You're building your dream home or planning a major renovation in the Philadelphia area. Between choosing paint colors and kitchen finishes, there's one decision that will impact your home for years: smart home pre-wiring.

Most homeowners think about smart technology after they move in, but that's when things get expensive and messy. Retrofitting walls for speakers, security cameras, and lighting controls means cutting into drywall, patching, repainting, and dealing with visible wires snaking around your beautiful new space. Smart home pre-wiring during construction eliminates all of that while setting up your home for whatever technology comes next.

There’s nothing more frustrating than sitting down to watch a movie and having to fumble through separate apps and remotes to dim the lights, lower the shades, and cue up the film. That disjointed routine is the reality of many homeowners with disconnected smart home devices. 

Whitaker Technologies, the go‑to home automation company for Philadelphia and South Jersey, specialises in tailored consultations and comprehensive technology solutions that prioritise convenience, efficiency, and security. Control4 is at the heart of many of those projects because it brings lighting, audio, climate, and security together into a single, intuitive platform.

Last month, we covered why a strong network foundation matters for your home's technology. Now, let's talk about the brands that deliver the best audio-video experiences. 

The gap between good and great AV equipment lives in the details. You hear every word of dialogue during movie nights, even when characters whisper. Music fills your outdoor space without that tinny distortion that makes you wince. Picture quality stays vibrant even when afternoon sun floods your living room.

We've installed systems in hundreds of homes across Greater Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore. Some brands consistently deliver. Others leave homeowners frustrated and calling for service calls within months.

After years of testing equipment in real conditions—from Moorestown family rooms to Beach Haven outdoor entertainment areas—these three brands consistently earn our recommendation. 

A smart home offers an ease of living that’s hard to imagine until experienced. The lighting, climate, shades, security, and all your entertainment devices are effortlessly managed with one touch or voice command. Scenes, such as dining, entertaining, and relaxing, instantly transform your home, creating the perfect setting. One of the best features is that you can manage your home in the greater Philadelphia, PA, area from anywhere. 

The backbone of this remarkable system is your home network. This connectivity enables your home automation platform to communicate with your many smart systems and for these systems to communicate with each other. When the shades rise to let in natural light, the lights automatically dim. When you say “Good Night,” your smart home turns off the lights, locks the doors, and sets the alarm. 

As you can imagine, this level of connectivity is far beyond that of a traditional home, and yet, many smart homes are still running on a standard home network. The insufficiency becomes apparent as dropped signals, slow downloads, and video buffering become increasingly evident. 

And that’s where Whitaker Technologies and our partner, Araknis Networks, come in. Here, we’ll explore the makings of a home network designed for smart home living.