What part does music play in your River Oaks, Texas home? It could be listening to it as you get ready for work, streaming a playlist when hosting friends or winding down in a dedicated listening room. If you often find solace in your favorite albums, it may be worthwhile to invest in a whole home audio system. We know how personal your music can be, so Relative Home Systems crafts a solution that works specifically to meet your needs. Below are some questions you should ask yourself before getting started.

SEE MORE: Elevate Your Listening Experience With Bowers & Wilkins

Should You Go Wired or Wireless?

Streaming services like Pandora and Tidal have changed the way we listen to music. With wireless access to our music, it's easy to gravitate towards a wireless speaker system as well. The demand has been so high that even high-end manufacturers like Bowers & Wilkins have joined the movement. Wireless is a great option since it’s easier to install, but it does have its drawbacks.

Even in the best wireless systems, some quality may be lost. While we can bolster your home network to play uncompressed files, a wired solution will ultimately get the most out of a whole home audio system. It is easier to incorporate multiple rooms through the use of receivers or matrix switchers and you can integrate multiple sources at once, whether it’s a streaming service on your phone or a vintage turntable.

With the New Year comes new inspiration – and new home improvement projects. A big bucket list item for a lot of our clients is installing a private home theater. Who doesn't want the perfect place to watch movies without having to deal with dirty seats and loud crowds? The integrators at Relative Home Systems work with you to find the perfect place in your Houston, Texas home for an installation depending on your space limitations, family needs, and budget. Below are some of our most popular solutions and the technology behind them.

SEE MORE: 3 Enhancements for Your Custom Home Theater

The Dedicated Theater

The best way to get the most out of your private home theater is still to install it in a dedicated room. The environment is specially designed to isolate light and sound for the best results. In this type of setting, we encourage you to go with the full cinema ensemble.

For your surround sound, incorporate Bowers & Wilkins C800 speakers (pictured above) throughout the space to immerse yourself in high-fidelity sound. When it comes to quality and value, a screen is the best option for a large theater video display. We recommend the Runco Signature Cinema DLP projector with HD capabilities and a Smart Lens System that always remembers the exact position of your screen. For your video display, go with a Stewart Filmscreen product that has motorized masking, which lets you adapt the screen to your video’ aspect ratio. This way you can transition from TV shows to movies seamlessly without getting stuck with a warped resolution or extra screen area.

Relative Home Systems of Houston and Austin has won “Best Of Design” on Houzz®, the leading platform for home remodeling and design. The full-service residential and commercial custom electronics design and installation company was chosen by the more than 35 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than one million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

The Best of Houzz is awarded annually in three categories: Design, Customer Service and Photography. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the more than 35 million monthly users on Houzz. Customer Service honors are based on several factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in the past year. Relative Home Systems was also recognized with Best of Design and Best of Service awards in 2015.

Architecture and interior design photographers whose images were most popular are recognized with the Photography award. A “Best Of Houzz 2016” badge will appear on winners’ profiles, as a sign of their commitment to excellence. These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated construction, design and technology experts in every metro area on Houzz.

“We created Relative Home Systems with the hope of changing the traditional stereotype of the residential and commercial integrator and so far it has proven successful,” said Wayne Getschman, COO of Relative Home Systems. “When you have a company filled with some of the industry’s top professionals and you work as a team, it’s easy to gain recognition.”

The Best of Houzz awards recognize the companies that have inspired its users to discover new products or take on new projects. They have done this by encouraging a collaborative relationship between homeowners and the architects, designers or contractors they work with.

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