Integration Guides

The Challenges and Opportunities of Integrating Security into Smart Home Systems

With lighter televisions (and an increased demand for networked home entertainment) has come smaller components. Subsequently, racks, mounts and enclosures, too, have moved away from their clunky roots to embrace lighter build materials and designs that acknowledge the shrinking of the electronic components they lift, support and hide.

This Integration Guide was sponsored by RTI as a supplement to Residential Systems, August 2017

Home integration is experiencing a renaissance that is difficult to ignore.

This Integration Guide was sponsored by Access Networks, Control4, Luxul, and Peerless-AV as a supplement to Residential Systems, May 2017

This Integration Guide was sponsored by Peerless-AV and RTI as a supplement to Residential Systems, April 2017

This Integration Guide was sponsored by James Loudspeaker as a supplement to Residential Systems, February 2017

The AV distribution ecosystem, comprised of its associate cables, matrix switchers, and extenders, has revolutionized residential integration.

The growing sophistication of security systems, especially cameras and door locks, is on track to revolutionize custom integration as a whole.

In the custom integration sphere, the slimming down of components has had a knock-on effect on newer models of AV racks, mounts, and enclosures—originally intended to be the nerve centers of once-behemoth components that powered equally complex integrated systems.

This Integration Guide was sponsored by Elite Screens, Grandview, Microlite Screen, and Vutec as a supplement to Residential Systems, October 2016

Home audio’s evolution in the past five years has been remarkable. Streaming music services, the move from physical media to near-universal digital delivery, and the shrinking of audio components have collectively redefined how we listen to music in our home space.

Arguably, beyond brewing a cup of coffee from the bedroom, IoT has generated the most buzz about the practical possibilities of remote management of lights and interior environments, including the use of voice control to achieve overall home automation.

Over the years, touchpanels, remotes, and more recently, control apps have served as the primary access point to programming and effectively engaging with home automation systems, which are now evolving into and underpinning the broader development of the smart home concept and its corresponding technology girdle, the Internet of Things.

How we listen to music these days has been taken over by tech-driven means, including numerous wireless delivery options with Bluetooth leading the way.

Getting from here to there is a basic aspect of every custom integration business, large and small.

Wireless technology continues to push the boundaries of where consumers can enjoy audio and video entertainment, but in the custom integration world, concerns about cable runs, product and installation durability, and future-proofing projects still dominate the backend conversation.

Moving lifts and mounts are mostly used to automate TVs and projectors, but they also find their ways into the iPad/tablet storage world as well.

This Integration Guide was sponsored by Atlona, DVIGear, Rose Electronics, Shinybow USA, and Zigen as a supplement to Residential Systems, January 2016.

Loudspeakers are arguably the most functional inventions of our modern age, showing as all classic products tend to do, a longevity extended by tweaks rather than wholesale reinvention.

Head-end rooms, usually a closet-size AV control center, have for years relied on racks and enclosures to discretely serve as the backbone of integrated AV and automation/control systems, in much the same way that mounts have literally supported the evolving frames of televisions and projectors.

User interfaces come in all shapes, sizes and capabilities—conforming to the needs of the often-complex systems behind them.

Working in an industry where the future has always been now, custom integrators know what it is like to thrive in “on the brink” moments.

In April 2015 more than three million 4K LCD TV panels were shipped worldwide, exceeding past monthly shipment numbers and comprising 14 percent of all LCD TV panel shipments for April.

The idea of the “smart home” is not new, but never have we as a society been closer to achieving the essential qualities inherent in those two words than we are now.

Recent developments in custom AV distribution have been nothing short of staggering.

The idea of having an outdoor entertainment system is not new, though the challenge has always been finding quality audio and video components that live up to the standard often found in the best home theater systems.

In a millennium, when students are studying our present as their past, much will be made of the role of the smart phone in fueling a technology revolution.

Home theaters, even some that can be purchased right off the shelf, tend toward the sonically spectacular.

There was a time when interior designers—with their mood boards, color swatches, and barely disguised technophobia—induced near unbearable heartburn in the chests of custom integrators.

Beyond bright children’s swings, barbecue grills, and perfectly clipped hedges, the uses of the traditional residential backyard has been undergoing a transformation that reflects larger trends toward more contemporary concepts of living.

The relationship between interior designers and custom integrators has been one of cautious collaboration.

From its infancy, residential distributed audio has sought to do one thing very well: seamlessly deliver high quality audio content to as many spaces within the home as possible.