AS REMOTE WORK BOOMS, THE DEMAND FOR SMART HOME GADGETS THAT ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY AND CONVENIENCE HAS GROWN WITH IT; LET’S LOOK AT TWO SMART HOME ITEMS THAT WILL BOOST YOUR AT-HOME PRODUCTIVITY AND PEACE OF MIND DURING THE KID-FILLED SUMMER MONTHS

In 2019, the digital conference company Zoom made $330 million. Not bad for a video call platform. However, just last year, they earned four billion US dollars. 

According to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 42% of the US workforce was working from home around the time of the red-hot quarantine month of June 2020. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, numbers cited in Fortune magazine, one-third (34%) of US workers were doing " 'some or all' " work in the home in 2022. 

The kids were at home for more than just the summer in 2020. And the next year. And most of the ones after that. 

Your own home has been, perhaps, a jungle gym for three months with the kids home. In fact, even long past presidents had trouble keeping adult kids in line at home. Apparently, our 25th president had one such lively 19-year-old daughter named Alice (who supposedly liked to smoke cigarettes on the White House roof). 

• Novelist Owen Wister: “Theodore, isn’t there anything you could do to control Alice?”
• Teddy Roosevelt: “Well, I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”

(Keep in mind that Roosevelt was also a hearty outdoorsman, explorer, and police commissioner.)

Eventually, Alice went back to college. Teddy Roosevelt probably didn’t have a spa day at home afterward. (Bath bombs probably meant something different in those pre-WWI days).

You’re not trying to create the Panama Canal like TR, but when August drags on, your home might sound like the Charge Up San Juan Hill.

Evolve Technology can help you get just the right lighting, and crystal-clear audio for your white noise spa playlist, and with Control4 as our base automation platform, we can integrate thousands of secured apps, smart devices, and software to work on voice control. With that voice control, the best part of a spa day is in place: you don’t have to get up.

Spring has indeed sprung, and Dallas may see a 90+ degree day in the next week!

Pools are one of those things that are good, both hot and cold, like coffee or dessert. They're something that adds to your residential enjoyment and, if they're in the ground, take up no visible room.

And, whenever you want during good weather, you can sign out of the daily grind and enjoy that ageless pleasure of a good swim (or soak).

Your indoor or outdoor pool can have real sensory engagement with audio and visuals. You can control, secure, and cover your pool from home or away. You can even make adjustments to the pool settings from your phone.

But first, make your pool a 24-7 activity--and give it some serious style--with the perfect lighting.

Post-pandemic summer: Patios, Backyards, Getting Outside

Last summer was mostly spent indoors (for health reasons). But there are many dimensions to your health: it's more than avoiding illness. Gatherings and community are essential for long-term emotional and mental health. Enjoying the post-pandemic outdoors with family and friends can happen in your own backyard. 

With two summers to pack into one, this will be more than a Sunday afternoon cookout, eating a single slider and heading home to stream something. Set the right mood for your vibrant summer get-together by setting your outdoor space to light and music with flair and convenience. Make it that Texas barbecue where your friends' toddlers fall asleep on them and they're still out there, catching up with each other. 

Usual Patio or Garden Party 

For that kind of celebration, there's more to do than setting the table and lighting the fire pit. Buying and preparing food to host something outback is a feat by itself. If you don't have to charge, set up, and manage the playlist with Bluetooth, that's more time (and energy) to chat it up. If there are kids, dogs (or both), then that's a no-go on the tiki-torches. Open flames in the back of your mind? But music and lighting are a big part of your gathering coming together. Those two parts Evolve can help with. 

Unseen, but Well-Heard

Even without audio wires, music is more enjoyable with a surrounding effect. Conversation is much better with a consistent volume from the pool to the driveway. 

As a Home Technology Association https://htacertified.org/ certified company, we know integrated and smart home technology, literally inside and out. The highest-quality, refined sounds can be a discrete, natural look that blends into the porch, patio, or landscape. 

Imagine a world where you can control everything in your house with the command of your voice, a tablet, or a smartphone. That means answering the door without leaving the comfort of your couch, monitoring your entire house even when you’re at work, and locking up all entrances with just one tap before you hit the sack.

Now, what if we told you that such a world exists right now?

Welcome to the world of smart homes.

What Is a Smart Home

Smart home technology connects your appliances, thermostat, locks, and more, to one main centralized system. This system can be controlled with a device such as your mobile phone and allows you to manage your house--even when you’re far from the hustle and bustle of Dallas.

To paint you a better picture, here’s what it’s like to live in a smart home.

Make Your Clients Happy With a Comprehensive Lighting Plan that Showcases Your Hard Work

Everything is bigger in Texas, including your clients’ homes. From project start to finish, you want to make your clients pleased with every room of their new home, and we can help you do that. By working with a residential lighting design expert, there’s no need for you to become a lighting design or wiring professional to complete a project.

Our team works with architects and builders such as yourself and are proudly HTA Certified. We have decades of proven technical expertise and are continually educating ourselves on the latest products in the industry to help clients futureproof their smart homes.

Keep reading to learn about the types of lighting we work with to achieve the ultimate ambiance when working on your Highland Park clients’ lighting design projects.