What Should You Know About a Whole-House Automation Solution?
And How a Professional Can Help Bring Smart Technology to Your Home
Have you been thinking about adding smart home automation to your Richmond home? With the plethora of solutions available to Virginia homeowners, wrapping your head around all the available options may be challenging.
It may be tempting to approach smart home technology yourself, and there's no shortage of DIY smart home products. However, as a professional home technology integrator, Sound + Image strongly feels that you will get the best results if you hire a company like us. While you can dabble successfully with some smart home products yourself, you will benefit from your investment with a professionally designed and installed whole-house automation solution. A complete home automation installation will yield more benefits than the sum of the parts! Read more below to learn what you need to know.
SEE ALSO: Control4 Reimagines Smart Home Automation
Choosing the Right Solution
The interface of a solution – how you interact with it – is critical to its usability and the satisfaction you may derive from its use. Most home automation solutions have similar features, but the interfaces differ in subtle but important ways. For example, do you like the idea of a touchscreen much like that on your smartphone or tablet? Many people do, while others enjoy the tactile feel or real buttons. Some home automation solutions rely heavily on touch screen interfaces, while others give you a wider variety of choices with programmable keypads and more traditionally oriented remote controls with a combination of touchscreen and real buttons. You may want to consider how you want to interact with your home.
How Much to Automate
How much do you want to automate in your smart home? Sound + Image believes that the more you integrate, the more benefit you will get from your smart home investment. But that doesn’t mean you have to do it all at once. It is important to consider all the elements you might want over time, like entertainment, climate, lighting, motorized window treatments, video monitoring, ceiling fans, and even pool and spa equipment. Some solutions are better than others at integrating and managing a wide variety of home systems. As a professional, we can help you choose the solution that will serve you best for the long term.
Laying the Groundwork
Every home needs a solid foundation. A whole-house automation solution also requires a reliable infrastructure. It starts with low-voltage wiring to all the right places to support features like security cameras, built-in speakers, lighting control, and many more. It also means a robust networking infrastructure to supply the right connectivity capacity and access to a large number of devices.
When we work with builders and designers, we also consider other elements like hidden technology. If you want TVs that disappear behind artwork when not in use, motorized flat-panel displays that glide into position at the touch of a button, and screens and projectors that appear from the ceiling when it’s time for the show, you need the right electrical and other wiring to support these automated features. Careful infrastructure planning yields maximum flexibility in adding all the details that will bring the greatest enjoyment from your smart home investment.
Are you ready to start your home automation journey in Richmond? Give us a call at (804) 741-5816 or fill out our online form to get started today. We would love to work with you!
