The holidays can be both the most enjoyable and stressful times of the year. Whether you are hosting parties or attending them, these next few months can get quite hectic. But thankfully, smart home automation can help keep you organized and relaxed as you prepare. As a Control4 dealer in the Lake Norman, NC area, The Integrated Home has the advantage of customizing your home exactly as you like it. Once all of the home technology is in place, the only thing left to do is figure out how to use it to your advantage on a regular basis. Today we have some tips on how to use your Control4 system to enhance your holiday meal preparation, or entertain guests.

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Customize Your Kitchen Lighting

If you’re on turkey duty for Thanksgiving, or baking cookies for Christmas or Hanukah, then you definitely need a well-lit and equipped kitchen. A common problem for many homes is that the lighting isn’t evenly distributed. The lights are either placed in inconvenient areas causing some areas to be brighter than others, or the lighting fixtures aren’t capable of producing the type of lighting you need to see well. With Control4 lighting, you’ll not only get an even distribution of light, but you’ll also be able to control the lighting levels and quality by choosing LEDs over standard bulbs for example. You can also create “kitchen” or “cooking” scenes with your smart home system so that every feature in the kitchen creates an environment conducive to making a good meal. You can include music, a TV, or temperature in your scene so that all you have to do is press one button on your tablet, phone, or keypad on the wall and you’re ready to get working. For example, label your scene, “cooking” and pick a comfortable temperature so that the area doesn’t get overheated while the oven and stove top is going, a festive music playlist to get you in the mood, and then play the Food Network Channel so you can watch what the chef is going as you make your dish.

Automate Your Entertainment

What if you could tell your home to turn off the lights and it would do it for you? Writers and TV producers have always imagined a future where we could control our homes with just our voice. For example, Captain Kirk in Star Trek asked the Enterprise computer for data during space voyages, and Marty McFly heard a “Welcome Home” from his smart home in Back to the Future 2 as he walked through the front door. Today, these imaginations have come to life, and now you can enjoy them in your own Lake Norman, NC home.

Amazon released Alexa this year, the voice control system that runs on the smart devices, the Echo, Dot, and Tap. Not only can it give you the weather report, turn the lights off, and order a pizza for you, it also works with your Control4 system to perform the same scenes you use every day—like Good Morning, Movie, and Goodnight. Keep reading this blog to learn more!

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Amazon’s smart home director, Charlie Kindel, says the inspiration for Alexa came from Star Trek. They wanted to create a computer in the cloud that is controlled entirely by your voice. You could ask it things, ask it to do things for you, and find things for you. Alexa started out as a DIY-type automation product that could play music and connect with other wireless smart home devices – such as smart thermostats, smart lighting and more. However, our partner Control4 has developed drivers to integrate the Alexa voice control system into your smart home. They are one of the first home automation companies to combine smart home scenes with Alexa.

In a press release on Control4.com, Control4 CEO Martin Plaehn said, "On average, our customers have over 40 connected devices in their homes that are orchestrated by Control4. And now, voice interaction with Amazon Alexa offers another convenient way to control all of them. This integration combines Control4’s automation power and extensive support for connected devices with the intuitive voice control from Amazon Alexa, reinforcing our shared vision to make life in a connected home ever-more personalized, comfortable, and hassle-free.”