Planning for your Entertainment system

Each project begins with a consultation, either in-store for a new build or large renovation, or on-site for renovations to an existing home either way ideally with one of our installation team members.  This is to better understand your requirements and the AV and control direction you wish to head in. We will comprehensively discuss various ideas, uses of technology, your budget, the project time line and advise you of “future proofing” for emerging technologies.
If you are wanting to incorporate your existing equipment into a new system, we can make this happen, and advise which components are likely to be compatible, or easily Integratable to a solution we may provide.

Within a consult we discuss a few things which include some of the style of solutions we can provide:

Home Theatre
Like the idea of having your own home cinema room, gaming room or media room with a flat screen TV or projector?
Then our experienced team of installers can design a system to meet your needs and budget. We create amazing spaces that take you away from reality and places you in the latest blockbuster or classic movie. This can be done by installing various home theatre components and a surround sound system to truly immerse you in what you’re Playing, listening to or watching.
Sometimes, the installation is so tidy that the Home Theatre isn´t visible at all. Often, when people think of a ‘Home Theatre’, they think soft drapes, large projection screens, theater seating, and huge speakers. While this is all very impressive, it is not always the case, a huge percentage of the solutions we provide are a theatre solution designed for a living space, not just a dedicated room.

Stereo Systems
Are you after a stereo that works for you and the Music styles you enjoy and is designed to suit your home’s space and aesthetic. Whether you are after Streaming Music, Through the likes of Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, soundcloud, etc. Using a Turntable, Cd player, Digital Music like DSD, DXD, Flac, WAV, Mp3 etc. We can help design a system to suit your needs and expectations.

Multi-Room Audio/Video Systems
We can discuss the possibility of distributing Audio and Video throughout your home. This may be for a second living room with a TV and some speakers, for an outdoor space, or a full HD/UHD distributed picture and sound solution.
Want to listen to your favorite tunes in any room of the house? How does clicking on a Spotify playlist on your smart phone and listening to music through your gym ceiling speakers whilst you hit the treadmill sound? Well we can do just that and so much more.
We can custom install a bespoke audio video solution to meet your requirements and specifications. We can professionally install in-ceiling, in-wall or freestanding speakers throughout your home with the appropriate amplifiers and equipment to control it.

Structured Cabling
Structured Wiring is a general term given to the centralized wiring and distribution of aerial, Sky, telephone and data cabling. The idea is to give you control over the different services around your home. We can discuss the idea of base distribution of TV (aerial + sat feed) and phone around your home. This distribution gives you control over the different services around your home. Because everything is centralized, you are able to change the configuration fairly quickly, with minimal cost. We can wire a new home to allow you to move your Sky decoder in to another room, while sharing the Sky channels with other TV’s.

Commercial Solutions
Cafes, Restaurants, Board rooms and Meeting rooms can be some of the hardest spaces to manage sound.
Typically these solutions require a combination of well designed speaker placement and sound management in the form of paneling.
Cafes and resteraunts are at the opposite end of the scale to Boardrooms and meeting rooms, but both use and require a a similiar approach.
A good clear sound, even throughout the space and not at an overwhelming volume. We have many a solution out there at number of well know locations around NZ.

Home + Small Business networks
With the changing world of required internet connectivity, We can install and design wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) network systems to meet all your home, garden, office or business requirements. We prewire through New builds and Renovations and can in some homes retrofit cabling and systems to suit you needs.
We can help with the distribution of a home network to ensure fast internet feeds to your main AV gear, TV’s and strong Wi-Fi signal throughout your home. With the cost of high speed internet tumbling and its speed increasing, more and more services and service providers are relying on an internet connection to communicate, update and better manage everything from your Sky connection to your CD collection. Internet radio and downloadable movies are growing in popularity among those familiar with computers. Even in your traditional stereo system there are readily available CD players that download artist and track information from the internet automatically as you insert the disk to make music selection faster, easier and more enjoyable.

Things to consider:

As anyone who has ever built a house can tell you, good planning is an essential part of any new home build. The scope of a modern house means that many of the various elements are handled by specialists; a plumber to handle getting water and drainage around the place, a sparky to help get the electrical service around safely, a painter to handle the painting, This is also true with AV based solutions having a team that deals with the products and solutions on a daily basis, and not just as an add on to a quote.

Common problems:

One of the most important things to keep in mind is to ensure that not only are current needs catered for, but the ability to remain flexible and expand the system is allowed for, while keeping a good eye on the overall resource requirements. Running just enough cable to get a basic system going may look very cost effective on paper, but it means that the home will have one system in it – the current one – and will likely not be able to evolve at all to meet any future needs without a much larger injection of money at a later stage.. Running heaps of cable everywhere isn’t a solution either, because while the ‘just in case’ mentality is beneficial in small doses, you will end up spending potentially large amounts of resources on kilometers of cable that will never be used.

We can help:

With proper planning, a specialist will sit down and get an understanding of how the spaces will be used, and how the you expects these to operate. This will allow us to look at a set of building plans, and drawing upon our industry wisdom and experience, provide some options that cater to the vision in mind.

Pre-Wiring

What is Pre-Wiring?

Pre-Wiring is specific cabling is run for your current (and future) Networking, control, stereo, home theatre, audio and video needs.
The Pre-Wiring process is similar to the way your electrician runs cabling for your lighting and power requirements, though it is a specialist field with a very different planning, cabling and installation process.

The Pre-Wiring Process:
In your home, all Audio and Visual cables are run “point to point” for specific planned outcomes so the planning and pre-wiring process should be done by a specialist installer with an intimate working knowledge of the products likely to be installed.

Get this process right and the flexibility, functionality and value you can add to your home is obvious; get it wrong and your entire investment could be wasted.

At The Listening Post, we ensure that all of your music, home theatre, aerial, phone, data, and control systems are properly catered for (planning and wiring). Our focus is not about just running a few cables; it’s about planning for your current and likely future needs and cabling for these logical outcomes.

The Benefits:
The Listening Post has been wiring for solutions for over 20 years, enabling customer whose homes were wired a decade ago to take full advantage all the latest appliances. With the proper planning, advances in technology can be easily and cost effectively adopted.

So come in and chat with one of our knowledgeable sales staff; in as little as 30 minutes, we can get a good understanding of what you are after, as well as give you a basic understanding of the types of systems that are becoming standard for new homes.

Installation

Who better to install, setup and get the very best out of your investment than the organization that designed the system?

We offer a polished, professional standard of installation in mid to high end residential homes.

We provide a one stop solution to our customers, from concept to commissioning, and all of the small steps in between, to help maximize your investment (large or small). We also offer services for installation of Televisions, projectors, and home theaters.

We can work along side your architect, builder and interior designer and have a great relationship with some of the most established and well known organizations in Canterbury and the Greater Wellington Area. Contact us to find out more

Need to make your system easier to operate? We deal with a number brands and have a range of solutions to give you a great system that is easy to operate. We prewire through new builds and renovations, and can in some homes retrofit cabling and systems to suit your needs. We can program new systems and set these up for you to enjoy. We can help you choose between various custom control options for your home theatre or home automation.

When you want AV, Music in one room or more, there needs to be some thought about how you would wish to control everything. If you just need a simple volume control, Just having control over volume may not always be enough. Often cheap enough to implement but frequently overlooked, the extra control is appreciated when you are entertaining your guests , have house guests, house sitters, or monitoring your home whilst on holiday.
Options range from ‘simple’ learning remotes that can clone any of your existing remotes to full featured wireless touch screens and APP control. Control your TV and Blu-ray player, or control all of your home’s integrated systems – all from the palm of your hand.

Need to make your system easier to operate? We can help by integrating your existing Smart devices to make your home a Smart home. We deal with a number brands and have a range of solutions to give you a great system that is easy to operate. We prewire through new builds and renovations, and can in some homes retrofit cabling and systems to suit your needs. We csan program new systems and set these up for you to enjoy.

Some solutions and services we offer include:

• RTi, Elan, URC and Pro control solutions.
• Commercial and domestic work undertaken.
• Line of sight, RF and Wi-Fi based solutions.
• Hard wired keypad options.
• Whole home automation/integration.
• Control AV, TV’s, lights, blinds, HVAC, air conditioning, pool pumps, irrigation, access control, intercoms and more.
• Fully installed and programmed to suit your system.
• Run you through operation and use.
• Free walk-through and assessment.

General Setup

This is a basic service to connect up and setup your stereo or AV equipment, with the aim to get the best out of your equipment. This is best done by us with equipment we retail as we have far more hands on experience with the intricacies. but, we can help with any brands and models with best inten

Fault Finding

Did you know that we have a fault finding service? This, depending on the situation, is either a problem with an existing system or a system that requires some sort of set-up to get it performing better.
If there is a problem in a system we have a vast array of testing equipment for networks, HDMI, phones, aerials and more. With this arsenal, we can track down a fault in your system and be able to provide a solution to resolve the fault.
If it is an electronic fault, or a piece of equipment, we would first refer to our repair section or take it to repair ourselves, or supply you with a new replacement option depending on the equipment’s age.
Further to this, most warranties are a return to base warranty. Which is purchasers cost to get the potentially faulty items to where they were purchased from or dedicated repair agent. 
We offer the Service to come in and test and confirm the faults as well as the removal and reinstall if required. As there are times we have seen over the years were other products connected may be causing the issues, or incorrect connections, setup or operation are the causes. 

System Tuning

With the extensive knowledge we have acquired since being in business, we know how important it is to liase with our customers during every part of the installation process.
Our technicians can be made readily available to provide you with any assistance you require. We can also work on your system to maximise your existing equipment and speakers. We can also assist with complicated home theatre set-ups, two channel stereo set-ups and multi-room audio set-ups.

This can involve:

• Going over your systems connections (inputs and outputs) and streamline your systems signal flow.
• Run through amplifier microphone setup.
• Use software for room correction or tuning
• Go over speaker placement, distance to wall and toe in (for floor standing/bookshelf speakers)
• Go through amplifier audio settings if applicable, customise to your setup.
• Go through video processing settings in sources, amp and TV/projector to optimise room.
• Go through sound settings in sources and amp to make adjustments for your room.
• Go through sub placement and DSP setup.
• Use demo movies, CD’s and streamed music to fine tune the whole system.
• Run you through using your system.

Over the years we have grown the technology we use when making installations. In addition to using their well-trained eyes and ears, our installers use other techniques to maximise your system. These include laser measuring, SPL meters, laptops + software, microphones, light meters and specialist cable tracing and testing hardware. 

This service may lead to recommendations for new electronics, speakers, control and sources. This would then require additional time from our installers to make these new improvements. To get compatible displays to an ISF standard, we refer to our friends at Masterpiece Calibration.

Ensuring correct cabling is run for the outcome you are after in your home can be difficult to ensure without using a specialist. We often come
across situations where the cabling in place is no way suitable for the end solution.
If you wish to under take this yourself or if you have a tradesperson you trust to do this. Bring your plans in store, and we can discuss end
outcomes for your AV needs. From this discussion we can formulate a wiring plan for you or your trades person to undertake.

From these plans we can also quote for the Electronics, labour and parts to undertake this on your behalf, as it is often not as expensive as
This service usually takes between 1-3 working days depending on the complexity involved.

This is for plan/instructions only, we do not take responsibility for quality, quantity or lengths of cabling actually run in your home.

Below are some Images from Work we have been involved with over the Years