Ask anyone what the number one frustration of trying to live, work, and play with technology is, and most people will tell you it’s the quality of their home internet. Network speed and reliability are vitally important factors in making the most of time spent at home. Several factors can inhibit your internet experience, including the number of devices connected, bandwidth caps, and your router’s location.

If you feel like your internet connection has slowed or performance is compromised, the following are some steps you can take to improve the network’s speed and reliability.

1. Consider Your Data Cap

Some internet service providers (ISPs) have data cap options. With these, you can use a certain amount of data each month, and if you go over, your internet speed will dramatically decrease or you might be charged extra. Familiarize yourself with your cap by looking at your bill and identifying if you frequently exceed your monthly limit (you can also find out which devices are using the most data). If that’s the case, you’d be wise to increase the cap.

2. Reset Your Routers

Resetting your routers from time to time (e.g., once a month) will refresh your internet connection and clear out anything that may have been slowing it down from data that gets cached in the device’s memory. If you have a separate modem from your router, you should reset that as well. If you seem to be having a lot of connection issues, try resetting your modem and router more frequently or look at upgrading to pro-consumer grade products, which perform better than off-the-shelf options. Outlet timers and power management systems can reset it for you on a set schedule, allowing you to reset your router in the middle of the night, for example, or any other time when you don’t need to use the internet. You can also call your internet provider to do it for you remotely.

At a Glance:

What is Ambient Lighting?

Benefits of Ambient Lighting in Your Home

How to Implement Ambient Lighting in Your Home

What is Ambient Lighting?

When to DIY

Undertaking your own AV projects in your home may be a necessity if you’re on a time crunch or a tight budget, so long as you’re sure you know what you’re doing. There’s a multitude of online resources — videos and how-to guides — that can help you in this process. Be sure to invest the time to watch and educate yourself, follow directions carefully and choose quality components for your project. Obviously, what you’re capable of will depend on your confidence and experience; but generally, things like wiring outside of the walls or TV/Component installations can be undertaken relatively simply and usually without needing to hire outside help.

When to Hire an Expert

It’s always better to be safe than sorry! If you feel like you’re venturing into territory beyond your experience or comfort level, an AV professional will save you time and money and almost certainly reduce your anxiety level. Naturally, expert installers know the best equipment to use — and can gauge that effortlessly for your needs — as well as the most efficient ways to install these solutions, especially if you’re wanting to avoid unsightly wires everywhere. They can teach you how to use and get the most from the equipment, and how to integrate the solution with other smart home or AV devices so everything works together seamlessly. 

When you hire a qualified AV specialist, you can expect ongoing support, maintenance, and upgrades — an investment that will hopefully last the lifetime of the product or installation. It’s useful to know that if something were to go wrong, you can call on someone knowledgeable to help troubleshoot or pinpoint further issues before they become a major problem. 

TV

Have you ever noticed how many TVs get installed over fireplaces? It’s not because people necessarily wanted to put the TV there. It’s because the fireplace is typically designed as the focal point of the room and it just ends up making sense to put the TV right above it. Many are fine with that, but some others think that having a big black rectangle at the room’s primary focal point is not the most desirable aesthetic choice!

Fortunately, the industry has come up with several ways to dress up or hide the TV completely:

• Digital Art ‒ Some TVs have a “digital art” mode that can make your TV look like a painting, family portrait or whatever image you want to show off. Some even come with a light sensor to make the art respond to your room’s lighting in a way that makes the art look more natural.
  
  
• Mechanized Lifts ‒ There are dozens of options that make clever use of automated lift mechanisms that can hide your TV in a myriad of ways. An Art Lift allows you to hide the TV behind a real piece of art that can slide up or sideways to reveal the TV when you turn it on. Other motorized lift mechanisms can raise your TV up out of a cabinet or have it descended from a hiding place in the ceiling. You can even have the TV pivot left or right towards the viewer.
  
  
• Recessed TV ‒ You may not really care about completely hiding the TV, but you would like the installation to be a little sleeker. In that case, you can have your builder frame out the wall so that there is a pocket for the TV to be installed into. This creates a clean and flush appearance from the front and side.

Speakers

Having the ability to play music anywhere in the house or yard is one of the most requested features we get. While a set of floor standing speakers might make sense in a home theater or media room, other rooms can have great sound too without the speakers being a prominent visual feature.

• Architectural Speakers ‒ Most people are familiar with in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. What you may not know is that you can get them in a smaller form factor that closely matches the size and shape of your recessed lighting. This makes the speakers really blend in. There are even in-wall and in-ceiling subwoofers that can provide some added bass without the big black box on the floor.
  
  
• Invisible Speakers ‒ If you really don’t want to see the speakers at all, invisible speakers can be installed during the construction phase that perfectly blend into the wall. They are mudded and painted over, just like the drywall, so even the sharpest eye can’t see them.
  
  
• Custom Soundbars ‒ Adding a soundbar to enhance TV audio is extremely popular these days. But a lot of soundbars look like an afterthought rather than part of an integrated system. But they don’t have to. Many manufacturers provide soundbars in custom lengths that perfectly match the width of your TV for a clean, purposeful look.

Lighting Control

A smart lighting system isn’t just for convenience. It can enhance the look of your home as well. Lighting control systems can be programmed to remember lighting “scenes” that recall specific lighting levels for a room or the whole house. You can have all your lights set to just the perfect level for whatever mood or activity you want and recall it with a simple button press.

“Centralized” lighting control systems take things even farther by reducing your banks of light switches (sometimes four, five or more in a row) and consolidating them into a single, elegant keypad. Often these lighting keypads are available in a variety of designer colors and textures to perfectly complement your décor.