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LINKING DREAMS TO TECHNOLOGY ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN HOME-TECH TRENDS BY TIM WOOD If you can dream it, it can be built. It sounds like a marketing slogan. But when it comes to smart home technology, what once felt more like fictional thinking out of a movie is becoming both doable and affordable. “There really isn’t much we can’t do nowadays,” said Sean Stewart, sales marketing manager for Custom Audio Video. “When the concept of a smart home first hit the market, every part of the house was its own silo. Lighting, HVAC, shades, TVs, home audio, it was all controlled separately, but we are able to fully automate the smart home experience now with one touch of a button or a touch pad.” Stewart said automation and the increased need for top-level home networks have been the top trends his company has been focused on to start 2021.
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“So, you have more folks working from home, you have had kids doing school from home, now the major movies are being shown on streaming networks first. It’s more important than ever to have the proper network configuration,” Stewart said. He said that as much as we’d all like to blame the Internet providers, the real culprit for slow network speeds is most often the home network setup. “Whether it’s an inferior modem or a router not positioned centrally in bigger houses, that’s the real issue,” Stewart said. “Coverage is key. And the more electronics we can get plugged in with Ethernet and off the wireless network, the more bandwidth the devices that actually need it will have. A strong robust network with a combination of wired and wireless access points is the solution most every time.”
