The Newest Home Utility

You get home from work, and get settled in. You take a moment to check your smart phone to see what your friends have been up to lately on Facebook or Instagram. You sit down at the TV, turn it on, and start watching the next episode of your show, on demand. You get a text message from your boss, asking for an email you swore you had sent before you left for the day. One of the kids is complaining because Netflix isn’t working on their tablet. You get out your company laptop to check for the email, while your kids loudly explain how they don’t have anything to do without being able to get to Youtube or Netflix. You see the email on your laptop, but it wasn’t sent. You try in vain to send it, but your laptop refuses to connect to the internet. Your network is down. Again.

Sound like a familiar scenario? What do all these various points have in common? They all rely heavily on your access to the internet to operate. So why are you settling for the $100 WiFi router you got from a big box store, or the “Free” equipment you get from your service provider? Every year, people are ranking their home network as an ever more vital part of their home, competing with such basic services as water and electricity. And with almost everything connecting to the internet these days, it’s no surprise. So why are we skimping out on our networks?

Are they really that important?
According to some the latest studies, the average home in the US has no less than 7 devices that actively connect to the internet. And less than 25% of those are laptop or desktop computers. Smartphones, tablets, streaming media players, smart TVs, home automation systems, video game consoles, and other smart devices are taking advantage of the interconnectivity that home networks provide. And the vast majority of this traffic? A whopping 65% being video streaming activities like video game downloads or Netflix. Video streaming is very taxing on a network, which is only magnified when several people are trying to do so at the same time. Adding to that are security systems, surveillance systems, and other services migrating over to network monitoring, and it’s easy to see how people now rank their home network more important than their home phone.

If you are interested in getting a Home Automation system, or making your home a Smart Home, your network becomes even more critical. The home network is the backbone of any modern system, as this is how the various parts of the system communicate with each other. If your network isn’t reliable, then your home automation system, or your smart devices, won’t be either!

Alright, so what exactly do I need?
That is a little trickier to answer. Like most technology, one-size-fits-all solutions cannot cover every possible need. The two biggest factors that will determine what will best suit your situation is what kind of devices you are going to be using, and how many people will be using them. Is your family a large one with kids that like to watch Netflix and play video games online? Or is it just you and your partner, who really need reliability for communication and for work purposes? These two examples would very likely end up looking very different, even in the same physical home. This is why big box store solutions may technically work, but likely don’t do everything you need it to.

So where can I get what I need to get the system I want?
If you are a trained network professional, then you probably already have this problem solved. If not, then your best course of action would be to hire one. Any company that works with home automation, like Tailor Made A/V, specialize in high traffic home networking systems that are ideal for your smart home and video streaming needs. So contact us today and see what we can do to make your digital life better.