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Welcome to our blog, where we explore the latest innovations in home automation, offering insights and inspiration to enhance convenience, security, and comfort in your living space.

The Creation of a Media Room

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Learn How to Turn Any Room into a Media Room

When compared to home theaters, the media room is a relatively new concept and owes part of its popularity to the rise in smart home automation. Today, homeowners can tap a button on an in-wall keypad or remote control and watch as their fine art painting transforms into a large 4K or 8K HDR TV and sound fills a room from speakers hidden from view. Now, any room in your Park City, UT, home can become a media room. 

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Bringing Your Home Theater to Life

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Today’s Home Theaters Offer Many Choices in Image, Sound, and Design

Welcome to the first of our three-part series on home entertainment spaces. Today’s homes are all about creating areas where friends and family can gather while enjoying the best that technology offers. In fact, by 2026, the percentage of homes in the U.S. with smart home entertainment is expected to reach over 23%.

One of the fastest-growing segments in this space is the home theater. People are looking to enjoy the same immersive experience found at premier cinemas in the comfort of their own homes. Fortunately, with the advancements in audio-video systems, a home theater can surpass the images, acoustics, and ambiance found at your favorite movie theater.

Let's look at how the latest technology transforms rooms into cinemas in Salt Lake City, UT, and the surrounding areas. 

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Josh.ai and Control4’s Partnership Makes Controlling Your Smart Home as Easy as Talking to a Friend

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Advanced Voice Activation Now Possible for Music, Lighting, and More

At Show & Tell AV Solutions, we have long been fans of Control4 home automation systems. Their integration capabilities and ease of use allow us to create custom home automation solutions in clients’ homes, making smart home experiences unique to each family and living situation. 

Control4 has led the home automation pack in innovative firsts, from customized keypads with pre-set scenes to enhanced touchscreens. Josh.ai has also been one of our favorite voice control options, allowing users to speak as if they were talking to a friend instead of imitating a robot. 

In November 2021, Control4 and Josh.ai announced an expanded partnership and an exclusive distribution agreement. To say we were excited maybe a slight understatement. The joining of these two mighty forces in smart home automation significantly ups the ante in the level of service and integration we can offer our clients. 

At the core of this partnership is new driver enhancements that create a superior experience. Let’s look at what this means for Control4 smart homes in Bountiful, UT, and the surrounding areas. 

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What Can You Add to Your Control4 Smart Home Starter System?

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Beyond Entertainment, Control Devices like Lights, Locks and More

In our last blog, we introduced the Control4 starter package, a one-room entertainment control solution perfect for homeowners who are interested in home automation but want to start small. The starter package consists of one Control4 EA-1 controller, which integrates the AV devices in your entertainment room, and a handheld universal remote for intuitive entertainment control.

While one-room entertainment control is where the EA-1 controller excels, it also offers secure wireless Zigbee and IP control for up to 50 smart devices in and around your home! Step further into the world of home automation by easily integrating everyday devices like lights and locks and controlling them from the same interface you use to control your entertainment room.

Looking to expand your starter system? As a certified Control4 dealer serving the Salt Lake City, UT area, our team recommends integrating the following smart home solutions to boost everyday comfort, convenience, and peace of mind.

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Start Your Smart Home Journey with a Control4 Universal Remote

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Orchestrate All Entertainment Devices in One Room

Most entertainment rooms are cluttered with devices, and each device has its own remote control. Before you know it, you have a basket filled with remotes for everything from the TV to the soundbar to the gaming consoles. Why not consolidate control of everything into one universal remote instead?

You can with this Control4 starter package. The EA-1 controller orchestrates a wide range of entertainment devices, including your TV, Blu-ray player, cable and satellite boxes, and gaming consoles. It also features IP control for Apple TV, Roku, and other network-connected devices. Integrate these devices with the EA-1 and enjoy streamlined control of everything from one Control4 universal remote!

SEE ALSO: How to Integrate Audio, Video, and Everything Else with Control4

Stream Music or Listen to Your Own Library

Along with video content, you can also effortlessly browse and enjoy your favorite tunes using the same interface. The EA-1 controller includes a built-in music server with native support for popular streaming services like Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and more.

Easily access and listen to locally stored music files too by connecting the EA-1 to your external hard drive. Plus, play music through AirPlay using Control4 ShairBridge technology, which allows you to stream audio from any AirPlay-enabled mobile device or computer to your Control4 system.

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4 Convenient Ways to Control Your Smart Lighting System

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Control4 and Lutron Offer Easy, Versatile Approaches for Commanding Your Lights

In our last blog, we introduced the benefits of smart lighting control and discussed the different types of lighting system designs that our teaminstalls for homes of all ages and sizes in the Salt Lake City area. In this blog, we’re diving into the fun stuff: controlling your lights! 

Lighting control systems from leading manufacturers like Control4 and Lutron are truly designed with you in mind. They offer various control options that fit different situations and preferences so that managing your home lighting is always convenient and intuitive. For example, a mobile app may be ideal when you’re in the backyard, while voice control may be best when you’re cooking dinner.

Keep reading to learn four convenient ways you can control your Control4 or Lutron lighting system.

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Is a Multi-Room Audio Video System Right for You?

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3 Signs That Show You May Benefit from Audio Video Distribution

A multi-room audio video system can be a tremendously valuable solution for homeowners who have a love affair with high-quality video and sound. The ability to share music, movies, and TV to any and every room of the home and control it all from one interface is a seamless and magical experience.

With that said, audio video distribution truly thrives in the right applications. It’s not necessarily a useful solution for every home and family. As a leading installer of multi-room audio video systems for homes in Salt Lake City, UT and surrounding areas, our team can help you determine if it’s the right fit for you. Below are three tell-tale signs that show you may benefit from audio video distribution.

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3 New Control4 Products You Need on Your Holiday Wish List

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Reimagine Smarter Living with These Innovative Solutions

The year is winding down, and it’s time to plan for the holidays. While you may have the perfect gifts lined up for your family and friends, what’s on your wish list? If you need some inspiration, you’ve come to the right place.

Home automation leader Control4 just revealed three new smart home products that will make any gadget geek swoon this holiday season: the Chime Video Doorbell, the T4 Series Touchscreens, and the limited edition Neeo Remote in fiery red! If you love quality smart home solutions that make life more convenient, comfortable, and luxurious, then you’ll love one—or all—of these products.

As an authorized Diamond Control4 dealer serving Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas, our team always has the scoop on the latest innovations from Control4. Learn more about these exciting new smart home products by reading below.

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How to Integrate Audio, Video, and Everything Else with Control4

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Let Control Orchestrate Your Smart Home

While you are undoubtedly familiar with many of today's smart devices, do you ever wonder how home automation started? It began with audio and video systems control. Back in the 1990s, we had many single-purpose devices - VCRs, DVD players, CD players, turntables, TVs, projectors, etc. Getting all those to work together usually led to picking up and deciphering many button-festooned remote controls. 

Brave souls would purchase and program universal remotes, but even those could be very frustrating affairs. Many people in Salt Lake City turned to professionals like us to install systems that would actually work, ones that could understand that a device was on or off and could execute your wishes reliably. From there, other controls could be added to manage lights, motorized window treatments, and other accouterments of modern home theaters and living areas.

Today, not only are there a myriad of smart home DIY devices for many functions, but there are also full-fledged smart home control platforms like Control4 for not only audio-video integration but a host of other smart home functions too.  

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Optimize Your Smart Home System with Remote Access

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Never Leave Your Home Behind with the Control4 App

Many people invest in smart home technology because they can manage devices through apps. Having a smart home system further optimizes your space by placing all your technology—lighting, climate, security, and more—under a single app. Everything lives under one umbrella for easy access—even when you are not home.

Get access to your smart technology even when you are across the globe through our Control4 home automation systems. While on vacation at Salt Lake City’s ski resorts or at the office, you’ll be able to pull up an app on your laptop, tablet or smartphone to make any necessary changes to your home. Read some of the ways this on-the-go feature boosts your security, energy efficiency and comfort.

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Three Ways Control4 OS 3 Improves Your Smart Home

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Ease Your Smart Home Experience with a Control4 Installation

Smart homes should make things easier, not harder. Too often, technology solutions create complexity and frustration for users. The product holds great promise, but it takes too much effort to make everything work the way you want.

We have no doubt you can think of many technology products that are just too complicated. Whether it was a smart TV, a camera, or audio equipment, you might have been frustrated getting it to do what you wanted without going through so many steps or resetting something for the third time.

Control4 has been in the smart home control and automation market for nearly twenty years, and they have always been known for simple interfaces that make intuitive sense to non-technical users. In their latest system, OS 3, they took simplicity to the next level, streamlining navigation and rethinking the home control experience for true ease-of-use any member of the family can enjoy.

Keep reading to see why a Control4 installation should be at the top of your list to run your home in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas.

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