Maximize Lighting and Shading Technologies While Making Your Home Look Great!

When it comes to making your home a relaxing getaway from the stresses of the world, how do you like to go about it? Are you big on catching the latest Netflix original series in your cozy home theater space, do you prefer to relax on the couch to read your favorite book, or are you more of a home chef that loves recreating recipes from the latest cooking competition shows? 

No matter how you prefer to enjoy and relax in your home in Memorial or the surrounding areas, there’s one smart home technology that serves as an essential backbone to every activity that occurs inside and outdoors, and that’s lighting! Keep reading below to learn what Relative Home Systems can provide Texans in terms of lighting and shading due to our position as a certified Lutron dealer.

Given the wide availability of a plethora of smart home devices from security to lighting, you might think this is an area where a professional is not needed. Can't you do a smart home installation in Dallas on your own?

You certainly can. But if you run a business, you may need the services of an information technology professional either full time or for specific help. Why? Because they know how to install and maintain complex systems, and you have other responsibilities. Think of smart home automation the same way – you could do it yourself with off-the-shelf technology, but if you want a system that works consistently and smoothly, there are compelling reasons to hire a professional smart home company.

Read on for more!

SEE ALSO: 4 Questions to Ask When Upgrading to a Smart Home

Simplified, Unified Control

If you’ve acquired any smart device, it’s almost a given that it comes with its own control app. App control is useful and convenient, but if five devices have five different apps, things can start getting confusing.

You may have seen a Jetsons or Looney Tunes episode growing up showcasing houses that cleaned themselves and cooked dinner with the press of a button. One button fed the kids breakfast, then voila – they’re sent off to school on a conveyer belt out the front door, or something like that. While this style of automatic home may seem outlandish or even downright silly, the idea of an automated home isn’t.

Homeowners will still need to clean up their homes themselves, but their lighting, shading, security, and entertainment are only a button tap away with whole-home automation. Keep reading below to learn how total home control and automation through Crestron Home can make your life easier – and make your Austin, TX home work for you!

SEE ALSO: Control Your Indoor and Outdoor Lighting with the Same System

Automate The Everyday Things

Think of how much time you walk around your Austin-area home to open and shut blinds and turn lights on or off throughout the day. It may not seem like much, but the time adds up, especially if you have a larger home. Instead, imagine tapping your finger on a customized wall keypad that complements your décor to send your lights and shading into a beautiful response in mere seconds.

You could also incorporate your whole-home audio system into your Crestron Home control system. Designate areas of your home into music zones, so the kids can listen to their Top 40 playlists upstairs while you and your partner relax outdoors listening to low-key tunes – all using the same system! And for your next party, set every zone to the same fun streaming Spotify station, dim the lights to a warm glow, and lower the shades for privacy from nosy neighbors. One home automation system can control your whole home, making your Central Texas lifestyle easier than ever.

One of the keys to a successful outdoor audio system is having the right equipment. You can design a great system, but if your components can't deal with the elements, then it will all go to waste. As your local Houston, Texas custom integrators we like to introduce you to some of the best AV companies in the industry. And when it comes to outdoor use, few can match the quality and reliability of Coastal Source. 

SEE MORE: How to Get Audio to Outdoor Spaces

Outdoor Specialists

Coastal Source is entirely committed to helping you craft unforgettable outdoor environments. All of their products, from lighting to audio, are focused solely on outdoor spaces. Their solutions stand out for a variety of reasons: they’re easy to install, can handle the elements, and are built with outside use in mind. They’re so popular that they’re used in amusement parks nationwide including Walt Disney World.

Comprehensive Solutions

Coastal Source offers all-in-one solutions, with everything needed to install a complete system. They have their trademark wire connectors (already built to be weatherproof, so they don't have to be spliced or coated), outdoor amplifiers, subwoofers, speakers and even durable cases where you can keep source components.

Varied Solutions

Even just within your home, different areas will require different solutions. With a variety of speaker, amplifier, and subwoofer options, Relative Home Systems can help you find the ones that work best. For example, you can use bullet speakers and a half-buried Ellipse Bollard subwoofer in your backyard for a solution that blends in with your foliage. In your patio, you can have standing 3-way Ellipse Bollard speakers with subwoofers built-in installed in each corner.

When thinking about what smart products to bring into your home, you should begin with technology you use on a daily basis. Why not start with your home's lights? It's the first thing you interact with in the morning and the last thing you shut off when you go to bed. For a technology so entrenched in your daily routine, shouldn't you find a way to control it just the way you want? Get the versatility you deserve with a home lighting control solution from Lutron. Read on to find out the many unique ways Lutron lets you control the light fixtures in your Houston, TX home.

SEE MORE: Upgrade Your Home With Automated Lighting Control

Centralize Control of All Your Home's Lights

There are many smart lighting products on the market, but they usually offer limited reach. With Lutron HomeWorks QS incorporated into your Savant or Crestron home automation system, you can access all your home's lights from a touchpad, smartphone or tablet. Eliminate the clutter of switches on the wall and make it more convenient to pull up what you need. Simply pick the room you want to access then choose the fixtures you want to control. You can dim their power, turn them off or even change their color.

Enhance Your Style With Elegant Wall Switches

One of the coolest things about having a home lighting control system is the ability to create pre-set scenes. These scenes let you manage multiple fixtures at once so you can set the perfect environment to watch your favorite movies or simply make it easier to wake up in the morning. Using scenes not only makes your Austin, TX home more efficient, but it can also help enhance its style.

Instead of needing multiple switches on the walls to control your lights, you can have an elegant keypad on the wall with each button corresponding to a specific scene. Another great thing about scenes? They’re uniquely yours. The experts at Relative Home Systems can create scenes that match up to your specific activities and preferences. In this blog, we give you some ideas to get you started.

SEE MORE: Gain Control of Your Lights with Lutron and Crestron

Wake Up

Schedule a scene that slowly turns on your lights and opens the shades to wake you up in the morning. If you’re a deep sleeper, you can incorporate your whole home audio so music begins playing through your in-ceiling speakers until you get up. Assign a button in your keypad to turn off the scene. By having to get up to turn it off, you’re less likely to fall back asleep.

How often do you use your phone during a given day and how are you using it? A recent Pew Research study stated that 46 percent of smartphone users couldn’t live without their phones. That’s because they’re much more than phones to us. We use them to check emails, do our online banking and even watch our favorite shows. So why not use them to control your Houston, Texas home? With the Savant Systems App, you can manage your lights, security, entertainment and more right from your phone.

SEE MORE: 4 Questions to Ask When Upgrading to a Smart Home

How Does Savant Systems Control Your Home?

A smart home automation system brings together all your home’s different components. Instead of buying individual smart devices, you get a comprehensive approach in which all systems are compatible and work together for optimal results. By consolidating all the technology in your home, you can centralize control to the touchpad, tablet, or smartphone of your choice. So why do clients decide to use their phones? Read on to check out some of the best features of the Savant Systems App.

1. Personalize Your System

Do you find yourself wondering how much easier it would be if you had a nanny to help you with the kids? There’s a solution that can offer support seven days a week, 24 hours a day without taking any sick days or vacations. Help comes in the form of smart home control. Every system in your Houston, Texas home—from security to entertainment—works hand in hand to create a more efficient household. Automated scenes, centralized control, and remote access are a few ways smart technology can help with your daily parenting tasks.

SEE MORE: The Beauty and Benefits of a Connected Home

Streamline Daily Routines with Pre-Set Scenes

Reduce the time it takes to go through your daily routines with the use of pre-set scenes in your smart home control system. For example, waking up the kids for school doesn’t have to be a chore. Create an automated scene that opens the shades, turns on the lights, and begins playing music in their room until they’re out of bed.

When it’s time to leave the house, you can focus on getting the kids into the car and making sure they have everything they need. Your smart home control system will take care of the rest. Press an ‘Away' scene as you leave that turns off all lights and appliances, locks the doors and arms your security alarm.

As the home automation industry continues to evolve with product advancements and integration technologies, Relative Home Systems is ready to bring our expertise to you! Our new blog is here as a resource to spotlight products and services that will have the most impact on your projects.

Our first spotlight, however, is actually on RHS(or Relative Home Systems, being…us). More specifically, we wanted to take this opportunity to present the advantages of working with an experienced Crestron Integrator.

Why Crestron?

The new home automation systems are sometimes called “Smart Home” systems or “Systems Integration.” Whatever the title, they are all referring to intuitive control of your home's subsystems, including audio/video, lighting, security, CCTV, motorized shades & drapes, pool/spa and more. Besides a consistent system-to-system look and feel which makes controlling your home easier, combining these subsystems into a unified control also greatly eliminates wall clutter. Thermostats are hidden in closets or a mechanical room and backup security keypads and pool/spa controllers can likewise be hidden.

Crestron is a world-wide leader in this home automation control, and RHS is one of a few audio-visual firms that can boast nearly a century of combined Crestron experience. This means that our staff has earned its stripes! Through intensive training and real-world experience, we offer the highest level of expertise and quality in programming our client's integration systems.

At the edge of the Texas hill country here in Austin, we're blessed with abundant natural beauty. Many homes in the area offer views, trees, and greenery that make living here special.

Austin also loves outdoor living. Does any restaurant here not have an outside patio? At home, that outside lifestyle happens in patios, yards, and waterfronts along the lakes. 

When the sun goes down, the outdoors can be especially inviting as the heat of the Texas sun fades. But does your outdoor space have the right lighting to make the most of your Austin landscape? Keep reading to find out more about the benefits of landscape lighting.

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.

Consumer electronics is one of the fastest evolving segments in all of the electronics industry. The demand for thinner, light, higher resolution televisions with lightning-fast processors has created a new breed of displays.

If you consider how radically video technology has changed in the last 20 years alone, it should be no surprise that televisions are now living up to the futuristic movie scenes we all watched on the big screen.

So while the race for the thinnest display on the market has some people choosing form over function in terms of video quality, we suggest taking a more logical approach…

Television Lifts

Choose what all the videophiles have for years…Plasma. Just picture your plasma screen set it in motion with a popup or drop down lift, concealed in a custom piece of furniture for the ultimate in home technology. Cabinet Tronix offers a vast selection of traditional and contemporary cabinets that are transformed to house your flat screen television.

As a parent of a special needs child, I understand the challenges that come in trying to understand their world. From communicating to keeping a watchful eye, home automation technology is helping families care and provide for kids with special needs in more ways than ever before.ch 16, 2012. Now, who thinks Apple is still working on a TV?

With the help of a home automation Control 4 system, one family better communicates and cares for their son with Autism. As shown in the video below, home automation systems offer so much more than just lighting and climate control.

We give our thanks to Control 4 for providing such great products to help families unlock, understand and offer better quality of life for our children.

The technology you bring into your River Oaks, Texas home should be the perfect fit, just like anything else you invest in. This doesn’t just mean it’s the right size or fits squarely into your budget. As Crestron dealers, Relative Home Systems can design a full smart home technology solution that gives you control just the way you want it. Work with the manufacturers you love most and the devices you use most, all from a custom user interface designed to match your needs.

SEE MORE: Picture the Perfect Scene and Crestron Can Create It

Personalize Your User Interface

A Crestron smart home automation system brings all your technology–lighting, entertainment, security, climate and more---together within one user interface. This type of system can have a lot of benefits, but only if your user interface is efficient. If it’s confusing, it may create more problems than it solves.

Your Crestron dealer works with you to personalize your user interface. We make the rooms and technology you use most easily accessible. We also go through an extensive training period with you to make sure you know how to use your Crestron system inside and out.

iPads are fully-capable wireless tablets, that not only run control system apps for your home, but can also control your home while you are there or away.

Most top manufacturers of residential control systems are offering iPad specific control apps that are capable of the following:

Lighting-Adjust your lights without leaving your favorite arm chair or your bed. You can adjust individual circuits or bring up global scenes.

Climate Control-Raise up the heat or bump the air down before leaving work and let your A/C go to work while you sit in traffic or run your afternoon errands. Your house will be ready when you return home.

Security-Remotely disarm your security system and then reset for your housekeeper or repair man.

While lighting control can offer a lot of futuristic technology –from voice control to access from a mobile app—many of our clients want to stick with the familiarity of their light switches. They’ve grown accustomed to managing their lights this way and change seems more trouble than anything. Does that mean home lighting control is not the right choice for their Memorial, TX property? No, it just means that their system will focus initially on upgrading the light switches in their home.

SEE MORE: 4 Unique Ways to Control the Lights in Your Home

Gain Efficiency With Dimmers and Scenes
A smart lighting control system can increase wall switch efficiency in two simple ways: by incorporating dimmers and scenes. Customarily wall switches are pretty straight forward. They connect to one particular fixture and turn it on and off. With a smart upgrade, you can access multiple fixtures at once and go beyond the limited on/off controls:

• Dimmers: Many clients are surprised to find that most rooms could benefit from not having lights on at a 100 percent intensity. Not only can this help reduce energy usage, but it leads to a more elaborate lighting design. Depending on whether you have a romantic date, are hosting a party, or watching a movie you can find the light level that makes the most sense.
• Scenes: Scenes within your home lighting control system let you manage multiple fixtures at once. You can access these scenes straight from your wall switches. This not only lets you make adjustments quickly, but it also reduces the amount of switches you need so you can eliminate some of the wall clutter. For example, a dinner scene dims the lights in the living room while raising the ones right above the dining table.

See More: 4 Great Lighting Control Scenes for Your Home

Incorporate Other Technology Options
If you have a smart home automation system, you can also manage other technology from your light switches. An easy way to do this is to incorporate volume control in rooms where you regularly play music like a media room or bedroom. Raise or lower the volume of your background music from a switch on the wall. The scenes on your wall switches can also include other technology. An ‘away’ scene on a switch by your front door turns off all lights and TVS, locks the doors and arms the security system

Distributed audio video is your interior designer’s best friend. Through a whole home audio video system, clunky source components can be hidden away in a closet. Replace the pile of remotes with a stylish touchpad flush-mounted on the wall. You can retain your unique style without having to sacrifice your favorite entertainment. Making equipment disappear may sound like magic, but we promise we're not wizards. Below we'll explain exactly how this kind of system works, and how it could fit into your Memorial, Texas home. 

SEE MORE: How Can Crestron Enhance Your Media Distribution?

It’s About Much More Than the Wiring

At face value, it seems like a media distribution system is all about wiring. As long as you have a long enough cable, you can put your sources as far away as you want and just line the cables behind your walls to get the signal to its end point. That’s not really how it works.

Your whole home audio video system actually includes the following components: a multi-channel matrix switch, cables, power amplifiers, speakers, televisions, sources and controls (touchpad, tablet or smartphone). All of these work hand-in-hand to ensure that your signal makes it to its end point without a dip in quality and that your content is easy to access. 

Creating a safe environment in your River Oaks, Texas home should be one of your top priorities. You want to create a spot where your family always feels safe and protected; somewhere they can go for comfort after a tough day. For this reason, you've likely invested in a security system that includes an alarm, power locks and maybe even surveillance. In this blog, we'll discuss how a smart home lighting control system can also be a big asset for your security. 

SEE MORE: 4 Ways to Control the Lights in Your Home

Eliminate Dangerous Unlit Areas

For added protection, convenience and comfort, you always want your home to have a well-lit environment. With the right lighting, you can protect your family from both external and internal threats.

You want to ensure general access points - like your front door, garage, or gate - are illuminated at all times. This way it's easy for you to spot anyone approaching. Schedule your landscape lighting to go on each evening, so these fixtures are always turned on when needed.