Nope.

Remote controls will not be going away but they will be evolving. For the time being no TV maker or cable company will dare to ship a system without a remote. It is all about customer service. For the few bucks a remote costs, they are ensured against most customer service calls: the TV or entertainment device HAS to work out of the box. They can’t afford to have the consumer return the device because they can’t figure out how to change the channel or raise the volume with the smart phone.

For this they need a remote that is proven to work for the device. Yes, in addition to the remote, your device can be programmed via the net. However, TV makers and cable companies do not want to provide customer service on your iPhone or smartphone. Because of this need to have the device work out of the box, tens of millions of remotes will continue to be shipped every year. One service call can equal or surpass the price of the remote control device.

Here is another reason you need a remote.

What happens when you are on the phone and your kids or significant other wants to change the channel? Are you going to hand them your phone? Probably not. Imagine you are going out for the evening and the babysitter wants to watch TV. Are you going to let her have access to your web connection? Most people will not leave the phone at home while they are out. So, not having a remote control just does not make sense.

Remote controls are not going to disappear.

However though, remote controls are evolving – away from IR to RF (more specifically to Zig-Bee RF4CE). Many industry players have already signaled the switch over. For example, interactive RF4CE remotes are already shipping with Comcast’s new Xfinity set top boxes and Sony TV’s in Japan.

Comcast’s RF4CE remote controls are including both RF and IR transmitters. Consumers can use them to control the new generation of TVs and set-top boxes as well as older BluRay and DVD players, internet streaming boxes, etc. However, in a few years, as IR disappears, more and more remotes will be RF only.

Sony is using RF4CE with their new TV sets to enable their users to easily order and purchase items they see on TV. They don’t need a computer or phone. It is all done via the RF4CE remote.

Why are RF based remotes better than IR remotes?

RF is all about radio – using ZigBee RF4CE – which is very similar to Wi-Fi in range, reliability, security, etc. RF based remotes signal can penetrate walls, cabinets, floors, furniture, etc. This means no more pointing of the remote at a small IR sensor on your TV or set top box and hoping that it will work. The set top box can be hidden away in a closet or home entertainment cabinet. The radio signal will penetrate the wood and enable the user to control all the TV and set-top boxes functions.

RF4CE remotes support interactivity. This is one of the top reasons that cable companies are moving to RF4CE now. One of the biggest problems that cable companies face is that their subscribers have a hard time configuring their cable company supplied remote with the control codes for rest of their home entertainment hardware. This is even worse with new gear that they go out and purchase after their cable box is installed.

RF4CE’s interactivity enables the cable company to download the new control codes to the set-top box which then transmits them to the remote control. Voila. The cable remote can now control other devices. No more researching esoteric IR control codes and then laboriously punching them in one by one to find a code that actually works.

Cable companies are also interested in RF4CE’s exceptionally low power demand. Eliminating the need to change batteries reduces service calls associated with out of power remotes, which interestingly enough are a significant percentage of the total number of calls. It also means that end users no longer need to change or recharge batteries. Because of that, there is no need for battery compartment doors., resulting in more elegant remote control designs.

In addition to easy configuration and reduction of remote control service complaints, cable companies are looking to the future and their very existence.

Much has been said about the migration away from cable to web based entertainment. In order to fight loss of subscribers, cable companies need to offer new engaging and highly valuable services. These can include home security, energy monitoring and management, environment control, home health monitoring, etc. All of these applications, feeding into the cable companies set top box, can be controlled and monitored via the interactivity feature of the ZigBee RF4CE remote control.

Other features are targeted to the home user. One cool feature that uses RF4CE interactivity is the new “Find My Remote” button. Push the Find My Remote button on the TV set or cable box and your missing remote starts beeping and flashing, making it a lot easier to find.

New motion controlled remotes will let users escape the drudgery of having to click though programming guides. Instead, using the remote like a wireless mouse, they can easily scroll up, down, sideways, to navigate their entertainment and control options.

How many of us still rely on keyboard commands for our computing? It is mostly mouse and movement driven. The same evolution will come to remote controls. IR will not support that level of interactivity and motion sophistication but RF4CE surely can.

Prepare for a new generation of easy to use radio powered remote controls that interact and interface with the set-top box to manage and control entertainment and home automation capabilities.

Diving equipment is more complex than some people think. For the most part, people think if you’ve got an adequate air supply and flippers on your feet, you’re set for diving. Wrong. I suppose this approach would work for the casual scuba enthusiast, but there’s a lot more equipment needed for a proper dive than a tank and flippers. If you’re going to get serious about diving, here are all the pieces of equipment you’ll be needing, and why.

Tank or Rebreather – this is, obviously, the single most important piece of gear you’ll be needing on a dive. A tank provides you with a good supply of compressed air so you can breathe. Unless you suddenly evolve gills, you’ll need a good air supply for scuba. Rebreathers are small electronic devices that are more expensive then tanks, but they have the advantage of lightness and compactness over a regular tank. Rebreathers actually recycle the air used by a diver, reintroducing oxygen into it.

Masks – there are several different types of masks, and you can pretty much pick and choose from which type you want. Goggles are the smallest and simplest mask type to use, while others have integral snorkels for breathing in shallow water. Aside from these simple eyegear affairs, there are also full face masks with integral communication gear that allows you to talk to other people while diving via a built in radio comm unit. These are the preferred types of masks to use for deep extended dives, as some models of full face masks also include low light vision lenses, and these are essential for traversing depths which aren’t penetrated by sunlight.

Thermal Suit – diving gets COLD. A full body suit is necessary for serious diving endeavours. These rubberized suits are full body wrapping outfits that not only help with thermal insulation, they also help to avoid abrasions if the diver’s skin encounters rough surfaces, especially coral. Getting mugged by a jellyfish is also not a pleasant experience if all you’re wearing underwater is your skin. Another note, the pressure applied by a wet suit can also prevent bleeding from small wounds incurred underwater. This is essential for those who like swimming where sharks hang out, unless you enjoy being a snack for Jaws and his buddies.

Weighted Plates – contrary to the popular belief of those people who can’t swim, people do NOT sink like rocks when thrown into the water. The human body is naturally buoyant, and will float in water, especially salt water. To this end, divers need to carry different sorts of weights to adjust their depth when they’re diving.

Fins and Diving Motors – for propulsion underwater, you’ll need either fins or, for those who want to conserve their energy, you can buy a Diver Propulsion Device, which is an electric motor driven device that you hold onto. It is roughly the size of a large vacuum cleaner, and basically does the swimming for you.

Gauges – you’ll need a compass for navigation underwater, along with underwater pressure gauges and an electronic depth measurer to make sure you don’t go too deep and encounter pressures that may cause you decompression sickness.

Dive Markers – these are floating buoys that you need to set to let people on the surface know where you’re diving. This is essential for safety in case you run into problems underwater, as well as providing a means for passing boats to know there’s a diver in the area, which lessens the chances of bonking your head on a passing ship’s hull when you surface.

Handheld sonar and Light – for navigation in extremely dark areas, as well as for diving at depths where sunlight from the surface no longer penetrates, having an underwater sonar and a portable electric light source is a must.

Underwater Buoys and Line Markers – aside from surface buoys for marking where you are for passing ships and boats, underwater dive buoys also help you to navigate underwater, marking territories which you may want to come back to later so you don’t get lost, as well as letting other divers in the vicinity know that you’re around.

First Aid Kit – diving equipment shops will offer specialized first aid kits for treating injuries that may happen underwater. Having this kit with you is a must, as well as taking lessons in their use.

Miscellaneous Tools – having a knife, waterproof camera, lines of wire with electronic reels, a dry box for your wallet, phone, etc, and a gunny sack for holding things you nab from underwater is also something to remember. These little knick knacks aren’t really necessary for a successful dive, but they come in handy.

Quite recently, devices like TV players have emerged with varied features and prices. Perhaps, the most popular of these are those under the range of ‘Android TV Box’, since Android has become one of the most popular operating systems in electronic devices today. While Android offers several TV players in different prices and with numerable advanced features, the most handy and likeable of these is the smallest model, MK802 Smart HD player. This is only 25% in size when compared to a regular TV player. Just about twice as big as a USB drive, it can be attached to the back of a television and thus easily hidden. The size makes it very easy to carry and to transport without the requirement of additional space or precautionary measures.

This mini PC transfers data to the television via an HDMI cable. Powered by a USB cable, which is provided with the TV player, it is rather simple and easy to use, thus being perfect for you even if you are not particularly tech-savvy. Since it has a regular USB port, it allows the convenience of connecting a mouse or a portable keyboard with it if you would prefer so, though these are not included in the package. This USB port also allows the easiest data transfer, since you can simply connect this little device to your computer and copy files on to it. You can also directly use its SD memory card to copy files, which allows up to 32GB of pictures and videos. Moreover, it does not carry an Ethernet port but can easily be connected to WIFI to gain web access. With simplified yet modern features, it is a device that is easy to use and to understand.

As for the technicalities, the mini PC has a RAM of 512 MB with an internal memory of 4GB. Most audio and video formats are supported by it, so you do not have to go through changing the formats of files before you can watch them on your TV. Also, since the system is the latest 4.0 Android, it allows applications like Youtube, Twitter and Skype, enabled by wireless internet support.

At 0.2 KGs, it is a very handy device that does not need to be overly protected. The average price of MK802, currently, is set at $70 approximately. With its advanced features and perfect portability, it is a bargain at $70. Not only does it carry the qualities of most of the other TV players in the Android TV Box Series, but it is also easier to use than most, thus perfect for domestic users who want to transfer content from their computers to their television. The package includes a HMDI cable, a USB cable, a connector and a power charger. It is complete with an instruction manual to ensure perfect, guided usage.

Not many people think about the origins of harnessing the energy of the sun when the battery in their iPod or cell phone begins to die. They just open the high efficiency solar cell blades on their solar battery charger and draw the free, inexhaustible energy of the sun into their solar powered electronic devices. It’s unlikely that once their electronic device is charged, that they contemplate the sun’s incredible energy; that the energy the sun provides in one minute can supply the world’s energy for one year, or that the sun can provide more energy than the world’s population could consume in 27 years. They don’t realize as they listen to their iPod on the beach, or call for a tow truck with their cell phone, that the sun, which provided the energy to charge their electronic device, has been providing this energy to the earth for the last 4 billion years.

Thankfully, being aware of these facts is not necessary in order to enjoy the benefits of solar battery chargers, or any type of solar powered electronics. Either does knowing that the journey that brought us to today’s solar energy technology began in the year 1767, with the physicist Horace Benedict de Saussure.

Due to the increased use of glass during the eighteenth century, the French-Swiss scientist Horace Benedict de Saussure became aware of the ability of glass to trap solar heat. While many of his contemporaries preferred to work with burning mirrors, which could burn objects at a distance or melt the hardest metal within seconds, de Saussure set out to determine how effectively glass heat traps could collect the energy of the sun by building the Western world’s first solar collector.

When de Saussure created what was to become the first solar oven, he had tried several designs before determining that a well-insulated box with three layers of glass to trap outgoing thermal radiation created the most heat. The highest temperature he reached was 230° F, which he found did not vary significantly when the box was carried from the top of Mt. Cramont in the Swiss Alps down to the Plains of Cournier, 4,852 feet below in altitude and 34° F above in temperature, thereby establishing that the external air temperature played no significant role in this solar heating effect.

Although not many people are aware of Horace Benedict de Suassure and his groundbreaking experiments involving solar energy collection, they certainly have him to thank for pioneering the harnessing of this environmentally friendly source of energy. This along with the development of the earliest version of the solar oven, which is still the most energy efficient, and pollution-reducing oven in use today has demonstrated the benefits of harnessing this benign source of energy. Without the experiments of Horace Benedict de Suassure they may have never been the creation of the photovoltaic cell at Bell Laboratories in 1954, or the development of the solar chargers, solar battery chargers, or solar powered electronics that we use today.

The best earphone cable tidies and mobile phone charger flex clips are conceived and manufactured with the end user in mind. Tested in real environments alongside other cord clips on the market they are ergonomic and work well. Cables wind on and off easily and secure in the notches. They are pliable, gripping your leads and feeling pleasingly flexible in your hand. The best cable tidies won’t poke into you when you have it in your jacket pocket. The best shape would hold a good piece of flex without being too big and difficult to use and it’s thin design would easily slip into your pocket and be light so it won’t pull when worn attached to your earphones.

Some earphone cable tidies are available in green, white or pink, colors which will go with any mood and can be bought in bundles of 1, 2 or 3, so you can have a choice of color and size or gift one to a fellow audiophile. Laptop cable clips make an ideal present for a man or a woman for an anniversary, birthday or Christmas; make sure you get a mobile phone charger flex winder which is just the right size for their MP3 player head phones. It can also keep the charging cable for their mobile and other personal electronic items neat and hidden away. A large size is ideal for longer cables such as those found on studio headphones, laptops and computers, as outlined in this article. The ideal headphone wire clip is light, strong, kind to your cables and available in several colors.

What you need is a cable tidy which is light and small enough to keep on the lead on your ear phones while you are wearing them. The ideal laptop cable winder is not heavy, is tough, kind to your flexes and available in several colors. It can easily be hidden and will hold a large amount of cable so you can wind it on for storage and transport and unwind it when you are using your portable computer. Most internet hubs are now supplied with miles of flex; make sure you get a digi-box wire winder, set-top box cord clip or a wireless router flex clip.

You could buy several to cope with the huge numbers of leads for your internet router. You can use them on any appliance with a cable, wire, lead or charger. Cooling fans, air pumps, airbed inflators, lights, USB wires, PDAs, computer games consoles, as PlayStation wire clips, X-Box cord winders and Wii cord winders.

A recording studio is a provision for sound recording and mixing. Ideally, the space is specially planned by an acoustician to get the desired acoustic properties. Different types of studios record bands and artists, voiceovers and music for television shows, movies, animations, and commercials, and/or even record a complete orchestra. The typical recording studio is made up of a area named the studio, where instrumentalists and vocalists perform; and the control room, which houses the equipment for recording, routing and changing the sound. Often, there will be smaller rooms called isolation boxes present to accommodate loud instruments such as drums or electric guitar, to keep these sounds from being audible to the microphones that are capturing the sounds from other musical instruments or vocalists.

Recording studios generally consist of three rooms: the studio itself, where the sound for the recording is made, the control room, where the sound from the studio is recorded and manipulated, and the machine room, where noisier equipment that may interfere with the recording process is kept. Recording studios are carefully designed around the philosophy of room acoustics to create a set of spaces with the acoustical properties required for recording sound with precision and exactness. This will consist of both room treatment (through the use of absorption and dispersal materials on the surfaces of the room, and also consideration of the physical dimensions of the room itself in order to make the room react to sound in a desired way) and soundproofing (to give sonic isolation between the rooms). A recording studio may include additional rooms, such as a vocal boxes – a small room designed for voice recording, as well as one or more extra control rooms.

Equipment found in a recording studio commonly includes:

Mixing console, multitrack recorder, microphones,reference monitors,keyboards

Equipment may include:

Digital audio workstation, music workstation, on air / recording light, outboard effects, such as compressors, reverbs, or equalizers

All purpose computers have speedily assumed a significant function in the recording development, being able to replace the mixing consoles, recorders, synthesizers, samplers and sound effects devices. A computer thus outfitted is called a Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW. Popular audio-recording software includes FL Studio, Digidesign’s Pro Tools-the industry standard for a large amount studios. Cubase and Nuendo both, MOTU Digital Performer-the standard for MIDI.

Todays software applications are more reliant on the audio recording hardware than the computer they are running on, therefore typical high-end computer hardware is less of a priority.

Project studios

A small, personal recording studio is sometimes called a project studio or home studio. Such studios often cater to tailored needs of an individual artist, or are used as a non-commercial hobby. The first modern project studios came into being during the mid 80’s, with the advent of affordable multitrack recorders, synthesizers and microphones. The phenomenon has flourished with declining prices of MIDI equipment and accessories, as well as reasonably priced digital hard-disk recording products.

Recording drums and electric guitar in a home studio is difficult, because they are usually the loudest instruments. Conventional drums require sound isolation in this scenario, unlike electronic or sampled drums. Getting a genuine electric guitar amp sound including power-tube distortion requires a power attenuator (either power-soak or power-supply based) or an isolation box. A convenient compromise is amp simulation, whether a modelling amp, preamp/processor, or software-based guitar amp simulator. Sometimes, musicians replace loud, inconvenient instruments such as drums, with keyboards, which today often provide somewhat realistic sampling.

An isolation box is a normal small room in a recording studio, which is both soundproofed to keep out external sounds and keep in the internal sounds and like all the other recording rooms in the sound industry it is designed for having a lesser amount of diffused reflections from walls to make a nice sounding room. A drummer, vocalist, or guitar speaker cabinet, along with microphones, is acoustically isolated in the room. A professional recording studio has a control room, a large live room, and one or more small isolation boxes. All rooms are soundproofed such as with double-layer walls with dead space and insulation in-between the two walls, forming a room-within-a-room.

There are variations on a theme, including a portable standalone isolation box, a compact guitar speaker isolation cabinet, or a bigger guitar speaker cabinet isolation box.

A gobo panel does the same idea to a large amount; for example, a drum kit that is too loud in the live room or on stage can have acrylic glass see-through gobo panels placed about it to deflect the sound and keep it from bleeding into the other microphones, allowing more independent control of each instrument channel at the mixing board.

All rooms in a recording studio may have a reconfigurable combination of reflective and non-reflective surfaces, to control the amount of reverberation.

The effects of global warming and a rapidly growing population have impacted depletion of fossil fuels and increased the greenhouse effect. In the last century, there has been a substantial increase in fuel consumption which has led to an increase in the demand of energy all over the world. Nanik Mulchandani has invented and patented an unique energy device which has the ability to generate clean power, whilst also having the ability to effectively be harnessed as a source of mechanical energy for urban and rural transportation.

Addressing common bottlenecks faced by the clean energy industry including scalability, high cost per megawatt, intermittent power supply and difficulties with maintenance; Nanik Mulchandani has taken efforts to develop a green energy device which does not depend on conventional energy sources like sun, water and wind which are existing major options for green power generation.

Nanik Tirath Mulchandani has therefore presented a device related with the apparatus and its mode of operation which can be directly embodied on a vehicle or otherwise for generating power. The object of his invention is to provide energy which may operate without using fossil fuels. His device is a simple design which reduces construction and maintenance costs while successfully meeting generation needs. Nanik Mulchandani’s patented device is in fact, a powerful method of generating electricity through the expansion and contraction of a fluid.

His device comprises of cylindrical chambers, heat capsule, piston, crankshaft, gear box and electrical connector which are externally linked. The apparatus invented by Nanik Mulchandani includes a volumetric amplifier connected to a patented cylindrical container filled with liquid mercury. This amplifier is connected to a specific gear box and externally connected to an electrical generator. A heat capsule connected to the mercury mover receives heat energy from an external source which subsequently causes a change in temperature of such mercury mover.

In addition, Nanik Mulchandani’s apparatus also has the capacity to display changes in temperature, which is indicated by indications on the heat supply from the heat capsule, and decreases in temperature by a cooling effect with water sprays. When heat is received by the capsule, mercury, which is capable of transforming into fluid at 25° Celsius, occupies a greater volume. The effective volume available within the mercury mover being fixed, results in the movement of a piston.

This resultant movement marks the completion of a semi stroke and when connected to a volumetric amplifier, causes hydraulic fluid to flow to the hydraulic cylinder. Further passage of the hydraulic fluid from the outlet/inlet port of the amplifier, results in the piston getting retracted back into said mercury mover chamber which responds to a cooling action of such arrangement. The completion of a stroke, where the piston moves away from the mercury mover chamber in response to the expansion of mercury, is followed by a return stroke wherein the said piston moves towards the mercury mover chamber.

In response to the full stroke, the hydraulic fluid from a secondary hydraulic cylinder flows back into the volumetric expansion chamber through the corresponding outlet/ inlet ports of a secondary hydraulic cylinder.

This process of repeated full strokes results in a repetition of piston movements of the hydraulic cylinder and/or the volumetric amplifier. The eventual rotary movement of a crankshaft connected with a gearbox causes a step-up/step-down of the shaft speed depending on the requirements of an electrical generator.

The output of the gearbox is transferred to the flywheel connected to an electrical generator with the help of a gear arrangement which meshes the output gear of the gearbox and an external gear on the flywheel shaft. The rotation of the external gear results in the rotation of flywheel shaft and thus the flywheel. The flywheel shaft being connected with said electrical generator, results in rotation of the rotor of the electric generator and hence electrical energy is generated.

Volume of mercury is thus enhanced due to absorption of heat energy supplied through the heater. Furthermore, embedded heater is programmed to maintain the heat levels of the mercury, which is injected to the mercury mover. The heating and cooling mechanism of mercury is accordingly carried out in the mercury mover. The mercury mover maintains liquid mercury at required pressure levels, and mercury in the cylindrical chamber is prevented from leaking from the cylinder through a seal with rubber ‘O’ rings.

Nanik Mulchandani claims that his patented device for power generation will reduce the usage of fossil fuels, which could be saved for future generations and also, reduce the greenhouse effect.

Are you looking for a Brother CS6000i review? If you’re a long-time sewer, you will be amazed with how sewing machines have changed with technology. If you’re new to sewing, be grateful that the Brother cs6000i sewing machine is around to make sewing so much easier than your grandmother may have had. I am writing this Brother CS6000i review to open your eyes (like mine were) to what sewing in the 21st century is like.

Since 1932, the “Brother” brand name has been synonymous with reliable, high quality and affordable sewing machines for home users worldwide. Back in September 2012, it was reported that the Japanese company had achieved production of 50 million home sewing machines. On this page, I will be reviewing the Brother CS6000i and talking about the features and specifications of this popular model.

My Brother CS6000i review

Capable of making up to 850 stitches per minute, the Brother CS6000i offers 60 different built-in stitch styles to suit a number of purposes, and even has a backlit LCD screen which, via the press of a button, lets you select and preview the stitch style before you start sewing. The speed is adjustable, giving you total control over how quickly or slowly you want to sew, and for quilts & large garments the included oversized table gives you the extra space needed to help working on your projects as easy and effortlessly as possible.

Packed With Time-Saving Features!

It also has a number of handy time-saving features such as the ability to automatically thread needles (you simply touch a lever on the side and it pushes the thread right through the eye of the needle), and there is an easy to follow numbered diagram that’s printed on the sewing machine for quick and easy threading. The built-in free arm makes light work of cuff and sleeve sewing work, and if you can only sew in a dimly-lit room, the Brother CS6000i fixes this problem thanks to its really bright light that shines the sewing area up.

What’s In The Box?

When you open up the box you will be greeted by the sight of your shiny new Brother CS6000i as well as:

• A hard protective case – to help keep your Brother CS6000i in pristine condition.
• An oversized table – for working with quilts and other large garments.
• Accessory feet – for monograming, overcasting, zippers and more.
• Accessory pouch – includes seam ripper, needle set, cleaning brush, spool caps and more.
• A power cord – let’s face it; you wouldn’t be able to do much sewing without one!
• A foot controller – enabling you to control your sewing speed.
• A quick start guide and detailed operational manual printed in English and Spanish.

Specifications

This sewing machine weighs 13 pounds, is 11.4 inches high, 6.7 inches wide and 16.1 inches deep.

Conclusion

With a great array of features and handy time-saving tricks to make sewing quicker and more enjoyable, you would find it difficult to look for a better sewing machine. For added piece of mind, Brother offers a 12 month warranty for parts and labor, a 2 year warranty for electronic components, and a 25 year warranty for the chassis casting.

The Brother CS6000i is perfect both for people new to sewing and those with many years of experience. And at a low price that’s guaranteed to grab people’s attention, Brother has certainly ticked all the boxes when it comes to offering an excellent value for money sewing machine.

I hope you benefitted from my Brother CS6000i review.

The drums most people know are made of wood shells and plastic heads; when you hit them with a stick, they produce a thud that sounds just like a drum hit with a stick. (What else would you expect?) In today’s high-tech world, however, pretty much anything you can do acoustically can also be done electronically, using digital recording and playback techniques. The merger of digital electronics with acoustic drums is the electronic drum – something both a little more and a little less than a traditional drum set.

Electronic drum sets have been here since the late 1970s. Those early electronic kits include arm-damaging hard rubber pads and produced synthesized bloops and bleeps that sounded more like the movie Star Trek than anything ever produced by an acoustic drum. The novelty of synthesized sounds soon wore off, to be supplanted by digitally recorded sounds – so called samples of traditional acoustic sounds. Today’s electronic drum sets utilize digital samples of big-sounding acoustic drums insert into a memory chip and triggered by the striking of an external pad. When you beat the drum, the sound of the cymbal or sampled drum is created, just as if you were performing the original acoustic kit.

That’s in theory, of course. In reality, samples sounds never sound completely the same to their acoustic counterpart, and playing on a rubber pad isn’t quite the same as playing on a real drum. Still, electronic drum sets provide a wider variety of sounds than you can produce with a single acoustic kit, and they let you play loud through an amplifier or soft through a set of headphones. They are also a lot more solid than acoustic drums, making them perfect for the gigging musician who hates to lug around a bunch of heavy wood drums.

Should you replace your acoustic drums with an electronic kit – or supplement it with electronic drum sets? On the plus side, electronic drums can reproduce any sound imaginable (including non-drum sounds) and enable you to quickly and easily change the sound of your kit to suit a particular song. They are also easy to haul around, set up, and tear down, which might appeal to some working drummers.

On the minus side, no matter how good they are, electronic drums never sound or feel quite like a good set of acoustic drums. The good ones are also a little more expensive than a comparable acoustic kit – and they require some amount of technical competency to work.

So, should you go electronic? My advice for beginning drummers is not to worry about electronic drums – and certainly don’t replace your acoustic set with an electronic kit. As you move into the semi-pro and professional ranges, then you might want to consider augmenting your traditional drums with some electronics. Even then, however, it isn’t truly necessary; most pro drummers get by just fine with their all-acoustic kit.

More and more providers and billing services are looking into the benefits of web based software over the old fashioned server based practice management systems. After running a medical billing business with server based software for fifteen years, we decided it was time to look into some of the newer features.

The field of medical billing is always changing and improvements should be expected in our software capabilities. As technology develops we should find our software doing more jobs for us in less time and dealing with regulations and coding changes in real time. Of course we want all this available to us at a reasonable cost. We found that with the newer technology of web based practice management systems can really save time and money.

The newest software offers unbelievable features creating shortcuts that save time, money, keystrokes, denials, and improves cash flow. With a web based practice management system you can sign onto a secure program on the web on any computer, not just the one with the software installed. Here are ten amazing advantages of some of the best of the new web based medical billing software.

1. Saves time – Development of new technology has automated so many processes previously dependent upon employee data entry that incredible amounts of time can be saved. Electronic payment entry, one click printing capabilities, problem claims stored in a queue rather than searching through electronic reports, and one click reproducing of last claim codes are just a few of the amazing shortcuts now available.

Just imagine the time saved alone in not having to enter payments. The eobs can now be scanned and converted to an 837 file that electronically enters the insurance payments and automatically bills the secondary insurance carrier or the patient.

In our server based system we had to open a box and choose whether you were printing a primary insurance, a secondary insurance, or a patient statement. When you clicked on one of those it asked which form you want to use. After clicking on the appropriate form, a box would ask if you which printer you use. Then if the printer had more than one drawer, you would have to click on properties and choose the drawer with the correct type of paper for the form you are printing. If one of my workers printed out only 25 paper claims or patient statements a day, a one click printing job would save over 100 commands per day. As a billing service, we receive hundreds of electronic reports per week that we must open, read, and deal with the problem claims. This task was overwhelming with the server based program. The new web based program we now use sends just the problem claims to a queue. We now go to the queue and check on only the problems instead of wading through all the accepted claims to find the rejections.

These are just a few of the time saving systems now available with some web based programs. These systems have enabled us to increase our work load by 50% without taking on more employees or increasing our hours.

2. Saves money – With so many time saving advantages of web based software we were able to take on extra accounts without increasing our payroll. We put our employees to much more productive work. Web based software can also save the upfront costs of purchasing a server based software along with the required licensing, support, and updates. The web based program we decided on charges one small monthly fee. That’s it. No extra charges for electronic submissions, support, provider scheduling, providing a superbill, patient online payments, ICD9 and CPT codes, code query, set up fees or back ups. No up front costs. Not only does this cost less, but it works better.

3. Eliminates many errors that create rework. The automated methods used with the newest web based software take many jobs that were once entered manually by billers and now eliminate the human errors through automation. A simple typo can cause a claim to be rejected or denied slowing down the payment cycle and causing much extra and unnecessary work. Rework is one of the most costly problems in an office. Whenever you can eliminate rework with better systems you save money.

4. Works in “Real Time” – When you are used to working on a static server based software you have no say in updating a process until a new version is released which you must purchase if you want to be able to update to these new requirements. This can be a problem when you have an outdated code you want to change or there are new requirements such as the NPI numbers, addition of taxonomy codes, or changes to the workers comp form. A web based program can provide for these changes as they become necessary. Instead of spending thousands of dollars to purchase the latest version of a server based software, the web based program is updated as it becomes necessary for any changes to be made. As diagnosis codes and CPT codes are added or eliminated, web based software can deal with these changes immediately, not with the next update. This feature can eliminate coding denials of insurance claims due to CPT or ICD9 changes.

5. Claims scrubbing – Claims scrubbing can go well beyond just letting you know that a patient’s birth date is missing. One small example of how helpful an effective claims scrubber can be is when a chiropractor bills a claim to Medicare where Medicare requires the AT modifier. If the modifier is not on the claim to Medicare it will be denied and if the AT modifier is on a claim to another insurance company, that claim may be denied for invalid modifier. A good claims scrubber will flag the claim if you have used the modifier incorrectly.

6. Capable of billing UB04 forms as well as CMS 1500 forms – Small facilities such as rehab clinics and mobile surgery centers are sometimes required to submit their claims on UB04 forms, depending on if they are credentialed as a facility or a provider with the insurance carrier. We found a web based software that will allow submissions of UB04 as well as CMS 1500 claim forms eliminating the need for two separate billing programs if you are billing for a facility. This is a great option for a billing company who may take on a small facility and has no way to print UB04 forms as well as for the small facility that needs to bill UB04 forms.

7. ICD9 and CPT codes preloaded for your specialty – Our server based medical billing software did not have the codes preloaded. We were constantly adding diagnosis codes and unfortunately some invalid diagnosis codes were added. When an invalid code was used, usually the claim was denied for invalid diagnosis code. The claim was then corrected and resubmitted – a good example of the rework I was talking about earlier. The web based program we decided on has all diagnosis codes and procedure codes for the specialty of the provider already preloaded. There are no unnecessary codes but you can add codes. As codes are updated, added or deleted by the AMA, they are changed automatically in the program. This will be especially helpful when we go to the ICD10 codes.

8. Automatic insurance company updates – You don’t have to keep up with insurance company address changes or electronic payer number for your clearing house. Our favorite web based software preloaded all insurance companies that could go electronically with the correct payer number. If a carrier changes their payer ID# it is automatically updated by the web based software. You don’t have to worry about it. How many of us have suddenly had all claims for a particular carrier fall into a black hole and find out it was because they changed their payer number and only notified providers on a small sidebar on their website. With good web based software this would not happen. Because they work in “Real Time”, insurance companies and their electronic identifiers are added or updated as the clearing house adds/updates them.

9. Eliminates need for accounting software – A billing service finds the need for accounting software like Quickbooks to keep track of billing their providers for their services. With the new technology, a billing service can now bill their providers, print statements, send past due notices, run reports, and enter payments all in the web based system eliminating the need for Quickbooks. The web based software we chose performs all the functions we once used Quickbooks for.

10. Multiple practices, eligibility, and electronic submissions at no extra cost – This makes a huge difference to a billing service. When we first started looking at the web based software we were afraid that it would be cost prohibitive for a billing service with multiple providers as most companies charged based on the number of providers. We were thrilled to find an application which not only had more technical features but didn’t charge by the provider or practice but rather by the user.

After researching the advantages of web based software extensively, we found that we could not afford to ignore the advantages of web based software. The next thing was to find an application that was affordable for a billing service.

We found that a company that used the SaaS (Software as a Service) concept could offer a much more reasonable product than a typical licensing product. Most web based programs charge per provider or practice so if you are billing for 60 providers, it can get real expensive. Using the Saas concept a web based medical billing software could now be offered to medical offices and billing services for a reasonable monthly fee and with no set up costs.

Xena-Health software quickly showed us a superior product with a host of benefits we didn’t know existed resulting in cutting our data entry time in half. We never dreamed of all the possibilities that newer technology could supply and at such a reasonable cost. With many medical office costs rising yearly, it was a wonderful surprise to find a cost savings product that actually increased our efficiency. Xena has been great to work with and we have been thrilled with the results.

Copyright 2009 – Alice Scott – Solutions Medical Billing Inc