When you’re building or renovating a new home you’ll start thinking about how your home technology devices will connect to the internet and what features would you like. A lot will depend on who will be living in the new home – a family, a couple or a single.
Family homes
For family homes and also for professionals a good place to start is planning for good WIFI everywhere for easy connection for mobile devices. Next step from there could be planning for TV and movies. Which may lead to thinking about better audio performance or setting up a dedicated movie room. Often people already have services like Netflix, Apple TV, Google Play, Chromecast that they would want to work on their TV seamlessly. There are quite a few options for home technology installation so the best way to go through the planning is to invite a professional installer for a consultation. It’s a much more efficient process in person, where they would evaluate your wants and needs, the area available and make recommendations. Sometimes we recommend not to spend money on certain things that you might think you need, but rather on things that you would use and appreciate. Our goal is to listen and understand your needs and preferences, and then design and create something you will love and benefit from.
New Homes
This often happens in the new home where people haven’t lived there yet. We would recommend against spending money on certain items, based on our experience. For example, sometimes it’s more beneficial to spend a bit more on home theatre and not as much on speakers in the study or other rooms. Consultation is key here, especially when renovating or building a new home. After the consultation, we prepare a design, spec and costing that we present to you and have further discussion from there.
The space that’s available and construction stage pretty much dictates the design of the job. In some cases other contractors could be on site doing electrical work for example. Here we would advise how things would integrate, or crossover with other technologies, like data, TV, other electrical. Everything needs to be wired and converge. Often clients already have costs for electrical work and adding another costs for technology installation can be complicated. So the best way is to do a thorough consultation and planning.
When we discuss a job we definitely suggest costing for individual items where possible. For example, for a room that’s 5-6m long, a quality Home Theatre projector would cost $2,400-$4,500 and a screen around $2000. We have a few packages on our website that give you an idea of costs.
WIFI first
Home technology needs a reliable internet and WIFI access, that’s a backbone that other devices depend on. For example, a 3-level brick home would potentially require 3 access points installed to have a reliable internet access, and it would depend on physical factors, interferences, materials. You have to allow for a cable infrastructure to be designed & installed that will provide flexibility, multiple access points etc. But when installed it might end up that only 1 access point is sufficient, or 5 are needed. We test and verify coverage nearing the end of construction to confirm the actual real world performance.
When our clients just renovating a room without any structural changes, replacing the carpet, painting walls, they often are looking to just upgrade their home theatre or a projector. As this is much more straightforward, one of the packages we have available could be a good option. Often we could use infrastructure already installed keeping the costs lower.
In conclusion – the best way to start thinking about home technology for renovating your home is to start with a consultation. Each individual situation is very different and a professional installer can advise and guide you towards the best solution for you, recommending where to save money and where to spend it.
If you have any questions – feel free to Contact us.