A smart can best best be described as a home which works for you, and not the other way around. A customized collection of smart devices created to work towards enhancing your lifestyle and simplifying routine tasks on your schedule and to your likings.

Home Automation is the ability to automate routine tasks, settings or lifestyle elements around your home  to your requirements, schedule and in synchronization with other parts of your home.

Home Automation allows you to control integral elements in your home through set routines which you have programmed through an app on your phone, a simple push of a keypad button, a Universal Remote Control or even voice activated control. It makes the more mundane work simple and the more time-consuming work easier and faster to accomplish.

The easiest way to answer this is if you know how to use a smartphone or tablet, you will easily be able to use a Home Automation system. If you have staff or elderly members of your family who are not familiar with smart devices, keypads or simple voice activated commands can be programmed to do very basic functionalities such as All On or All Off to turn everything on and off in a particular space.

Most Home Automation systems are IP based and are controlled through our home network. This enables them to easily integrate with future technologies and the internet of things because most of these devices are also IP controlled and will be able to easily synchronize with your home automation system.

If your electricity goes down, unless you have a backup power supply nothing will operate anyways. There is no way to control your lights, a/c’s or other smart devices in your home because they all require electricity to operate. If your internet goes down, your entire system will continue to operate as normal on your local home network. That means inside your house everything is still connected on your main router and continues to talk to each other, allowing you to control what you need. Once you leave your home network and try to access the system from outside your home, that is when things will not be operable from the outside world since the internet is down at your space.

A lot of businesses have started to create smart working spaces to help team members be more productive, more efficient and focus more
on the important tasks at work. Conference rooms which can easily light up and set the Audio/Video Equipment to the correct input when a meeting is scheduled to start is one prime example. Smart security and biometric access control systems which only allow the team member with the correct level of access to enter a space is another prime example.

Home Automation can be installed during any stage in the construction process or even once your home or commercial space is complete. If your automation equipment needs to be retrofitted, more than likely you will need to install wireless home automation devices. Although wireless works very well, we always recommend a wired solution and to pre-plan your automation installation along with the necessary wiring at the same time your electrical work is being completed.

We don’t feel there are any disadvantages in integrating an automation system into your home or commercial space because it helps simplify your lifestyle and living experience. There is a cost associated with these products, but it is up to you to what scale you want to integrate your space and more automation services can be added along as and when budget permits. We have found in cases where a home automation user has a bad experience with their system mostly results from hiring inexperienced or novice automation integration companies or installers who do not provide adequate support and are not familiar with the complexities of home automation integration. We strongly suggest before finalizing your home
automation vendor, that you take a background check of the level of projects they have completed and how much experience they have in the automation industry. Also check what their support timings are and what type of service you can expect once the installation has been completed.

Yes almost all home automation systems allow control of the system through a smartphone or tablet.

Yes almost all home automation systems allow control of their system through voice commands by Amazon Alexa or Google Home. Some even integrate with Siri and Josh.ai for more advanced voice activated control.

Yes it is quite possible to retrofit wireless automation into an existing home which may be lacking smart technology. Similarly, if cabling is already in place, wired automation products can easily be added to make a home or commercial space smarter

Energy Automation currently works by tracking your electrical loads to see which products on your electrical grid use the most energy, and at what times your grid power is most costly. You can then schedule these devices to operate during non peak hours or use solar power if that has been installed to operate the devices at times when the electrical grid is costliest.

Similar to how your email servers, banking platforms and other secure systems ensure your personal data and usernames and passwords are secure, Home Automation companies use the same level of encryption to ensure your personal data and home stay secure.

As more and more products come into the market smart homes are becoming very affordable. It really depends on the level of automation one hopes to accomplish which will determine the overall budget of the system.

It is not required to make the entire home or commercial space smart. You can start with small parts and continue to add more parts as and when you feel comfortable. We would highly recommend future proofing yourself though and running all the necessary cabling to different parts of your home or commercial space so it will make it easier to add automation to those areas in the future.

This is a very subjective topic and I think everyone you ask will have their own answers to this question, but we believe A/V Control, Smart Lighting and a Smart Lock are definitely the 3 most beneficial smart devices one can integrate into their homes.

A Home Theater System can range anywhere from two front speakers (A Stereo System) with a 2 channel amplifier to a Multi-Channel Surround Sound System with even up to 64 speakers depending on the room size and multiple amplifiers and processors. Generally a typical home theatre system for your space depends on the size of the space, seating layout and type of audio experience you are interested in implementing.

A Surround Sound System is a multiple speaker system in which sound can move from front to side and in some cases to back and even overhead to give you a sense of immersion and let you feel like you are a part of the scene and hear everything as the director intended you to hear it while making that scene.

We generally recommend not less than 150 square feet in size for a Dedicated Home Theater Room. If you are interested in creating a Media Room then a Living Room or Spare Bedroom can also do the job. We also recommend having more width in the room then length. That allows for proper speaker placement and accurate listening angles as per industry standards. Square rooms are not usually ideal and rectangular serve the purpose much better for a Home Theater Experience.

This completely depends on your room size. We need to place enough speakers so that you have a completely immersive experience and every seat in the room gets accurate sound reproduction. We also want to ensure no single speaker is too close to any one listener so that they do not localize any hear that one speaker above all others. 

This is an aesthetic choice, but more importantly the room decides which speakers should be used. How we can place acoustical treatment, how the room reverberates and transmits sound, all factors into which speakers we can recommend for the space. 

We recommend following HAA or THX industry standards by ensuring your front speakers produce a 45 to 60 degree listening angle from the seating location. We also recommend hiring Avenue Sound or another certified company to conduct an acoustic analysis of the room to ensure proper speaker and subwoofer placement.

A lot of businesses have started to create smart working spaces to help team members be more productive, more efficient and focus more One should follow STC ratings and guidelines to ensure the room does not allow sound to pass through from any direction and this can be tested by using a sound level meter outside the room to ensure sound does not pass through.

This is a very subjective question and the best way to answer this is whichever setup sounds the best to you in your listening space. Ideally the room impacts your sound much more than your speakers ever could. Set up your room correctly and almost any speakers can sound amazing. But we do recommend listening to any options before finalizing on speakers which you would want to put in your space.

This again is an aesthetic choice but we need to ensure listening and viewing angles are maintained as per THX standards. Anything beyond that remains a personal choice on which type of seating best fits who is going to be using it.

A good Home Theater System is one that follows Industry Standards, ideally being able to achieve 105DB Reference Listening Level at the Main Seating Position, adheres to THX Listening and Viewing Angles, and has been optimized and calibrated for the space.

THX recommends 4 subwoofers minimum to achieve consistent bass in every seat in the room and to tackle room modes of the room. We understand not every room can hold 4 subwoofers, but the ideal reference target is 4.

This can be best answered by what type of light there is in the room. If you can control the light in the room and darken the space, a projector will give you a much larger viewing experience. If you have a lot of ambient light in the room, you may want to look at an HDTV because you will be able to achieve a reference level image even with a lot of light in the room.

Wiring is one of the most crucial factors in any sound setup. Using less expensive cabling can cause sound transmission loss and also fault to the equipment. Consider buying an expensive car but using low grade spark plugs, belts, or electrical wire. You are investing in expensive equipment but not giving it the connectivity to run to its optimal peak.

We would highly recommend this. Avenue Sound is happy to give complementary acoustic evaluations so you can atleast get an idea of the challenges your room and setup face and make a decision if tackling them is worth it or not for your setup.

We always recommend using wired connections between devices and not wirelessly repeating signals such as wifi etc for robust connectivity.

A smart doorbell can ring to any smartphone or tablet no matter where you are in the world, and allow you to have an audio and visual conversation with whoever is at the door. The person at the door can hear you so that you can communicate with them effectively. In case you miss the call the smart video doorbell also captures screenshots of who rang the bell and at what time, and some even take screenshots of movement at the door.

Smart locks allow you to use biometric, pin code, key card or facial recognition to unlock the door. Most even have a manual key option in built so that you can always use a traditional key in case you need to. They work on batteries so they do not fail if the electricity dies and they also can be used to unlock the door remotely from an app if you know who is at the door and want to let them in. They are very safe and effective and allow you the flexibility not to have to carry keys everywhere you go. Access can be easily removed or added directly from your smartphone app and guest access can also be given if you want to give someone temporary access to the door.

IP Cameras provide higher resolution images and now even come in 4K. You can compare this to the old standard definition images which used to be available on television and now the High Definition or 4K images. If possible we highly recommend using IP cameras.

This can be easily achieved by adding a smart streaming device such as an Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or Stick or Roku device. These can connect to your wifi or wired ethernet connection and also connect to your home stereo. You can then easily play music through the internet on to your home stereo.