The Benefits of Lighting Control

To answer what the benefits of Lighting Control are, we first have to briefly discuss what Lighting Control is.  Lutron, a global leader in Lighting Control explains it like as:

“Light control is the ability to regulate the level and quality of light in a given space for specific tasks or situations. Controlling light properly not only enhances the experience, it helps to save energy by using light when and where it is needed most.”

To expand on this explanation, its important to note that Lighting Control can be broken up into two categories:

A)  Control your lighting throughout your home from an app, switches, keypads, and
voice commands

B)  Automated lights that turn on and off without any interaction from anyone

Using an app, switches, keypads or voice commands allows you to turn lights on or off without being at the switch.  It’s very convenient, but also a way of expanding control in areas where wiring was less than ideal.  Examples of this are stairwells where a light switch is at the top or the bottom, but not both.  A battery powered switch can be added to the side of the stairwell that does not have a switch to give you control of that light.  Without a Lighting Control system, you would have to have your electrician run wiring to that location, which in many cases will require cutting your wall to give access to run the wires.  This creates further work as you will have to patch and repaint your walls.  With Lighting Control, you would simply replace the switch that is already present, and install the battery powered switch on the wall, and with some minor programming, that’s it.  

Another example of using Lighting Control to simplify manual use is in an area with multiple lighting loads (multiple switches) to control the lights in an area.  My personal house has 4 light switches to control the lights in the same hallway/entry area.  Replacing these switches with Smart Switches allows you to turn on all the lights at the same time (or off), to the same lighting level if utilizing dimmers, with the touch of one button.  

How many times have your kids left all the lights on in the playroom in the basement?  Imagine just checking your app to see if the lights are on, and shutting them off, without ever getting up out of your seat?  In fact, at a quick glance at the app, you can see all of the lights that are on throughout the house (providing you place all of the lighting loads on the Lighting Control System.  This is a very convenient way to ensure lights are not always on, thus saving you money on your energy bills

A popular method of Lighting Control and other Home Automation control in my house is through voice control.  We have a young son, and during feeding and bed time, the convenience is very nice.  We will walk into the room with him and sit down in the chair for feeding, and we tell the lights to dim, which will dim the lights to a set level.  A good night scene is also popular, which will turn off all the lights and other components that are controlled, such as the TV.  The ceiling fan, which is controlled via a wall switch, is also controllable within the app or via voice.  This is wonderful at night, when you are in bed and feel a bit warm and without ever moving, just tell the fan to turn on.

We also integrate Lighting Control into Home Theaters, so that you are never sitting in a completely dark room.   Rather than walking into a room to watch a movie, and turning the system on to provide some light and then going to turn the lights off, we simply have it all happen automatically.  When you turn the system on, we have the lights slowly dim to off.  This is especially beneficial if your Home Theater utilizes a Projector which takes a little bit of time to turn on before there is any light output.  On the flip side, when turning the Home Theater off, we have the lights turn on to a preset dim level, so not only is there light, but it is not blindingly bright after sitting for 2 hours in a dark room watching a movie.  

All of the examples above are just some of the great ways to utilizes a Lighting Control System through method A mentioned at the beginning of the blog.  Lets talk a little bit about method B, fully automated Lighting Control.  

Outdoor lighting is one of the most popular in terms of smaller Lighting Control Systems.  It is sort of a doorway into a larger system.  Why is this?  The answer is simply that when you drive up to your house, you do not want to drive up to a dark house.  Yes, you can utilize motion sensors in certain areas, but it’s a bit less elegant and limits you a bit on style of lighting you can use.  It also will only light up a single area, or will often have different areas turning on and off at different times as motion is detected in different areas.  A Lighting Control system will have all of the lights you wish to light up the exterior of your home turn on and off uniformly, each and every day.  

Now, how many of you have purchased timer light switches in the past to turn on your outdoor lighting?  What happens if you misplace the directions?  The lights stay on that schedule for the life of that switch, right?  They are overly complicated to program.  Scheduling could not be any easier with a Lighting Control system.  Not only can you program what lights turn on or off, and when, but you can have them turn on at a specific time based on an astronomical clock.  In other words, you can have all your exterior lights, or specific exterior lights turn on at 15 minutes before dusk, rather than a specified time.  When the seasons change and dusk settles in earlier or later, you will not have to reprogram anything.  The lights will always turn on 15 minutes before dusk.

Automatic light paths which light your way when you arrive at home, vacation mode which randomly turns different lights on at random times, as well as remote access to turn your lights on or off from anywhere in the world are some more benefits to lighting control.  Combining Lighting Control with HVAC control, automated blinds and shades as well as utilizing all LED bulbs and fixtures throughout the house also help create a more energy efficient home.  

There is no right or wrong way to utilize Lighting Control, and often a combination of both the above methods is used.  Many people hear the term Smart Home or Home Automation but are not too clear on what exactly this means.  While there are multiple definitions to describe these terms, the short answer is simply that your home automatically triggers events, such as watering the lawn, control the homes Temperature at different times of the day/week/season, turning lights on and off based on your lifestyle…. Lighting Control is just a small part of a Smart Home, but a very important one as well, and usually the first entry many people have into Home Automation.  

“Why is my WiFi slow and how can I improve it?”

I am going to write a brief blog on what is required to take advantage of the higher speeds your Internet Service Provider (ISP) delivers to your home. There are some newer technologies coming to market, like WiFi6 that I am not going to touch on in this blog. We will discuss that at a later time. At present, what most people have is either a router provided by their ISP as part of their monthly subscription to their services, or they own their own router that they purchased in a store or online. Unless you have a router from several years ago, the router you have, whether you own it or it belongs to your ISP is a dual band router. This means it works on two frequencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Your router may broadcast 2 SSIDs (essentially, this is your WiFi name you see when searching for a network), or it may broadcast one SSID that combines the two bands in the background. If it does broadcast two bands, it will likely look something like:

My Wifi
My Wifi_5GHz

Many may be wondering why they have two separate bands and what the differences are. Let’s discuss what the differences are, why you have both, and what you can do to improve speeds throughout your house.

What is 2.4GHz

1) 2.4GHz - This is a common frequency used by many wireless devices, not just Wifi. It is possible that you can pickup some interference on this frequency. It is not that common, but can happen. Baby monitors are an example of devices that are known to interfere and cause WiFi issues, if both are working on the 2.4 frequency. This band has speed limitations, with maximum Mbps (Mega bits per second) being roughly 60 Mbps. Knowing that your ISP is providing you with 200, 300, 400 or even more Mbps, you may ask why would anyone use this band then? The answer is actually pretty simple. 2.4GHz offers great range, and penetration. What exactly do I mean by this? Well, the wireless signal will reach fairly far as well as go through walls, doors, windows and other structures within the house/building. For years, this was more than sufficient as the only band, as speeds did not come close to the 60 Mbps limitation. It was the perfect solution at the time. We can break it down further as there are different 2.4GHz standards, but in the spirit of not getting too complicated, we are keeping it to the basics to understand why we have two bands and how you utilize both. So why do we still use 2.4GHz and not rely only on 5GHz. Well lets discuss 5GHz below.

What is 5GHz

2) 5GHz - This frequency is what can provide you with faster speeds. Where 2.4GHz tops out at approximately 60 Mbps, 5 GHz keeps going, past 60 and on up to 1 Gbps (in theory. Other factors would need to be considered). This means if you wish to take advantage of the 300 Mbps plan you are paying for from your ISP, you will want to use the 5GHz band. Unlike 2.4 GHz, the range on 5GHz is limited and penetration is poor. This is why a lot of people find their devices do not perform as they believe they should. What often happens is the modem is placed in the basement, along with their router. They will get wifi signal in their house, however it is being provided by 2.4 GHz and limiting their speed. The optimal place to place your router would be central in the house, if possible, and on a higher floor. However, this often is not enough to provide 5GHz everywhere, especially if your house is a few thousand square feet or larger, or very spread out, such as a long ranch style house.

How to Improve Speed

So, how do you improve speeds everywhere? To accomplish this, you will want to have multiple access points that broadcasts your Wifi. In the past, the only way to accomplish this was with a hardwired connection. This is still the best, and most reliable method. Placing multiple access points that connect to a monitored software that controls the signal path and transmission will give you the best performance. This can become costly, however, considering that in most cases wires need to be run, and in many of those cases that requires cutting access holes that will need to be patched and painted. Now that Wireless Mesh has become a more stable technology, we have had great success with providing robust, large wifi networks utilizing 5GHz. Mesh uses multiple access points that communicate with one another wirelessly to create a large WiFi network. Wires do not have to be run, which can save a lot of time and money. We have found that certain Mesh networks work better than others, and in some cases, there are some Mesh networks that we have found have some issues working within certain situations. However, they all will provide a larger, faster WiFi network than a single router can provide. The key is to place them carefully so that they are not placed too close to one another, or too far from one another. Systems, such as Eero, which we highly recommend, runs a placement test during its setup process. If it detects that you placed it too far, the setup will stop and force you to relocate it until it is in a good location. This makes it a very easy system to install as well.

In closing, in order to utilize the fast speeds you are paying for, you will need to use 5GHz. If you wish for your entire house to be covered with 5GHz signal, you will likely need more than one access point, be it via wired access points or wireless Mesh. 2.4GHz is still important, especially in cases where you do not add multiple access points, as 5GHz will not cover most moderately sized homes with a single router or access point.

Why Install a Home Theater

Going to the movies with family and friends is an experience everyone loves and cherishes. The excitement builds from the moment someone asks, “want to go see a movie?” Why is that? Is it the ambiance that a theater provides? Or perhaps the fun of sitting in the dark with your friends, watching the picture on a massive screen, sound coming at you from all directions as the action unfolds onscreen, while munching on some fresh, hot popcorn smothered in delicious butter? The answer is yes, yes to all. The entirety of the experience is special and leaves everyone with a feeling of giddiness.

But this amazing experience is not without some issues. Lugging a family along with friends around can be challenging, especially with rambunctious little ones that are excited to see the latest Disney has to offer. Movie times and ticket availability is another. How many times has someone suggested an impromptu Movie night to see the newly released blockbuster, an with enthused excitement you get ready and make your way to the local theater to find long lines, and worse, a sold out movie. What to do? We can wait for the 10:30 showing, but the sitter cannot stay that late. I guess we will have to do it another night :-(

Another limitation is that you are of course limited to what is showing at your local theaters. This is great if a movie you are interested in is playing, however there is no denying the selection is a bit limited. I know I have personally seen a movie or two in my days that we went to see simply for the experience of going out and enjoying a movie, and not due to any real interest in that particular movie. While its still fun, I have to admit it takes away from the excitement a bit.

I don’t suggest that we remove the movie going experience altogether, but some of the issues I outlined above leave some room for another option. Add in the fact that we are dealing with an unprecedented pandemic during our lifetime, there has never been a better time to invest in your family’s enjoyment.

Benefits of a Home Theater

So we know some of the amazing benefits of going out to see a movie, but let’s talk a bit about some of the incredible reasons to have a state of the art Home Theater right in your own home. Some of the obvious things that stand out are, no lines and no people. Let’s be honest here, nothing can ruin a fun movie night like some rowdy teenagers out having fun and being a bit too loud, or the kid sitting behind you that keeps kicking you seat. Ever have the person sitting a row or two in front of you constantly checking their phone or texting throughout the movie? This one gets my blood boiling. This is a time to just sit, enjoy and turn off the outside world, and is definitely distracting to everyone around them. Sitting in your very own Home Theater removes all of these issues, well sort of. The good news, is if you still have these issues, you can usually ground the offenders.

The benefits go far beyond eliminating some distractions however. Convenience is a huge bonus. Watch what you want, when you want, and with whom you want. No distractions, no lines, and with streaming services provided by devices such as Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon FireTV, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Vudu and more, you are never at a loss of content to watch. The possibilities are literally endless. There is always something to find that the entire family can enjoy. Showtime is whenever you gather everyone into the room. No longer will you have to ensure you get downtown in time to park and get to the theater and seated by 4:20, 5:20, 6:20 or whatever times are showing. Simply grab your universal remote, and start the show when you want.

Another great benefit is comfort. While many theaters have been updating with nicer seating, its never just quite the right fit. You can choose the size, features, color and style of seating for your own personal Home Theater that suits your tastes and comfort. Reclining, heat, even massage are excellent options to ensure your comfort.

What happens when nature calls? If you’re at a movie theater, you first have to make the embarrassing shuffle through the aisle as moviegoer after moviegoer annoying has to stand up to let you by. Of course, you are going to miss some of the story as you take care of business. And then the real fun begins, of trying to find your seat when you return, into a dark theater, looking awkwardly at strangers, making eye contact with people wondering why you couldn’t just wait. At home, simply pause the show and call out bathroom break and everyone gets their break, or goes and grabs a snack. No one has to miss any of the show.

Why a Home Theater is Actually Better!!!

There is no doubt a movie theater has a lot going for it. Huge screen. Big sound. The smell of fresh popcorn. When you start to pick everything apart though, there are some noticeable differences that point to how a properly setup Home Theater is actually a better experience. To start, a lot of movie theaters are really lagging behind with technology. While you can see the movie on a huge screen, its often not that great in terms of picture quality. Seeing your content at home on a large truly ultra high definition screen with the use of a 4K home theater projector on a screen as large as the space will permit is awe inspiring and will bring many wows from all your visiting friends and family. Remember in days past when everyone would gather at that one friends house that had the LARGE 40” rear projection big screen TV? We believe going a bit bigger is always better with a Home Theater. 100”, sure. Maybe a 120”, why not. 133”, we’re getting closer. How about 200”? As long as the space can support it, we LOVE going with a nice huge screen that helps immerse you in the action, right in your own home. While you may be giving up some size compared to the massive screen at a movie theater, you more than make up the difference with quality.

One thing that many, many movie theaters tend to do is crank the volume up to ungodly levels. We get it, a big action movie should have lots of loud, boomy sound. And they certainly have enough speakers to accomplish this, many having a solid 100 speakers in the theater. While this provides lot of sound, it does not necessarily provide correct sound. True Surround Sound requires proper placement and calibration. A movie theater is generally a pretty large room to be able to ensure everyone gets the correct sound at all times. If you are sitting too far to the left of the theater, you are going to hear mainly just the left channel speakers in scenes where sound is pumping to both the right and left channels. Physics simply dictates it is impossible to cover all areas of a space that large properly. Many theaters compensate by turning the volume very loud, to give the impression that what you are hearing is great sound. It is often simply just loud. VERY loud.

I’ve been to a number of movies where I left after the movie ended with a terrible headache. 2 hours of brain pounding sound can do that. Personally, I do not find it enjoyable to have the volume maxed out when I watch a movie. Sure, I do like it loud, but at an acceptable level. Not only does it physically hurt if it is too loud, it also does not sound good. I, far too often, have heard distortion and cracking speakers in a movie theater due to it being so loud.

A Home Theater provides you with a much more appropriate space to watch and listen to a movie. In most scenarios, you are never seated more than 10 or 15 feet at most from any of the speakers. If you are, the system can be calibrated so that all of the speakers in the theater provide the same, smooth level of sound to the main seating area. Rather then sound coming in at different intervals, calibration ensures that it all reaches the listening area when it should to provide the optimal sound and experience. It’s not just about providing a loud room, but a properly sounding room, as the directors intended when filming.

How We Can Help

With a variety of top brands in the industry, such as KEF, Triad, Origin Acoustics and more, we have the ability to create a custom Home Theater that fits anyones needs. Properly placed and sized speakers powered by some of the best Home Theater receivers, amplifier, and pre-amplifiers from companies like Yamaha, Sony, Marantz, Audio Control and more has given us the ability to really tailor a Home Theater so that it provides exactly what you’d expect from a properly built Home Theater. The difference in the quality of sound between a loud movie theater and a calibrated Home Theater will be night and day. You will really be immersed in the sound and become a part of the action. It’s time to invest in your family and their enjoyment. Please feel free to reach out to us for a free consultation anywhere in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties in Connecticut. We do service all of Connecticut and most of Westchester County NY as well.