We’ve dedicated a lot of virtual ink on these pages to the wonders of home automation. From audio and video systems that almost run themselves, to lighting, motorized shading, climate control, and security, home automation systems like Control4 make everything in your Johns Creek, GA home run like a finely tuned machine. We may also have referred to it as an orchestra, but we think you understand the idea.

Having done many smart home projects over the years, we're always amazed at our clients' imagination when it comes to automation for their homes. If it is technically possible, we'll strive to make our clients’ automation dreams a reality.

With that in mind, we'd like to tell you about a few more things you can automate with a Control4 smart home system. Keep reading!

Some people become immersed in certain subjects, usually ones they care deeply about. Others might know a few things about a topic but not enough to be dangerous. And sometimes, people think they know some things about a topic, but they turn out to be misconceptions. With so much different information freely available in today's world, it's easy to get lost. 

When it comes to home automation, the casual observer might believe certain “facts” about it, but the truth is a little more nuanced. As a premier home automation company serving the Florida Panhandle area, we’d like to clear up some common misconceptions about home automation for Rosemary Beach homeowners. Please keep reading!

Are we being serious here? Yes and no. After all, as a leading Control4 installer serving Sandy Springs and Metro Atlanta, why would we tell you not to hire us for your smart home needs? So bear with us here for a little tongue-in-cheek look at smart home automation.

Almost every day, a new smart home device hits the market. OK, maybe not every day, but it seems like there’s a new one every day. From devices from industry giants like Amazon to upstarts like Wyze, there are amazing options for remarkably sophisticated smart home functionality. Couple that with the ever-growing software ecosystem from the tech industry’s leaders like Amazon, Apple, and Google, and why would you ever need GHT Group? Well, we’re going to go ahead and tell you three reasons why you might not need us, just in case you couldn’t think of any right off the bat!

Are you the techy type that all your friends call for advice on the latest devices? Maybe you’re also handy with home projects and enjoy the undeniable satisfaction of doing something yourself. If so, you might be quite tempted to try your hand at doing a DIY home automation project. 

Depending on what you want to accomplish, you might be fine going the DIY route. But if your home is large, you want sophisticated automation sequences, and you want a system that doesn’t need frequent debugging, you may want to read the rest of this blog. Or you can skip it and call GHT Group, Atlanta’s leading Control4 installer, about your smart home wish list. We’ll be happy to help! Now, keep reading below for all the reasons to bolster your decision to call us – just in case you need some. 

Control4 is known far and wide as a full-fledged home automation system, but it also features a native whole-home audio solution that gives standalone multi-room music systems a run for their money. Not only can you quickly access and share music throughout the home, but you can also manage other smart home functions, such as lights, TVs, and door locks, using the same preferred Control4 device.

Because no Georgia household or music listener is the same, Control4 offers various intuitive control options that suit different preferences. While a handheld remote may be best for controlling music when you’re relaxing on the couch, voice commands may be better when you’re cooking in the kitchen.

Below, we’ll explore five easy ways to command the Control4 whole-home audio system in your Brookhaven or Metro Atlanta home. Get to know the ways and decide which ones you may like best!

Note: We originally wrote this popular blog post last year, before COVID-19 became part of every discussion and the stay-at-home lifestyle became mainstream. No one knows how long this pandemic or these stringent social distancing mandates will last, so it doesn’t surprise us that searches for smart home automation, lighting, integrated security systems and more have skyrocketed lately.

One of our favorite smart home systems, Control4, will elevate your at-home experience with its unparalleled convenience, seamless integration, and abundant security and entertainment features -- capabilities that you’ll appreciate both now and after this passes. Why should you work with a Control4 provider to make your time at home more pleasant? And how can you get started with a step-by-step approach, instead of building a top-to-bottom integrated home experience? Control4 offers impressive product updates year after year to make it more competitive in a crowded market. Keep reading for some of our favorite automation perks and how to bring them to your Georgia home.

Over the years, many Georgia homeowners have invested in home automation to make their lifestyles easier and their homes safer and more efficient. If you’re buying a recently built or an extensively remodeled older home, there’s a good chance the previous owner added smart technology like lighting, security, and more. 

Perhaps the smart tech in your newly purchased house is the icing on the cake that made you love it. And you were told that the system is something called Control4. You may not know what Control4 is or how to make it work for you in your new Atlanta abode. Since you're here, you're in the right place! Keep reading to learn more about Control4 home automation and what you can do to tailor it for your needs. 

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

Home automation makes controlling your home a simple affair. A touchscreen or your phone can command lights, audio, TVs, thermostats, and more to do your bidding. Sometimes, however, our hands are occupied. Sometimes our phones are recharging, or taking it out will immerse us in the thirty notifications we missed. At those times, we might just want to bark a voice command to get something done. Saying "I'm home," for example, could turn on a combination of lights in key areas and start a music playlist on your multi-room audio system. You might think that you need something like Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, or Apple's Siri to do that – but there's another option.

There’s a new voice home automation service that is going to make it even easier to control your Alpharetta-area or North Georgia home with just your voice. It makes it so easy and seamless that you may find yourself rarely reaching for a remote or your smartphone. It's called Josh.ai, and it will understand what you want to do as well as a personal butler.

You might be thinking at this point: What does Josh.ai do that I can’t do with Amazon Alexa or Google Home? Read on to learn how Josh does voice-controlled home automation differently.

Have we gone off the deep end? We are now claiming that home automation can improve wellness? Bear with us; it's not as wild as it seems. First, home automation is a great convenience – and luxury – and if that alone reduces stress, that's an improvement in your wellness.

Think about it. If your home automation system can inform you that you left the garage door open because it knows you're not at home, you can close it with a tap on a screen or have it do so automatically after a few minutes. If you're on vacation and you have a video doorbell and smart security cameras, you can check in on your house at any time and be notified of any unusual activity. Peace of mind and reduced anxiety is a boon for wellness too.

But even beyond the convenience and security aspects, comprehensive smart home systems like Control4 can create a better atmosphere for wellness too. As a Control4 installer in Cumming and Metro Atlanta, we have seen (and helped create) many ways clients have used their smart home features to improve fitness, mood, and relaxation for a healthier atmosphere. Keep reading for some of the best ideas!

Lighting control is one of the most popular smart home accouterments, and for very good reasons. But those reasons will vary greatly depending upon people’s needs and motivations. For some, it’s the convenience of having more than one way to control lights, like from a smartphone or through a voice assistant. For others, a schedule or sensor that turns off lights brings efficiency and energy savings.

Perhaps the best reason for going with a whole-home lighting control system – and not just one room or a few lights – is all of the above. Each reason is justification enough for lighting control for a Milton, GA home, but it becomes so easy to rationalize when putting them all together. See what we mean below!

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.

The days of the old-fashioned doorbell are gone. Nowadays, you can see who is at the door and communicate with those people directly without having to walk all the way to the front of the house.

DIY video doorbells have become increasingly popular because they are relatively simple to install and access, but the performance of that technology can be unreliable, especially if there are any errors in the installation process.

Since 2003, Control4 has been leading the charge when it comes to smart home automation services, offering robust and stable control systems that, through a professional installation, can enhance how you interact with your home space.

Intercom Anywhere is Control4’s latest innovation, taking the core idea of a video doorbell and expanding it so the technology plays a more significant role in overall home communications.

Keep reading to learn how this feature can elevate your Metro Atlanta property.

Note: More than a year after we originally drafted this blog, voice control has taken an even more prominent role in today’s smart homes. Clients rely on voice control technology to search for information or ask their home assistants to perform certain actions. For example, maybe you’re cooking and want to brighten the lights, but your hands are busy. Just ask your virtual assistant for help, and you’ll notice the room brighten in seconds. However, in the past, you had to mind your diction and use exactly the right words for your assistant or voice control app to understand you.

But that’s not how humans speak on a regular basis. Sometimes we jumble words, ask something in a more obtuse manner, or simply speak with an accent. Your voice control should be built to accommodate that. Josh.ai revolutionized the industry by creating the first home assistant with natural language processing capabilities. Keep reading to see how that function works in real life and why we highly recommend Josh.ai voice controlled home automation for your Alpharetta or Metro Atlanta residence.

You may have heard of lighting control systems or smart lighting, but like many things now labeled “smart,” you may not have a great sense of what they can do for you. Smart lighting control systems also sound like they might require a significant investment.

The good news is that smart lighting control may require a minimal upfront investment in wiring to get started. With the advances in wireless technologies, however, you may be surprised at how painless it is to add lighting control to your existing home. Moreover, you can automate your outdoor lights, one room, several rooms, or the whole house – you have choices, and you can expand in the future.

Why install a smart lighting control system in your Metro Atlanta home? Because there are real benefits in convenience, safety, and efficiency – not to mention adding a little luxury to your lifestyle. Read on to find out how.

In this highly connected world we live in, much of what we do is tracked. No one is lurking in the shadows snapping pictures of us like in old detective shows, but it’s far easier than that. Your smartphone tracks your location continuously, and a variety of apps for which you grant access to your information knows where you go and where you’ve been.

Now, most of you already know that much of your activity is being watched. Your browsing history is used to target advertising. Your Facebook activity is a fountain of information that may understand more about you than you do. Google and Apple Maps know where you go, by car and on foot. Yet, there's a tradeoff we make for sharing all this information. We get some beneficial, dependable, and free services like navigation around Brookhaven and Atlanta and just about anywhere in the world (remember when navigation devices cost hundreds of dollars?) and a host of other free information services we use without a second thought.

What does that have to do with home automation? Plenty. Keep reading for more.