If your building a new house, or remodeling your existing house, you may want to wait on the drywall and think about what lies behind the walls to support the electronics you will have in your house.  Your home internet, and your audio and video are changing quickly.  From streaming TV through your internet, to the latest in whole home audio through your phone app, and even your wireless internet network.  All of these play an important role in what consumers want in today's technological world.  We want our TV, Wireless Internet, and Whole Home Audio System to work plain and simple.  Lets go through some important items that you would need or perhaps want to make this happen effectively.  Networking cable is a big one to start with.  As in previous blogs, internet is at the heart of any newer home today.  Modems, routers, and mesh systems can do a great job, but nothing can take away from electronics items hardwired into the internet.  This is especially true for TV's.  We know your going to want to stream shows, apps, movies etc... This requires internet and bandwidth.  The more items that are hardwired allows for more support on your WiFi system.  Think of all the wireless devices you will want to eventually hookup.  The amount of wireless devices can add up quickly.  Prewiring your network cable to locations such as TV's, office, and places where you want a hard internet line saves a lot of headaches down the road after your house is all done, and the cost to do it then is much more.

While talking about prewiring network cables to TV's we need to discuss a second reason to prewire network cables to areas of your house.  This reason is to have solid wireless internet throughout your entire house and even outside in patio areas.  This can also be referred as whole home internet.  If you only have a modem in one location, and you have a fairly big house, places far away from the modem will lose signal and with poor signal comes slower speeds.  Easy fix right?  Why not just put in a network extender, you know those that just plug into the wall?  Well if it is a true network extender and not part of a mesh system or an access point, then extenders can slow your internet speeds by up to 50% of what you started with.  Also when doing anything with WiFi, you can generally see a 5% - 20% loss in speeds just from transmitting wirelessly.  For these reasons having access points in areas of your new house which are hardwired to your internet is a smart choice.  This also includes hard wiring your TV's and offices. 

To give you a further example of having your internet hardwired with access points, we recently worked with a client who built a pool house and wanted outdoor audio and internet.  Okay, we proposed a Sonos system with outdoor speakers.  What about internet?  During our consultation we performed a wireless diagnostic on their signal levels through their house and in the outdoor areas they wanted for internet.  We realized that the wireless internet fell off sharply just as they walked to the edge of their patio and toward the pool house.  You can view this video here regarding this job.  Long story short, we recommended during the building phase, installing a network cable to the pool house, and having us install an access point outside.  This access point would be hardwired to the internet for no loss of signal.  At the same time we recommended replacing their router in the house with a system that works with our new access point in the pool house.  This eliminates the need for anything wireless, it eliminates the network extender (which can lower speeds up to 50%), and makes another satisfied client. Finally by having a network cable out in the pool house the Sonos system could also be hardwired into the internet.  From a design and engineering standpoint this was the best choice, and one that would provide the client their best choice.  We know you want your system to work perfectly, and we want to deliver that for you.

Custom home audio is another big one that clients like to have integrated into their walls.  Think of a wireless speaker system controlled from an app on your mobile device, with custom in ceiling or wall speakers.  A Sonos custom integrated in wall speaker system is a perfect fit for this.  (Speaking of Sonos, take a look at our Sonos page and products here).  Naturally the best time to take this into account is when you start building the house, or start the remodel, not after the drywall is done and your almost ready to move in.  Lets take a look at the picture above.  We worked with our client in this system on prewiring all the network cables to TV locations, along with network cables to an access point in their house.  As stated above by having an access point hardwired to the internet, this provides the fastest wireless speeds to our clients devices through their entire house.  This system also had a custom Sonos audio system through their house, thus the white speaker lines.  Had our clients approached us after the fact and drywall was up, it would not have been such a fun discussion.  Sure it can be done, perhaps differently, but not in the best way.  The Sonos system for this client featured two rooms with Sonos home theaters, and two outdoor speakers for their patio.   Each Sonos home theater consisted of a playbar, a Sonos sub, and two in ceiling rear speakers.  The prewiring consisted of running speaker lines to the in wall rear speakers.  The outdoor speakers also had speaker lines ran to them, and back to our central location.  You can view our video of this job here. (My apologies I realize the start of the video is not the greatest).

Finally two other items that are very smart to take care of before you drywall are smart home devices, and outdoor TV's (indoor also, but for this we will focus on outdoor).  All these devices should be discussed as the start of your project, so the A/V techs, electricians, builders are on the same page, and you get what you want.  Some of these smart home devices work far better when hardwired to the internet.  Which is a important reason to take care of this before you drywall.  Outdoor TV's possibly need A/V cables ran to them, coax, electric.  So don't wait until the end to think about these things.  Any system design and installation is always easier when the walls are still open.  Here is a video where we installed an outdoor TV, in a clients patio area that was all finished.  We worked with our electrician, and were able to meet all the expectations of our client.  But we all know it would have been easier if the house was being built or remodeled.   With that being said we understand there are times where you would like these things, but the house has been done for many years, or there is no remodel plan.  That is totally understandable and a different scenario.  I am referring to when your building your house or remodeling, those are the times these items must be addressed.

So how do we work with clients when they are looking for these solutions?  Whether you are building new, remodeling, or would just like this in your cozy finished home, the first step is to give us a call or contact us (via our contact us page) and have us perform an onsite consultation.  It's always best to see things first hand, and we are more than happy to come out and look over your projects areas, to offer a solution.  I can't tell you how much smoother it goes (and less stressful for the clients), when we meet with them during their build or remodel before drywall is started.  Then we can get an idea of what they want, and offer solutions to meet their expectations.  It really makes the internet & A/V process more satisfying for the client.  After this we work with our clients and the builders through the rest of their build or remodel process.  After prewire, we await drywall, and finally moving in.  Towards the finish we come in and install equipment, TV's, soundbars, speakers, network items, wall plates, racks etc...   We enjoy working with our clients from start to finish, so everyone is on the same page, and nothing is left out.  Meeting our clients needs, and keeping them happy is our number one goal.  Contact us today regarding the internet or A/V needs on your new home build, remodel, or even your cozy finished home.  We would love to offer you a great solution.