Few things cause greater frustration during a big project than slow updates, products that are frustrating to use (or don't work at all), and being underwhelmed by the finish when the job’s done. We’ve all been there.

The minimum you should expect from your smart tech installer is a working system that fulfils the brief you set them. Good communication before and during the work is also reasonable to expect as a baseline.  

Last month we welcomed Epitome Living’s first graduate hire to the team. 

Jacob Vallelly joins us as a graduate systems engineer fresh from a Software and Electronic Systems Engineering masters at Queen's University, Belfast.

We sat down with Jacob after his first month at Epitome Living to hear his perspective on what we do and find out what he's looking forward to as he learns more of the ropes of home automation and smart building technology systems.

Epitome Living is one of only a few Loxone Partners in Northern Ireland. 

Many people haven’t heard of Loxone until we introduce them to the brand.

They know they want home automation of some kind, or they know they want keyless access to their property or easy remote building management for when they’re on holiday, but they don’t exactly know what the best option to achieve these goals is. 

Whilst it’s not the only home home automation system available on the market, Loxone is our preferred choice for projects with a lot of technology systems.

We’ve made it to the fourth and final article in our principles of home cinema series.

This week we’re talking about why home cinemas should be comfortable. 

In one sense, home cinemas should be comfortable for a very obvious reason: you’ll be sitting in the same place, in the same room, for a significant period of time.

It’s how we make home cinemas comfortable that matters then. 

If you’re looking for information about project timelines before you take the step of engaging with a smart technology professional, this blog breaks down how long our installations take in contexts like new builds, renovations, and home cinema builds.

In our books, design is the most important aspect of any technology plan. 

Not how impressive the technology is, or how many sensors we can convince you to buy - design. 

In any practical capacity, successful design doesn’t just mean that things look good. It means they function well too.

Now before you sigh with frustration, we don’t mean the spick-and-span kind of clean. We won’t be running a finger along your coffee table and tutting when we come back for routine maintenance. 

What we mean is visually and acoustically clean. 

Commercial cinemas have seating, a screen, and black walls - that’s it. And there’s a reason why.

You’ll learn a lot when you build or renovate for the first time. 

Even if you’ve built a home or renovated before, guidelines and standards can change, and it’s impossible to remember everything you’ve ever learned about an industry you don’t work in day-in-day-out. 

That’s where the professionals come in…

So, when should you get in touch with us?

Smart lighting is automated lighting. That’s lighting that turns on and off based on what’s detected by presence and light level sensors. 

This effort-saving benefit sits at the simplest level of smart lighting pros. This simple use benefit is lamps turning on automatically when someone enters a dark room.

Home cinemas can feel quite strange when you enter them. Because they’re rooms within rooms designed to fulfil a certain purpose, the make-up of the room differs from the rest of the rooms in a home. That strange feeling we can get when we enter a home cinema has to do with sound. 

Aside from any particular brand of light or computer, our main concern for offices is the strength of their network. 

What is a network?

A network is the backbone for technology. It’s ‘for the internet’ - the infrastructure that brings the internet to your devices. That begins with how and where the internet is brought into your home (ideally a central location for even distribution across the space) and then its accessibility around your home.

Once builds or renovations are done, you don’t tend to hear from the tradespeople involved again unless something’s gone wrong.

Smart technology doesn’t work like that: it isn’t fit and forget.

But doesn’t saying that fly in the face of everything we say about automation simplifying lives? Not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Earlier this month we hosted a CPD about home cinemas during a thunderstorm. Whilst we didn’t intend to deliver the presentation with sound effects, the rolling thunder throughout certainly drove home what we were trying to say about the impact of immersive cinema. 

Storytelling is at the core of good content. Whether you’re watching the latest blockbuster, keeping up with the housewives of who-knows-where, or building a town in Minecraft, you’re invested because of the story that content’s telling. 

We can’t comment on the quality of the stories you’re enjoying, but we can help you up their emotional impact with a high-quality, professionally designed home cinema. 

Wendy and Paul Lynch came to us in 2020 with their plans for a new build home in Castlederg. 

Scott met the couple at the Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Show in Belfast when Wendy was searching for a company that could consolidate all the tech she needed to control in her home into one system.

After seeing the Loxone hardware at Epitome Living’s stand, and chatting to Scott about how easy its systems are to use, Wendy was sold that Epitome Living was the right smart technology installer for her. 

We completed the Lynchs’ smart technology installation in 2022, with the addition of a home cinema alongside the building management controls we install in most projects.

The key difference between living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and bedrooms is that the former are social spaces, and the latter are private spaces. Social spaces consider the needs of the individual alongside the needs of whole families and guests. In private spaces, however, the needs of the individual are prioritised.

Throughout our years in business, we’ve seen gentle technology touches added to a property outside that make a huge difference to how the home looks and feels. Likewise we’ve also seen clients go all in with their outdoor technology to create gardens that are party-ready at the touch of a button.

The worst thing you can do, particularly if you’re building, is forget how impactful the outdoor space around your home is.