If you have a smart home in the Dallas, Texas area, the odds are likely that you have TVs, speakers, gaming systems, Blu-Ray players, and other A/V devices spread throughout your home. Managing all of those different devices separately can be a pain, but there’s a better way. By connecting everything into one audio video system, you can access all of your entertainment from any TV or speakers, no matter which room you’re in. To learn how, keep reading.

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

Start with a Matrix Switcher

A matrix switcher is a device that allows you to gain access to multiple audio and video sources for each TV in your home. This device makes it easy for you to watch movies, play video games, listen to music, and enjoy other entertainment, even if the Blu-Ray player or PlayStation is in a completely different room. The switch transfers the audio and video to whichever room you’re in, seamlessly transitioning your media without any extra effort on your part.

Set Up Entertainment Zones

In order for every member of your family to enjoy different media at the same time, entertainment zones control the audio and video in each specific area of your home. This allows dad to watch the game while he’s grilling outside, the kids to watch a movie in the home theater, and mom to relax with some music in the living room—all at once. Entertainment zones streamline media management so that everyone can watch and listen to whatever they want without inconveniencing others.

Reduce and Hide the Equipment

You don’t need a separate DVD player in every room of your home in order to enjoy your movie collection. A distributed audio video system allows you to use one device for all of your rooms. Beyond the cost savings of fewer systems, this setup cuts down on the devices and cords that are cluttering your room’s otherwise spotless décor. You get to hide your equipment in an A/V closet or a cabinet out of sight if needed while still enjoying the benefits of those devices throughout your home.

Building a new home requires a lot of decisions—building materials, home layout, wiring, and more all have to be carefully considered so that the homeowner is happy with the final product. More and more often, homeowners decide after the residence is built that they want their home to be “smart.” While this is definitely possible, nothing beats the seamless design and reliability of a smart home automation solution that is built from the ground up. Below, we’ve covered how builders in the Colleyville, Texas area can benefit from installing smart home automation technology during construction of new homes.

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

Boost Home Value

Smart homes are worth significantly more than traditional residences, and even some basic home pre-wiring for future automation can go a long way toward upping the purchase price. Smart home automation is in demand for high-end home buyers, and that demand is rapidly growing over time. By investing in smart home automation during new home construction, you can reach far more buyers in the luxury home market.

Increase Buyer Satisfaction

The goal with any luxury home construction is for the homeowner to be completely happy with their purchase. Nothing beats the “Wow” factor of showing buyers their new home and demonstrating how their smart home automation system can control the lights, shades, HVAC, security, and more—all with a single touch on a screen integrated directly into the wall. You can also work with your home buyer from the start to tailor each room to fit their needs, with different technology and wiring going into each area.

Create a Clean Look

A common mistake that occurs when implementing smart home technology during construction is that the integrator is brought into the process at the very end of construction. As a result, many issues that arise during the installation process, which would have been easy to avoid with planning, end up affecting the design of the home. Closed walls have to be opened up again for wiring, or worse: wires have to be run outside of the walls where they are visible to the homeowner. By partnering with a smart home automation integrator at the start of construction, you can create a plan for a sleek and clean design right from the beginning.

Thinking about upgrading your Westlake, Texas home with a multi-room music system? It’s much simpler than you might think. DB Media Solutions can handle multi-room music installations from the initial design to final optimization of the sound in each room. Not all multi-room music solutions are created equal, so we’ve put together this list of the three main characteristics of a high-quality music system for your whole house.

SEE MORE: What You Need to Know When Buying High-End Audio Speakers

Optimized for Each Space

The acoustics in each room of your home will be different, and you need speakers that are versatile enough to accommodate the differences in room layout and furniture. To ensure a smooth, even sound as you walk through the house, speakers are carefully placed in specific locations. Speaker type is another concern with a multi-room music system. You’ll want a different style of speakers for your outdoor audio, for example, than you would for your kitchen. DB Media Solutions can help you design a system that has the right speakers and equipment in the right location throughout your home.

Hidden from View

Your home’s décor probably doesn’t accommodate bulky speakers or cluttered wires. It may be easy to hide speakers in a media room or bedroom, but what about the bathroom? The solution is to use in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, such as the Sonance Invisible Series, to completely hide the speakers. You get high-quality sound without having to deal with wires or looking at speakers.

Easy to Use

The best sound quality in the world isn’t going to do you much good if your music system is difficult to operate. When all of your music equipment is integrated into one seamless system controlled by a touchpad or your smartphone, it’s much easier to adjust volume, change the station, or pause music. You don’t have to walk to the other end of the house to turn on your music—instead, just pull up your phone and start enjoying the high fidelity audio wherever you are.

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.