It’s time to stop living in the dark
Indoor dwellings have long given us the power to control how light enters our lives. And now, with the advent of smart shades, homeowners have more control over their shading and lighting than ever.
All of us at AV Design Consultants are really excited about how popular smart shades are getting, and there’s a reason why smart shading is becoming one of the hottest new trends for smart homes. Smart shading takes many areas of your home life and makes them easier than ever. This week, we are going to start by looking at a few pretty cool applications for smart shading and how it can work with the rest of your smart home for a brighter and better controlled atmosphere.
After a long day of working, chasing the kids around, cooking meals, and doing laundry, wouldn’t it be nice if just ONE thing in life was simple?
When you are finally sitting down on the couch for your few precious moments of relaxation – whether those moments are spent listening to music or catching up on your latest Netflix binge session – it would be awesome if you didn’t have to put effort, time, and thought into relaxing.
Well, now you don’t have to. No longer do you have to sit down on the couch and fumble between 50 different remotes to try to find which one controls the audio and which one controls Netflix and which one knows how to turn the TV to the right input. With one remote controlling your whole home automation system, you can easily control your lighting, security, climate, and media all at once from the palm of your hand.
All of us at AV Design Consultants, know you work hard and deserve your relaxation time – and we’re here to help make sure you get it. Let’s take a look at just how a whole home system remote can help make your home life much, much more convenient.
Take those rose-colored lenses off, it’s time to get serious about shade.
At AV Design Consultants, we take our smart home technology seriously, but today we are going to take a deep dive into smart shading and look at some of the reasons why you really should get off the couch and get some smart shades installed ... so you don’t have to get off the couch to adjust your shades.
Getting the lock right is always important.
No matter if you are in a duplex, a midsized family home, or a luxurious estate, safety is always important. Smart locks are a great way to combine the technology and smart home systems you already know how to use with additional functionality that will make your home – and your family – safer in the long run. At AV Design Consultants, we know that part of our role in this community is keeping customers safe, and we know smart locks are just one way to do that.
So, let’s open the door on smart locks. This week we’re going to go through a primer on what smart locks are, how they work, and how they can help bring safety and piece of mind to your family. Let’s dive right in.
It’s time for you to take your starter smart home tech like Amazon Alexa or Google Home to the next level.
If you’ve dipped your toes into the deep end of pool that is smart home technology and home automation, you’ve surely already found how voice control can make your daily routine, tasks, and family life easier and more enjoyable. That’s just the beginning, though. Here are some of the basic categories that you can use to start upgrading your house to the future ... and beyond.
Looking for an excuse to go out? Maybe you just need an outdoor TV.
As the weather gets nicer this year -- and the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down -- more and more families are starting to look to their yard and outdoor spaces as avenues for possible home upgrades. And there’s no better upgrade to a home than setting up a lovely and enjoyable outdoor theater with a modern outdoor TV.
Some people, however, have a resistance to outdoor TVs, thinking that they are overpriced shadows of what is possible with an indoor TV. That couldn’t be further from the truth: Today’s outdoor TVs are bright, 4K-resolution-capable devices that can bring your favorite entertainment outdoors! So, to really help our customers know what outdoor TVs are capable of, this week on the blog, we’re going to debunk some common misconceptions and answer some common questions that come up about them.
Are Outdoor TVs Weatherproof?
You bet!
One of the most important things we tell people about TVs is that they should never use an indoor TV in an outdoor application. While indoor TVs are great, they just aren’t made to deal with the elements the way an outdoor TV is. Installing and using an indoor TV outside will not only most assuredly shorten the life of that TV but also pose a safety hazard as well.
When you open a new TV, it doesn’t come with any cables -- only the power cord. When you open a new gaming system or Blu-ray player, or set up a new cable or satellite receiver, it often provides a basic patch cable -- typically an HDMI cable.
As your technology solutions provider, one of our core tasks here at AV Design Consultants is to connect all of your electronics, and that normally means a discussion on cables. If you want to get the best-quality picture and sound out of your devices, you’ll need to know about the cables and settings on your equipment. If you leave out either, you may not be getting the best experience -- and neither of us want that.
If you’re like most of our customers and have legacy devices, you have probably collected a myriad of red, white, yellow, green and blue color-coded cables (composite, component and left/right audio). Add those to the mix with coaxial, ethernet, fiber optic, and speaker wires (s-video, DVI, USB), and that drawer of extra cables can become quite the rat’s nest. So, this week’s blog is going to be all about cables, and we think it will really help our readers learn a thing or two about what’s connecting their devices.
Copper Conundrum
Most cables -- except fiber optic -- have one thing in common: copper. They use a copper conductor to send information. When it comes to cables, it is true that copper is copper, and one manufacturer doesn’t have a patent on a better version of copper. But there are differences in cable design, and you should go in with some understanding before you end up with either an underperforming cable or spending way too much unnecessarily.
Wireless Fidelity
While wireless technology like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth has become a necessity, it does not provide the means for connecting many of your home’s electronics. “Wireless” rarely means a device is truly wireless; often they still need to plug in to power. Further, to reduce the demand on your Wi-Fi system and to increase performance, every effort should be made to hardwire your devices and free up Wi-Fi bandwidth for devices that truly need it, like your phones, tablets and laptops.
At AV Design Consultants, people often tell us here that because they aren’t an “audiophile,” they don’t have the ear to appreciate the differences between a good audio system and a great one. However, when we ask if they can hear the difference between streaming or music on a CD versus a live performance, they always say that they can. Most people’s ears are a whole lot better than they think they are.
What most people don’t realize, however, is that they can get near concert-quality sound right from the comfort of home. A great home audio system with a nice set of speakers can make it feel like you are somewhere else, listening to your favorite musicians play live. Hearing your favorite song reproduced in a way that brings out all the subtlety and soul that the artist intended can feel almost magical.
It’s time to talk about controlling your smart home.
The main goal of a smart home is for it to gracefully integrate into your daily life, offering convenience and control options that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Whenever our team at AV Design Consultants designs a project, we keep that in mind. With a focus on ease of use and convenience, two of the best ways to control your smart home are through a smart home touch screens and smart home remotes.
Don’t get us wrong -- voice control is important and is only going to continue to grow as smart devices improve and can recognize even more commands. But what we’ve found is that more people prefer a combination of voice control, apps, controllers, and remotes.
This week on our blog, we are going to look at some of the many benefits that touch screens and remotes can bring to your smart home, and how they can help bring about whole new ways of control that you may have yet to consider.
You insure your vehicles. You insure your home. These are major investments that can be costly to repair or replace. It only makes sense for you to protect yourself against potential unforeseen expenses.
If you’ve invested in a nice audio/video or automation system for your home or business, it makes sense to protect that investment, as well. One of the most important ways to do that is with a high-quality UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and surge protection products.
As technology integrators, our team at AV Design Consultants get requests for service and support on clients’ AV systems all the time. A high number of those equipment issues and failures aren’t because of bad or defective electronics, they’re often due to electrical issues that have adversely impacted the system, either through a catastrophic surge event, power outage, or even small, persistent power issues that can degrade electronics over time.
Fortunately, there are ways to minimize or even eliminate these issues via a well-designed, power-management system using surge protection and UPS products.
Are you looking for a home theater receiver? The good news is that you don’t have to search alone – our team members here at AV Design Consultants are always ready to help you.
Before you give us a call, let’s take a look at what you should keep in mind when looking for a new home-theater receiver, as well as all of the benefits one can bring to your home theater.
The way we wire and light our homes has been relatively consistent for over a century. Inefficient incandescent bulbs and high-voltage wiring has been the standard, with little meaningful advancement, until recently. As LED technology has improved in quality, aesthetic, and form factor, things have started to move away from the high-power, low-efficiency methods of lighting a home to a cleaner, greener, low-voltage standard.
Many people might not know the difference between these two lighting systems – so this week on the blog, our experts at AV Design Consultants tackle the difference between low and high voltage systems, and look at whether we need to transport so much electrical power to the fixtures throughout our homes.
If you’ve spent any time around a record shop, a hi-fi music store, or an audio aficionado’s convention, you have surely heard the term “2-channel audio” thrown around.
But, if you’ve grown up in a digital world of streaming music, that term might be unfamiliar to you. So, what is 2-chanel audio? Why is it important, and what benefits can it bring to your home stereo system?
Are you frustrated with your piecemeal smart home technology?
We get it. All of us here at AV Design Consultants love smart tech! Smart home technology is super fun, and it can be easy to start by picking up a smart speaker, then grabbing a smart thermostat, and maybe throwing in a few smart bulbs, as well.
The problem: Just because it’s all smart technology, doesn’t mean it all knows how to play well together. Especially as the market grows, you could end up with remotes and apps and switches for your different smart toys, and none of them actually being able to communicate or work well with each other.
That’s the problem we’re here to help with. With a dedicated smart home controller, all your technology can work together in harmony. To really dive into the benefits of a controller, first let’s start by talking about what a smart home controller is. Then we’ll dig into how it can help take your smart home to the next level.
Have you been missing that Hollywood-style movie magic?
Being the big A/V nerds that we are at AV Design Consultants, we know that we’ve been missing the experience of going to check out new movies on the big screen. But just because it’s been a while since we’ve been out to the movies doesn’t mean that we’ve haven’t been able to enjoy the big screen. At least, at home.
That’s right – with a top-of-the-line movie theater, we can help you bring that movie experience home, no matter how long commercial theaters must remain closed. Let’s look at what a home theater can bring to you and your family, and how we can help you experience stunning silver screen movies right from the comfort of your home.
New year, new semester, but same old walls? We have some smart home solutions for that!
Now that distance learning has been going on for quite some time, we thought that all of you wonderful AV Design Consultants customers might be looking for even more tips on how to handle the situation. Keeping kids busy while also balancing the technological needs of working from home can be a tough act to maintain.
As we begin the new year, finding ways to keep your kids focused and on task after the holidays and breaks can be especially tricky. We’ve put together a few suggestions with a tech focus, so let’s take a look at some ways to reinvigorate your family’s distance learning efforts.
It’s time for smart home technology to help with those New Year’s resolutions.
At AV Design Consultants, we spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of smart home automation and how its many features and offerings can improve the quality of your life. But to help all of our customers start off the year on the right foot, we wanted to hyper focus this week’s blog on specific ways that your smart home can help you remember – and stick to – your 2021 New Year’s resolutions.
So, we’ve put together a list of some common resolutions and come up with some easily applicable solutions that your smart home will be able to assist with. Whether your goal this year is to lose weight, read more, or something as simple as sleep better – your smart home has you covered.
Happy New Year everybody! Or at least ... almost.
2021 is right around the corner, which means a few things: First, that we survived 2020! And second, that lots of new tech trends are also right around the corner. At AV Design Consultants, we can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store for smart homes and smart technology.
So, we thought of a great way to both help celebrate the end of this year and ring in the start of next year: A look at some exciting and upcoming tech trends! We’ve only got one week left in 2020, so today our blog is all about looking ahead at what paths the industry may take next year.
Of course, the tech industry is always full of surprises, so this list is only our best guess. But for now, here are just a few trends to keep an eye out for as we head into 2021.
Want to have some fun with your smart lighting this holiday season?
While smart lighting offers year-round benefits, such as ease of control and circadian quality-of-life improvements, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take some time to have a little bit of holiday fun with your smart lighting.
To do that, we turned to all the expert elves that work here at AV Design Consultants and had them wrack their brains for exciting and fun ways to use your smart lighting to really transform your house for the holidays. We hope that with these tips, you’ll be able to wow your family and guests, and show everyone just how much fun smart home automation and technology can be!
So, before the hot cocoa cools down and the holidays are over, let’s take a look at some ways you can use your smart lighting to make your holidays this year extra memorable ... and extra smart!
It’s time to put that basement to good use.
2020 has been quite a year, but at the very least, it has given all of us here at AV Design Consultants some time to work on projects we’ve had laying around the house. And that got us thinking: 2020 has probably led to a lot of our customers trying to finish up projects around the house, too ... and they could probably use some ideas to really bring out the best in their home projects and renovations.
If you are going to be stuck at home, you might as well have fun, right? Right! So, this week on the blog we are going to look at different ways you can really add value to your home – specifically your finished basement – by creating what we like to call a “wow” space. A space that, when your friends and family walk into it, they just can’t help but say “wow!” A space that makes full use of today’s smart-home technologies to let you easily access and use it. That kind of space.
Of course, how you chose to really build out that space is up to you, so we wanted to present some different technology-based ideas that could really help transform your basement from a space nobody wants to spend time in, to an area you look forward to using.
