The modern smart home has gone far beyond keyless locks and 4K Ultra HD TVs. Everything from your home surveillance cameras to your window shades can be automated with technology that adds convenience and comfort to your home. Below, we’ve covered two of the main ways that upgrading to motorized shades can make your Dallas, Texas home smarter.

SEE ALSO: 3 Reasons to Invest in Motorized Shades for Your Home

Energy Management

It takes a lot of energy to keep a home cool in Dallas, especially during Texas’ stifling summer months. The large windows that add so much beauty and character to your home are actually contributing to your high energy bill. Once the sun comes up, your windows can essentially bake your home in the sunlight, significantly raising interior temperatures.

The regular approach to this problem is to hang shades on all the windows, but with your curtains always closed, you don’t get to enjoy your outdoor views, and you have to rely on artificial lighting all the time (which also requires energy). Motorized shades solve this problem by intelligently monitoring your home’s temperature and lighting. The motorized shades automatically adjust throughout the day to ensure your rooms are adequately lit without the sun blasting heat into your home. Sensors detect the amount of sunlight hitting the window and cause the shades to lower or raise as needed.

The days of only having a TV in the family room are long past. Today, you can enjoy high definition television, movies, and video games in every room of your home, from a dedicated home theater screen to an outdoor TV next to the pool. To make the most of your TVs, you want to be able to control what’s showing on each screen throughout the house with ease, and the way you accomplish that is through home video distribution.

In this blog, we go over the basics of home video distribution and how it can add convenience to your Colleyville, Texas home.

SEE ALSO: What is the Best Entertainment Gear for Your Outdoor Spaces?

What is Home Video Distribution?
In a technical sense, home video distribution is a method of sharing a single input, such as a Blu-Ray player or Xbox, across multiple displays, no matter where those displays are located. What this means is that you don’t need dedicated video equipment to go along with each TV you have in your home. You can use one device to connect to all of your TVs at the same time.

How Does Home Video Distribution Work?
Using an AV switch, such as Savant’s SmartMedia Pro, you can connect all of your media devices together, from gaming consoles to music servers to cable boxes. The switch then sends out the necessary signal to each television, allowing you to choose which TV to watch or even having multiple TVs display the same thing at once.

Home surveillance is an important aspect of securing your Westlake, Texas home. Surveillance cameras can deter intruders and provide evidence in the event of that a determined individual manages to break through your home defenses or a natural disaster like a flood occurs. In one of our previous posts, we discussed the main features to look for in a home security system. One of those features was a surveillance system. Today, we’re going to dig deeper into the specifics of surveillance cameras and how to identify which options are best for you.

SEE ALSO: What Features Should Be Included in Your Home Security System?

The Cameras
Modern surveillance cameras no longer create black and white images so grainy you can barely make out faces. Instead, high-end surveillance cameras can produce crystal clear images in 360-degree environments, giving you a complete view of your home’s access points. Using the newest updates to video data compression, you can view and store high-resolution footage without overloading bandwidth.
When choosing your surveillance cameras, it’s important to know the different types that are available. Here are some of the most popular options:
• Dome Cameras: Named for the domed shape of their lens, dome cameras are designed to stick out of ceilings and entryways so that potential intruders are aware that they are being observed. The dome camera’s 360 view and unobtrusive design make it the go-to option for indoor monitoring.
• Discreet Cameras: Unlike dome cameras, discreet cameras are useful when you want to hide the cameras from view without compromising the footage quality. Discreet cameras can be made to resemble fire sprinklers, smoke alarms, and even decorative objects such as clocks.
• Bullet Cameras: Bullet cameras are typically used in entryways because they monitor a fixed location as opposed to having a 360-degree view. Designed in the shape of a bullet, these cameras are optimized for indoor and outdoor use.
Which camera type is best for your home will depend on a number of factors, such as a camera’s desired location, your home’s décor, and your other security features. One of our security experts can assess your environment and offer recommendations on the appropriate camera types.

The Interface
The days of security rooms with dedicated monitoring computers are long past. Now, you can pull up your surveillance camera’s view on your smartphone, enabling you to monitor your home in real time from your living room or halfway around the world. In addition to smartphone access, you can also take advantage of touch panel interfaces. The sleek wall mounted interface gives you touchscreen access to all aspects of your smart home automation system, from security to lighting control to intercoms. By integrating your intercom system and your surveillance system into one seamless interface, you can see and speak with visitors from within the safety of your home.

Our Recommendation: IC Realtime
IC Realtime is the leading supplier of home surveillance equipment ranging across security cameras, intercom systems, Digital Video Recorders, and more. IC Realtime’s products are durable and built to endure the rigors of the Texas outdoors while maintaining polished and minimalist designs that complement your décor. Their comprehensive security solutions can handle all of your home’s surveillance needs.

Connected devices have exploded in popularity in recent years. With the rise of the Internet of Things, devices communicate with each other throughout your Southlake, Texas home, from your refrigerator to your speakers. Many times when these products malfunction, it's not because of faulty manufacturing but rather a bad network. As people upgrade their technology, they fail to improve what matters most: the home network that serves as its foundation. In this blog, we guide you through some of the questions you need to ask to make sure your network is up to the task.

SEE MORE: What Are Some Perks of Living in a Smart Home?

How Do You Plan to Use Your Network?

The first step is knowing what you want out of your network. The hardware offered by your internet service providers works fine for basic functions: checking emails, browsing the web, watching videos on your computer, etc. However, if you are planning on using it as part of a connected home, you’re going to need an upgrade.

Sometimes, it may be enough to add a couple of routers and invest in a more expensive internet package to bolster your signal. Sometimes you need to upgrade to a router that can handle bigger bandwidths (if you expect to do a lot of media streaming, for example). In the case of a connected home, you may even need subnetworks called VLANS to divide up your traffic.

Many families these days boast about having home theater systems. Usually, these entail a high-definition TV and a soundbar or surround sound speakers. But what if you could truly recreate the experience you get in a commercial theater? DB Media Solutions works with you to create a custom theater in your Dallas, Texas home that will let you escape into your favorite movies. For that to happen, we urge you to upgrade the following components:

SEE MORE: 4 Reasons to Invest in a Professional Home Theater System

Say Goodbye to Your HD TV

If you want high-quality larger-than-life images, a traditional HD TV is not going to cut it. First of all, it's time to embrace 4K Ultra HD, which has four times the resolution of 1080p (HD). For an authentic theater experience, we also encourage you to go with a screen-and-projector combination. Not only does it help to set the scene, but it is also easier to get larger displays if you opt for a screen rather than television. If you're tight for space, you can invest in retractable screens that disappear into a niche in the ceiling. 

Embrace the Dolby Atmos Experience

A 5.1 surround sound setup or even a quality soundbar is a huge upgrade from relying on TV speakers. But if you want a home theater system designed to impress, you should upgrade to Dolby Atmos. This new technology separates sound into unique objects, rather than relegating them to a designated channel. This way your audio moves freely throughout the room to create a more realistic experience. We help you find manufacturers that offer this technology and design the right speaker layout to optimize your new equipment.

Upgrade Your Media Library

What good is a great home theater setup if you have nothing to play on it? People often focus their investment on expensive televisions and speakers and forget about the rest. Not only do we help you figure out what source components are best for you (streaming services like Netflix, media libraries, Blu-Ray players, etc.), but we also make it easy to manage them. From a universal remote, touchpad, or tablet it's easy to alternate from one to the other, so you don't waste time trying to find what you want.