HOME AUDIO
A properly designed audio system balances aesthetics and function to provide the home owner with custom tailored sound in every space of the home.
Distributed Audio / Background music
Imagine your favorite music following you from room to room. With nearly invisible speakers built into the walls or ceiling there is nothing to plug in, take up space, or collect dust.
Home Theater
Audio from all angles. Expertly placed speakers and intentionally tuned room acoustics help home theaters reap the maximum advantage these dedicated entertainment spaces can provide.
Exterior Audio
Lounging by the pool or soaking in the hot tub is so much more enjoyable with music from your favorite artist or Spotify playlist. Clunky rock speakers are a thing of the past, today’s outdoor audio systems blend seamlessly with the landscape and sound incredible!
Critical Listening / Hi-Fi
Sometimes you just want the familiar warmth a favorite LP in a quiet room. Today’s high fidelity components bring out depths and layers to music normally drowned out, so you can sit back, relax, and hear it again for the first time.
Separate Zones : Separate Sources
Whole home audio doesn’t necessarily mean compromise. You can listen to rock in the garage, while your significant other chills out to reggae by the pool, all while the kids are listening to top-40 in the family room.
VIDEO DISTRIBUTION
Gone are the days of running a simple coax cable into the back of a television. While hanging a flatscreen TV on a wall is a simple request, a much larger and more difficult question to answer is: Where do we put the rest of the equipment?
SIMPLE LOCAL SYSTEMS
In room where space isn’t limited or aesthetics aren’t a concern, you can keep the cable box, apple tv, roku, or bluray player close by in a cabinet, or maybe tucked on a shelf in a closet.
CHOOSE WHAT YOU WANT
With a distributed video system you have the ability to choose your own customized cable or satellite box on any TV in the house. Start with a channel from your personal list of favorites in the kitchen, and it’s also available in the bedroom or media room.
TV SPEAKERS
No matter how hard they try, TV manufactures will never be able to get the same audio performance out of a pair of built in speakers, that you can get with larger and much higher quality in-wall or in-ceiling speakers.
4K / 2160P / ULTRAHD / HDR
Proper wiring and planning are required in order to make sure that the best picture and resolutions can be reliably transmitted throughout the home without loss in color or quality.
VIDEO MATRIX
All the TV’s in the house are home run to a central rack that also holds all the cable boxes, streaming media players, and other sources. Using a distributed system like this the equipment stays cleaner, cooler, and easier to service than it would if it were in a cabinet. The other advantage is that in the actual rooms where the TV is installed, there is no equipment or wires to hide … just a nice clean TV mounted on the wall.
CONTROL
How many times have you sat down to watch a show only to discover that you couldn’t find 1 of the 5 different remote controls needed? A universal remote is built into your home automation system. There’s no need for a separate remote for the TV, Cable Box, Bluray, Media Player, Receiver and TV lift … it all can be controlled from one single smart remote. Can’t find that either? No problem, in a pinch you can use an app on your phone or a tablet.
NETWORKING
Wired and wireless networks make up the framework for all communications between smart devices in a home.
Wireless vs. Ethernet
Isn’t everything wireless these days? While there are lots of wireless enabled devices it is ALWAYS more reliable to use a hard-wired Ethernet connection whenever possible, doing so lowers the number of clients (devices) that communicate over the wireless network. You don’t want the HVAC system trying to compete with your laptop when you’re trying to check emails. Something else to consider is power requirements. Unless a device is battery powered, you’re going to have to plug it into an outlet to power it … you might as well hard-wire the Ethernet as well.
WiFi
WiFi networks in the home get used more often than any other system in the house. Unfortunately, they rarely are designed ahead of time. Instead people generally try to make up for the lack of initial design by plugging in repeaters or extenders, often in less than ideal locations both functionally and aesthetically. Properly pre-wiring for Wireless Access Points can allow you to have a blanket of high speed wireless coverage that extends beyond the main areas of the house and into the areas where you’re more likely to need it.
Internet Of Things
The advent of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) has whipped up a flurry of cloud-connected devices that use your local area network (LAN) to communicate with each other. Planning ahead and properly accommodating for the total number of connected devices within a home is critical to keep the network from bogging down during times of heavy traffic.
Ethernet
A network switch is a device that connects other hard-lined Ethernet devices to the same local area network (LAN). The quality and speed of this switch is generally the determining factor to how quickly communication between devices can occur. Managed switches (Level 2) generally offer a faster throughput between each of it’s connected devices.
Cat5e vs. Cat6
While Cat5e cable may be fast enough for most of today’s current technology, Cat6 remains our cable of choice when wiring all projects to make sure we have available bandwidth to accommodate the needs of devices in the future. The difference in cost in minimal compared to re-puling new cable years down the road.
Self-Heal
How often do you find yourself having to unplug your modem, router and misc networking equipment … waiting 20 seconds … then plugging back in the mode first, router second, and then the other equipment last? With our smart networking systems, when your incoming internet hangs up and actually needs to be physically reset … it does it all by itself. The built in automation system cuts power to the modem, router, and switches, and then powers them back up in the correct order, after the appropriate amount of reset time. It also logs the action and alerts us as dealers that you’re having network connection issues. This can be a powerful tool when inquiring with your Internet Service Provider about inconsistencies in service.
Surveillance
Bullet vs. Dome
Bullet cameras are quite a bit more visible and are more suitable to applications where you might be looking to discourage vandalism or theft. Dome cameras are a little bit harder to spot, which can make them a better choice if you are looking for something that blends in for a more subtle look.
Notifications
Would you like to know if someone rang your doorbell or left a package on the doorstep when you weren’t home? How would you like to know in real-time as it’s happening? Get push notifications on your mobile when someone is at your front door.
Remote monitoring viewing
What good are security cameras covering the important parts of your home, if you don’t have access to them when you aren’t there? Remote monitoring and video playback must be reliable, convenient, and easy to navigate. All our systems giver you the ability to pull up the camera feeds from your mobile, tablet, or computer.
Integration with control systems
When you combine a compatible surveillance system with a full home automation system, you can see live video and have a two way conversation with someone standing on your front door. We can even give you a button to unlock the door or open the gate while in the middle of the video call.
Local Recording is safer
Products like Ring and Nest are great for simple system that require no other special integration and only need a camera or two at most, but what happens to your recordings if your internet goes out? The answer is that they are gone forever. Products like these that rely on WiFi to connect and stream the video feed to offsite servers are completely dependent on your internet being reliably up at all times. Our camera system record to a local DVR or NVR which can be placed anywhere in the home. No internet, no problem … our cameras are all hardwired and will continue to record uninterrupted.
Lighting Control / Electrical
Lighting control can include the dimming of one light all the way to controlling an entire building. When planning a lighting system it is important to understand how a space is going to be used and work backward in the designing process.
Scene
Scenes like Home, Away, Goodnight, Vacation, Entertain, Path are just a few examples of what can be created to simplify a lighting system through control. With a single button press you can easily control an entire home or building helping to reduce energy consumption while still leaving critical paths illuminated at whatever time of the day or night. Lighting scenes can also help create a mood in any environment. Having the correct balance of ambient, task, and accent lighting can completely change a look of a space and should be planned carefully.
Automated
Exterior lighting is the best example of lighting that can be automated. Having the ability for lighting to turn on when the sun sets and turn off at a specific time at night can help accent a space and even provide security. Astronomical time-clock control gives the ability for control systems to change throughout the year and can be specifically set to the region to ensure the lights are turning on and off when needed.
Natural Light
When talking about lighting control, most people forget one of the greatest sources of lighting in a space can be the sun. Controlling natural light in a room can be done with the use of motorized shades. Shading can also help control the temperature of a room and protect furniture and flooring.
ELECTRICAL
As a C-10 (Electrical Contractor) we are able to take care of any of the electrical needs on a project. Though we focus on the automation side of the industry we have over 20 years of experience in the electrical field with residential, commercial, and light industrial experience. Using technology to simplify, create ease of use, and reduce power consumption are just a few things we strive for when designing electrical systems for our clients.