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.

As a purveyor and custom integrator of home technology systems and solutions, GHT Group sees many clients at different stages of their journey into smart home technology in Georgia. While home automation has a host of benefits in convenience, luxury, and efficiency, we see a couple of areas that tend to draw people in. 

The first area is smart lighting. It's fairly easy to see the benefits, from effortless control to energy efficiency. The other is whole-home audio. Whole-home audio not only brings music seamlessly to every corner of your Alpharetta property, it's also a gateway to adding more layers of smart home features. Keep reading to see how.

If you're selling your home in Alpharetta, you might be faced with some expenses for either bringing deferred maintenance up to date or needing to update some items to make your property look fresh. It might be refinishing wood flooring, replacing carpeting, painting inside or out, or renewing bathroom and kitchen faucets. Depending on the age of the house and the competition, it might even be more extensive than that.

Most recent surveys show that prospective homebuyers are increasingly looking for smart home features in homes. And in new construction, builders have increasingly responded by prewiring homes for smart lighting, whole-home audio and other popular features.

If the prospect of modernizing your home with smart technology seems daunting, GHT Group can make it easy. In business serving the metro Atlanta area for over 30 years, we are your go-to smart home company for home technology. Keep reading below for three ways to freshen your home with smart tech and add the wow factor to bring in offers fast!

SEE ALSO: Does Your Smart Home Company Do These Things?

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!

Are you a music lover? Is there a soundtrack for every activity? If that’s the case, chances are you’re the type of person that thrives on listening to many different types of music. You use it for focus, for energy, to relax, and to contemplate. 

A recent study commissioned by Sonos showed that the family that listens to music has less stress and better relationships – such is the power of music to move us in many ways. 

If you love music, you should consider investing in a whole-home audio system. Today's systems are incredibly easy to use, have the flexibility to pipe any audio you desire all over your house, and offer excellent sound quality to boot.

At GHT Group, we know a thing or two about audio, representing stellar brands such as Bower and Wilkins, Klipsch, McIntosh, and more. When it comes to whole-home audio, we love a brand better known for smart home automation – Control4. Keep reading as we explain why Control4 makes a superb whole-home audio solution for your Buckhead, GA home.

SEE ALSO: No-See-Um Speakers for Home Audio

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

Since 2003, Control4 has been an innovating force in smart home automation. Their systems have always been intuitive, easy to use, and designed so that novice and experts alike can control their home environment effortlessly.

Smart home technology is moving ahead at a breakneck pace. Control4 understands that, and they have not stood still. They’ve listened to Control4 installers like Georgia Home Theater, their customers, and paid attention to the latest advances in the smart home world to build an even better version of the Control4 platform: OS 3.

In OS 3, Control4 made a huge leap forward to make its system even easier to use for homeowners like you. Over 1,000 enhancements have gone into the software to enable the ultimate smart home experience.

What do you need to know about OS 3 for the Control4 home automation setup at your Sandy Springs or Metro Atlanta property? Read on to learn more.

The smartphone in your pocket – or maybe your hand if you are reading this on it – is a powerful computer. In fact, current generation smartphones have about the same computing power of the average laptop from just five years ago.

But this is a hyper-connected world, and all that computing power goes to waste without connectivity. How useful is Google Maps to navigate to a destination without a connection? In the same vein, all the smart devices in the world are reliant on connectivity – to each other in the home, and to the Internet to connect to the information, content, and services that make them exponentially more powerful.

But just like your smartphone, a Control4 system has a crucial dependency to work well in your Alpharetta-area home: It needs a robust and reliable network. Conveniently, Control4 has a professional-grade networking solution as well: Pakedge.

Learn more about why if you are interested in a highly integrated home automation system, you will need a professionally installed networking system that will keep up.

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

When you think of home automation and smart home technology, do you imagine something that sounds both complicated and expensive? No doubt the underlying technology is sophisticated, as is most of today's consumer technology upon which we rely every day – like your smartphone.

Most likely, you find your smartphone as a device that is not complicated to use, and a boon to your daily life. That's because the system and apps use technology intelligently to simplify everyday tasks – whether it’s communication, managing your calendar and tasks, getting information on your finances, or the myriad of other things smartphones bring to the palm of your hand.

Home automation sounds complicated, but it is much the same as the smartphone. Some sophisticated technology under the veneer of a simple-to-use interface makes it easy to manage a host of functions in your home. The good news is that home automation systems are not an all-or-nothing thing; you can start small and scale up in functionality and size. It's much like your smartphone: You can do many things in the digital realm with them, but some people stick to basics like communication and taking pictures. You can always add more apps to do more, but you don’t have to.

If you haven’t dipped the proverbial toe into smart home technology, there’s no reason not to. You can start with something as simple as taming the pack of audio-video remote controls sitting on your coffee table. A Control4 home automation system would banish all those remotes in your Alpharetta-area family room to a drawer and replace it with a clean interface that makes your A/V setup work just the way you like it. But of course, it can do much more.

Keep reading to see how a Control4 smart home system can cinch those quick 8-yard slant passes, but also go long for the touchdown, automating your whole house.

For over 15 years, Control4 has been a leader in home automation technology. One of its greatest strengths is the breadth of its business. The company does business in 100 countries, its systems interoperate with over 12,000 consumer electronics products, and its channels include 5,700 custom integrators, distributors and integrators. When you choose Control4 home automation for your Roswell or Metro Atlanta house, you know you’re choosing home control technology that will be around for years to come.

Georgia Home Theater is proud to be a Control4 Diamond Dealer and Certified Showroom. We can offer the full line of Control4 home automation solutions from controlling a home theater to automating your lights, motorized shades, lighting, climate control, and much more. We pride ourselves on our service and in delivering a fully integrated solution that works the way you want it.

Recently, Control4 has introduced new capabilities to its system that put even more power in your hands. With the popularity of smart devices, consumers have grown more comfortable with the concepts of controlling smart devices under different scenarios and making them work better together. Traditionally, expert integrators like us would program this automation, as it could get very technical. Control4 decided to open up more of the power of its smart home control systems, making it easy for customers to customize their own automation routines. Control4 calls this new feature “When >> Then.”

You don’t need to use When >> Then to harness the power of Control4 home automation in your Metro Atlanta home. But if you are a bit more technical, and you like to have precise control over many functions in your home, When >> Then is a powerful – yet easy to use – tool to customize your environment. Read on to learn more about the exciting possibilities with When >> Then and Control4’s innovative 4Sight services.