By now, you’ve probably heard about – if not seen for yourself – Amazon’s Alexa commercial at this year’s Super Bowl. You might even belong to the 25 percent of people who own some kind of smart home product (like Alexa). 

What you might not have heard is that smart home technology is taking the real estate industry by storm. In fact, AI and other smart home technology can actually increase the resale value of most West Michigan homes – an important factor to consider now that more and more Millennials are buying homes and interested in smart, connected devices. 

Earlier this month the team at Automation Design + Entertainment again got the chance to work with Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Greg Jennings on a home automation project. Four years earlier the team installed an ELAN system with house-wide audio for the Jennings family. When ELAN g! was introduced, integrator Peter Cook knew that Jennings needed to see it.

Being home for the holidays can evoke a lot of emotion and anticipation as families get together and friends catch up after months of separation. Decorating one’s home is a fun way to get in the mood for the holidays and prepare for parties…that is unless stringing lights, dragging down boxes from the attic, and setting up displays makes you feel more like a frustrated grinch than a happy elf.

Have you ever thought about using home automation to control your decorations? The professionals at Automation Design + Entertainment have some ideas for using integration technology to make your holiday plans go smoother and your displays look professional.

In our last blog, we discussed the variety of what constitutes “smart” home technology systems (including lighting and shading control, whole home audio and video distribution, home theaters and media rooms, energy management, surveillance, networking, video conferencing and much more), and said we’d be dedicating 2 blog editions to helping you find the right smart home expert.

In that edition, we presented the importance of starting with a plan, doing your research online, and recommended appraising the work of the firms with which you might be partnering. Again, if you live in the West Michigan area or beyond, we hope to have the opportunity to work on your custom electronics project. But, even if you work with someone besides Automation Design + Entertainment, we still want to make sure you are armed with the information required to make the best hire. Once you have a number of prospective integration firms, it’s time to dig a little deeper: