Here in the California Bay Area, the home of Silicon Valley and countless digital innovations, we know about the importance of staying connected and have been increasingly reliant on the internet for years. Amid the current COVID-19 health crisis, the necessity of home connectivity has become even more acute for work, school, entertainment, and more.

While our home networks have been working harder with evermore connected devices, including smart home technology, families are now doing most things at home and relying on the internet – using Zoom and Skype video calls, working with large volumes of data at home, connecting to school online learning platforms, and streaming more video for news, information, and entertainment. All that activity is putting more strain on home networks than ever before.

Fortunately, you can upgrade your home network installation to cope with these new demands. Keep reading for some professional strength solutions to keep your home connected for all the needs of everyone in your household.

In our last blog, we discussed a new topic with an unusual name: biophilic design. The term comes from biophilia, which refers to the human propensity to commune with nature. While biophilic design is not an entirely new trend per se, recent advances in smart technology have enabled exciting new possibilities in bringing more of the outside into homes.

Last month, we discussed three ways of using technology to bring in a bit of nature indoors with smart automation, virtual windows, and smart air purification. This month, we’ll discuss two more: tunable white lighting and virtual skylights. Keep reading to see how smart lighting control and virtual technology can make your California Bay Area home a more “zen” retreat.

Are you familiar with the term biophilia? Despite the ominous name that may make you think it’s a disease, it’s an innate human tendency. Defined, it means the tendency of humans to want to connect with nature based on many thousands of years of evolution.

In northern California, we have many opportunities to interact with nature, given our mild climate and abundance of natural beauty. But the reality is that our hyper-busy modern lives have us spending as much as 90% of our time indoors. Biophilic design is a relatively recent trend aiming to design living spaces that bring the outside in. In other words, if we are forced to spend time indoors, we can at least continue to satisfy part of our innate desire to commune with nature. As a result, home designs, especially in the Bay Area, are including more indoor/outdoor spaces, large windows, atriums, and other elements that help connect natural features to the indoors.

One of the most exciting new trends in biophilic design is the use of smart technology to bring a more natural and healthier lifestyle to home interiors. In this blog, we’ll touch on three of the latest ways homes are being equipped for improved wellness.

Keep reading to learn more!

Not so many years ago, many home security systems were reasonably straightforward. You had an alarm system, some window and door sensors, and perhaps glass breakage and motion sensors in some areas. You also had a control panel for arming and disarming your system.

Fast forward to today, and there is a bevy of options for keeping homes secure. Video doorbells and smart cameras with two-way communication lead the way in enabling people to keep a constant eye on their homes. Add to that a broad array of sensors that can detect too much heat, water leaks, and other dangers and alert you the minute something is wrong.

Not only that, but smart locks enable easy remote and conditional access to the home. You can give someone temporary access by tapping a button on your smartphone and unlocking your front door. If you forget to close the garage door, another tap can close it – or open it for a delivery while you’re away.

But while all this technology gives us many options, the connectivity presents its own security challenges. Read on to learn more about protecting the home security system in your Bay Area home.