All posts by: Ivan Berger

Taming your home theater's cable clutter

Electronics
By Ivan Berger on October 15, 2012 in

Cutting cable clutter

Over the years my home-entertainment system has grown from a turntable, amp, and a pair of speakers to a multi-component home-theater system with surround speakers all around the room. That means a lot more wires and cables. To say it's a challenge to keep all of that neat and organized is an understatement. But it's also not impossible. Here's what to do. Read more

Need a user guide? Here's guidance

By Ivan Berger on August 27, 2012 in

How to find a missing user manual

Sooner or later, you're going to need a user's manual you can't find. Maybe you bought the product used, without one. Maybe you never bothered printing it out from the CD. Maybe you lost it in a basement flood. Maybe it's in a Good Safe Place that you've forgotten. Maybe you even threw it out with the unit's packaging ("What really hurts," said the guy who signed the check for the last instruction manual I wrote, "is that most of the guys who get this gizmo won't read the manual -- won't even open it." ). Whatever. All you know for sure is that you need the manual, and you need it now. Read more

Making the Olympics sound more real than reality

By Ivan Berger on July 31, 2012 in

It takes some sonic trickery to capture the sound of Olympic rowers

Sport is never silent. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the "oof!" of a tennis pro connecting with the ball help us feel present -- even if, like the millions of us watching on TV, we're not. Yet even when we're at the event, we don't hear it all. In stadium sports, the cries of fans drown out the sounds on the field. At rowing events, the creak of oars and the gurgle of water, are muffled by distance or drowned by the noise of camera-copters. Viewers of this year's televised Olympics, though, will hear far more of it. At many events they'll be immersed in sounds that bring home the reality of sport as never before -- sounds never heard by live spectators and sometimes not even by participants.

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