I work customer service in a highly technical field. I repair high end luxury vehicles. It's…read morealways in my mind that I'm handling the first or second most expensive item most folks own. Second only to their homes. I'm well aware of the exacting standards needed. The self discipline needed and the attention to detail and care for details needed to restore someone's prized luxury vehicle. Those same standards apply to working in or on someone's home. My previous reviews explain how I met Jake at Barker Tech. This is a new review with new perspective. It's been over two years since I paid Jake and shook his hand. In those two years Jake has reached out 3 times to check on my home and his work. It just seems to be how he is. In those two years I've reached out with some admittedly stupid questions and each time he's addressed my concerns without any snark or down talk that some techie guys use when speaking to plebes. I needed additional home tech stuff and naturally I reached out to Jake. His response was timely given his work load and he immediately offered elegant solutions to an inelegant problem. (Someone in my neighborhood is actively using my gravel yard as a dog pit stop and leaving me nasty surprises ). Jake offered some very clever options up to and including an outdoor speaker paired with my existing camera system (that he installed ) to politely ask the offending dog owner to remove their dog waste. Ultimately my wife vetoed the idea of me having the ability to leave audio messages for bad neighbors. But Jake's suggestion of an upgraded new camera with AI facial recognition and a wider field of view was perfect. Within a week Jake personally came back and upgraded the camera thus negating the one small blind spot the offender had been using. He kept his word. He sent me tutorials and worked with me not even being home to ensure that I was 100% satisfied with my upgraded surveillance view before leaving. Setting standards and holding yourself to them are key to excellence. Keeping your word and delivering what you promise are key to excellence. But. Excellence isn't derived from robot like adherence to guidelines. It's a combination of many intangible things. It's rare these days to encounter true excellence in almost any field. Jake at Barker Tech is an excellent example of excellence in action. Trustworthy. Reliable. Professional. Meticulous. Passionate. Informed and informative. Personable and Diligent. I'm a client for life.

Jake was fantastic. He is incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and calm, cool, and collected,…read morewhich was especially appreciated after we had been dealing with so many frustrating AV and internet issues in our house. He quickly figured out what was wrong with our existing setup, moved us over to fiber optic, and simplified the entire system so it is easy for us to use. The difference has been huge. Our internet is now incredibly fast in every room of the house, and everything finally works the way it should. Jake went above and beyond throughout the entire process. I cannot recommend him highly enough for anything AV-related in your home.

Kurtis helped us design a great network and entertainment setup and personally ensured everything…read morewent smoothly. he was flexible with his approach and the work is very high quality

I've worked with Kurtis for years now on a couple of different fronts. On home internet, he's been…read morecritical in designing a system with multiple access points on different floors so we've got consistent strong internet throughout the house, which is old and therefore has lots of rooms and lots of plaster walls. He's also sourced and installed several TVs for us over the years, including most recently recommending and installing two frame TVs and updating the surround sound so everything sounds theater quality. He's trustworthy, responsive, respectful of the home and does great work. You can't go wrong with Kurtis.

Alan is one of those guys that you meet that on first blush may seem like he's selling you a lot of…read moregear you don't need. I'm a former technology journalist and he had stuff I hadn't heard of. I ran his gear past people in the know who said "yeah, that's good." A sidenote: Sometimes Alan is slow to get back to you on phone or iMessage. He's booked solid. I don't like it any more than you do. But in the bay every single good professional is like this, because they are inundated with calls and need to do in-person evaluations to do a good job. I wish the world was easier too guys. Sorry. Alan did a giant (119") 1080p surround sound installation in my loft in Oakland late last year. It was costly, and Alan worked with me to bring down said cost with explanations behind every bit of rational and actual links to what he was getting. Alan also let me use gear I already had, which meant that the actual installation itself was quite confusing to look at at the end. I was furious, and not particularly nice to Alan afterward thinking he'd broken everything. No, what he'd actually done was an intricate, cost-effective amp/ethernet installation, built through the *ceiling*, leading to my aged receiver, to the speakers I had provided. In essence, if you know stuff about a/v, once you bring in someone's potentially bashed-up gear into the situation it effectively is a gamble to see what will work with what. Alan not only made it all work, including with a receiver that I would frankly describe as aged, he recommended the right places to save money to still have the effect I wanted - an awesome home theater. It came out looking and sounding amazing, and more importantly removable. He taught me in a non-condescending manner what he did and why he did it, and made a clear promise (and actually booked time to) fix any problems. There were no problems. Any anger I had was that I didn't understand how it worked and the only criticism I could give was Alan didn't leave a manual of his work. Alan is not cheap. Alan is also - and I use this term very rarely - an actual artist. He wants the thing to look and sound perfect. I just hired Alan to do a second job he has not started yet, and he talked me OUT of spending $3000+ on a new projector screen and $2000 on a new projector, telling me to keep my quite-adequate plasma screen, as it'd be just as good. I am sort of a gadget/network person and know what I'm talking about. If you want a cheap guy to do an okay job, don't hire Alan. Don't waste is time. He will charge what he charges for the gear at the price it comes out at (if not cheaper, and believe me I've checked). If you want someone to put down some cheap CAT cables and some HDMI cables he found on Monoprice and Amazon, give them a call. Alan is an actual professional who knows a lot. I take umbrage at anyone claiming Alan "focuses on dollars more than customer service." My own personal experience, even when I was not the most calm (calling him at 2:30am GMT from England, where I was at the time of installation), is that he cares more about customer service than most A/V people I've run into. And knows more than them too. Overall, what you get is the closest you can to professional at a consumer price. It's not cheap. It never will be if you want something that'll last, sound good and look good. If you want constant download speeds/constant signal throughout your home, Alan is going to find *what will do it.* To S.B.: I do not know specifically what equipment you were left with by Alan, however I have spoken to him about the networking gear he uses, which (I used to sell WIFI/WAN/LAN gear commercially) is Unifi/Ubiquiti gear. This prices much the same as a Netgear Nighthawk/high-end ASUS router, and gives superior service all around. Alan is not just a guy who knows things about audio/visual, he is actually very smart and knows about networking gear too. I do not believe you were sold a $1000 router. I imagine you were sold a $1000 setup which would cover your entire house. The WIFI never really working properly? Not really sure. And if it's 5x the price of a Mac airport - your comparison point - I'm gonna go ahead and say your knowledge on networking product is deficient. That's an $84.99 or $184.99 router, and if you're using that as a comparison point you're not buying a Netgear Nighthawk, Asus AC87U or Unifi AP AC - all of which are on the upper end of the routing scale and are the only routers a real professional would use. If your new guy used these as your comparison points. If you want your signal and your download speeds to be consistent and the signal to be constant across the house, you need good gear. This is not cheap gear and Alan is not a "cheap" provider who "just gets things done." I've got no fiscal benefit in having him around. I choose to spend tens of thousands of dollars with the man because he's just that damn good.

You may note that Alan hasn't had a review on here for many years. That's because his business has…read moregone down hill fast and things are not good. We've had multiple AV professionals in our house over the years and we've also had Alan. There is a major difference between the two. Cutting corners, sloppy work, and long delays are the norm. Not to mention he will put a lien on your house and threaten you with legal action if things don't work out. Trust me. Avoid. At. All. Costs.

Wiztec installed six PoE security cameras and Wi-Fi access points for my house, and working with…read moreMs. Saltanat was a great experience. She was professional throughout, always quick to respond, and kept me updated throughout. She made a real effort to help me, from replacing a camera to fitting my network installation on short notice. The installers worked efficiently and clearly knew their job well. The pricing was reasonable, and I felt I got good value for the work. I would choose Wiztec for future work and recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable small business.

Excellent in every respect…read more All appointments- from site survey to installation- were well communicated and on schedule. Price was competitive and fair. Work was done with care and they laid down protective paper as they worked and vacuumed up when finished, leaving everything pristine. They ran into a challenge at one point and walked me through several options that creatively solved it. My Ethernet is now blazing fast and solid and I'm super happy with the results. Definitely would recommend Wiztec to anyone - the level of professionalism is a role model for other trade companies.

Best customer service of all Savant and home automation…read more I had struggled with Savant, until this company came and solved all our installation, hardware and software problems.

We had a great first meeting and were waiting for a quote that never came. We were straight-up…read moreghosted. We reached out multiple times in a variety of ways and never heard back. We can only speculate that somehow our project needs were not big enough for them to want to work with us? We can't know what happened because they simply stopped communicating with us. Sad but true. For this reason, I have to say their business is not to be reccomended.

Gator Tech installed (and later upgraded) our CCTV surveillance system and alarm system…read more The price was competitive, the technicians were on time, respectful of our home and schedule and did a clean, professional job. The systems operates as described in our discussions. We also use Gator for the monitoring of our security system and have found that service to be very good. The monitoring also qualifies us for an insurance discount! Highly recommended!

When I built my house 8 years ago I had a local company install my home theater system and music…read morethroughout the house. I have forever had problems with the system, Control4, which needs constant stroking and servicing. Right before the pandemic the company who sold me the product and serviced it went out of business. I was in dire need of finding a company who could get me back on track, think messed up TV during the pandemic! Nobody was willing to come in and help since my system was a mess and it wasn't their mess. Fortunately, I found Gator Tech. and over a period of a year they came out on several occasions to fix the errors (which were many) and streamline the system. It was not cheap but it was done to my expectation and satisfaction. Mario has been the main technician at my house working on the system and let me tell you......Mario is great! He is so experienced, knowledgable and brilliant in his work. I am very fortunate to have had Mario assigned to my house project. I highly recommend Mario and Gator Tech to assist in your home theater needs. Thank you Mario and Gator Tech! p.s. I do not recommend Control4 if you want to stay sane and within budget.

Could not be more impressed or grateful! We had moved into an new commercial location, and while…read moregetting our server and phones installed, found that the prior tenant did not leave on good terms. They had severed all lines to necessary ports, which rendered us incapable of opening our office. The Hidden Connections team responded right away to scope the work, provided an estimate the same day, and expedited technicians to come and resolve the issue. The on site technicians worked diligently, updated us on progress of work, and provided information on additions that we may look at in the future. It has been 2 months now, and all is working as it should. Thank you for taking our chaos and getting us back in working order!

We met with Si the other day and learned so much in our consultation. First, his respect of "No…read moreShoes" in our home. He was easy speaking and very good at showing and saying what he was explaining to us. We asked for an audit of our system and to help us understand our system. We truly received great information and the how to's leaving us feeling confident and able to assess issues should they arise. He got us back on track with our system and took unnecessary components that were of no use to us. He complemented the system install and products chosen. He let us know that our system was very well done and that we have at least five to 10 years of great use. We were very happy with the visit and the outcome of the visit and are now truly enjoying it all. Thank you, Si and Hidden Connections for your awesome help and informative answers to our questions.

Absolutely top quality service, professionalism, speed and elegant work. Full WiFi in home with…read morelots of concrete where a pinpoint or mesh solution wouldn't work. Cable Shmable hooked me up with top of the line, (commercial grade, consumer simplicity), Ubiquity system that has tremendous coverage AND speed. They came highly recommended not as simply and A/V company, but rather network architects that can do everything low voltage. I'd highly recommend Karim (owner who came out himself for a bid within two days of my request) and Cable Shmable. His team that did the installation are also excellent. 10/10 for any AV, network, WiFi you may need. Top notch. 100%.

I've used Cable Shmable for multiple projects in my house including extra Cat6 runs, fiber HDMI,…read morecustom TV installs including motorized mounts installed on a tile wall above a fireplace, Sonos equipment setup, and a large-enough Ubiquiti camera + UNVR installs. Each one of these projects was done to my complete satisfaction including folks promptly coming back to fix any post-install issues. I highly recommend them because of the quality they bring to each project and the complexity they can handle. In fact, a number of my friends and neighbors have used them based on my recommendation and have also come away impressed. I would highly recommend them for any low-voltage work you have.