With the worst of the summer sun behind us, it’s time to enjoy your home’s outdoor spaces again. And what better way to relax after a long day or add some energy to your next backyard barbecue than with an outdoor audio system? Outdoor speakers make an excellent addition to your Davie, FL, home, and today we’ll share three of our favorite outdoor speaker brands.
Home automation is a trendy topic these days, but how much do you really know about what a smart home can do? Are you familiar with how the systems work and what they have to offer?
Don’t panic if your answer to any of these questions is “no.” That’s what we’re here for. A Control4 home control system takes the hassle out of home automation by combining everything under one umbrella with easy but powerful controls. Today’s blog will show how a Control4 dealer can help Pompano Beach residents enjoy a more relaxed and comfortable lifestyle.
Home automation is quickly becoming a buzz word in marketing for technology products. Everything from thermostats, to lights, to alarm systems, and even appliances are now being controlled via our smartphones or our computers. You’ve probably even seen major alarm and cable service providers pushing home automation systems lately. Can you turn on a light in your home while you’re at the office? Sure. How about setting your alarm from the airport when you realize you left the house in a rush and never turned it on? Of course. But a properly designed system can do so much more…
So what is home automation? It is the integration of all the systems in your home into one smart design that works for you instead of giving you more things to do or worry about. Instead of being able to turn your lights on and off while you’re away from home, how about a lighting system that knows when you are home, because it can communicate with your alarm system and knows when it is armed in away mode for instance. A smart home would also know what time of day it is and even be able to measure how much natural light is in a room, allowing it to dim and adjust lighting in a room based on all these factors without you having to touch a single button or open an app. You may have seen some smart locks being sold in stores. Can you imagine your home knowing who has arrived, and based on the time of day you’ve arrived, setting the lighting mood you prefer, turning your audio system or TV on to your favorite station and arming your alarm in the “stay” mode for you automatically? This is true home automation. You may be conjuring up images of the Jetsons and Rosie, their robot maid, cleaning up and cooking for the family, and thinking this is just a cartoon. Technology has finally caught up to our imagination and allowed some of these things to become reality… Although we’re still waiting for our flying cars.
With so many systems already installed and operating within our homes such as, lighting, HVAC, Audio, Video, Security, etc… doesn’t it make sense to get the most out of what you already have in your home. We actually want the left hand to know what the right hand is doing in this case. We can leverage so much information from one system in your home to make other systems feel like they know exactly what you want them to do without you having to tell them. With so much technology at our disposal, it shouldn’t feel like we have more things to do or check up on, but that’s exactly what it seems to be doing. A well planned home automation system can make your life easier and less clumsy to get the most out of the investments you’ve already made to your home. Call First Priority Audio today to let us get the most out of technology for you and your family.
I did not grow up with music playing in my home every day... maybe the occasional Saturday or Sunday as we cleaned the house. If there was music playing, it was in my room as I played video games as a kid. My wife, on the other hand, had music playing in her childhood home much more than I did. I'm assuming that's part of the reason she can recite lyrics from decades old songs from memory as though she was forced to memorize them for an exam. Either way, she lived with music in her home and she has grown into an adult that loves to add music to any occasion or task. When we first moved in together I noticed that I was playing music in the home much more often than I had when I lived alone. As we add whole home music to more and more rooms in our home, this has become even more common. If we aren't actively watching something on TV, there is music playing somewhere in the home. Our shower routine will never be without music again... a la Ferris Bueller!
Recently, Sonos in conjunction with Apple Music conducted a study on music's affect in the home, and the findings were nothing short of amazing. The study was led by Daniel Levitin, who has literally written the book on music's affect on your brain. In short, 30,000 general music listening people were polled, and more importantly an experiment was conducted in 30 homes throughout the world. For 1 week, those homes were not allowed to play music aloud... then the next week they did. Levitin called the findings of the study "a nexus of intimacy and togertherness". Music really does bring people together.
Here are some of the findings that jumped out at me:
As you can see, a whole house music system can really change the way you live and love in your home. With more and more technology pushing relationships away from face to face interaction, a home music system can bring everyone back together. I can honestly say from experience that it has changed my home life and I'm sure it will do the same for you.
When you are ready to add life to your home with a whole house audio system, First Priority Audio will be there to help you!
Have you ever experienced first hand a fully automated home? You know... where you walk into a house, press one button by the door, and magically the lights turn on, the music system starts playing your favorite station, and your alarm is disarmed? A true smart home allows you to integrate multiple parts of the home into one system, so you have one point of control for everything in your home. From shades and lights to audio and video, and everything else in between an automated home can bring it all together. The beauty of an automated home is made in the background... in the programming! Your home integrator really earns his keep making sure all the systems communicate with each other, allowing you to create the perfect scene in your home with the touch of a button.
If you've ever looked into a home automation system though, you know they can get pretty expensive. The questions we get most often as home integrators is... "Do I really need that?" That answer, unfortunately, isn't an easy yes or no. It all depends. Do you really need all your home systems to communicate with each other?
Let's face it... We live in an app based world and we all have dozens upon dozens of apps on our phones and tablets. Some of these apps we use on a daily basis and some we don't even remember why we downloaded in the first place. But when it comes to controlling our homes, we may not need an automation system to connect everything together. Some of us are perfectly happy having one app to turn on our music, another app to control our lights, and another to check on the home alarm or security cameras. Sure it's really cool to press one button on your keypad and have the lights to your TV room turn on for you to light the way, and have the TV turn to your favorite channel before you even hit the couch... but that simple enough task brings with it more electronic components and programming time that you are ultimately paying for. Don't get us wrong... We'd love to sell you a true home automation system! But it's not for everyone.
Some of the better companies out there like Sonos, Nest, and Vantage Controls offer amazing apps to control their products. You should certainly leverage their research and development teams and use the apps they are testing and improving on every day. Think about it... These companies only have to focus on improving their product, and not on communicating with every other product on the market. This allows them to funnel a lot more of their resources into user experience... giving you a stellar app to use every day. Sure you can't turn on your lights from your music app, but do you really need to? If you are comfortable with the concept of one app for each system in your home... and you know where the home button is on your phone... I think app based control is for you!
If you're ready to explore app based home control further... First Priority Audio is here to help.
