It's time to trick or treat with technology. 

Here at AV Design Consultants, we were scratching our pumpkins to try to come up with how we could use the technology in our customers’ smart homes to turn up the volume on their Halloween celebrations. Luckily, we didn't have to think too hard: Technology and Halloween have gone dismembered limb in dismembered limb since Frankenstein's time. No matter how you like your haunted holiday, there are plenty of ways you can take advantage of your smart home to help spread the haunts, howls, and scares. 

So, this week on the blog, things are going to be a little bit different. A little bit creepier. A little bit crawlier. And maybe even a little bit candy...er. Let's look at all the boo-tiful benefits you get from having a smart home, and how such technology can help you have the happiest -- and hauntiest -- Halloween possible. 

Are you ready to bring movie magic home?

While televisions have long been at the center of American living rooms, home movie theaters aren't nearly as common. However, those people who have taken the time, resources, and space to put in a home movie theater have found just how great it is to enjoy theater-caliber sound and picture right at home. 

A home movie theater brings many benefits to you and your family, but all of us here at AV Design Consultants know that transforming an entire room of your home into a theater isn't an easily made decision. To help guide you through your purchasing decision journey, we've put together a list of reasons why now is the perfect time to get a home movie theater, as well as some of the great benefits that just such a theater will bring to your life. 

Theaters Aren't Open

2020 has truly been one for the record books, and one of the industries hit hard by quarantine has been movie theaters. Many movie theaters across the country have been closed for months, and we don't have any indication of when widespread Hollywood movie releases will once again be the norm. This means that the best way to experience a movie hasn’t been accessible to most people since the beginning of the year, and with no sign of when movie theaters will reopen, it may be time to consider bringing that traditional theater experience home. 

Combine this with the ease and increase in availability of video-on-demand movies -- or look at what Disney is doing with "Mulan," which was originally due to have a theatrical debut and now is totally bypassing that by releasing on Disney+ -- and the timing is really ripe for an explosion in-home movie watching.

Of course, if you want your home movie experience to even begin to rival that of a theater, you'll need a theater of your own. 

Distance learning is going to be a brave new world for most families this fall.

Whether your kids have been back to school part time, or are fully learning remotely, this fall has been full of changes for teachers, kids, and parents alike. Distance learning is a new concept for most people, and it's been an adjustment all around.

Of course, all of us here at AV Design Consultants want to do anything we can to help make this transition easier, and it so happens there's a way we can do just that: Looking at how technology can help make your distance learning efforts this fall easier. So, we've put together some suggestions on ways you can use your favorite smart home tech to make learning easier on everyone involved. Let's take a look!

Whether you are a bustling and busy family in a giant house, or a couple just starting out with their tech-savvy starter home, smart lights can play a vital role in the overall look, feel, and interactivity of the place you call home.