When envisioning the greatest benefits of a smart home, it is easy to be wowed by high-tech, entertainment features such as custom home theaters while ignoring some of the more practical aspects of home automation. Motorized window treatments may not have the hi-tech appeal of other systems, but they provide some of the most immediate benefits to your Austin, TX home.

Relative Home Systems can design a custom-made motorized shading system that will become a great investment for your family and property. Below are some of the biggest perks of adding Lutron shading solutions to your space. 

Enhance Your Privacy

The biggest reason to add blinds to your home is the most basic, protecting your privacy by blocking the view from the outside. How many times have you come out of the shower to realize you’ve left the shades open? No longer do you have to walk straight to the window to close the blinds. With motorized shades you can use a handheld remote, smartphone or tablet to close blinds without having to approach the window.

Incorporate scenes into your system that anticipate your needs. A ‘morning’ scene can progressively open your shades when you wake up to ease you into your day while an ‘away’ scene makes sure all blinds are closed when you leave the house. In modern homes, these kinds of motorized window treatments are becoming a necessity, especially if you want to add shades to large windows that are inaccessible manually.

When envisioning the greatest benefits of a smart home, it is easy to be wowed by high-tech, entertainment features such as custom home theaters while ignoring some of the more practical aspects of home automation. Motorized window treatments may not have the hi-tech appeal of other systems, but they provide some of the most immediate benefits to your Austin, TX home.

Relative Home Systems can design a custom-made motorized shading system that will become a great investment for your family and property. Below are some of the biggest perks of adding Lutron shading solutions to your space. 

Enhance Your Privacy

The biggest reason to add blinds to your home is the most basic, protecting your privacy by blocking the view from the outside. How many times have you come out of the shower to realize you’ve left the shades open? No longer do you have to walk straight to the window to close the blinds. With motorized shades you can use a handheld remote, smartphone or tablet to close blinds without having to approach the window.

Incorporate scenes into your system that anticipate your needs. A ‘morning’ scene can progressively open your shades when you wake up to ease you into your day while an ‘away’ scene makes sure all blinds are closed when you leave the house. In modern homes, these kinds of motorized window treatments are becoming a necessity, especially if you want to add shades to large windows that are inaccessible manually.

Whether you are in the car, at the grocery store or in the office, you take music wherever you go. So it makes sense that you’d want to have a robust whole home audio system integrated into every room of your house. From the moment you walk through your door, you immerse yourself in a realm of sonic bliss. Each room of your home can be customized with a different playlist, which can add an extra dimension to your home decor. And you can have a dedicated listening room built specifically to give your music high-fidelity, studio quality sound. Read on to find out how home audio can change the way you experience your music.

Set the Scene for Family Dinner

It’s getting late on a Sunday afternoon, and your relatives are beginning to arrive for a big family dinner. Luckily, you’ve set the scene throughout your house for a perfect night. Gather in the light and breezy living room with a soundtrack to match the half-lowered shades and soft lighting. From there, filter into the dining rooms – gentle jazz and low lights for the grown-ups and a brighter, funkier atmosphere for the kids. Afterward, come together in the kitchen for drinks and dessert with the right music. With a whole home audio system integrated with your smart lighting and shading, create the perfect setting in every room with the touch of a button.

Create a Soundscape in Your Listening Room

After the family has left, have a nightcap while enjoying your favorite tunes in a dedicated listening room. Fully textured, spacious and detailed sound makes you feel like you’re in the studio with your favorite musicians while they’re recording. Plus, you can add versatility to the space when you install a drop-down screen and projector and switch your receiver to surround sound – thereby creating an engrossing cinematic world in a home theater. All it takes is a few simple commands on your tablet or smartphone.

Running a business is never easy. Whether you have to stay in touch with clients, manage employees or keep track of expenses, you don’t want to be distracted by the simple things like controlling your office spaces. With an office and boardroom control system, you can stay in command of every aspect of your workspace: from staying comfortable and productive to saving on energy costs. Smart technology offers benefits to keep you and your employees working hard to make your business successful. Read on to find out how commercial automation can make running your business easier and more dynamic. 

Lower Costs With Energy Monitoring

It’s a simple truth: your business needs energy to run. From the lighting in every office, to the computers that keep you connected, every aspect of your company requires electricity to keep going. But that doesn’t mean you have to waste money on excess consumption. Keep track of how much energy you’re using throughout the building with smart technology. When it’s time for a meeting, light up the boardroom and turn on the necessary components, like the video monitors and in-wall audio system, to conduct an informative presentation. When you’re done, turn it all off with the touch of a button so you don’t waste a cent on a space that’s not in use. By monitoring your office’s energy usage, you can keep overhead low without sacrificing performance.

Stay Comfortable with HVAC

A comfortable employee is a more effective employee, and as the days get hotter, you’re employees are going to want to cool off while completing their assignments. A heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system can keep your workers content during every season of the year, and the simple, one-touch controls give you complete command of the climate in every room of the building. Lower the temperature in the office if someone gets too warm, and raise it in every office that’s not in use.

If you’re upgrading your smart home, you’re going to want a smart lighting control system. It can help improve your home security, save energy and augment the beauty of your interior design. But it can do more than that. It can also enhance your daily life, make your entertainment more enjoyable and create usable spaces out of ones that you may have previously neglected. Read on to find out how a smart lighting system can upgrade all aspects of your home life. 

Enhance Your Home Theater

When you go to the movie theater, you don’t watch the clerks go through the room, flipping off light switches and turning on the projector. It’s all done in one fell swoop, seamlessly putting you into the cinematic experience. The same can be true for your home theater. Integrate lighting into your home theater controls and you can turn off the overhead lights, lower the screen and projector, turn on your surround sound system and start the film – all with the touch of a button. Plus, by adding floor lighting, you and your family can see where you’re going without disturbing anyone else. All of these elements combine for the perfect viewing experience.

Wake Up to the Perfect Scene

Your morning routine is so familiar to you, you probably don’t even have to think about it. But with a home lighting control system, waking up becomes even easier. By programming “scenes” into your control device, you can have one touch controls that set the perfect mood for any situation. So before you go to bed at night, set the “wake-up scene”, and in the morning you’ll be awoken by gradually rising lights that give your eyes time to adjust. You can also integrate other features of your smart home into the scene, so that the shades slowly rise, the thermostat turns off and your favorite morning music can gently flow through the in-wall speakers of your whole home audio system to make getting up just as pleasant as going to bed.

There are few things more irritating at your small business than being distracted by the sun while you’re working. Whether you are trying to conduct a meeting, serving your favorite customers or healing patients, motorized widow treatments are the perfect solution for your business. Avoid distractions and increase productivity, keep your spaces cool and comfortable and add privacy and security to your rooms with smart shading. Read on to find out how smart shading can enhance your business.

Set the Scene in the Boardroom

Smart automation is one of the best investments you can make in your office boardroom. Audio and video systems can help you keep in touch with your coworkers and clients both in and out of the office, while smart lighting can draw attention to a specific area and highlight a particular speaker. Additionally, you can keep the distracting sun out with motorized window treatments. By integrating smart shading into your boardroom’s automation network, you can set the scene for a compelling and productive business meeting.

Keep Customers Comfortable in Your Retail Space

It’s simple really: a comfortable customer is likely to spend more time in your store. As customers trickle in to your shop this summer for a mid-day shopping spree, keep them cool as they browse the merchandize with motorized window treatments. Integrate climate control and in-wall audio with your system to adjust the shading, temperature and playlist all from a single smartphone or tablet. And when the sun goes down and you want to show off your elaborate window displays, raise the shades and the lighting to emphasize your store’s beauty.

Just because you’re home from the office doesn’t mean you’re done with work for the day. Running a small business or private practice means you’ll need a dedicated space in your Woodlands, TX home for working on everything you need to wrap up a project or close a case. Smart home automation can transform a room in your house into a productive working environment by helping you stay connected with everything you’ll need. Take a look at how smart automation by Relative Home Systems can enhance your home office space.

Utilize Audio/Video for Telecommunications

Working from home doesn’t mean that you have to break off all communications with the outside world. Stay connected with the employees, co-workers and even overseas clients with a strong telecommunication system. See clearly with UHD cameras streaming pristine images to your 4K monitor or television. Hear everything with in-wall speakers throughout your office space, so you don’t have to be glued to your desk if you need to speak to someone. And when you’re on the go, have the video and audio streamed right to your tablet or smartphone.

Create an Automated Waiting Room

If you regularly have clients or patients coming to your house, you’ll need some way to address them when they arrive, and smart home automation offers a solution. An HD intercom will tell you exactly when they arrive and allow you to speak to them without even leaving your office. Combine your HD intercom with outdoor audio to stream music onto your porch, and turn it into a functioning waiting room. And unlock the door from your desk with an automated entry system to give yourself an added sense of security. With smart home automation, your clients and patients will be happier and safer when they visit your home office.

The custom home theater in your Memorial, TX smart home should be a unique reflection of you and your style. After all, the whole point of a home theater is that you can imbue your personal style and sense of cinematic perfection into every aspect of the space. That being said, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into what you want out of your theater – even the things you may have previously overlooked – but now it’s time to think about some details. Read on to gain some ideas on how to enhance your theater experience seamlessly and elegantly.

Find the Right Screen

If you’ve chosen to go the traditional home theater route with a drop down 4K projector, you’ve made an excellent choice. However, a projector is only half of the equation. You’ll also have to consider what type of screen you’ll want.

As you already know, the screen size will be affected not just by the size of your room, but also by the position of the seating. You’ll also want to think about the particular screen material. Is there a lot of ambient light in your room? Then you may want to try a high-contrast dark grey or black screen, which gives you deep, rich blacks and reflects less light back at the viewer. Alternately, the industry-standard white screen will achieve the best brightness, but may pick up more light than simply what’s coming from the projector. While there’s no perfect choice for every custom home theater, there’s probably the right choice for yours!

Enhance Your Audio with Bowers and Wilkins

The custom home theater in your Memorial, TX smart home should be a unique reflection of you and your style. After all, the whole point of a home theater is that you can imbue your personal style and sense of cinematic perfection into every aspect of the space. That being said, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into what you want out of your theater – even the things you may have previously overlooked – but now it’s time to think about some details. Read on to gain some ideas on how to enhance your theater experience seamlessly and elegantly.

Find the Right Screen

If you’ve chosen to go the traditional home theater route with a drop down 4K projector, you’ve made an excellent choice. However, a projector is only half of the equation. You’ll also have to consider what type of screen you’ll want.

As you already know, the screen size will be affected not just by the size of your room, but also by the position of the seating. You’ll also want to think about the particular screen material. Is there a lot of ambient light in your room? Then you may want to try a high-contrast dark grey or black screen, which gives you deep, rich blacks and reflects less light back at the viewer. Alternately, the industry-standard white screen will achieve the best brightness, but may pick up more light than simply what’s coming from the projector. While there’s no perfect choice for every custom home theater, there’s probably the right choice for yours!

Enhance Your Audio with Bowers and Wilkins

It’s summer time, and there’s no better opportunity to enjoy the exterior beauty of your Houston, TX smart home. Landscape lighting is the perfect solution for the homeowner who loves to spend time outdoors, but doesn’t want to end the party when the sun goes down. And this season, you don’t want to be cooped up in your dedicated home theater or listening room in order to enjoy your entertainment. Move it outdoors so you can enjoy your favorite music, movies and sports while also spending time in your gorgeous back yard or pool area. Find out how we can enhance your outdoor entertainment with lighting for epic summer nights.

Enhance Your Outdoor Audio

Nothing makes a family get-together more enjoyable than the right sound track. If your yard is equipped with a sturdy and functional landscape lighting system, why not integrate some outdoor speakers as well? That way you can stay out well into the evening with the sense of security your lights provide, while enjoying the beauty of your yard and the fun of the music late into the night.

Add Outdoor TVs to Augment Your Space

Summer isn’t the only season that’s just getting started, baseball is also here. Turn your outdoor space into a dedicated sports room with landscape lighting and outdoor audio and video. Weather resistant televisions are available for your deck, so you don’t have to worry about how rowdy you and your friends get when the game is going. If you get too worked up, take a lap in the yard or pool so you’ll be ready for the next inning.

Augmenting your home with smart automation is a great idea. And while many homeowners start off small with security or entertainment needs and scale up, there are plenty of practical and unobtrusive ways to incorporate technology into your home. Motorized window treatments are a pragmatic and functional way to enhance your Woodlands, TX home design and increase your privacy. Simple controls allow you to adjust your shades from anywhere – in or out of the house. Find out how automated shading can complement your spaces.

Enhance Your Spaces

The sun is beautiful. Waking up to a bright, sunny morning is a joy for many. However, too much sun can be damaging and costly to your home. Not only can it add extra wear and tear to your home’s interior design, but the extra heat coming in through the windows could cause you to lower the thermostat –and raise your utility bills. Motorized window treatments give you the freedom to lower the shades simply and quickly, which will preserve the look and feel of your rooms.

Moreover, when you combine your window treatments with automated lighting, you can quickly set the scene for any occasion with the touch of a single button. Whether it’s to watch the NBA Finals with your friends or a romantic evening with your partner, the perfect setting is at your fingertips with integrated automation.

Keep the Sun Out of Your Home Theater

Augmenting your home with smart automation is a great idea. And while many homeowners start off small with security or entertainment needs and scale up, there are plenty of practical and unobtrusive ways to incorporate technology into your home. Motorized window treatments are a pragmatic and functional way to enhance your Woodlands, TX home design and increase your privacy. Simple controls allow you to adjust your shades from anywhere – in or out of the house. Find out how automated shading can complement your spaces.

Enhance Your Spaces

The sun is beautiful. Waking up to a bright, sunny morning is a joy for many. However, too much sun can be damaging and costly to your home. Not only can it add extra wear and tear to your home’s interior design, but the extra heat coming in through the windows could cause you to lower the thermostat –and raise your utility bills. Motorized window treatments give you the freedom to lower the shades simply and quickly, which will preserve the look and feel of your rooms.

Moreover, when you combine your window treatments with automated lighting, you can quickly set the scene for any occasion with the touch of a single button. Whether it’s to watch the NBA Finals with your friends or a romantic evening with your partner, the perfect setting is at your fingertips with integrated automation.

Keep the Sun Out of Your Home Theater

An often overlooked element of room design is the lighting. More than just picking out a few lamps that go with the drapes and couch, home lighting automation offers Austin, TX homeowners the ability to really sculpt out a space, highlighting the particularly special areas, for a more beautiful and fulfilling experience. And the benefits of smart lighting go beyond making your home more glamorous – it can also make it safer and more energy efficient. Simple, effective and elegant, a lighting system by Lutron or Crestron is the perfect way to enhance your home.

Enhance Your Interior Design

Imagine: your dining room is the perfect spot for Sunday dinner with the family. It’s also a romantic eatery for Friday date night. You don’t have to redesign your room to set the right mood for every occasion – with preset “scenes” for your lighting system, you can transform your spaces with a remote, smartphone or tablet any time you want.

And your home lighting automation isn’t alone. Combine your lighting with automated shading so that you can add privacy, let in the sun and generally create the perfect atmosphere with one button by controlling all aspects of your home’s lighting, inside and out. 

Feel Safer With Security Lights

Things may be bigger in Houston, TX, but that doesn’t mean they can’t start small. Whether you’re the head of the largest corporation in The Lone Star State or just starting out with your business, a scalable boardroom control system can help your office run more efficiently, and enhance productivity, worker satisfaction and overall quality of your working environment. Here are just a few of the ways that commercial automation can help your business run like a well-oiled machine, no matter what size it is.

Video Conferencing

Have you ever tried to conduct a video conference and had your entire staff huddled around a tiny computer screen battling for a line of sight? Imagine that instead of a miniscule monitor you had a 80” 4K UHD television on the wall. Everyone could see everything without having to strain their eyes over data, graphs or simply trying to see who is talking. And with a conference call system installed, you could have crisp, clear voices sharing information all around the world – instead of relying on your computer’s microphone.

Audio System

Do you have an exceptionally spacious boardroom? How about a large staff? If you’re having trouble conducting meetings and communicating ideas to a big group, perhaps an integrated audio system is the solution you need. Natural sounding speakers mean that you won’t have to shout or strain your voice to be heard, and a quality sound system will make hearing everything easy so no one misses anything important.

When talking about smart home automation, it’s easy to get lost in what the high-tech gear can do for a house. But whether you live in Austin, TX or any other city, you know that a house is not just a building – it’s your family’s home. And in a lot of homes, the kitchen is where families gather to share their day, plan the next vacation and simply spend quality time together over a home cooked meal. Home automation can make spending time in the kitchen more convenient and a whole lot more fun. Here are a few ways that you can enhance the heart of your home:

Audio and Video

Some people like to relax while listening to music. Some choose to unwind while watching the evening news. And if you’ve ever tried to cook a family dinner, you know it can sometimes be a little stressful. Automated audio and video can help keep you calm while you cook. Smart home automation offers the benefit of bringing your media into the kitchen whether you’re preparing a meal or sitting down to a weekday dinner. And with a smart AV streaming system, like DM 3.0 by Crestron, you’ll have nearly infinite options for when you’re chowing down with the kids or spending a romantic night with your spouse.

Mounted Tablets

Picture this: you’re preparing the most stupendous dish you’ve ever served. You’ve spent hours making it, and your eyes have been glued to the tablet on the counter so that you can follow the recipe in every minute detail. It’s all going perfectly until – whoops, your hand slips and you spill pasta sauce all over everything. Trust us, nobody looks forward to spaghetti-and-iPad. That’s why a wall-mounted tablet with a stable Internet connection is essential to your kitchen. You’ll be able to stay organized without worrying about damaging your technology, or losing track of your recipe.

You know you want a custom home theater. Whether you are the biggest movie buff in Houston, TX, or you’re looking for a better way to catch every detail of a Texans game, a custom home theater can satisfy your every need for home entertainment. But while it seems easy to choose the size of your screen and how powerful you want your sound system to be, there are some things that tend to get overlooked by excited first-time consumers. The first step is to trust the pros at Relative Home Systems to guide you through every part of the process, and the second is to take a look at this list of commonly overlooked options that can take your theater to the next level:

1. Seating Distribution

Figuring out your seating arrangement is more than just placing a couple chairs around the room. In fact, in most homes, it’s probably one of the most important first steps you can take when designing your custom home theater. Where you sit will affect your optimal screen size, the best sound distribution and your overall enjoyment of the experience.

2. Seating Size

Here’s another one that you won’t want to take sitting down. Many initial custom home theater planners look for complete comfort in their seating without knowing that an oversized chair can ruin your surround sound quality. Choose a chair that is comfortable and supports your head and neck, but that doesn’t block the sound from getting to your ears.

You know you want a custom home theater. Whether you are the biggest movie buff in Houston, TX, or you’re looking for a better way to catch every detail of a Texans game, a custom home theater can satisfy your every need for home entertainment. But while it seems easy to choose the size of your screen and how powerful you want your sound system to be, there are some things that tend to get overlooked by excited first-time consumers. The first step is to trust the pros at Relative Home Systems to guide you through every part of the process, and the second is to take a look at this list of commonly overlooked options that can take your theater to the next level:

1. Seating Distribution

Figuring out your seating arrangement is more than just placing a couple chairs around the room. In fact, in most homes, it’s probably one of the most important first steps you can take when designing your custom home theater. Where you sit will affect your optimal screen size, the best sound distribution and your overall enjoyment of the experience.

2. Seating Size

Here’s another one that you won’t want to take sitting down. Many initial custom home theater planners look for complete comfort in their seating without knowing that an oversized chair can ruin your surround sound quality. Choose a chair that is comfortable and supports your head and neck, but that doesn’t block the sound from getting to your ears.

Your music is a part of who you are. You take it with you wherever you go. Whether you’re on the highway or in line at the grocery store, your music is there to keep you company. But when you’re at home you want the biggest and best sound quality – the kind that doesn’t come from a pair of ear buds or car speakers. With whole home audio by Relative Home Systems, your entire house can sport the high-quality soundscape of your dreams.

Bowers & Wilkins, Poised to Produce the Finest Loudspeakers

The folks at Bowers & Wilkins asked themselves does a speaker have to be in a box and if the answer is no, then what would the speaker look like? The result was Nautilus. The attention to detail and craftsmanship is uncompromised. The loudspeakers’ pearlescent finish is achieved from 12 meticulously applied lacquer coats and a unique curing process.

Relative Home Systems Knows: Everything’s Bigger in Texas

That includes Bowers & Wilkins selection of premium home speaker equipment. Relative only deals with the best, and with B&W’s selection of in-ceiling, on-wall and in-wall speakers, plus their robust line of subwoofers, whole home audio has never sounded so good in Austin, TX.

Acquiring your own high-quality Crestron control system is a tremendous personal achievement. However, there is a question to consider: Will investing in home automation increase your property’s value? The answer is yes! When a home automation system is integrated correctly (most especially during the initial construction), your home immediately advances to a higher value.

Multiple top-tier real estate agents agree that for the right buyer, responsive control is a huge draw. In certain markets, the addition of smart home features, like integrated media rooms, are seen as a must-have amongst high-end house hunters. There’s no question about it, once you experience an integrated home, you never want to go back!

By the Numbers

Recently, the Consumer Electronics Association released a study that said 47% of participating homeowners have a programmable thermostat currently installed in their homes. Thirty-one percent indicated they own a security product while nearly 1 in 5 have monitored security, 9% own a video surveillance system, and 6% have electronic or programmable door locks. Homeowners are also choosing to install entertainment-based home technologies, such as home theater pre-wiring and whole-home structured wiring systems.

Quality is Key

In a recent study conducted by Microsoft, researchers found three barriers that must be addressed before wider adoption of smart home technology can occur. While the majority of households surveyed reported mostly positive experiences with home automation, participants highlighted three challenges including linking disparate systems, poor manageability, and high cost of ownership. The team of experts at Relative Home Systems has been working to address these challenges in each of the automation projects it convenes. If you’re considering smart home automation for your Memorial, Texas home, you’ll want to keep reading.

Challenge #1: Linking Disparate Systems 

With so many smart devices and electronics within a single home, it can become challenging for the homeowner to get the flawless integration they desire. Retrofitting a home with the proper technology requires expertise in smart technology, programming, and networking.

Each project we tackle has its own unique set of challenges and demands, but this is where we excel. Whether you choose to automate a single room in your home or outfit the entire house, our team will design a plan, select the right technology and configure it in a manner that meets you and your family’s needs. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all solution. We’ll customize a home automation system that blends with your lifestyle.

Challenge #2: Poor Manageability