Know Your Budget

In a new construction project or major remodel, product and installation costs will likely total around 4-10% of your home’s value, however, minor projects generally will be less. It’s important to select an integrator during the early stages of a new build or a remodel to avoid running out of budget or causing delays in your project build cycle. 

An integrator can also offer value adds to the architectural and construction team since they must work with most of the trades at some point during the project. Most importantly, they can help you create a budget up front based on your needs and ensure your goals are met at the end of your project. 

Consider Your Home and the Project

It’s important to hire an integrator who specializes in working with homes similar to the size and value of yours. You can get references from past clients or ask to see some of their previous work for similar projects. The larger the home, the more complex your project is likely to be and it's important to hire a company that has the experience. 

Knowing that your integrator is capable of a project to your scale will relieve stress. In addition, an integrator who provides a range of services is your best option, so if there’s a new project you want to take on, you won't have to go looking for another professional. 

Why is a Home Network so Important?

• A home network enables you to connect to the internet from multiple devices and share music, images, and files on devices connected to the network.
• It makes it possible to stream movies, music, and other entertainment across multiple devices.
• Streaming devices, gaming systems, and intelligent televisions have made it possible to soak in a wide range of content.
• It enables you to share equipment, such as printers and scanners. For example, multiple computers can print to a single printer when connected to a home network.
• It creates a simplified way to manage smart home devices, such as thermostats, cameras, and security devices.
• It empowers you to enhance your smart home devices by seamlessly connecting them to an automated home.

The home network is the heart of all connected technology within a home. It supplies connected devices with the necessary data to keep them operating seamlessly. In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in the number of devices that require a connection to the home network. The expansion of a network with new devices and technologies can put a strain on the network equipment.

Your entertainment enjoyment, for example, is tied to a home network. No one wants to experience a spinning wheel or shuttering display while trying to watch a favorite show or movie — which is why a robust and healthy home network is essential.

How do you Ensure your Home Network is Healthy?

• Protect your home network with necessary security features, such as a firewall and network password.
• Manage cables and wires to help to maintain cables’ basic functionality and protect devices from a clogged airflow.
• Keep a close eye on your network speed to determine any issues with your home network bandwidth.
• Take care of your networking equipment by keeping it away from light, heat, moisture, and dust.

Unfortunately, when not safeguarded, a home network can be a playground for malicious activities caused by people with ill intent. As we rely more on a home network, it’s crucial to invest in the upfront design and technology to ensure you’re receiving the fastest speeds and the highest levels of security.

Increased Efficiency

By helping you make sure lights are off when not in use, lighting control systems save you energy and money. You can set different lighting levels for different scenarios, such as cooking, reading, or watching TV.

Lighting systems allow you to control your use of light when and where you need it; light sensors can even measure the brightness of the outside light and adjust interior lights accordingly, ensuring that just the right amount of energy is used.

An Added Layer of Security

Paranoid that potential intruders will know you’re miles away and helpless to their attacks? Lighting control systems can set “vacation scenes,” turning lights on and off throughout the day or night to make it seem like someone is home.

They can also automatically turn on outdoor lighting at night so there are never any dark areas, and can use motion sensor technology to show when people are near your home.

Aesthetics and Design

Having large groupings of 2 or more light switches together can take away from the design of your home and create a lot of wall clutter. With a lighting control system that is designed while your house is being built, you can replace those large banks of switches with a single elegant keypad which can control individual lights, scenes (multiple lights together), and even other devices like the volume for music in the room or channels on a local TV.

And ... Scene

Life isn’t so much one big moment as it is a tapestry of little moments, strung together by our human memories. And if we can improve upon all of those little moments, we can make life just that much better.

Enter smart shading.

With smart shading solutions from Savant (say that ten times fast!) you can easily set your home’s shading for the seasons or the weather. Your shades can be scheduled to move with the time of day or the position of the sun. It’s pitch-perfect control over life’s little moments, but on a grand scale.

Cultured Convenience

After a long day of cleaning, working, chasing the kids around, and all of the other “super fun” things that make up being an adult that our parents never warned us about, adding another task to the chore list can sound like, well, a chore.

Take this, for example: You sit down after a long, hard day and sit down to watch the TV. The setting sun is behind you, and the glare from it is coming through the WINDOWS AND RUINING YOUR TV OH MY WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

Sound is special. It’s the difference between watching somebody strum a weird wooden shape and listening to somebody perform Bach on bass guitar.

The importance of sound isn’t just limited to concert performances or watching your kid’s school band play “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” for the millionth time, either. It’s also important at home and can bring a whole new level of immersion to your music, TV shows, and movies.

For those of you that aren’t quite convinced -- or are still on the fence about ditching your old dusty system and upgrading to something new -- we took the liberty of putting together some reasons why – and how -- a new hi-fi home audio system will change your family’s life for the better.

Technology is constantly looming in our lives. Smart thermostats regulate our household temperatures. Security devices keep our houses safe while we’re away. Our health is continuously monitored with wearable technology. A camera watches our pets at home. We can’t escape technology, so we might as well embrace it. As we add more technology to our everyday life, it can be pretty confusing to understand the terms for different technologies.

It’s common to hear “smart home” and “home automation” used interchangeably, and while they are related, there is a big difference between the two.

It’s time to take music everywhere.

Back in the day, listening to music used to be tethered to the physical realm: The vinyl goes on the platter or the disc goes into the player, you sit close by, and you listen through speakers or headphones connected to player. And that was pretty much it.  

But that’s not the way it is anymore.

With multi-room audio systems, you and your music are free of physical wires and media. Music can flow throughout your whole house — all wirelessly. Let’s take a look at what is possible for multi-room audio, and what awesome features you are missing out on.

Summer is exciting for many reasons: No distance or in-person school, beach vacations, poolside staycations, and of course, the warm weather. But what about when you are inside and want to keep some of that sunlight out?

That’s what smart shades are for!

Different projectors are designed for different uses. Whether you’re hosting a moving night or leading a business meeting, a big-screen projector with vivid color output leaves a lasting impression. For movie aficionados and gamers, a projector offers a larger screen size on a reasonable budget, particularly in comparison to a flat-panel display. For business professionals, a projector is a flexible tool for sharing presentations with any size audience.

Selecting the right projector from a crowded field of models with a wide range of prices, features and capabilities can be a daunting task. Unlike most televisions, a projector’s performance is impacted by the room’s environment and the type of screen that the projector is paired with. To obtain the highest-quality picture — whether you’re using your projector for leisure or business — you’ll need the appropriate type of projector for your particular use case.