Today’s smart homes have come a long way. They aren’t just a way to impress your friends anymore—they can help keep your home safe while you’re away, manage your home’s energy and water usage, make entertaining easier, and enhance the way you live and work in your home. In the next few blog posts, we’ll take a look at how smart home automation can enhance the lives of Orange County homeowners.
In our last blog post, we followed Gary and Pam Reynolds of Orange County as they went through a normal day in their Newport Beach smart home. We talked about how integrated smart home technology allows them to enjoy their everyday lives as they work, relax, and live in their home.
Gary and Pam also like to entertain in their Orange County home, which was recently custom built just for them. They enjoy having small groups of close friends over for a casual evening of dinner and cards, and they occasionally throw larger parties, to which they invite their extended family or friends from their neighborhood.
Setting the Scene for the Perfect Night in With Friends and Family
Whatever the occasion for the gathering, Gary and Pam like to set the perfect mood. They want people to feel comfortable in their home when they visit, and they also want to make sure everyone has the best time possible. But the specific type of gathering dictates the setup when it comes to music, lighting, and other systems within their home.
Because their home is fully integrated, they can control pretty much everything on their smartphones or from a tablet. They don’t have to go from room to room adjusting everything, but can instead do it all from one place.
In addition, they can set up “scenes,” which allow them to control multiple systems with the touch of one button. These scenes are set up in advance and then recalled when needed. For example, the Reynolds have a “Welcome” scene. Right before their guests arrive, they can push a single button that opens their front gate, turns on the outdoor lighting in the front of their house, and unlocks the front door so their friends or family members can let themselves in.
When they host a dinner party in their formal dining room, Gary and Pam like to dim the lights and have soft background music playing. As they and their guests sit down for dinner, Pam selects the “Dinner Party” scene on her phone, and the lights and music adjust to the perfect levels to allow for conversation and a relaxed atmosphere.
Once dinner is over, Gary and Pam typically bring their guests into the family room to play cards and have some drinks. They’ll switch the music to a playlist that’s a little more upbeat. At any time during the evening, if the temperature inside is too hot or too cold, they can adjust the thermostat from their smartphones.
After everyone leaves for the evening, Gary pushes the “Goodnight” button on his phone, which closes the front gate, turns off the lights, locks the exterior doors, and engages the home security system.
For larger gatherings, Gary and Pam have an “Indoor/Outdoor Party” scene set up (since their parties typically extend outdoors when the weather permits). This scene turns on the lights to the preset levels in all the rooms downstairs, locks to the door to Gary’s office, and turns on the distributed audio system they had installed, which gives their guests the ability to hear the same music as they roam from room to room. The outdoor lighting is also turned on, including the pool and spa lights, and the pool’s waterfall starts flowing. When the party ends, Gary and Pam can easily shut everything down on their phones and go straight to bed after a long night of entertaining.
Making Entertaining Easier
Gary and Pam wanted their new home to be a hub for family gatherings, as well as a place their friends would want to come and hang out, but they also wanted to keep things simple. With their integrated smart home, they can control all aspects of their home with a single device. There’s no more running around right before their guests arrive turning on and adjusting the lighting, setting the thermostat, turning on the music in each individual room, opening the gate, unlocking the doors, heating up the spa, and turning on the water features (all from separate devices). All of this can be done from Gary and Pam’s smartphones. And with the scenes they set up in advance, it makes things even easier.
Gary and Pam find that that entertaining in their new smart home is much less stressful. They have more time to spend with their friends and family, and feel less harried as they prepare for parties and small gatherings.
The thing that they like most about their new Orange County smart home is that it’s so easy to use. Neither Gary nor Pam would consider themselves “tech savvy,” and yet they are able to easily manage all the systems in their home like pros! Their home has all of the latest technology, including top-of-the-line speakers and televisions, adjustable lighting, a smart thermostat, and an amazing home security system, and they are able to program and control it all with devices that they were already familiar with—their iPhones and iPads.
The app on their devices that is used to control their home’s systems is extremely intuitive. Gary and Pam both became experts at using it in no time at all! Even their kids and grandkids are impressed with how Gary and Pam have incorporated all of this cutting-edge technology into their lives.
Not Sure What You Want in Your Orange County Smart Home? Let Us Help!
At Good Sounds, most of our clients like Gary and Pam aren’t exactly sure what they want in their smart home in the beginning. In fact, they often don’t even know what’s possible.
When we meet with you at your initial consultation, we like to ask a lot of questions about how you live in your home. If you tell us you like to entertain, we’ll design a smart home for you that will help turn your home into an entertainer’s dream! No matter what types of parties you like to host, there are ways to enhance them with a custom AV system, home automation, and smart home technology.
Every system we design and install is different, because every Orange County home is different. We don’t use out-of-the-box solutions—everything we do is custom and tailored to meet your specific needs.
If you’ve been considering upgrading your home with smart home technology or a custom AV system, contact us at Good Sounds. We’ve been helping homeowners in Orange County for more than 30 years and would love to work with you as well! Whether you want to upgrade your existing home, or are in the process of designing your dream home from the ground up, our team of smart home specialists has the expertise and vision to make your dreams a reality!
Read the previous post in this series, “Living and Working at Home” here. Stay tuned for the next post in the series, “Safety at Home.”
