In this video I'm going to show you how I've set up my sitting room. Make sure you
stick around, and if you like what you see, make sure to hit subscribe button
below so you don't miss out on future videos.
Hi I'm Will from Will Surridge Tech, and today we're going to be having a look at
my sitting room. In this short video I'm going to show you the kit I use, how I
have it set up, and why. We're going to look at both the smart tech and the
entertainment system. If you stick around until the end I'm going to show you my
favourite app on the TV let's start with the smart tech. Over here we have a Neos
camera pointing out the window at the front door. As you may remember from my
smart home tour this is running the dafang custom firmware - this is to keep
it off the cloud. In here we also have three Philips Hue light bulbs and a Hue Go.
The three light bulbs are controlled by a Philips Hue light switch which I have
stuck on the radiator outside the room. I stuck it there when I first got it as it
was magnetic, and it's just stuck! The main light bulb is a white ambient one and
the 2 in the orbs are both coloured. I have these two and the Hue Ho connected to
my TV using the Ambilight plus Hue capabilities. Speaking of which, let's
have a look at this side of the room. This TV is the Philips Ambilight 55PUS7304.
You may have seen the Ambilight capabilities in my other video.
I originally got this TV because I was interesting the Ambilight functionality
and I have to say it hasn't disappointed. I turned it off the other day just to
see what it was like and I was so surprised by how much I missed it.
I also had to get an Android TV so it's easier to integrate into Home Assistant
and into my Amazon Echo devices. I have to say the smart functionality on this
TV isn't the best, but it does what it's meant to. If you'd like me to do a
complete review of the TV let me know in the comments below.
Now either side of the TV we have the Fyne Audio F300 bookshelf speakers
these are mounted on industrial style scaffolding shelf to match the shelves
at the back of the room. These speakers are great but they do like a little bit
of low end, thankfully this is made up for in my rear speakers. Speaking of
which these are the Tannoy Mercury F3. They're great speakers, sound great, are
reasonably priced and really do help boost the low ends. So here we have the
Sony STR-DH810 AV receiver. It's almost 10 years old now
but it's great - the only reason I would consider upgrading is if I wanted
Dolby Atmos, but there's no point in that until I've got some more speakers in my
setup. Connected to it we have the Xbox up here, and then down on the bottom we have
a lightning cable for a phone and an HDMI to connect a laptop. It's nice to be
able to plug these in and share our screens quickly and easily.
I did have an AirPlay up on the TV but I found it was a bit laggy so although
fine for screen sharing and general browsing it's completely useless for
films. So in terms of this setup of the amp
none of the speakers are bi-wired and there's a calibration feature built into
the amp which uses the remote mic to calibrate the speakers, both volume and
the EQ. Obviously this was very necessary given the size of the front ones
compared to the rears, also given we have our head at this end of the sofa
most of the time. I have the amp emulating surround sound even when it's
not receiving a surround sound signal, it also creates a virtual centre channel to
balance out the audio at the front. It actually saves the sound field mode
depending on which channel input you're assigned to, so for my music input I have
it set to multi stereo that means the same sound plays out of the front
left-right as the rear left right. It means that we can have our background
music much quieter and everyone can hear it at the same volume.
I have the app connected to the TV using a single HDMI ARC connection. ARC - the audio
return channel - means the TV sends audio back down the HDMI to the amp. The TV
would be sending a multi-channel uncompressed surround sound field, this
would be Dolby Atmos but given the amp doesn't receive Dolby Atmos it changes
it to Dolby Digital Plus. By using an AV receiver and an ARC setup it means I've
only got to plug one cable into the TV. It's a lot neater for cables and means I
could house everything back here so we don't need an ugly TV cabinet. I was
originally thinking of going down the Sonos route when I moved in but I'm
really glad I didn't. This has so much more flexibility can give you a true 5.1
surround sound if you want it, or even 7.1, and it's a lot cheaper
especially for a sub. I know you can now hack a Symfonisk speaker to get a sub
output but I just don't think it's the same and it's a real pain in the arse
compared to this setup. Speaking of Sonos, we have the Sonos connect plugged
into this amp this was the first Sonos device that I bought.
I used to have some sync issues but since removing the Sonos bridge and
moving from SonosNet onto Wi-Fi, all of those have stopped. Thankfully this
Connect is compatible with the new S2 coming out soon. On the other shelf I
have a record player. I wanted to have this connects the Sonos system but I
found that the record player itself was outputting so much noise that it
was out of sync with the inherent delay of the Sonos system. This meant it was
just really irritating to listen to in the same room, so what I've done now is
I've connected my record player directly into the amp. This is bypassing the Sonos
system, so it's a shame that I can no longer listen to my record player
throughout the house, but it means when we're in this room I don't have that
annoying delay. I should also mention I've got a Broadlink RM Pro in here.
This is an IR blaster. I haven't got it fully set up yet and definitely don't
have any user interfaces but I have managed to integrate it into home
assistant and learn all the commands for my remotes. And that's it - it's not a
particularly big setup but it's great for what we need it to be. I'd like to
expand at some point with a sub and a centre speaker. I think the centre
speaker is probably more important but it's so difficult to find a centre
speaker that doesn't scream "Hello Home Cinema". Anyway it's great for the
day-to-day watching TV and the odd film. Now I said I'll show you my favourite TV
app so here we go. Technically it's not an app anymore,
technically I now use YouTube, but when I first discovered this it was a separate
app on my fire TV stick. It's the ambient fireplace. I really
missed having a fire in the sitting room so by adding this you can get the same
effect. I know it's not quite the same, and I know it's not going to be for
everyone, but I really enjoy the warming atmosphere that it can create especially
when you link it with Ambilight. When I have it set up I have the fire crackling
effect coming through the TV speakers and then I play my music through the four
surround sound speakers. If you want something a bit brighter then I would
recommend having a look at some live cameras around the world, failing that
you can always get a virtual fish tank! And there we go - a quick overview of my
sitting room, looking at all the kit I have make sure you hit subscribe below
to find out more about my tech and how you can build yourself the ultimate
smart home!
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