Smart home technology is rapidly growing in popularity. Now, you can add everything from intelligent thermostats to automated lawn water systems to even smart washing machines! With so many options to choose from, how do you create the system that will give you the best bang for your buck? Here’s our approach to designing the perfect smart home systems for our Texas clients throughout the greater Dallas area.

1. Decide Your Goals

People start smart home projects for lots of different reasons. What about the automated lifestyle appeals most to you? Here are a few of the biggest advantages that our clients often pursue:

• Green Home:  Technology is often associated with wasteful energy consumption, but the right devices can actually help reduce your carbon footprint! If you want to lower your monthly energy bill, we recommend starting with a smart thermostat, lighting control, and motorized shades. This trifecta works together to maintain the sweet balance of comfort and energy efficiency in your home.
• Stronger Home Security: With smart home automation, you don’t have to limit yourself to the standard home security systems. Instead, smart home security can use everything from your lights to your motorized shades to your home surveillance cameras to help keep your home safe and secure.
• Greater Comfort: If you want a home that works 24x7 to keep you in comfort, there are a few smart home technologies that should be at the top of the list. Start with a smart thermostat that will keep every area of your home at just the right temperature. Add in a multi-room music system so that you can enjoy your favorite playlist wherever you are. A motorized shading solution will keep the sun from blazing right in your eyes while you’re relaxing with a good book—just pull out your phone, press a button, and the shades will lower to block out the sun.
• Interior Design: You might assume that technology just serves to clutter up your interior design with cords or remotes, but it can actually help enhance the look and feel of your home. For example, with lighting control, you can create lighting scenes that highlight artwork or architecture. You can add hidden TVs and speakers that give you great sound and visuals while remaining out of sight until you want to enjoy a show or music. And best of all, you eliminate the need for unsightly wall clutter like light switches or volume knobs because everything is controlled via your smartphone, tablet, or voice.

SEE ALSO: How to Use Smart Lighting to Boost Your Interior Design

2. Decide on DIY or Professional

Many smart devices now are being marketed as DIY-friendly—the sort of devices you can just plug in and enjoy! And if you are satisfied with very basic functionality, that approach may be sufficient for your needs. But if you want a cohesive system that works reliably and can easily achieve all of your goals for your smart home, it’s best to bring in a professional. Smart home automation integrators like DB Media Solutions are experts at designing and installing all these different types of technologies, from home theater systems to smart security.

When you work with a professional integrator, they’ll be able to connect all of the smart devices into one easy-to-use system that works together to make your home more efficient, comfortable, and beautiful.

Summer is right around the corner—the time for pool parties and outdoor movie nights. If you have an underutilized patio or backyard, the best way to make it your go-to area for relaxation or fun is to add a stellar outdoor entertainment system. To learn the best technology for transforming your Texas home’s outdoor spaces, read on!

1. Audio

A sound system is the backbone of any outdoor entertainment system. Whether you want to blast the music at a party or simply play some jazz as you relax by the pool, it’s important that your outdoor audio supply crystal-clear sound throughout the space.

When installing an outdoor sound system, there are two main things to keep in mind:

• Weatherproofing: Outdoor areas require speakers and audio equipment designed specifically to withstand the Texas heat, occasional storms, dust, wind, etc. When we install outdoor audio, we prefer to use Sonance’s Sonarray speakers, which are incredibly durable without compromising on sound quality.
• Placement: Every backyard is different. The area of your pool, topiaries, patio seating, and more will all impact the best places to install speakers. The goal is to provide even coverage of sound, without any areas where the music is blaring in your ears or too soft to hear. Typically, these speakers are placed pointing inward so that you gain the benefits of great sound without affecting your neighbors.

2. Video

Just like with your sound system, your outdoor television needs to be equipped to handle different weather conditions. This goes beyond the standard waterproofing. The best outdoor televisions are designed with antiglare screens so that you get top-quality visuals no matter how brightly the sun is shining. Depending on your space, you might opt for a home theater system instead of traditional television. Then you can host movie nights in your backyard!

3. Landscape Lighting

You’re not going to be able to enjoy your backyard after the sun sets if you don’t have proper lighting. A landscaping lighting installation not only helps you safely navigate the outdoors in the evening but also makes the backyard look gorgeous. The best outdoor lighting accentuates your home’s architecture, landscaping, and décor. From path lights to in-pool lighting, we can design the perfect setup for you.

As any good interior designer knows, proper home décor goes far beyond choosing a color scheme or artwork for a room. It’s about creating a cohesive design that evokes the right feeling at the right time. Recently, technology has advanced to the point where interior designers can use it to great effect within their décor plans. DB Media Solutions often works with interior designers on a particular smart home automation technology: Lighting control. Read below to learn how LED lighting design can enhance décor in every area of Southlake, Texas homes.

What is LED Lighting Design?

LED lighting design isn’t just about selecting a great fixture for the room. It’s about taking advantage of LED lighting’s versatility so that you can ensure each area has the proper look, no matter the time of day or chosen activity for that room. A great lighting design requires the right type of fixtures in the right locations—all connected to a central control system that allows the homeowner to adjust lighting scenes at the push of a button.

A Practical Example of Lighting Design

Automated LED lighting probably sounds like a good idea to you, but once you explore how lighting control can enhance your décor, we think you’ll better understand the true value of this technology.

Let’s use the living room as an example of what’s possible. The problem with designing living rooms is that they are used for so many different purposes. Homeowners might want to chat with friends on one day and then watch their favorite TV show on another. Usually, interior designers have to compromise on emphasizing artwork or sculptures with lighting because they don’t want to wash out the television for the homeowner. But lighting control allows you to do both.

SEE ALSO: How to Get More Use Out of Your Home’s Lights

There are a lot of different options out there for home surveillance cameras. How do you know which ones are right for your Colleyville area home? The answer to that question will depend on the unique aspects of your property, and DB Media Solutions can help you design the best mix of cameras for your needs, but to give you a general understanding of the differences between the most popular cameras styles, we’ve put together a brief overview below.

SEE ALSO: 5 Statistics that Highlight the Importance of a Home Surveillance System

Bullet

Often installed in the corners of rooms or entryways, bullet cameras have a limited range of visibility, but they provide an excellent image of wherever they’re pointed. This style of camera is commonly used in both indoor and outdoor environments. If you’re looking for a camera that can monitor a specific location, such as the front door or the area in front of your safe, then the bullet style is a good choice.

Dome

Dome cameras are great for areas where you need full visibility. You often see dome cameras installed in the middle of rooms so that they can take in a 360-degree view. These cameras fit easily into the ceiling and are fairly unobtrusive. Depending on your needs, you can get dome cameras outfitted for each space. So in a living room, you might opt for a high-fidelity camera that can capture footage even in low lighting conditions. For your outdoor spaces, you should go for a weather-resistant design and perhaps a camera that allows for long distance recording.

Discrete

If you prefer to keep the presence of your surveillance system unknown, then discrete cameras are the way to go. These cameras are designed to look like something else while still maintaining clear, high-definition footage. You can get cameras that look just like smoke detectors, water sprinklers, or other devices you would commonly find throughout the property.

Most homes in the Dallas, Texas area have a network of some sort. With so many internet-connected devices available now, there’s no denying that a network is an essential part of everyday life. So why are networking issues so common? If you want to avoid making the mistakes that so often result in an unreliable, unsecure, and glitchy home network, then read on.

Mistake One: Thinking “Off the Shelf” is Good Enough

With networking equipment, you absolutely get what you pay for. The standard routers you find in your local electronics store might be adequate for a home without any smart home automation devices, but if you’re the type of person who embraces the Internet of Things, you’ll have much better luck with a professional system. Professional-grade networking is about more than high-quality equipment (although that plays a big role). It’s about finding the right equipment for your needs – both today and for the future.

Mistake Two: Not Changing the Default Settings

Although networking companies are getting better about giving unique default usernames and passwords, the most common combination is still admin, admin. In fact, it’s easy to find complete lists of the default login IP addresses, usernames, and passwords for all the popular networking brands.

So what does this mean for you? It means that if someone wants to gain access to your network, they can do it in less than a minute. After hacking into your network, they’ll be able to see all the data transferred to and from your computer as well as track some web pages you’re viewing. It could be a very big problem, but fortunately, it’s easy to avoid: just update the default settings with a secure username and password that’s not easily guessable.

SEE ALSO: 5 Questions to Ask When Upgrading Your Home Network