Angie’s List: Outdoor Entertaining

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – No one wants to be stuck inside on a beautiful summer’s day and with today’s technology homeowners now have no excuse not to entertain their guests outdoors. How home automation has changes outdoor entertaining, in today’s Angie’s List Report.

With today’s new design and home automation trends, the typical backyard barbecue can easily become an outdoor extravaganza.

“Many homeowners see their backyard as an extension of their home so they’re adding features like outdoor kitchens, firepits, and even unique lighting,” says Angie’s List founder Angie Hicks.

As many of us know, entertaining at your home can be a lot of hard work. Not only does outdoor home automation bring more fun to the party but it also takes care of some of the hassle.

“Being outside, entertaining with your family, in the past was: go inside, set your music up, queue your music, set the ambiance and the lighting, and now everything is on the fly,” says Tom Wilburn of TRIPhase Technologies.

Wilburn also says the sky is the limit when it comes to outdoor home automation.

“We do so many things from outdoor televisions to the outdoor music that we’ve always done, but now, with the home automation platform we’re doing things like automating the swimming pool to be able to tell, you know, if it’s a football party to make the water a different color.”

If entertaining is not your style, outdoor home automation can simply help you wind down from a long day.

“You come home and you just want to relax, you want to go outside and enjoy a drink or a glass of wine, having a button that says ‘relax’. So, when you press the button, it turns on the music to appease that volume level, maybe it turns a waterfall on, it turns the ambiance outside to a certain flavor,” Wilburn says.

When it comes to automating your outdoor space, Angie’s List says think value, not just price, for the quality and long-term dependability can often be worth the extra cost. Additionally, hiring a professional to take care of the installation is a wise choice to ensure everything is in working order and is integrated on one, easy-to-use control system.