KEEP YOUR FAMILY ENTERTAINED IN A SMART HOME

Want to make your home an entertainment mecca? It’s so easy to do in a smart home managed by Crestron Home™!

Whether your home is a mansion or an average-sized middle-class abode, the scalability of the latest Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies have made Smart Homes possible in every demographic. And for many people, the entertainment possibilities are the highest priority when implementing such a project.

Many times, modern home entertainment practices entail more than simply ”passing the time away” after daily chores and homework have been completed. For example, an increasing number of families have a personal gym in their home. It may be a small bedroom converted for that purpose, or a custom-built gym equipped with machines and weights that rival those found in a commercial facility. Either way, it’s important to create a motivating atmosphere that makes your workout enjoyable as well as productive. In this sense, your workout is an important part of stress-relieving daily entertainment as well as a part of your health regimen. And nothing sets the mood for your workout better than heart-pumping music or a stirring video. Simply set it all up with a Quick Action routine in the Crestron Home™ app and include temperature and light settings if you like. When you step into the room all conditions will be ready for you to jump right into your workout routine.

**Note: Your certified Crestron integrators at AV Enthusiast can assist you in setting up all Quick Action routines. We are just a phone call away at 256.882.5081.**

Another popular entertainment addition to homes today is a sports bar. Once again, the Crestron Home™ app can be used to set up a specific Quick Action routine to have Saturday afternoon’s much-anticipated football game cued up on the 65-inch Samsung OLED TV precisely at game time.

Since it's a good chance that not all of your family members will be interested in the football game, additional routines can be set up in the Crestron Home™ app for their individual entertainment activities. Your young daughters may want to enjoy yet another viewing of Frozen on the small Sony flat-screen in their bedroom, while your teenaged son and a few friends play video games in the den on a Samsung S95B OLED TV. Using the Crestron Home™ app on a Crestron tabletop touchscreen makes it easy for the kids to enable the TV or entertainment system of their choice.

And at the same time, Mom can enjoy relaxing music and good conversation with a few of her best friends poolside. She can check on the kids anytime she wants, once again using the Crestron Home™ app on her smartphone to verify their location and what type of entertainment they’re participating in (via I C Realtime™ cameras throughout the house).

Crestron Home™ can also make it easier to set up for family get-togethers and parties. Today’s remote-controllable LED lighting systems provide the desired ambiance for any setting in your home and are especially useful for setting the appropriate mood for both indoor and outdoor gatherings. You can set up routines for a number of different get-togethers that you hold on a regular basis, such as “Child’s Birthday Party Outdoor,” “Adults Pool Party,” “Family Holiday Party,” or “Dad’s Poker Night.” No matter which one of these that you choose out of the Crestron Home™ menu, every action that you have set up in the routine will be initiated at the appointed location in your home and at the appointed time.

For example, let’s pick “Family Holiday Party” and explore the sequence of events that would be possible for you to set up in such a routine. This is all going to be built on the assumption that you have the following subsystems installed in your home for the Crestron Home™ platform to oversee: whole-house lighting, whole-house audio, whole-house video, whole-house thermostatic control, home security and access control, interactive video intercom, and automated window treatments. Of course, you may not have all of these systems installed in your home. This list is for demonstration purposes.

Your party is going to be on Christmas Eve at 6:00 PM for the family’s annual gift exchange. Guests bring their favorite Christmas treats and finger-foods, while you provide soft drinks and eggnog. You have a large sunken living room that you deck out every year with delightful holiday decorations. But the best part is the ambiance permeating the room, and Crestron Home™ has been your essential behind-the-scenes assistant in that endeavor for the last several years.

As you enjoy a cup of coffee at 5:30 that evening, it takes just one tap on your Crestron TS-770 Touchscreen to get the ball rolling. Your “Family Holiday Party” scenario is implemented while you sit back and relax before your guests arrive. Automatically, the Crestron Horizon® thermostat for the party room is set to 70 degrees and the humidity level is set for maximum comfort. Your Crestron automated shades covering the windows to the outdoor patio open to reveal a life-sized nativity scene that is your latest addition to celebrate the holiday season. Instantaneously, the scene is lit perfectly by carefully-placed floodlights that shower it with moonbeam colors, and “Oh, Holy Night” wafts from hiddenOrigin Acoustics™ speakers.

Just before 6:00, your Doorbird™ video intercom alerts you to the presence of visitors at your front door. You welcome Uncle Jim and Aunt Janet from your spot on the sofa and Crestron Home™ unlocks your Yale Real Living® deadbolt. You page your daughter on the intercom and send her to greet guests so that you can attend to the apple pie in the oven.

As guests step down into your sunken living room, their ears are tickled with refrains of traditional Christmas tunes emanating from Totem Acoustics™ ceiling speakers that are barely discernable to the eye but nonetheless deliver astounding sound. As they socialize and partake of petite ham-and-cheese sandwiches, spiced deviled eggs, and thick slices of pumpkin bread, your guests marvel that the twinkly™ string lights enveloping the Christmas tree are pulsating perfectly to the beat of “Jingle Bells.” And unbeknownst to them, Crestron Home™ has tuned every LED ceiling light in the room to the perfect coloration for a party atmosphere.

On the other side of the room, the gas-log fireplace is blazing as the framed Samsung TV mounted above it displays a slideshow of winter scenery. And to the delight of the children in attendance, the movie “Frosty the Snowman” is playing on another Samsung TV in the “Kids Corner” of the room.

Later, as everyone gathers around the tree to open gifts, you direct their attention to the TV above the fireplace, where the slideshow drops and a Zoom™ call appears featuring your cousins Beth and Jason, who are snowbound at the Denver airport. Many of your guests are in tears as they wish them a Merry Christmas and blow them kisses.

When the Zoom™ call ends, everyone returns to gift-giving followed by a family sing-along as your daughter Allie plays her ukulele.

Exhausted as the last of your guests leave, your family retires for the night as you grab your smartphone and initiate your “Goodnight” Quick Action routine. Spontaneously, all entrance doors lock as the security system is armed, all lights are turned off, the thermostat settings are adjusted, and lilting, sleep-inducing melodies flow from all speakers in bedroom areas of your home.

Crestron Home™ has made it a very special evening!

Questions? AV Enthusiast has the answers!

Call us at 256.882.5081 or drop by our showroom at 514 Madison Street in Huntsville Monday – Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM or Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM.

We look forward to meeting you!