Mayhem Creations

"Mayhem Creations - The Art Of Emotional Creation"

  This site has come a long way from when I first started...and is now currently undergoing some big changes, new house projects, new discussions of DIY technology.  Check back often to view the changes that are going on.  

  I first started this site to advertise a small business venture into videography, and video editing.  Though the venture didn't really take off, I've kept using the name "Mayhem Creations" and continue to use the site to document the many projects I have on the go, or have completed.  I do still enjoy video editing/composting, they just have taken a backseat to my true love in hobbies: DIY (Do It Yourself) work with electronics and computers.  This passion has unfolded to a deep appreciation for home theater hifi quality audio, home automation and other nifty things in electronics.  Projects that have evolved over the years is the understanding of computer systems, and how much of a role they serve in a home media and automation environment.  Many projects that I'm working on, one can view from the links on the left side menu bar on this page.  Some of these major projects have spinoff projects such as: the MayIR and WinLIRC for the HTPC or the MayBALD and Maytrix for the multi-zoning, whole house audio distribution project.  At a time in my life, I dwelled into antenna building for OTA TV reception.  More recently started to play around with a small computer called the Raspberry Pi, and all the cool things one can do with it (SqueezePlug server, OpenElec, AirPi, and controlling Christmas lights).

  When it comes to my media and entertainment computers, these have exposed me to media software, which gives everything a nice visual GUI, and background integration to retrieve the relevant media that you want to view, or listen to.  I've tried many frontend packages.  One of the first ones, and one that remains one of my favorites today, despite it not being developed anymore was XLOBBY.  Xlobby was a very customizable frontend program that allowed an individual to enhance his/hers home theater experience.  Since it's demise, I had migrated over to MediaPortal.  It was a wonderful piece of software that is still being evolved and a great community support.  It also had built in OTA TV capture card features.  Now, my systems main media software interface is Kodi, and using a Plex server backend for movie/TV viewing/database on an UnRAID server.

  Though I had stopped using Xlobby for viewing movies and TV shows, for audio, the software back then was king with multi-zoning audio capabilities....there just wasn't any other DIY alternative that was as diverse. Well that remained true until I discovered the abilities of the Raspberry Pi.  Now multi room audio is handled by open source Logitech Media/Squeeze technology via LMS server feeding/streaming multiple Raspberry Pi clients using PiCorePlayer.

  The hopes of this website is to be first and foremost, informative, and to show other DIY'ers, and other like minded individuals, of the technological possibilities while keeping on a budget.  I would like to think that what I present here are real alternatives that are easily achievable by any average person.  I hope this website will give others an initiative and thirst for DIY accomplishments.

Enjoy