Lighting Control Is One of the Most Desired Smart Home Features

As builders and designers, you typically look for an edge in your projects. It may be the extra attention you pay to superior design inside and out, a unique flourish that you add like building a hidden room off of the den, or greater customizability in floorplans and finishes that gives clients more choice.

The explosion in the availability of consumer smart lighting products like Philips Hue and others shows that there is high interest and demand in residential lighting control solutions. And while these products are suitable for some applications, with new construction, the opportunity is there to add a comprehensive lighting control solution that is far more customizable for your clients.

Avidia works with Control4 for smart home automation and lighting control because it offers incredible opportunities to add smart home features your clients will love. It’s also far easier to add the infrastructure and fully customize it in the construction process than after the fact. Read on to see why adding a residential lighting control system to your Barrington, IL projects is a smart move for you and your clients.

And Why You Should Consider a Professional Network Installation

Home networking is practically a utility as necessary as running water and electricity. A connection to the internet is required for many daily activities. Whether you’re checking your work email, scrolling through your Facebook feed, watching a show on Netflix, or the kids are doing their school homework, all those things require reliable connectivity to work. What happens when you can't access the internet? Everyone gets quickly frustrated.

Sometimes it’s not difficult to fix a problem. Restarting an app, reloading a web page, or the occasional rebooting of your router and modem can fix the random network glitch. But sometimes these problems are less random and happen more consistently. When they do, it may be a sign that your home network is the problem.

Let’s explore three signs that indicate that your network is not measuring up to the task, and how a professional home network installation might be the answer for your Highland Park, IL home.

Control4 Multiroom Audio Shows You How

These days, there is no shortage of home audio solutions, from simple Bluetooth speakers or high fidelity two-channel to ultra-high-end multichannel home theaters. Each has its purpose and advantages. What if you want a solution that is simple to operate, can expand to every possible area where you want great sound, and can feed every music and audio source you can imagine all through your house?

For that scenario, we recommend Control4 multiroom audio. It will tick all the boxes you will want to check. Can it handle multiple sources, digital and analog? Check. Can it scale to many rooms or zones, even outdoors? Check. Can it deliver high-quality sound to every space? Check. And critically, is it easy to operate so the whole family can use it? Check.  

Why is Control4 the right multiroom audio solution for your Barrington, IL home? We’ll show you why below.

Motorized Shades Bring the Zing to Design Projects

As an interior designer, you are always on the lookout for the next trend. It doesn’t matter whether you do antiques, mid-century modern, or eclectic; you always look for the detail that gives your clients that extra custom touch. It could be an unusual accessory sourced from an exclusive vendor or the way you deftly mix the old and the new into a cohesive design.

That detail shows in various aspects of your work. You know how to take a basic electrical plan and customize it to ensure that unique lamp is plugged in just the right place. You work with electricians and other lighting professionals to ensure a room's lighting properly highlights your carefully conceived design.

When it comes to window treatments, you are an expert in creating custom designs that are both functional and stylish. And this is an area where you can add a custom touch as well - motorized shades and window coverings. How do they add that extra touch to your Lake Forest, IL residential projects? Read on to find out.

The New Avidia is Ready to Make it Happen

What is home automation? Is it the ability to turn a light on and off with your smartphone instead of a switch? Is it the ability to tell your thermostat to change the temperature? Or is a way to control your home theater equipment without getting lost in multiple remotes and settings?

The answer is yes, it’s all of the above - but much more. All of these things make for a better experience living in your home. When small things are taken care of for you, less time is spent checking on whether your doors are locked and your alarm system is armed, and technology does your bidding rather than you having to learn how to use it – then you have the experience home automation is supposed to deliver. 

We at Avidia are focused on ensuring that your experience with home technology is a luxury you can enjoy as the fruits of your hard work. Home automation and technology should make your life simpler, giving you back time for what you want to do and who you want to do it with.

At the same time, we don’t believe this kind of automated luxury is purely the province of the ultra-wealthy. We design, configure, install, and support home technology solutions that are accessible not only from a usability standpoint but also a financial one. Whether you need a lighting control solution for your living areas or a full-fledged Control4 home automation system to manage your sprawling Barrington, IL estate, Avidia is ready to be of service.

Read on to learn more about why you should consider Avidia for all your home technology needs.

Explore the Many Uses & Benefits of Automated Blinds

When it comes to the subject of motorized shades, you may be wondering—haven’t people gotten by with manual window treatments for many years? Why would anyone need motorized shades? The introduction of new technologies often prompts this question. But the more you learn about this smart solution, the more you will discover how it can benefit your household.

To learn how motorized shades work and all they can accomplish in your Glenview, IL home, continue reading below!

It’s All in the Scenes

What’s residential lighting control all about, and why might you want it?  It can do many things in your home. Admittedly, you might find it frivolous in one respect - do you really need automation for your lights? After all, you can always flip a switch, or slide a dimmer up and down. Indeed, some interior designers might specify dimmers in their electrical plans for almost every room but might not think about lighting control. 

We know smart technology is being imbued into all manner of products, even lowly kitchen appliances. Lighting control is actually one of the most requested for smart home features, and is also one that is easy to justify as more than a luxury. In commercial environments, from offices to warehouses, lighting control is used extensively for efficiency, worker comfort and productivity, as well as to extend equipment life. In your Wilmette, IL residence, lighting control can bring those same benefits - and a little luxury that you won’t mind as well

Read on to see why residential lighting control simply makes sense, and learn about the killer lighting control feature that will really win you over.

Enjoy Flawless Internet Connectivity with a Professional Home Network Installation

It’s easy to take a reliable internet connection for granted. Days will go by happily streaming, uploading, and chatting happily until suddenly, a webpage doesn’t load and refuses to refresh. You might try disconnecting from the internet, connecting again, and it still doesn’t work. One might fiddle with the router and come to the frustrating conclusion that the internet is down.

Do situations like these happen more often than you’d like? If you live in the Glenview, IL area, a Premium membership with Avidia can provide 24/7 management of your Comcast Xfinity internet. Plus, our professional home network installations can arrange your network’s devices to prevent future errors from occurring. Continue reading to see how your Illinois home can benefit!  

Why Avidia Service Makes a Difference

In large metropolitan areas like Chicago, there is no shortage of service providers for practically anything you can think of - and that goes for home automation technology as well. The technology itself is important, and with smart home technology and automation, you should choose companies and platforms that continue to innovate and add new capabilities.

Since 2003, Control4 has been an innovator and leader in home automation. There’s very little their system can’t do when it comes to smart home control, and Avidia is proud to be a Control4 Platinum Dealer. In June, we detailed the latest software from Control4, OS 3, which adds significant functionality and ease of use to make it one of the most elegant and flexible home automation platforms.

While the technology is critical, who installs and services it is just as crucial to your overall experience and satisfaction. This month, we’d like to tell you why and how Avidia is different, and why you should choose us for your Glenview home’s Control4 smart home system.

SEE ALSO: 3 Ways Smart Home Technology Gives You Hands-Off Control

Which One is Right for You?

What sets a mood better than music? Spotify, for example, has playlists for driving, exercising, relaxing, falling asleep, and romance; and that covers just some of the activities and moods. Services like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music have made it ridiculously easy to dial up most of the world's recorded music on a smart device, so music is just a couple of clicks away with streaming.

As streaming has revolutionized music consumption, the equipment delivering it has changed quite a bit too. Old school stereo systems and vinyl still exist and are thriving, but many people have turned to the convenience of wireless speaker solutions for background listening. While wireless speakers (like the plethora of Bluetooth models) can sound quite good, most will fall short of audiophile class and not compare well to more traditional speakers. With Bluetooth in particular, the technology does not accommodate multiple speakers playing the same music in synchrony. Traditionally, multiroom audio systems in the home have been built around a music source, distribution amplifiers to power built-in speakers in multiple rooms, and a unified method of controlling it.

Sonos is a company that made a name for itself in multiroom audio by upending the traditional model. With its wireless speakers, a proprietary wireless network for synchronization, and a unified user interface from a smartphone or tablet, the company's products made it easy to have a multiroom system.

Does that mean that Sonos should be your multiroom system of choice? In some situations, it might do well. But there are many factors to consider for whole-home audio. If you’re considering a multiroom audio system for your Glenview, IL home, read on to compare two approaches to state-of-the-art whole home systems: Sonos and Control4.

SEE ALSO: 5 Great Speaker Options for Your Whole House Audio