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.

Mathew's service will not disappoint you. I found Mathew…read morebecause I needed my data recovery from a broken amazon flash drive. Before handing the drive to Mathew I have already tried different technicians and recovery services labs in the bay are. They were very slow in the diagnosis process and charges highly with no expected timeline on when the data can be recover. Mathew made this process easy. I set up an appointment to drop off my usb at his office, he was warm and welcoming to his customers while being clear and transparent on how the entire process is going to go. I know I have found the right person to help immediately after spoken to him. The service and process was exactly like how he told and he deliver the service that matches with his words and my expectations. Mathew is definitely someone who can be trusted and I highly recommend him Thank you Mathew.

Sometimes you get exactly what you pay for…read more I had an 11:30 Zoom call scheduled and no one showed up. I had to follow up with a phone csll to see if they had any intention of getting on the Zoom call. They apologized and blamed it on the fact they had gotten busy with kids, home from school, and either forgot about our Zoom call or had no idea it was scheduled. After explaining my problem they said they don't work on Windows machines. They said they'd reach out to one of their Windows techs and get back to me within the day. It's been three days and I've not heard back from them. No wonder they have to give their services away for free. I'd be pretty angry if I had actually paid them for this.

I found Julian through Yelp. His reviews sounded like exactly what I was looking for; experience…read morewith WiFi connectivity issues and also an electrician. We had a couple of conversations to clarify what was going on. I wasn't ready to execute the best but more costly option to fix the issue, so he recommended an extender. I couldn't get it to work, so he ended up coming to check it out and get it working. Julian is friendly and easy to work with, and I will hire him for future electrical work.

I have an iMac that had been down for nearly three years, which was the last time I tried many…read moredifferent things to get it up and running. The long and short is it crashed halfway through an OS update and hasn't worked since. Julian contacted me after a Yelp query - I figured I'd retry and was ready to ship this thing somewhere for repair (again, I tried everything before with no luck). After I explained what was happening, he said, "We'll get you up and running, Tony, don't worry". He heard me out and sent me step-by-step triage and recovery instructions, which worked perfectly. He called about an hour later to check on me, and I was beyond happy he resolved the issue; I didn't have to leave my crib, and it was done within an hour (after letting it sit for years). Everything worked perfectly. I have my computer and electronics handyman for all future work. See my review distribution. I'm very fair and will call out less-than-desirable service. Likewise, when someone earns solid recognition for professionalism and providing the service advertised - they should get a shoutout. Julian, you rock!

We had a power outage and our cameras have stopped recording. I have been trying to coordinate a…read moreservice call with them through their extended warranty and have had no luck for 10 days now. I had a phone call with one tech who logged on to my computer remotely, then figured out that they could not fix the problem. Now I am waiting for a physical person to show up, after being promised that, and they have not scheduled anyone and I have not gotten any response to my email. We spoke on Thursday, they said "We will try and have someone out tomorrow". It's now Wednesday and radio silence.

I asked this company to check the defunct HD on my relatively new CCTV. They said they don't work…read moreon systems they didn't install. They said they would sell me a new system. The cost for a new system was in the thousands. I called a computer repair company in Walnut Creek. They replaced the defective CCTV HD with a much greater capacity industrial quality CCTV HD in a matter of minutes! Cost of the industrial quality CCTV HD (4 times larger capacity than the original HD) was $150.00!!! Works great !!!

I called Tech Tonics for help in reviving our dead server. Charlie Noddings came and amazingly was…read moreable to get our server functioning again. He also efficiently connected an aging computer back to the newly revived network server. We were so glad we didn't loss any data. He was knowledgeable, efficient, pleasant and reasonably priced. We have a lot more stuff to do to simplify our office network. Surely, we'll be calling him again pretty soon.

Our printer quit, had some problems. There is not a lot of tech/computer service in Marin, I found…read moreKevin on Yelp, decided to send him a mail anyway. He replied in 10 minutes, said that repair it might cost more than a new printer, but he would try to advise me how to repair it for free. Long story short, within next half hour, Kevin sent me few emails with detailed information and links, how to check the problem online, manufactory service number.... even recommended a better and cheaper printer if we are going to get a new one. Who on earth would spend that much time and effort to help a stranger, for free? I really appreciate his enthusiasm. If I ever have computer related problem, I'll definitely call Kevin for help again! :))

Worth every penny, and I'd hire this team again in a heartbeat. I even recommended them to…read moreneighbors in our complex going through what I was. My problem? Xfinity kept telling me the "new" box was going to easily pump wifi through my whole house. It never worked and we had multiple dead spots in our house, where wifi never reached. We ended up trying several things, included a second network setup using Google Nest routers. That also didn't work great and we suffered for years. So finally got fed up, and I called BATH and told Ari what the issue was. He gave me a budget, which I bristled at, at first. Then he walked me through a likely fix, which involved a couple routers networked so that I had independent wifi running on both floors of the house but on the same network. The tech came by and was super nice, and walked me through what they were going to do. I was cautiously optimistic. When they were done? I almost cried at how well everything ran through my house. They even set me up so I had ethernet directly to my gaming PC, and direct into my TV and Xbox. I have not had a single issue since (beside Comcast caused outages), and have blazing fast wifi throughout the house (I pay for the gigaspeed Xfinity). I'm finally utilizing the speed as sold to me by Xfinity. Thanks so much BATH. I really appreciate it. I was super impressed with the emails, the invoices, techs being on time, and just the overall professionalism. It was worth the extra few bucks.

I found Bay Area Tech Hero while searching for a network specialist to install Ethernet wired…read morebackhaul in our older (1950s-60s) home that had been renovated but still lacked proper networking. Since they seem to handle a lot of corporate-scale installations, I initially wondered if my project might be too small--but that concern disappeared pretty quickly. The team was already very familiar with Ubiquiti systems and was incredibly patient working with me despite my fairly basic understanding. They walked me through the tradeoffs and ultimately recommended stepping up from mid-range equipment to more professional-grade options. The reasoning was clear, the cost/benefit made sense, and at no point did I feel pressured--just well-advised. The actual Ethernet installation work was top-notch--smurf tubing, recessed (not sticking out!) enclosures, and everything. The level of craftsmanship and attention to detail is honestly beyond what I would normally expect (or even feel comfortable demanding from contractors). They went above and beyond without being asked, and the cable organization is immaculate. Huge thanks to Justin and John for their precision and quality of work, and to Jim and Rodrigo for their thoughtful recommendations on equipment and access point placement. If you're looking for a team that combines technical expertise with professionalism and genuine care, I'd absolutely recommend them.

Peter the owner spent a lot of time making sure that the system was what we wanted, and then took…read morethe time to train me on how best to utilize the system. Marco the installer was highly detailed and experienced in the work that he did at the home. I am very pleased with the outcome.

I love working with people who know their stuff, are responsible, friendly and I can completely…read moretrust them to do a great job. Peter and his amazing installer Marco are the best. Marco was right on time and worked all day to get our system up and running - so polite and so precise in every detail to make sure everything worked perfectly. He made us feel so taken care of and was just a lovely person. And you are in great hands with Peter - we liked him immediately and felt like we could rely on his company to do a great job. We put off jumping into this whole idea but now we are so glad that we found Powerhouse Security and know they will keep us feeling safe and secure!

I selected Gustavo with Prime Technologies to assist with troubleshooting and repair or replacement…read moreof a 4 station intercom system in an apartment building. The existing AIPhone system is circa 1994 and 2 of the 4 units could not communicate with the front door or buzz it open. We both did some research and found suitable part upgrades could be bought online. He ordered a main panel and 4 replacement handsets. We met onsite a couple weeks later and set about to get the system working again. It turned out it was just bad/degraded wiring at the outdoor panel that was causing the outage. Wiring was repaired and I elected to have him replace all the handsets to provide a "repaired and refreshed" image to our tenants. Gustavo was responsive, punctual, and showed good focus on the task at hand in getting this system working again. I would employ his services again for any future wiring or security system needs.

Gustavo was brilliant, can't recommend him enough. Was prompt to my request (installing a cable…read morealong the outside of my house) arrived on time to visit to provide me a quote & for the day to do the work. He explained everything clearly and completed the work as agreed.