Tips and Suggestions for Custom Audio Video and Home Automation

Custom audio video and home automation can provide you benefits in comfort, luxury, convenience and, most important of all, energy efficiency. There are hundreds of products, services and design choices you can make that will make your home life easier, more convenient and more energy efficient. The process of making all of those choices work together can be complicated unless you take the time to plan out what you want and work with a company that specializes in coordinating custom audio/video and home automation programs in new builds, and in retrofitting older homes for home automation and entertainment.

Use these tips and suggestions to put together your plans so that you can share them with your contractor, electrician and others involved in your custom audio/video and home automation plan.

Walk through your home and consider the ways that automation can improve your security and your pleasure in your home.

Entryway Security and Lighting

When most people think about security, the first things that come to mind are locks and security systems, but there’s more to home security than just barriers. Lighting also plays a major role in keeping your home safe, secure and welcoming.

Choose downlights on dimmer switches above your front door to illuminate the stoop. Infrared scanners and motion scanners can turn the lights on and off whenever someone approaches the house.

The right lighting also helps illuminate areas for your security cameras, especially if you trigger your cameras to turn on when the lights come up.

Include an emergency light in your outdoor lighting and home automation plan. If the electricity fails, you still want to be able to find the front door.

Family Room

Outfit your family room with everything you need to make it totally functional. Some things to consider include the placement and number of energy points, audio connectors for your audio/video system and flush mounted ceiling speakers to pipe in the playlist or music program of your choice. Don’t forget video screens and wiring/pre-wire for cable, internet and telephone, along with any other networking components you’ll need.

Kitchen

Don’t leave your kitchen out of the custom audio/video and home automation loop. More and more appliances are being designed to take advantage of home automation options and Internet connectivity. Even if you’re not there yet, plan ahead for the future with wiring/pre-wire planning so you can upgrade when you’re ready.

Bathroom

Turn your bathroom into a luxury spa with custom lighting, programmed shower choices and audio/video elements designed right in. From towel warmers to mood lighting and music, you can customize your bathroom with the latest technology for your relaxation.

Creating a custom audio/video and home automation plan can help you visualize the possibilities for your home. Take the time to explore the many ways that technology can make your life more pleasurable, convenient and energy efficient.

Custom Audio, Video and Home Integration Elements

The integrated home is the home of the future. Computer automation is already taking over much of the common functioning that people used to set by hand. You can set your sprinklers to go on and off automatically, program your thermostat to heat and cool your home to specific temperatures at specific times of the day in different seasons, turn your lights on and off based on light level, room occupancy or time and even automatically start your music or television programs in every room in the house. These are just a few of the capabilities you’ll get with custom audio, video and home integration, and these elements are what make automation happen.

Residential Custom Audio, Video and Home Integration

Residential automation can include any or all of the following home entertainment and home automation solutions: audio/video systems, home theater, multi-room audio control, multi-room video control, cable or satellite integration, lighting control, central air and heat, central vacuum systems, communication systems and even automated window treatments and shade control for your windows.

The integrated home features a combination of all the elements from many different subsystems so that you can control them all from one central program. The best home automation systems offer a single user interface to control your whole house audio/video system, lighting control for all rooms, thermostat and energy management, climate systems, home theater and any other automated household systems. Add keypads for home security and control, a universal remote and iPad or iPhone integration, and you’ll be able to control your home from anywhere with a single simple and elegant solution.

Where It Starts

The base of a custom audio, video and home integration system is a structured wiring plan that integrates your phone, cable television, home networking and satellite television into one coordinated system that can be controlled from one central location. From there, you can choose to add multi-room programmable audio that plays audio of choice in each room in the home, multi-room video so that each family member can choose to watch what they want on their screens, custom audio, video and home theater wiring and intercoms for communication and monitoring every area of your home.

Advanced home automation systems include control for your sprinkler and other outdoor systems, lighting control for your entire home, remote control for your security systems and even window and window shade control to automatically open and close window shades for environmental control.

Even if you don’t choose to have all of the home automation systems installed at once, specialists in custom audio, video and home automation can set up wiring/pre-wire your home so that the structure is in place when you’re ready to upgrade.