakers don’t have a very good track record when it comes to audio quality. That’s why many smart speaker owners look for alternative ways to playback their music, especially for multi-room. To achieve excellent wireless multi-room, or multi-device set ups, entertainment systems need greater reliability over standard Wi-Fi, more precise synchronization, and multichannel capabilities, which smart speakers like Google Home, and the Echo, lack.

The good news: Blackfire Research offers the most synchronous, reliable, and cost effective wireless solution on the market. We call it the Blackfire RED framework, and it can be embedded into premium wireless speakers and voice-activated smart speakers, creating a truly connected home smart entertainment system. Voice service solutions require a high performance, multi-room solution like the Blackfire RED framework, allowing for multiple devices to respond to voice commands simultaneously.

Combining individual entertainment systems to work together to create a truly connected smart home is non trivial – but with Blackfire RED, it can be done, and with stunning results. Blackfire RED can be integrated into a broad spectrum of high quality voice service applications, so the Blackfire connected smart home ecosystem has no limits.  

Harman Kardon, Pioneer, and Onkyo are leveraging Blackfire’s technology in over 100 new products this year alone. Join the Blackfire Revolution today!

At CEDIA 2017, premium audio manufacturer and Blackfire Research partner, Onkyo, announced the impressive TX-RZ920. The TX-RZ920 is a 9.2 channel A/V network receiver that boasts 135 watts of sound per channel. Part of Onkyo’s flagship RZ Series of A/V receivers, the TX-RZ920 features top-quality components, a massive custom transformer, and is THX Certified for movie theater quality sound right in your living room. The TX-RZ920 also features Chromecast built-in, so you can stream any music from your smartphone, laptop, or PC to the TX-RZ920 with ease. With the Onkyo Controller app, you can browse and play music from your favorite online streaming services, including Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Pandora, and TuneIn. The TX-RZ920 is designed for both a full home theater and smaller listening setups and supports both 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity.

But the best part? The Onkyo TX-RZ920 features Blackfire Research’s own FireConnect Multi-room Wireless Audio. FireConnect mirrors network audio and external analog sources connected to a master component (from streaming services to vinyl records) to any Blackfire-compatible speaker (like the Onkyo NCP-302 Network Speaker) in any room, all over standard Wi-Fi. Now, your favorite music can follow you from room to room.

Learn more about purchasing options for the Onkyo TX-RZ920 here.

Onkyo has announced plans to ship their latest Network Hi-Fi CD System, the CS-N575, which features Blackfire Research’s own FireConnect Wireless Multi-room Audio technology. The CS-N575 is a compact Hi-Fi system that consists of two speakers and a stereo receiver with a built-in CD player, FM tuner, and the ability to stream your favorite music apps via Wi-Fi through Onkyo’s Next Generation Network Audio which supports Chromecast built-in and our very own FireConnect. The CS-N575 has built in Spotify, TIDAL, Pandora, Deezer, and TuneIn, and boasts a stunning LCD with a new JOG dial so you can control all your music from one place and view song information and album art.

With 20 W x 20 W stereo power and a new switching amplification system, The CS-N575 “delivers high speaker-driving power, maximizing sound pressure levels for better energy and punch over an expansive soundstage” (Onkyo). But the best part? With Blackfire’s FireConnect Wireless Multi-room Audio technology, your music can follow you from room to room – so the party never stops.

A new neural network AI from MIT CSAIL has been making headlines recently for using machine learning to solve some issues associated with buffering. We’ve all experienced buffering before, either in the form of pixilation, long wait times while loading a video or audio file, and everyone’s favorite nemesis: the spinning pinwheel of death. Buffering occurs because it’s impossible for your computer (or TV) to receive data all in one lump for immediate playback. Therefore, data is broken up into smaller packets and sent to its destination, sequentially. So while you’re enjoying your favorite Spotify playlist played to wireless speakers throughout your home, or streaming the latest episode of Game of Thrones in your living room, your entertainment media will always be sent bit by bit. If all goes well, you’ll never notice this is even happening. But more often than not, you’ll experience some sort of indication of file buffering. If there isn’t enough bandwidth, you’ll either experience pixilation, longer buffering times, or drop outs because your network can’t transmit data fast enough to maintain a sufficient “buffer.”

Essentially, what MIT CSAIL’s AI, dubbed the “Pensieve” neural network, does is use machine learning to switch between pixilation and buffering so your videos aren’t over buffering when they don’t need to, or pixelating when they don’t need to. According to MIT, the neural network will tune itself over time based on a system of rewards and penalties, allowing streaming services to customise this for their content—with priorities for buffering or resolution. If the streaming service is able to predict that a user watching a video on a handheld device is about to walk into a poor connectivity area, the system will be able to reduce the streaming resolution sufficiently, creating enough of a buffer for (potentially) stutter-free streaming (livemint). This is all fine and good, but it’s essentially like putting a Band-Aid on a festering wound: it may cover up the problem, but it by no way solves the underlying issue.

The real problem with buffering lies with your WiFi network. Conventional WiFi runs on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), designed in the 1960’s for transferring files down wired Ethernet lines – certainly not for streaming real-time video and wireless audio throughout the Smart Home. (For more information on the shortcomings of TCP, check out this blog post). As long as your WiFi runs on this outdated protocol, it doesn’t matter what techniques are being innovated to combat the annoyance of buffering – the cause of the issue still needs to be addressed, not the symptoms.

Blackfire Research understands this. That is why we developed Real-Time Packet Management (RPM), the Blackfire Research solution to buffering. For whole home, wireless audio, RPM uses a special multipoint, real-time feedback signal from each speaker to monitor the effects of noise on the audio data stream, allowing for a much shorter queue and much less buffering. RPM is part of the Blackfire Realtime Entertainment Distribution (RED) framework, a revolutionary new protocol designed to stream both HD 5.1 audio and 4K video, simultaneously, across multiple devices around your home- all over the standard WiFi – with precise synchronization, low latency for lip sync, and overall reliability.

RPM can be found in any Blackfire powered device. Partnering with Blackfire Research means you’re ahead of the pack, and most of all, one step closer to defeating your nemesis: that darn spinning pinwheel of death.

We live in a world driven by the applications on our smartphones and viral videos on the internet. Because of this, we expect to receive all the entertainment content we want, anywhere, at any time. We also expect our entertainment devices to be connected seamlessly for sharing. But in reality, connectivity in the home is far from perfect, especially when it comes to wireless, smart home entertainment systems. Rather than enjoying our entertainment content wherever we want in the home, we find ourselves stranded on “entertainment islands”: the smart TV you have in your living room is an island separate from the stereo system; the stereo system is separate from the blue tooth speakers; the PC is its own thing, and the kids’ rooms…well…let’s just say that’s something completely different as well.

Current solutions like video dongles (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire) and multi room audio, such as Sonos, are great for individual use. However, combining these individual systems to work together to create a truly connected smart home is non trivial – it requires precise synchronization, low latency for lip sync and a general reliability over standard Wi-Fi, something that hasn’t been done – until now.

Blackfire Research is making the smart home smarter, achieving whole home connectivity by getting entertainment content and devices off their islands. With our revolutionary new protocol, The Blackfire Realtime Entertainment Distribution (RED) framework, smart home owners are able to mix and match devices – from multiple brands that are Blackfire enabled – to create a whole home entertainment system that sounds great and looks stunning, all over standard Wi-Fi. The Blackfire RED framework is superior to all other solutions and does what no other solution can: wirelessly stream both HD 5.1 audio and 4K video simultaneously across multiple devices and stream both audio and video content from any device to many devices throughout the home.

According to IT Pro Portal, analysts are predicting the average smart home in the year 2025 “will include 50 to 100 plus connected ‘things’, including appliances and lighting with a huge mesh of wireless sensors.” That’s a lot of devices that need to be connected, and that number will just continue to grow as more and more smart home products enter the market. With the growing number of smart home products, Wi-Fi is, and will continue to be, the glue that holds it all together. Currently, more than 75% of U.S. broadband households use Wi-Fi for connectivity” (Parks Associates), and Blackfire leverages standard Wi-Fi, a basic utility for many at this point, to achieve stunning, high-end results.

You’ve never seen anything like the Blackfire RED framework because it’s never been done before. Harman Kardon, Pioneer, and Onkyo have all began shipping Blackfire powered products in over 100 new products this year alone.

At Blackfire Research, we’re fired up. Join The Blackfire Revolution today.

Over the past few years, consumers have started to recognize the convenience and cost-saving benefits of smart home technologies, but adoption has been slow, especially compared to the amount of investment money being poured into the industry. According to Business Insider, “the smart home market is stuck in the ‘chasm’ of the technology adoption curve, in which it is struggling to surpass the early-adopter phase and move to the mass-market phase of adoption.” But what’s the largest barrier to mass market smart home adoption? Is it high prices? Cybersecurity? Limited demand? Nope, it’s not any of those. Rather, research has found that the largest barrier to smart home adoption is…interoperability (a fancy word for how devices work together and communicate with each other).

At the moment, consumers view the smart home as fragmented, and many aren’t willing to invest in any smart home devices until all the kinks are worked out. In an insightful article posted to IoT Agenda, analyst Jessica Groopman sees the current state of the smart home as “just a bunch of smart endpoints” which ultimately is hurting the smart home industry:

The very design of connected products requires interoperability in terms of connectivity, communications and integration protocols. Products should be simple to connect. Period. Despite the reality of a painful lack of standards across devices and industries, the need to equip physical products with connectivity and communications flexibility sets both an immediate and long-term value proposition in place (IoT Agenda).

When smart home companies invest in interoperability, the users win. As Groopman notes: “open integration and interoperability is really about curating a customer-first relationship.” In a previous blog post, I responded to CNBC Technology Product Editor, Todd Haselton, and his irritation that smart home products don’t work together. This sentiment is being felt by consumers across the globe, causing it to be the single greatest barrier to smart home adoption:

Currently, there are many networks, standards, and devices being used to connect the smart home, creating interoperability problems and making it confusing for the consumer to set up and control multiple devices. Until interoperability is solved, consumers will have difficulty choosing smart home devices and systems (Business Insider).

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just learned to get along? At Blackfire Research, interoperability is our game. A few years back, founder and CEO, Ravi Rajapakse, became frustrated – much like Haselton, Groopman, and countless other smart home gadget enthusiasts – when he realized that there was no seamless way to transfer and share entertainment media throughout his own home. The culmination of 10 years of research is a revolutionary new protocol, The Blackfire Realtime Entertainment Distribution (RED) framework, which can stream 5.1 audio channels and 4K video, simultaneously, across multiple devices – all over the standard WiFi you already have. As well as connecting smart home devices like light bulbs, thermostats and door locks, Blackfire also works as a bridge between your smart home and your entertainment systems – with precise synchronization, low latency for lip sync, and overall reliability. Because, as the research shows, that is exactly what smart home owners want – to be able to mix and match devices that can all work together, while having their music and movies available to them anywhere in the home.

At Blackfire Research, we’re ahead of the curve: we know what smart home owners want and what technological barriers need to be crossed to make smart home adoption mainstream. That’s why all Blackfire enabled products are interoperable cross brands, so you don’t have to worry about your smart devices not working together. Look for our logo on select Harman/Kardon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Integra and HTC devices.

The top WiFi Router brands have recently introduced Whole-Home, multi-unit mesh network systems (WiFi extenders)  for extending your WiFi coverage across larger buildings. Examples are Eero, Luma, Orbi, Google Wifi and Apple Airport Express. These systems comprise a base-station which is hard-wired to your internet connection, plus one or more extender units that connect wirelessly to the base station and relay the signal further than a single router can reach.

Although the latest Whole-Home systems have resolved many of the reliability issues plaguing earlier mesh networks, there is still a “hand-over” process as a device moves out of range of the base station and into range of an extender unit. For a streaming device, this hand over can sometime cause the WiFi connection to be momentarily lost, resulting in a visible or audible drop-out. Also, these systems can be confusing to configure since the base-station and the extenders may all share a single SSID (network name), and sometimes switch automatically between the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band so you often can’t easily tell where your devices are connected, or at what speed.

We’ve put together a few tips to help you get the most out of these set ups.

1. Make sure that your main base-station router (the unit wired to your internet connection or WAN) is in a central location in your home. In any mesh system, you will get the highest WiFi speed when devices can connect to this unit directly, so it makes sense to place it where it provides the strongest signal to as much of your home as possible. 
2. Make sure that the extender units are placed where they still have a strong signal connection with the base-station – ideally within sight of the main router. Mesh networks are only effective when each unit can share a strong wireless signal, so avoid placing the extender units at the very limit of the base-station’s WiFi range.
   
   
3. Give your extender a different SSID name than your main router, to show you when devices switch between them.
   
4. Check to make sure that your wireless network isn’t being interfered or obstructed by a neighbor’s network. One way to remedy this is to change the channel of your access point or router.

You can check out some routers that Blackfire Research recommends here.

In his entertaining recent editorial, CNBC Technology Product Editor, Todd Haselton, experienced, firsthand, the frustration that many smart home enthusiasts have endured for a long time: smart home products that don’t work with one another. Typically, manufacturers don’t want their customers to “mix and match” products, but rather, they “encourage” them to stay loyal to their brand by deliberately limiting compatibility with competitors. But what manufacturers don’t realize is that these “technology islands” are actually discouraging potential users from buying any smart home products at all. Aside from the more geeky early adopters (ok, my hand’s up), smart home gadget users don’t want to invest in a brand and have that brand become obsolete within the next few years (i.e. “choose wrong”) so many people just aren’t choosing at all. As Haselton points out: “How do you choose which one to go with? It’s almost like the VHS vs. Betamax wars.”

A simple solution to this problem, as Haselton notes, is “one single standard that works for everything.” At Blackfire Research, we’ve done just that. A few years back, Blackfire Research founder and CEO, Ravi Rajapakse, became frustrated – much like Haselton himself and countless other smart home gadget lovers – when he realized that there was no seamless way to transfer and share entertainment media throughout his own home. What was once a personal project to create a multi-room entertainment system soon became ten years of research into a revolutionary new protocol, which we call The Blackfire Realtime Entertainment Distribution (RED) framework. The Blackfire RED framework can stream both HD 5.1 audio and 4K video, simultaneously, across multiple devices – all over the standard WiFi you already have. As well as connecting light bulbs, thermostats and door locks, Blackfire also works as a bridge between your smart home and your entertainment systems – with precise synchronization, low latency for lip sync, and overall reliability. Because ultimately, that is what smart home owners want – to mix and match devices while having their music and movies available to them anywhere in the home.

Oh yeah, did we mention that Blackfire enabled products are compatible with each other, even across brands? Just look for our logo on select Harman/Kardon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Integra, and HTC devices. It’s just one of the many ways Blackfire Research is making the smart home a whole lot smarter.

Blackfire Research partner, Harman Kardon, began shipping an updated version of their Omni Wireless Speakers last month, which they are calling The Omni+ Series. Like the first generation, the new Omni+ Series features Blackfire technology, “Wireless HD Audio”, for whole home connectivity. It also features the same lightweight, portable design of the Omni 10 and Omni 20, but now, they’re trading in the glossy exterior for a more sophisticated matte finish (in 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 (up to 5 hours of playback time), that is also “splash-proof,” so it’s perfect for your next backyard BBQ, no matter the weather.

The most exciting update that comes with 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 browse through your apps. If you have one or two of the first generation Omni wireless speakers and want to play music from your Spotify account throughout your home, you can, easily! With the addition of one or more Omni+ wireless speakers to your existing collection, you can re-broadcast Spotify Connect to your Omni speakers. Check out this blog post to learn how!

You can learn more about the new Omni+ Series on the Harman/Kardon website!

The last time Fleet Foxes released new music, it was 2011 and “planking” was a thing. Since then, a lot has changed: the US has gone through not one, but two divisive Presidential elections; the band’s drummer, Josh Tillman, left to start a snarky, yet successful solo career as “Father John Misty;” and it’s lead singer, Robin Pecknold, moved to New York City to complete an undergraduate degree at Columbia University. Fans have been anticipating new music since 2013, when the group uploaded a teaser pic on their Facebook page, which has since been deleted. It’s almost hard to believe that we’ve been waiting six years for a third Fleet Foxes album – almost. As quickly as their music blew up across college campuses (and even more vigorously in Europe) they were gone – like footprints covered by snow. Winter has thawed to reveal “Crack-Up,” an astonishing work of art: complex, subtle, devastating, introspective, and celebratory all at once. The sound is fresh, yet distinctly Fleet Foxes – mixing folk with New Age and Eastern influences. “Crack-Up” requires just as much patience to listen to as it – undoubtedly – needed to create. But once you wade in, the music breaks over you like a wave, and you’re swept into a new, but familiar space. The album plays host to many memorable moments, including the 9-minute “Third of May / Odaigahara,” which takes a sudden, sorrowful turn roughly 3 minutes in; “Kept Woman,” and “Fool’s Errand,” just to name a few. “Crack-Up” is a classic in the making, and a welcome addition to Fleet Foxes’ small, yet stunning oeuvre. Fleet Foxes is now on tour! Check out their tour schedule here: http://fleetfoxes.co/tour

On this day in 1983, The Queen of Pop, Madonna, released her self-titled, debut album. Born in Michigan, the pop star moved to New York City to pursue a dance career but began singing in her performance groups. She was eventually signed by Sire Records. Her debut album, “Madonna,” was an upbeat, post-disco sound that used new technology for the time, such as a Moog bass, the Linn drum machine, and the OB-X synthesizer. Five singles were released from the album, including “Holiday” and “Borderline,” which became international top 10 hits. The album set the stage for pop music in the 1980’s, creating an entirely new sound for the coming decade. Madonna’s second album, “Like a Virgin,” released the following year, became her first Number 1 album. Madonna herself would go on to become a global icon: spearheading the rise of music videos on MTV, dictating 1980’s and 1990’s women’s fashion trends, and becoming the best-selling female recording artist of all time. Check out Madonna’s website here: http://www.madonna.com/

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):

1. Place the speaker in your desired location
2. Connect it to a power source
3. Open the Harman/Kardon app and follow the easy setup instructions
4. 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!

1. 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
2. With the Spotify App open, click on “Devices Available” at the bottom of the page
3. 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
4. Choose your Omni+ Speaker from the list as your playback device
5. 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?”

Canadian indie rock band, The New Pornographers, recently released their seventh studio album, “Whiteout Conditions.” Featuring powerful harmonies and bubbling synths that playfully mask lyrics of depression, “Whiteout Conditions” is a perfect sonic homage to the 80’s, with a twist of overwhelming, Twenty-First Century-fueled anxiety. Standouts include the album’s title track, an especially upbeat tune where Carl Newman recounts a particularly oppressive spell of depression that threw him for a loop, and “We’ve Been Here Before,” about a newly reunited couple falling into the same traps of their previously failed relationship, sung in eerie harmony.

Brought to you by Blackfire Research….On this day in 1959, a thirteen year old Dolly Parton released her first single, “Puppy Love,” with Goldband Records. Dolly and her grandmother endured a 30 hour bus ride from Tennessee to Louisiana so the young, aspiring singer could record the song at the Goldband studio. “Puppy Love,” which was written when Parton was just eleven years old, was commercially unsuccessful, but did provide her with enough confidence to set her on course to becoming a country music sensation. In 1967, Parton released her debut full-length album, “Hello, I’m Dolly.” Soon after, she was invited to be on Porter Wagoner’s television show as a singer and performer, gaining even more country notoriety, eventually signing a record deal with RCA Victor. In 2005, Parton was awarded with The National Medal of Arts, and in 2006, she received the Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime of contributions to the arts.

On this day in 1985, supergroup “USA for Africa” hit Number 1 on the US singles chart with their charity song, “We Are the World.” Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie (who also lent their vocals to the track), and produced by Quincy Jones, the single was arranged to raise money for African famine relief efforts. The recording of “We Are the World” brought together some of the most famous recording artists of the time, including: Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Ray Charles. Sales of the benefit single – which exceeded over 20 million copies – combined with merchandise sales, raised over $63 million for the famine relief fund, which corresponds to $138 million today. “We Are the World” enjoyed critical success as well, receiving three Grammy Awards, including one for “Song of the Year.” A remake of the original song, “We Are the World 25 for Haiti,” was produced and recorded in 2010 after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, causing massive devastation for the country. Watch the original and the remake below.

For us at Blackfire Research, April is shaping up to be a music lover’s dream. From newly-minted breakout stars to the return of 60’s psychedelic rock, the San Francisco Bay Area is playing host to a number of highly anticipated concerts this month.

On Saturday, April 15, English indie pop group, The xx, comes to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco as part of their North American tour promoting their latest album, “I See You.” Accompanying them is breakout artist, Sampha, who just recently released his debut album, “Process” to rave reviews and stunning critical acclaim. For tickets, click here.

Radiohead returns to The Greek Theatre in Berkeley for a two night, sold out engagement on April 17 & 18. The beautiful outdoor amphitheater, located at the start of the Berkeley Foothills, adjacent to The University of California campus, is the perfect venue to reconnect with everyone’s favorite 90’s rock band.

Also making an appearance in Berkeley this month: The Zombies. Journey back in time as the iconic 60’s psychedelic rock band performs at The UC Theatre on April 25 as part of the First Anniversary Show celebrating the remodeling and reopening of this historic venue. Tickets are on sale now.

Winner of Best Rap Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards, Chicago native, Chance the Rapper, takes his critically acclaimed “Coloring Book,” on the road, performing to an already sold out crowd at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on April 26. In addition to his massively successful solo career, Chance lends his talents on other influential albums, such as Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo.” Recently, Chance made headlines when he donated $1 Million to the Chicago Public School system, garnering high praise from another well-known CPS alum, Michelle Obama, who took to Twitter to thank Chance for his generosity, branding him as a leading “example of the power of arts education.”

R&B chart topper, The Weeknd, will be making a stop at San Jose’s SAP Center on Friday, April 28 for part of his first World Tour, Starboy: Legend of the Fall. The award winner’s sophomore album, “Starboy,” was released last November and chronicles the aftermath of the artist’s newfound fame. Tickets are on sale now.

British folk singer, Laura Marling, who just released her sixth studio album, “Semper Femina,” to rave reviews, will be gracing The Fillmore stage in San Francisco on April 30. Marling’s placid stage demeanor, coupled with the richly poetic language of her lyrics, accentuates the hypnotic effect she holds over an audience. Experience the magic, you won’t regret it.

On that same night, iconic American folk singer and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, David Crosby, will be performing at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. In addition to his classic hits, Crosby will be performing songs from his latest solo album, “Croz,” as well as pieces from an upcoming album titled “Sky Trails.” For more information, click here.  

What concerts or events are you most excited for this April? Let us know in the comments section!