5 Tech Questions to Ask Before Holiday Guests Arrive

Find and Fix The Small Frustrations That Turn Into Disappointing Entertainment

Your family may have already learned the technology quirks, like which remote runs the den TV and which app must be open before the patio speakers will play. The friends and family you invite over for the holidays don’t know any of that, so they will undoubtedly find every quirk within the first hour after their arrival.

Most of these frustrations trace back to one cause: whole-home technology that was set up for daily life a few years ago, yet hasn’t received regular updates and has never been tested against the demands of a house full of guests, all vying for the same bandwidth. A professionally integrated smart home system handles the details in the background, so you spend the holidays hosting instead of troubleshooting your tech.

Run through the five questions below and see how your home stacks up before the first guest rings the bell.

READ MORE: Your Smart Home Shouldn’t Require a Manual

Is Your Wi-Fi Ready for a Full House?

Most guests arrive with a phone, and plenty bring a tablet or laptop. Add the streaming apps, smart home solutions, and surveillance cameras already relying on your network, and a connection that felt fine on a regular weekday starts to buffer by Thanksgiving afternoon. Several TVs streaming at once puts serious demand on a home network, and weak spots often show up in areas with poor access-point coverage, heavy construction, or too much distance from the nearest access point.

A professionally designed network combines the power of wired and wireless connectivity. Wired access points connect to your network via Ethernet cable and broadcast their own Wi-Fi where coverage is needed, such as the kitchen or the back deck, so the signal doesn’t have to travel through walls from a single router.

Can Guests Control the Music Without a Tutorial?

If you have to coach someone through your audio system, it works against you. A guest should be able to start a playlist or turn the volume down without asking for help.

A well-programmed multi-room audio system puts music a single tap away, on a wall keypad or a phone. Outdoor speakers on the same system carry fun holiday playlists out to the patio, and a keypad by the door sets the volume to suit dinner conversation. Add in voice control, and a first-time visitor can ask for what they want to hear in plain language.

Is Your Outdoor Lighting Welcoming?

Mild December evenings in Yuma pull everyone onto the patio, and that is when lighting can either help or hurt. One harsh floodlight makes the yard feel like a parking lot and attracts all the bugs. A dark path to the back door leaves someone’s aunt feeling for the step.

Landscape lighting can be layered, with soft light along the walkway and a warmer level near seating areas. A schedule brings the scene up at dusk on its own, and a tap on a keypad or phone adjusts it when the evening’s entertainment needs change. Guests find the front door and the patio without a flashlight, and nobody has to remember to turn anything on before they arrive.

Are Your Shades Protecting Your Privacy?

A lit guest room with open shades can feel exposed to the street. They can take that task off the guest’s plate by lowering automatically at the right time.

Motorized shades can lower on a schedule at sunset, so privacy happens without anyone having to think about it. The same schedule can lower a shade over a west-facing window in the afternoon, which keeps glare off the TV during the late afternoon game. In the morning, a guest who wants to sleep in doesn’t have to fight the sunrise.

Can Everyone Watch What They Want?

Holiday weekends stack up competing interests. Some guests want the game and others want a movie, and without a plan, they all end up fighting over the living room TV.

With a properly designed video distribution system, shared sources can be made available across multiple displays in the home. In a Crestron Home system, a single app or touchscreen can make it simple to select a source and send it to the room you want. Each viewer picks what to watch on the TV in front of them, and nobody hunts for a remote.

Fix the Weak Spots Before the Doorbell Rings

If a few of these questions made you wince, it’s better to find out now than halfway through Thanksgiving dinner. As a full-service installer, WOW Electronics designs and installs the entire system and stands behind it afterward, so one team is responsible for every part of it.

Schedule a whole-home technology check before your holiday guests arrive, and our team can help identify the weak spots worth addressing first.