Take Your Home Theater to the Next Level with Smart Automation

If you are considering upgrading your home theater, there are a lot of options available. You might want to buy a bigger TV or improve your sound system. Or perhaps you want to add some extra lighting. All the options can make it tough to decide. But if you really want to take your home theater to the next level, smart home automation is something you should definitely consider. We’re going to go over some of the amazing things it can do to level up your home theater.

Let’s start by talking about the viewing experience. If you want to enjoy a cinematic experience, you need the best lighting and screen. We can help you select the best television or projector for your space, and optimize your viewing experience. Then, depending on the size of your room and your budget, we can help you create an immersive and realistic theater experience using home automation.

Create the Perfect Movie-Watching Setting

Want to have the perfect setting for watching movies? With smart home automation you can program scenes that happen automatically with the push of a button or a voice command. Set the scene for watching movies by programming your lights to dim automatically with a simple voice command like, “start the movie”.

You can make this scene even better by adding additional automation. For example, if your theater room has windows, adding motorized shades to your room can give your theater an amazing touch. Program the blinds to lower when you say “start the movie”. This will make your home theater feel just like the movie theaters – and maybe even better.

Level Up Your Theater Room Lighting

When you watch movies in the theater, the room is completely dark. This gets rid of any glare from the lights and creates a more vibrant display. This is the ideal setting for watching movies. But when you’re at home, turning all the lights off can make it hard to see if anyone needs to get up to use the bathroom or get more popcorn.

One way to create a movie-theater-like experience is to add LED strip lights to the floor. These lights will illuminate the pathway between the seating area and the entrance. This way, your guests can find their way back to their seats when the room is dark.

You can automate any of the lighting for your theater. You have complete control of the ceiling lights and floor lights, and you can even adjust the speed at which they dim. When the movie is done, you can slowly make them bright again so that everyone’s eyes have time to adjust.

Hide the Speakers and Television

If you use your home theater room for other activities like playing pool or games, you might not want a big television taking the spotlight. Consider adding hidden speakers or a hidden TV. Your television can be mounted to your ceiling with an automatic lift. This way you can lower it using home automation when you’re ready to watch television or hide it when you’re not using it.

There are also really cool art-hide televisions that disguise your television as a mirror or artwork. This is a great option for people who use their theater room for other things besides watching movies.

Listen to Your Movie Through Your Whole House

Never miss a minute of your movie, sports game, or other event. Consider adding a whole-house audio system. It’s not just cool for watching movies or listening to music, it’s great for entertaining as well. Whole house audio is a sound system that plays any connected audio source throughout your entire home.

It’s not like an ordinary sound system. You can play the movie in different rooms of your home, such as the bathroom and the living room while playing something else for the kids.

Control Everything Through One System

If you have a lot of remote controls, you will love the simplicity of a Control4 system. A Control4 system is one of the best and easiest to use. You can use one remote to control all your electronic devices. This includes your home theater system, your shades, and the lighting in the room, allowing you to turn everything on with just one button.

The full power of the Control4 system can be extended to your entire home. It can control your lights, thermostat, security, and just about any electronic device in your home — all through one convenient control panel or an app on your phone.

Are You Ready to Take Your Home Theater to the Next Level?

If you’re interested in creating the ultimate home theater or home automation, Intuitive AV can help you get started. We’ll work with you to design a home theater tailored to your needs. Let us bring your ideas to life. Contact us today at (770) 317-7016 to learn more.

5 Spooky Smart Home Halloween Ideas that Kids will Love

Halloween is right around the corner. Why not use your smart home to create the spookiest house on the block? Using your Control4 system and a few little tricks, you can create a spooky atmosphere that will amaze the kids and impress the whole neighborhood.

You already have a lot of the devices you need to make your house the most fun on the block for trick-or-treaters. Using your home automation system and a few tips from us, you’ll be able to create a scary show with lighting and sound effects from your favorite scary movies. You can also create spooky and fun surprises for kids in every dark corner of your yard.

Here are a few spooky smart home Halloween ideas that the kids will love!

Spooky-Up Your Doorbell!

To give your home a spooky feel, ditch the typical doorbell sounds and use scary ones instead. There are tons of options available. You can choose from various screams, a witch’s cackle, howls, creaky doors, ghosts or even songs like the “Monster Mash.” The easiest way to do this is to replace your doorbell’s chime with one of these scary sounds on Spotify or another music streaming platform..

When trick-or-treaters visit your home, you will be ready for them. If you want to create a little mystery and fun, you can even use your cameras and intercom system to interact with them.

Set up an Automated Halloween Candy Shoot

Surprise the kids with an extra treat, and set up a Halloween candy shoot. This is incredibly easy to do and you can automate it too. All you need is a photo shipping tube (you can order this on Amazon or any shipping supply store). Then decorate it in Halloween colors. You could paint it orange and string purple or black Halloween lights around it. Or, add paint it black and cover it in Halloween stencils or stickers.

Then, you can use your Control4 4sight subscription to set up a when>>then personalization to create a simple Halloween automation. Use an extension cord or smart plug to connect your lights to your home automation. Then program the Halloween lights to automatically light up when the door bell rings. When you drop the candy down the shoot, the kids will be thrilled!

Light up Your Front Porch with Color Changing Light Bulbs

Smart lighting is a great way to trick-out your home for Halloween. You can buy color changing smart light bulbs and use them to illuminate the path to your door and create a creepy entrance.

Philips Hue has a ton of great options for outdoor Halloween lighting, from spotlights to strip lights. They also have a motion sensor that you can use to automate your lights. When kids walk by, the path automatically lights up.

Another option is to buy some Halloween themed string lights and plug them into smart plugs. You can connect them to your smart home system and automate them or turn them on and off with your phone when kids walk by.

Digital Decorate your Windows

If you haven’t heard of digital decorating, this is something you have to check out. Digital decorating is a new trend that kids — and adults love! AtmosFX offers a variety of spooky animations like ghosts, skeletons, and jack-o-lanterns that you can project onto a screen or wall..

You simply purchase a digital download. Then you can use a projector and screen to project the spooky animation on the screen. You can even play the download on a television. This would be a great way to use your outdoor television for Halloween. You could create a haunted backyard for the kids or have a killer Halloween party for the grownups.

Use Outdoor Smart Plugs to Automate Your Outdoor Halloween Decorations

You can use smart plugs to decorate your house for Halloween and to save money on electricity. Smart plugs are easy to install and set up. Just connect your smart lights or outdoor decorations to your smart plug and you’ll never have to worry about turning them all off manually. You can program them so that the lights automatically turn off at night, or whenever you want.

They’re also a terrific way to automate your smoke machine, digital decorations, or pop up Halloween inflatables. Just pair them with a motion sensor and let your home automation create the special effects. Kids and adults will love the way all of your outdoor Halloween decorations turn on and off like magic.

We’re the Experts in Home Automation

Whether you want to make your house the spookiest on the block for Halloween or have the most convenient home automation system ever, we can help. Contact us today at (770) 317-7016 to learn how to make your home a smart home.