Home Automation
A smart home not only makes your life simpler but also more enjoyable. Home Theaters Etc. has the know-how and the right products to make your home respond to your every whim. We can design a system that will control your lighting, heating and cooling, phone system, driveway gates, spa, pool, audio and video systems, security system, fireplaces, and much more from control panels discreetly placed throughout your home. We can then make these systems all react to a single button press through pre-programmed scenarios. For example, an “entertain” button would bring all the lights in the home to predetermined levels appropriate for entertaining, while a specific playlist will play through all of the home’s speakers, and all of the TV’s in the home turn to your favorite sports channels. A “goodnight” button would turn off all the home’s lights, lock the doors, arm the security system, and close the garage doors.
Lighting Control
Lighting control is by far one of the most fun ways to make your home more energy efficient. A lighting control system from Home Theaters Etc. gives you control of all the lights in your home at the touch of a button. We start by setting your lights to never come on to more than about 93%. This lengthens your bulbs’ life expectancies and reduces the amount of energy required to light them and the difference in light output is virtually undetectable to you. We then set up scenes so that your lights work in concert instead of forcing you to turn them all on and set levels one by one. So, instead of having to remember what nine different switches and dimmers do in your kitchen, you would simply press a button that says “All On”. This would turn on every light in the kitchen. Later in the evening you could touch the button that says “Relax” which would turn off all overhead lighting while turning your pendants over the bar to 70% and turning on your under-cabinet accent lighting. Then, when it’s time to go to bed feel free to leave all the lights where they are on your way to the bedroom. An “All Off” button in the master suite will turn off every light in the house. We can create any lighting scene you can imagine and your home can be re-programmed at any time so your lighting control system can evolve with your lifestyle. It’s no surprise that many people find their lighting control system to be one of their favorite parts of their new home.
Distributed Video
A distributed video system makes your home’s various video sources available to all of the TV’s in your home. This allows source components like cable boxes and BluRay disc players to be remotely located in an unobtrusive part of the home, like the basement storage room, and still be accessed from any room with a TV. One popular application is to have his, hers, and kids DVR’s. You may have six TV’s in the house but now everyone can watch their favorite shows anywhere in the home with just a few cable boxes. This saves you money because you don’t have to rent a cable box for every TV in the home. A BluRay player connected to the system allows you to watch movies from anywhere. You can start a movie in the basement theater room, realize it’s getting late, press pause, and finish the movie in bed in your master suite. You can even connect a camera located in the nursery and watch your baby from any TV. The possibilities are endless.
Invisible Speakers
Some rooms in your home are simply too beautiful to place speakers in the walls. Or maybe you have a small bathroom with a skylight and light fixtures already crowding the ceiling where adding speakers would just be too much. That’s why Home Theaters Etc. offers invisible in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. These speakers are actually installed in the drywall of your home before the mudding and taping is done. The speakers get covered with a thin layer of drywall mud and can then be painted or even wallpapered with the rest of the wall. The end result is a completely invisible speaker that sounds fantastic but doesn’t interfere with your home’s décor.