Featured Project

Surge Protection/UPS

Power protection is one of those things that home-theater shoppers often overlook until it’s too late. You don’t need to look far to find someone with a horror story about losing an expensive TV or AV receiver to a power surge during a thunderstorm. It’s better to be prepared than to risk having to buy the same piece of home theater equipment twice.

Surge protection comes in a variety of types, from iron-poor transformers to circuit breakers and capacitors. All kinds work, but to varying degrees, and this is an area where you really do get what you pay for. Picking out a protector system that suits you is a matter of balancing the cost of the system with the cost of losing data or electronic equipment. The key piece of information to look for is a surge protector’s Underwriters Laboratories (UL) rating: If a product doesn’t have a UL rating, it might not even have any protection capability at all! A common mistake for a first-time power-protection buyer is to buy something that looks exactly like a surge strip but is actually just an extension cord with multiple sockets. To ensure at least the minimum level of power protection and safety, ensure that the UL rating is for a Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor.

Also ensure that your surge protector has an indicator light. Surge protectors (especially inexpensive ones) will wear out over time or after repeated surges and an indicator light will tell you if the protection components are still functioning or if the surge protector needs to be replaced.

For inexpensive electronics equipment, a lower-priced surge strip will provide adequate protection. For a full home theater, however, you might want to consider a surge station or even an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). For the highest-end home theater setups, consider a line conditioning power center. It will provide high-level general surge protection as well as signal interference reduction and constant voltage monitoring and readouts.

A good power conditioner can make a positive difference by eliminating or at least reducing the cause of the signal degradation. Another way to phrase it is that a good power protection unit enables your system to perform to its maximum capabilities by eliminating or reducing power problems that impact A/V signal quality. Without these power anomalies, a power conditioner will not magically make things better. On the other hand, a poorly designed device can, in fact, degrade quality by injecting more noise into the system or by reducing signal strength of AV signals traveling over satellite, antenna or coax lines. Some inappropriate conditioners can even cause dangerous situations, especially those lacking a UL, CSA or other regulatory listing.

We recommend and supply surge protection/UPS for every situation. Pictures below include in-wall, outlet plug, power strip, stand alone, flat panel, and rack mount surge protectors and UPS’s.