Hosting friends and family for holiday gatherings can be stressful for a homeowner. Before advances in smart home technology, constantly turning on and off lights, fighting over the TV remote and internet bandwidth, and greeting guests while trying to control the music created chaos.
With today’s connected home, appliances and devices can be conveniently controlled remotely using a mobile device. Through the internet, you can access security features, lighting, music, temperature controls and more, all on your phone. With automated controls and at-a-glance monitoring, these smart home hacks save you time and stress and provide extra comfort for you and your guests.
Video Doorbell
See, hear and talk to your visitors as they arrive through a smart video doorbell. In addition to the added security features, most brands come preloaded with festive tunes you can choose as the chime, or you can add your own favorites. It’s a great way to share holiday cheer before guests even enter your home!
For online shoppers, a video doorbell also gives peace of mind as packages are delivered to the front door. Receive notifications when the camera senses movement or save recordings to monitor theft and other front-door activity.
Total Home Security
Shopping, attending parties and driving to light shows keep you busy during the holiday season, so make sure your home is protected while you’re away with a whole-home security system. From motion lights and sensors to exterior and interior alarms and cameras, connecting a security system to your network goes a step above a video doorbell and alerts authorities of suspicious activity on your property.
Holiday Lights
Festive lighting is a big part of the holiday season. Before your guests arrive, walking around the inside and outside of your home, plugging in miles of extension cords and flipping switches takes time away from other preparations. With smart lights, you can schedule your lighting to come on all at once, on a schedule or control them with a voice command.
You don’t have to buy all new lights to do this—smart outlets let you turn your existing interior and exterior lights into smart lights. If you want even more functionality, some brands make string, curtain and icicle lights and pre-lit decorations that connect to an app that goes beyond turning them off and on. You can change colors and even design patterns for a custom show!
Holiday Music
Whether you want background music during dinner or want to crank up the volume and start a sing-along, a connected home can help. Voice commands allow you to start playing your favorite playlists, control the volume and change the song through smart speakers integrated with the music streaming service of your choice. Google, Amazon and Samsung offer these speakers and hubs, and some come with sensors that automatically play music when someone enters a room.
Holiday Streaming
Have a family holiday movie marathon or set the mood at your holiday party by streaming a crackling fireplace on your smart TVs. Can’t get everyone to agree on what to watch? With fiber internet, everyone can stream what they want on any device from anywhere in the home, all at the same time.
A streaming service like Lumos TV gives you total control to pause, rewind and record your favorite shows and movies so you can watch them on your schedule. Customize your package with channel add-ons and premium enhancements.
Adjusting the Thermostat
Cooking, doors opening and closing and large gatherings impact your indoor temperature. If your guests become too hot or start putting their coats back on, a smart thermostat lets you adjust the temperature without stepping away from entertaining. You can bump the temperature up or down a few degrees from your phone in the whole house or in specific zones to make your guest more comfortable and potentially save a bit on your electricity bill.
Uninterrupted Bandwidth For You and Your Guests
Once your guests start asking, “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” you know you can expect your network to be stretched on speed and performance. But not with fiber internet! Thanks to more bandwidth and ultra-fast speeds that never slow down, fiber can handle all connected devices anywhere in your home—both yours and your guests’.
Holiday Travels
If you’re traveling out of town to visit family or heading on vacation, smart home features help monitor your home from anywhere. Check your security camera feed if you receive a motion notification, or check in on your furry friends with a pet camera. If you get that sinking feeling you may have forgotten to close the garage door when you left, there’s an app for that, too!
With advances in video calling and internet speeds, you can chat with friends and family who are not able to travel for the holidays. Fiber internet provides equally fast upload and download speeds for crystal clear audio and video for an uninterrupted conversation.
Choose Lumos’ Connected Home to Host the Holidays
Ready to host a better holiday gathering this year with a connected home? 100% Fiber Optic Internet2 from Lumos delivers the speed and reliability needed to run all your home’s smart systems and connected devices. While cable was designed for voice and TV, fiber internet is built for today’s connections: smartphones, laptops, lightbulbs, speakers, security systems, thermostats and more. For whatever smart devices run your home, only fiber provides consistently fast connectivity.
Explore our plans and call us today at 844.844.2970 to discover how fiber internet can enhance your connected home.
