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What to Watch on Netflix in February

January 31, 2017

Once again, Netflix is rolling out fresh, original content for the new month. And once again, we at Blackfire Research are excited. Is this list of new shows and movies worthy of your surround sound system? There’s only one way to find out.

Coming up for full streaming on February 3 is the debut season of the Netflix Original Series “Santa Clarita Diet.” Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant star as Sheila and Joel in this dark, offbeat comedy about a pair of LA realtors whose lives take a sudden, unusual turn after their daughter makes a huge life decision.

Watch the Trailer here:

On February 10, “Abstract: The Art of Design,” a Netflix Original Documentary Series, premieres. This series will explore modern art and will give viewers an in-depth look into how artists render computer design, as well as contemporary art inspired by the computer age. Special guests will include some of the world’s most prolific designers and artists. Also on February 10, British actor and comedian, Ricky Gervais, reprises his role as hopelessly awkward David Brent, former branch manager of a midsized paper supplier company, Wernam Hogg. Now, years later, Brent is back in “David Brent: Life on the Road.” This “mockumentary” film follows Brent on tour with his new band, exclusively on Netflix.

Watch the Trailer here:

Another film is premiering this month on Netflix beginning February 24. “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore” was picked up by the streaming giant from The Sundance Film Festival. Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood play Ruth and Tony, neighbors who decide to track down local thieves after Ruth is burglarized. However they soon find out they are dangerously in over their heads against a gang of criminals.

These are some of the Netflix shows and movies debuting in Feburary. For a complete list of upcoming Netflix content for 2017, click here.

The CES Wrap Up

January 17, 2017

The Tech

Blackfire Research

Blackfire Research kicked off 2017 in Viva Las Vegas to participate in the world’s largest, annual consumer electronics trade show, CES. At the start of each year, CES (and roughly 4,000 exhibiting companies) takes over the Las Vegas Strip, showcasing the latest in hi-tech innovations and prototypes for technology of the future. The exhibition floors were abuzz with the soon-to-be year’s hottest trends: unbelievably thin TVs, autonomous vehicles, multi-screen gaming laptops, Virtual Reality headsets, and – in what tech bloggers are dubbing “The Amazon Home Takeover,” – a wide range of smart home appliances, such as toasters, washer & dryer units, refrigerators, security systems, fans, and more, all aided by Amazon’s voice-activated speaker – Alexa.

As exciting and eye-catching as the exhibition floors were, we at Blackfire couldn’t get too distracted, for we were on a mission to present the industry’s best wireless audio solutions for a wide variety of home entertainment systems and applications.

Over the course of four days, Blackfire held meetings at a suite in the luxurious Venetian, with global industry leaders, partners, investors, and old friends, to demonstrate why we are setting the standard for wireless home entertainment. Among those who visited our suite was Arabian Prince, founding member of the rap group NWA, and driving force behind INNOV8 NEXT. As you may recall, this past November, Arabian and Blackfire’s founder and CEO, Ravi Rajapakse, sat together on a panel to discuss innovation in the music industry at the annual Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

This year at CES, Blackfire had plenty to boast, unveiling not one, but three wireless solutions ready for product integration: Blackfire MA – a cost-effective wireless audio solution for smartphones and multiroom music systems; Blackfire MXD – delivering high-resolution multiroom music with native GoogleCast Audio and Spotify Connect support; and Blackfire IXD – the industry’s first low-latency Wi-Fi surround sound solution enabling smart TVs and set top boxes to deliver the ultimate home theater experience. Blackfire IXD also supports multiroom media streaming, transforming the smart TV or set top box into a whole home media center.

In addition to presenting our audio solutions upstairs at the Venetian, we had the opportunity to visit products with Blackfire’s patented streaming technology on display downstairs at the Onkyo/Pioneer booth. The Onkyo SBT-A500 Network Surround Sound Bar System, The Pioneer SC-LX701 Network A/V Receiver, and the Pioneer MRX-3 Wireless Speaker all proudly displayed the Blackfire Logo. CES also revealed a new, Blackfire enabled 6.1-Channel A/V Receiver and Object-Based Surround Sound Bar from luxury consumer audio company, Integra.

At the Harman/Kardon floor in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, we caught a glimpse of the wireless HD Audio line, The Omni+ Series, featuring Blackfire’s patented streaming technology. Recently, the Omni 10+ and the Omni 20+ were joined by the Omni Soundbar System, a 2.1 channel soundbar with a wireless subwoofer, powered by Blackfire wireless streaming technology.
So, at the end of a long, but successful conference, the Blackfire Team had plenty to celebrate (over margaritas) before packing up “The Beast” and heading back to San Francisco. Here’s to a great start to 2017!

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Blackfire Research @ International CES

January 3, 2017

The Tech

Blackfire Research

It’s that time of year again – The Consumer Technology Association’s annual International Consumer Electronics Show (International CES) is back in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 5-8. International CES is the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, boasting more than 165,000 attendees from 150 countries and showcasing “more than 3,800 exhibiting companies, including manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, and technology delivery systems.” (ces.tech)

This year, we will be exhibiting Blackfire IXD, the first ever WiFi compliant low-latency surround sound technology for TVs and Set top boxes. The exciting news for consumers is that Blackfire IXD finally makes real the promise of banishing cables – and unnecessary speaker boxes – from your living room. And no matter what new streaming technology comes along next – like Spotify Connect, Apple Airplay, Amazon Alexa, Google Cast or even future Apple Siri speakers – you will be able to play it all on the same set of Blackfire IXD wireless speakers that give your TV immersive surround sound.

What makes Blackfire IXD unique is a patented technology that allows a SmartTV to use a home’s standard WiFi to send wireless signals to surround sound speakers in the living room. Conventional multiroom “wireless” music systems still require a cable connection from the TV, and even then, many will only support a soundbar – so they are not truly independent left, center and right channels. This is because they introduce a delay into the audio stream – which causes a highly annoying “lip sync” mismatch between what you hear and what you see on the screen.

Other systems create their own, closed, non-wifi compliant networks to reduce the delay. However, this often causes interference with your wifi network (i.e. your TV might sound OK, but the Netflix WiFi stream is being interrupted by your non-compliant speakers.)

Blackfire IXD (2.4Ghz/5Ghz) produces the industry’s best synchronization and latency performance for multiroom music streaming and multichannel surround sound configuration, and supports lossless and lossy audio compression, as well as up to 32bit / 192KHz sample rates. Blackfire IDX can stream either 5.1 or 7.1 as discrete audio channels of lossless, multichannel audio from either cloud streaming services or local files. And like all Blackfire wireless technologies, Blackfire IXD is fully compatible with all Blackfire enabled systems currently on the market.

We are excited to unveil the Blackfire IXD wireless audio solution at CES this week, but that is just the beginning. With 4K video and HD audio on the rise, Blackfire Research will have even more exciting news to announce later in 2017. Stay tuned.

Powered by Blackfire: The Harman/Kardon Omni 20 Wireless Speaker

December 20, 2016

The Tech

Blackfire Research

Blackfire Research is proud to partner with Harman/Kardon – a leading global manufacturer of audio systems – to make the best wireless speakers on the market. Blackfire’s technology can be found in any of Harman’s wireless Omni speakers. Previously, we discussed the Harman/Kardon Omni 10 Wireless HD Loudspeaker. Today, we’ll take another look inside a Harman/Kardon speaker, powered by Blackfire’s patented technology. This time: the Omni 20, a wireless HD stereo loudspeaker.

With a weight of 2125 grams, the Omni 20 is much larger than its predecessor, the Omni 10, and is a more powerful speaker for larger rooms, with a rated power of 4 x 15W. Compared to the smaller, circular shape of the Omni 10, the Omni 20 is an oval, with a width of 260mm.

Like the Omni 10, the Omni 20 allows for multi-room and multi-channel wireless surround sound with a multi-speaker setup. Harman/Kardon’s user-friendly design allows you to enjoy your music from anywhere in your home, all with the touch of a button: enjoy the same song throughout the entire home through “Party Mode,” or Press “Link” on the speaker to continue playing your music on another device. Multi-room and multi-channel wireless audio also lets you play different songs in different rooms.

You can stream music from your smartphone or tablet through the Harman/Kardon controller app, or, take advantage of the Omni 10’s Bluetooth capability by streaming music from your tablet or phone. While using Bluetooth, “the speaker will automatically translate the signal to Wi-Fi…all over your house for a truly flexible whole home audio experience”so you never have to worry about range limitations, dropouts, or low quality audio.

The Omni 20 supports superior, lossless HD audio without synchronization issues, playback lag or dropouts between multiple speakers, and streams up to 24bit/96kHz studio quality sound, all through Wi-Fi.

Harman/Kardon’s Omni 20 wireless HD Stereo Loudspeaker powered by Blackfire comes in either black or white and can be purchased for $299.95 each.

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Blackfire Research Founder, Ravi Rajapakse, Talks at Web Summit

November 7, 2016

Press Releases

Blackfire Research

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 7, 2016 – Blackfire Research, the leading developer of wireless technology for media entertainment consumer products, is partnering with Arabian Prince, founding member of the legendary rap group NWA and veteran technology entrepreneur, to discuss innovations in entertainment technology at Web Summit 2016.

Taking place in Lisbon, Portugal from November 7-10, 2016, Web Summit 2016 is the largest technology conference in Europe with 50,000 attendees and more than 7,000 international CEOs. During the conference, a music panel session entitled “Innovate or Die featuring Ravi Rajapakse and Arabian Prince” will take place on November 10, 2016, 14:40-15:00pm GMT, and will stream live worldwide on social media at www.facebook.com/WebSummitHQ.

Ravi Rajapakse, the founder and CEO of Blackfire Research, has has been a Silicon Valley entrepreneur for over 20 years at a series of successful companies specializing in wireless technologies. He has a background in engineering and over 30 Patents. He has also been building music systems from a young age and is an avid music enthusiast. Since NWA, Arabian Prince has been entrenched in technology ventures from developing a successful 3D animation and special effects studio, to most recently launching a technology incubator and innovation center in Silicon Beach called Inov8 Next.

“As the entertainment spectrum continues to evolve, from content and platforms, to delivery and consumption, seamless user experiences have become essential,” says Ravi Rajapakse. “Over the past decade, Blackfire Research has played a key role in helping to radically improve the quality, reliability and performance of wireless technologies so they can deliver that seamless, whole home entertainment experience users will expect. It is exciting to look ahead to what innovations this will enable over the next decade.”

“Just in the past few years, we’ve seen an accelerated growth in entertainment technology on both the audio and video front,” says Arabian Prince, founder of Inov8 Next. “Between music, television, film, gaming, virtual reality and so on, the opportunities are endless when it comes to advancements in technology for the broad media entertainment landscape.”

For more information about Blackfire Research or Inov8 Next, please visit www.bfrx.com and www.inov8next.com respectively; Web Summit 2016, please visit www.websummit.net

About Blackfire Research

Founded in 2006, Blackfire Research (www.bfrx.com) develops wireless software technology and hardware solutions for high-performance, wireless home entertainment systems. Blackfire Research is built on patented Internet Protocol technologies designed to wirelessly stream media to multiple devices simultaneously over standard Wi-Fi. Through partnerships with global, industry leaders, Blackfire creates products that allow movie, TV, and music lovers to wirelessly create the home entertainment experience they desire.

About Inov8 Next

Inov8 Next (www.inov8next.com) is a product innovation incubator and technology center based in Los Angeles, California. The brainchild of founder Arabian Prince, Inov8 Next empowers the brightest inventors by leveraging the power of industry experience, strategic resources and advanced mentorship. Inov8 Next is on a mission to build the next generation of technology inventors, innovations and products, transforming ideas and concepts into tangible solutions. Underwritten by the world’s largest technology products distributor Ingram Micro, Inov8 Next is supported and aligned with a broad network of industry partners including Blackfire Research.