Welcome to Our Smart Home Technology Blog

If the idea of living in a “smart house” is appealing to you, then you’re in luck. In recent years, more and more smart devices have been developed that make it super simple for you to manage every aspect of your home, from the lights to the television to even the window shades! Below, we cover some of the most common ways to upgrade regular parts of your Keller, Texas house to a full smart home control system. 

Thermostat

Thermostats are one of the most popular and common types of smart home technologies. A smart thermostat allows you to manage the temperature throughout your home anywhere, anytime. Just pull out your smartphone and select the temperature you want. Many of these thermostats learn your preferences over time, so they adjust automatically to keep your home at just the right temperature for comfort.

Lighting

Go beyond basic light switches with a lighting control system that lets you create the perfect lighting environment in every room at the push of a button. Every fixture, from the ceiling fan to the accent lamps, can be managed by your smartphone, a tablet, or handheld remote. Each fixture’s brightness is adjustable, which is useful for energy efficiency—you don’t have to waste energy blasting the lights in rooms that have plenty of natural sunlight, for example.

SEE ALSO: How to Get Started with Lighting and Shading Control

Blind and shade control

With motorized shades, you never have to manually open or close the blinds or drapes again. Instead, you can have your smart home control system automatically adjust the shades throughout the day. And when you’re relaxing on the couch and the setting sun causes a glare, you don’t have to break out of the comfort zone to close the shades—instead, tap that option on your smartphone and go back to relaxing.

With so many options for audio/video systems available, there’s always the risk that you end up with a shoddy, low-quality solution instead of truly exceptional sound and visuals. For luxury homeowners throughout the Highland Park and greater Dallas, Texas area, it’s important to choose a brand known for achieving that high-end quality.

DeVance Electronic Lifestyle works with many of the finest luxury audio brands available, and of all those brands, there is one that we recommend most for high-end homes: MartinLogan. If you’re interested in learning what makes MartinLogan speakers the best, then read on.

Innovative Design for Superior Sound

There are many methods for designing speakers. The one you’re probably most familiar with is the circular cone or dome-shaped speaker. That shape is easy to manufacture and provides good quality sound, but if you’re interested in the best sound quality possible, electrostatic is a better design for you.

Electrostatic speakers work by converting an amplifier’s output to a high-voltage charge. The speakers are designed with an ultra-light, electrically conductive material that evenly disperses the audio signal throughout the room. Technical aspects aside, the important thing about an electrostatic design is that it overcomes the limitations on rigidity and uniformity that so often cause cone-shaped speakers to deliver a less-than-stellar sound performance. 

SEE ALSO: Explore What it Means to Live with Smart Home Automation

Getting started with smart home technology is incredibly exciting. You get to pick out devices and solutions that will make your home more beautiful, energy-efficient, secure, and comfortable! But before you start picking out the fabrics for your motorized shades, ask yourself this question: “Is my home ready for smart home automation?”

Many homeowners throughout the Prosper, Texas area don’t realize that standard electrical wiring may not cut it for advanced automation technology. Even new construction doesn’t typically come with wiring suitable for reliably operating smart technology.

But don’t despair! There’s a simple solution in the form of prewiring services. Below, we answer the most common questions that homeowners have about prewiring. 

What is Prewiring?

Many smart home contractors (including DeVance Electronic Lifestyle) offer prewiring services that ensure your home has everything it needs to support all of its smart devices—both now and in the future as technology gets more advanced. Typically, these services include an initial assessment to get an idea of the quality of your home’s wiring. Based on that information, we may run new wires that are capable of handling whatever your smart devices need!

Why is Prewiring Necessary?

Standard wiring in homes often doesn’t go beyond AC power lines, TV cables, and maybe some phone lines. However, the majority of smart home devices operate using low voltage cabling. If your home is wired with the right types of cables, the sky is the limit for what you can automate!

The modern boardroom is about more than just conducting meetings. It’s about collaborating with people all over the world, closing deals with key clients, and making strategic plans that could impact the company for years to come. If you’re relying on outdated or insufficient technology, you’re hindering your company’s ability to operate at peak efficiency and effectiveness.

Below, we cover the five technologies that are absolutely essential if you want a boardroom automation system that is reliable and capable of meeting all the needs of your Dallas, Texas area business.

SEE ALSO: 5 Commercial Audio Video Trends for 2017

1. High-End Sound System

Stop struggling to hear remote team members through weak, poorly placed speakers. A boardroom should utilize sound equipment that provides crisp, pure audio throughout the room. Brands such as Mark Levinson and Revel are a safe bet. These hi-fi audio systems are the product of decades of superior design and engineering. Your boardroom automation installer can strategically place the sound equipment and speakers so that you get perfect sound without any cords or devices cluttering up the room.

2. Lighting and Shading Control

Window shades or overhead lights aren’t typically what you might think about for boardroom technologies, but they should be. After all, the lighting in a room ties directly into the quality of your visual displays—too much lighting can wash out the imagery, but you still need a well-lit room to conduct meetings.