If you are a Control4 system owner, congratulations. We don’t need to tell you about the convenience it brings to managing your home. And if you use advanced features like Mockupancy, you appreciate the extra peace of mind you get from the added security as well. Whether you use all of what the system can do or just a subset of it, your home is a lot smarter.

Like any technology, it sometimes needs maintenance and updating. We’re already accustomed to updates with manual and automatic updates on computers, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and many other popular smart devices. A comprehensive smart home system like Control4 is no exception; it occasionally needs some help to fix glitches and keep it running the way it should.

With such a powerful home automation system, you may also want additional capabilities added to your home as well. It might be an outdoor audio zone, expanded lighting control for a wing of your house, or simplified control of a new media room AV system. Any of those might involve some hardware and software and some integration to make it seamlessly blend into your existing setup.

So, where do you go for all of that? You aren’t required to go back to the dealer that installed the system if you don’t want to. Georgia Home Theater is your local Control4 Pinnacle Dealer (yes, that is the top tier) with a Control4 Certified Showroom in Marietta, and we’ve made significant investments to represent the best of smart home technology, audio, video, and more to offer you a complete “one-stop-shop” for all your home technology needs.

Read on to see how Georgia Home Theater can keep your Control4 system in top shape.

This blog has now been updated; you can view this updated post here.

Speakers are not like automobiles or smartphones – a new model doesn’t emerge every year. With some exceptions in the realm of wireless and powered speakers, digital technology isn’t driving significant change as it does in cars and mobile devices.

When it comes to the high end of the speaker spectrum, change comes even more slowly. Most hi-fi speaker manufacturers have a house sound that is a result of unique design approaches to audio transducers. As a result, manufacturers prefer evolution rather than revolution, and it’s a reason that an investment in a quality speaker can last you for decades.

So it is with Klipsch and their Heritage line of speakers. Heritage speakers hew closely to Klipsch design traditions but are updated with evolution in speaker material, electronics, and design. The Klipschorn is an excellent example; it’s the only speaker that has been in continuous production for over 70 years.

This month, as Atlanta’s exclusive Klipsch Heritage dealer, we’re excited to tell you about a new edition of Klipsch speaker – the Cornwall IV. What’s new, or should we say, evolved? Read on below to find out. And after that, come to our Marietta showroom to hear it in person.

Do you have a favorite listening room in your house? The place where you have your turntable, CD player, or high-resolution music player pumping out high-octane music on your tower speakers? When you step out on your patio, don’t you miss that setup?

You can open the windows and blast the sound outside, but we don’t suggest that. There’s a better, easier, and gentler way to get your groove on while you’re outside in Dunwoody with an outdoor speaker system.

Outdoor speakers come in many styles and types for outdoor use. There are wall-mounted varieties, speakers that look like rocks to hide in plain sight in your gardens, buried subwoofers, bollards, and more. There has never been a better selection to get excellent sound outdoors, whether you have a small patio off of your high rise or a multi-acre spread.

One of the most popular outdoor speakers is the in-ceiling type. These are perfect for covered patio areas and can offer the kind of sound quality you have in your indoor listening room. Granted, you may not be able to achieve the same elevated audio you enjoy with your high-fidelity system, but we guarantee you can have an outdoor audio system that will provide hours of musical pleasure. Keep reading to see how.

Subwoofers are a necessity for a proper home theater. Movie soundtracks are full of deep bass rumble from crashes, explosions, and ominous musical passages in soundtracks. With surround sound, many installations don't use full-range speakers for those positions, and the subwoofer provides the low-end punch for the soundtrack. 

There’s no true problem with subwoofers besides the fact they are almost universally large, bulky boxes. Since we often recommend dual subwoofers for the best bass response in a home theater or media room, that makes for two large, bulky boxes. Some theaters and media rooms can't comfortably accommodate the large subwoofer box into the décor, however, no one wants a theater without the bass to handle today's immersive movie soundtracks.

The solution to this dilemma has been the architectural subwoofer. While built-in subwoofers have been around for years, there have seen recent technical improvements in driver design, amplification, and room correction that rival the performance of their bulkier, freestanding brethren.

That brings us to this month’s product overview: the JL Audio Fathom IWS subwoofer line. This subwoofer series is specifically designed to deliver the type of performance JL Audio is known for, while easily fitting into standard wall construction.

Read on to learn how JL Audio architectural subwoofers can provide the bass without the box in your Sandy Springs home theater installation.

According to recent data from the National Association of Home Builders, 7-12% of the budget for home remodeling projects go toward electronics. Whether you’re doing a major remodel or a new build for your client, it’s no secret that smart home control and automation are high on homebuyer lists.

One of the most frequently requested smart home features is lighting control. Perhaps there is little surprise to that; lighting control is a feature whose merits are easy to grasp. It adds convenience for managing lighting throughout the house, can save energy, and can be an effective security feature as well.

So when you are building, moving walls, replacing cabinets, plumbing, and redoing electrical wiring, that is the perfect opportunity to integrate the infrastructure for lighting control. When it comes to lighting control, Georgia Home Theater recommends Lutron lighting control for your Dunwoody projects.

Read further to learn why adding Lutron lighting control is a smart business decision.

As the leading smart home technology integrator in the Atlanta area, Georgia Home Theater works with the top brands in home automation. We’ve written extensively on these pages about Crestron and Control4, two systems we work with that are the leaders in the field. Both are excellent and offer a myriad of options for controlling and managing smart homes.

We’re very excited to bring a new dimension to our Marietta showroom, just a short hop from Sandy Springs - the Crestron Experience. We’ll be showing a variety of home systems that can fall under the expert automation of a Crestron control system, including motorized shades, hidden technology, and discreet architectural audio speakers.

Are you as excited as we are? Keep reading to learn more.

We recently added Monitor Audio to our burgeoning collection of hi-fi audio brands, already one of the most extensive in Atlanta. While their Platinum series is highly regarded and well-reviewed, their broad architectural (built-in) speaker line is one that also deserves your attention. They offer the same accurate, detailed Monitor Audio sound in a package discreetly hidden in the walls.

Many different types of speakers can work for home theater and media room duty. Floor standers, stand-mount bookshelf and mini-towers, on-wall, in-wall, and in-ceiling can all be used. The choice depends mainly on your design and style preferences and sometimes on the layout and construction of your media space.

While in-ceiling speakers are de rigueur for height effects from Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive soundtracks, some people think architectural speakers represent a compromise in sound quality for the sake of style. Once upon a time, that may have been true - but no more. This month, we have a case in point - Monitor Audio’s Controlled Performance Series. Simply put, they produce some of the most incredible sound we’ve ever heard from architectural speakers at Georgia Home Theater. So if you are looking for a surround sound system for your media space in Alpharetta or Atlanta, you owe it to yourself to listen to these.

Read on to learn more about the Monitor Audio Controlled Performance line.

If you are an existing A/V Technology Solutions client, Georgia Home Theater would like to extend you a warm welcome to our family. Recently the two companies have joined forces, giving us even more resources across the Atlanta area to better serve you for all your home technology needs. We are particularly excited to add A/V Technology’s expertise with Control4 home automation systems, giving us an even stronger programming and support team for Control4 projects. 

As an A/V Technology customer, what does this mean for you? Don't worry; it means you have a stronger, larger company to continue serving your AV and technology automation installations as well as upgrades and additions. Keep reading to see how. 

We’re in the middle of summer in Atlanta, so why are we talking about fall? Before you know it, the days will be shorter and the evenings longer. We’ve discussed the benefits of landscape lighting, especially for entertaining in the warmer months, but outdoor lighting can pay big dividends all year long. 

They say a well-lit home is a safer home. Just as a city streetlight makes pedestrians feel safer and keeps villains away, installing landscape lighting on your Atlanta property can make it safer. Not only that, it can enhance curb appeal too, highlighting features at night and creating a whole new outdoor ambiance.

Read on to learn four ways landscape lighting can make your home safer as the daylight fades this fall season. 

Georgia Home Theater is so excited to tell you about our next hi-fi event that we can barely contain ourselves. Recently we wrote about adding MartinLogan’s inimitable speaker line to our ever-expanding stable of high-end audio brands. This month we are one of the chosen few dealers - not in Atlanta, but the world - to debut seven new MartinLogan speaker models.

On Tuesday, August 20^th at 6 PM, you can be one of the first to see and hear these new MartinLogan speakers. But please RSVP, because space is filling up quickly. Aside from an unforgettable audio experience, the evening will include hors d’oeuvres, drinks, door prizes, and the chance to enter a drawing for MartinLogan speakers.

While we can’t tell you about the new speakers yet, you’ll also have a chance to listen to MartinLogan’s flagship Neolith electrostatic speakers. If you haven’t heard electrostatics before, or even if you have, you owe it to your audio enthusiast-self to listen to the Neolith.

To whet your audio-appetite keep reading below to learn more about the Neolith.

If you read any of our blogs, you know Georgia Home Theater represents a wide range of high-end home technology brands across audio, video, home automation, automated shading, lighting, and more. In smart home automation, we work with two top-tier solutions, Crestron and Control4. And on these pages, we’ve written extensively about why we think both are the most comprehensive systems available today for smart homes.

You may ask, where do Google Nest and their smart home ecosystem fit into what we do? First, many people love Nest thermostats and want them in their homes, both for their functionality and elegant design. They can be integrated well with a Control4 or Crestron system too.

But Google Nest ecosystem includes other smart home products, including smart cameras, video doorbells, and smart speakers. For some of our customers not looking for a full-blown home automation solution, these products are an excellent solution with a strong value proposition.

Here’s where Georgia Home Theater comes in. While the Google Nest product suite can be a DIY affair, not everyone likes to put all the pieces together or has the time to make it work correctly. In much the same way people have us to mount their TVs and set up AV control systems, as an expert smart home company we can also set up and integrate Google Nest products in your Roswell, GA home. We can ensure your Nest thermostat, smart cameras, and video doorbells work together to solve your home automation requirements.

Is Google Nest the right system for you? Keep reading to get to know more about these smart devices.

SEE ALSO: Why Working with a Smart Home Company is a Smart Move

Sony is a pioneer in consumer electronics, with a long list of inventions and technology firsts. While they have more competition today than ever from Korean and Chinese electronics giants, the company is still out in front, continuing to invest in research and development to make something more than me-too products. Sony's founder, Akio Morita, once said, "curiosity is the key to creativity;" the company is still driven by the curiosity to invent new things today.

As with all of their products, Sony brings their creativity, innovation, and design expertise to projectors. Sony launched the first 4K home projector in 2011 when 4K TVs were still nascent. Today the Sony 4K projector line is bigger and better than ever.

When it comes to projectors for your Dunwoody home theater or media room, Georgia Home Theater recommends Sony.  Read on to learn more about the special features of Sony projectors that make them the right choice for you.

Last month, we were excited to tell you about the latest Control4 smart home system, OS 3. Control4 did its homework in designing this new software: listening to both existing customers and integrators like Georgia Home Theater, then taking the best features from today’s mobile apps to make this an extremely easy system for daily use.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Judging by the popularity of YouTube, you could say that saying holds ever so true today. Along that line, we'd like to cover some of our favorite features in Control4 OS 3 that really shine - with a tidy how-to video compilation that will give you an excellent feel for how comfortable it is to use.

After you read and watch the tutorials below, you may just want to upgrade your current Control4 system in your Atlanta home. If you don’t have a Control4 smart home, then you’re still in the right place - Georgia Home Theater can customize one for you.

Want to build a new, fun entertainment space for your home? Don’t worry, you don’t need to build a new addition to your house or embark on a major remodel of your living area.

A great way to add another entertainment zone to your home in Buckhead is to install an outdoor speaker system. Nothing sets a mood and creates an ambiance better than music. Whether it’s for a special event like a milestone birthday, a child’s graduation party, or simply enjoying open-air dining with friends, the right music will set the perfect mood.

To set the outdoor mood, few companies do it better than Coastal Source. From superbly crafted outdoor speakers to elegant outdoor lighting, Coastal Source adds the wow factor to your outside spaces. Read on for some ideas for creating your ideal outdoor entertainment space.

We still have cable, satellite, and good old fashioned over-the-air TV, but it’s hard to ignore the incredible convenience of streaming video. There’s no major content network worth its well-deserved Emmys that doesn’t have a streaming video offering. HBO, Showtime, ESPN, CNN - they and countless others offer almost all content via on-demand streaming; some networks even offer streaming-only premium content.

You have likely heard of one or more of the most popular streaming devices. While smart TV capabilities are built into practically every new TV set, some are better than others. If you don't like the smart system that's native to your 4K TV, you can choose to use an external streaming device.

Since most TVs sold today are 4K-enabled, Georgia Home Theater believes you should only consider a 4K streaming device. They cost only a few dollars more than HD varieties and are far more future-proof. The leading devices in media streaming are those you’ve probably already heard of from Apple, Amazon, Roku, and Google.

These all offer a plethora of 4K streaming apps with a massive variety of content. What are the differences and which one is a better fit for your 4K televisions in Atlanta? Read on find out.