Select someone locally. Find a professional home theater company within a 50-mile range of your home. You are more likely to have an installer come by and tweak your system, if need be, when you are within a reasonable distance.

Ask for a link to the home theater installation company's Web site or for some images of recently completed installations. Also, ask to visit the home theater installers' showroom to provide you with living examples of their workmanship. Check our our portfolio. Here at Atlanta Audio we have a 6,000 square foot showhouse that showcases home automation, home theater options, whole house audio, lighting control, media rooms, video surveillance, and much more. Call us today to set up an appointment or visit our website at www.atlantaaudio.com.

Ask for references on finished projects that are similar to what you have in mind for your home theater and are relatively within the same cost range. Ask the homeowner about how the installation company works and how satisfied they are with the finished results. Visit our customer testimonials to get an idea of what our customers say about Atlanta Audio.

Find out how an installer works. For example if you are a neat freak and your professional installer is very proficient in plasma and audio technologies but can seem a little scatterbrained or sloppy, your working styles may not connect.

The Consumer Electronics Show may be held in Las Vegas, but this year’s event means big things are coming to your home entertainment system here in Atlanta. Whether you’re looking for the highest resolution video displays, the most convenient control of your entire system or the next big thing in wireless surround sound, we’ve put together a list of our four favorite things to come out of the biggest technology show in the world.

SEE ALSO: Which Speakers are Right For Your Whole House Audio System?

Lutron Makes Shading Control Easy for the Whole Family

Like many smart home technologies, motorized shades are meant to make life simpler, more comfortable, and more convenient—from form to function. That means commanding the shades throughout your Atlanta, GA home should be effortless, too.

Lutron, a leader in motorized lighting and shading solutions, offers a variety of intuitive ways to control your window treatments that are easy for the whole family to use. Start planning the new year with motorized shades you can manage with wireless handheld remotes, in-wall keypads, the Lutron app, voice commands, or Control4. 

Burglaries are on the rise in December

You’re not the only one window shopping this season. Every year, there is a rise in home burglaries for the last two weeks of December. That’s because criminals have been peeking through your windows, going through your garbage cans, and waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. And what better time to rob someone than right after Christmas? New TVs, gaming consoles, computers, and other expensive gifts are all left home when you travel for the holidays; or even return to your day job. When you can’t always count on a neighbor or friend to watch your home while you’re away, what can you do? With today’s home security systems, you can keep an eye on your home from anywhere.

Protect your home with Video Surveillance and Smart Security

With the growth in technology, it’s time to upgrade the alarm system. Video surveillance and smart security will give you the ability to peek in on your home from your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. The live video feed will give you access to view who’s at the door, who’s inside your home, and who’s lurking around the perimeter. Forgot to set the alarm when you left? No worries. You’ll be able to arm and disarm the alarm system from your device, even if you’re thousands of miles away from Atlanta. And with only a staggering 13.6% of burglaries resulting in arrests, you’ll be glad you upgraded your alarm system. Burglars leave hardly any evidence behind, making it difficult to find the intruders or your stolen objects. That’s why it’s smart to have video surveillance in your home. You can use the live video feed to alert police if there are intruders in your home. With the capability to record and play back video, you’ll have the evidence to put an end to their ‘shopping spree’. Smart Security and Video Surveillance is a must have in the world we live in today. You wouldn’t browse the web without security on your computer, so why leave your home without an alarm system to thwart the physical criminals.

Protect your home, family, and belongings from the Grinches of the world this holiday season. To learn more about us and our solutions, or to speak with a professional about your needs, visit http://atlantaaudio.com/our-solutions/security-surveillance. 

Take a look at this video shown on the TODAY show yesterday.   It was showcasing SunBriteTVs which are the only true outdoor TVs in the world designed and built for all-weather use.  They are designed, engineered and assembled in the U.S.A.

We are a  local authorized dealer of SunBriteTV.   To find out more about these outdoor TVs and other outdoor entertaining options like outdoor planter speakers or rock speakers for your backyard.  Give us a call or make an appointment to come by our show house.

There are two distinct approaches -- no, philosophies -- to turning on the lights in Douglas and Lina Leonovicz's Old Metairie home.

Lina accomplishes this task the way most of us would: walking over to a nearby wall and flicking a switch.

Douglas, however, will have none of that manual nonsense. He is far more apt to commune with small, rectangular color touchscreens mounted in the kitchen or front hallway.

Pressing an icon here, sliding a finger there, the retired vascular surgeon can prompt anything from a soft glow to a brilliant glare in whichever space he chooses. He is a Jedi of illumination, rendering a 6,000-square-foot home into a playground for his watt-driven whims and wishes.

It's not just mastery of darkness and light that beguiles Leonovicz, 48, who delights in summoning up music no matter where he happens to be, rock standards thundering forth from speakers installed discreetly in the ceilings.

If you're building a new home or remodeling an existing one, you're probably wondering how, or if, the latest conveniences of home automation might figure into your plans. As always, we recommend getting together with a home technology professional who can show you options and answer questions.

To help get you started, here are 10 reasons why home automation is here to stay.

1. Control your home from anywhere.

And by that we mean control all kinds of systems - lighting, security, heating and cooling, appliances, AV entertainment and more - from a smartphone or tablet.

2. See your home from anywhere.

You can't put a price on peace of mind when you're away from home. With smart-home integration, cameras in and around your home can be accessed from a smartphone or tablet so you can see what's going on no matter where you are. Choose basic, single-view cameras or more sophisticated models with motion-triggered recording and remote-controllable pan/tilt/zoom.

3. Go crazy with convenience.

Why get up from the couch to see who's at the door when you can access the front-door camera on your TV? And instead of running around the house turning the lights off before you go to bed, use an app on your phone to turn 'em all off at once.

Award-Winning Homebuilder Makes Elan g! System Standard For Every New Home He Builds

After installing the ELAN® g! Entertainment and Control System in the award-winning Power Haus in 2011, Florida homebuilder Josh Wynne has decided to include a base ELAN g! system in every new home he builds. With the help of Mark van den Broek, President of SmartHouse Integration, Josh is providing every new client with a customizable, completely intuitive and easy-to-use home control system that offers iPhone, iPad and in-wall touch panel control of every core system in the home, from the lighting to the audio to heat.

“Homebuyers today want technology that can simplify things they do and improve their quality of life,” Wynne said. “By including a base home entertainment and control package with the ELAN g! system, Mark and I are giving clients a taste of the possibilities. From now on, every new client of mine is going to be able to use an iPad to control their six-zone audio system, lights, HVAC, pool controls, irrigation and security system. And we let them know right from the start that the possibilities really are endless—they can add to the system now as they see fit, and even prewire for future upgrades.”