Best Projectors vs TVs for Home Theaters
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us So you’re building a home theater and facing the big question: projector or TV? Here’s the thing—there’s no universal “right” answer. I’ve seen people drop $15,000 on a gorgeous projector setup that sits unused because […]
Designing a Home Theater: Room, Acoustics & Equipment Checklist
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us So you’ve decided to build a home theater. Good. Watching movies on a living room TV with a soundbar while your family walks through the background is a problem that has a real solution — […]
Home Theater & Whole-Home Audio: Complete Setup Guide
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us Someone spent $8,000 on a home theater system last year. Beautiful 85-inch TV, 7.2 surround sound, the works. Sounds amazing when he’s actually in the theater room. But when he spends maybe 10 hours a […]
Speed Test Explained: What Your ISP Numbers Actually Mean for Smart Devices
My friend Sarah ran a speed test last week and called me, confused. “It says I’m getting 487 Mbps download and 23 Mbps upload. Is that good? Bad? My Ring doorbell keeps missing motion events and my Zoom calls are choppy.” She’s paying for 500 Mbps internet. The speed test showed she’s getting almost exactly […]
How to Optimize Wi-Fi for Video Streaming & Home Theaters
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us Let me tell you about the moment I finally snapped. I was 45 minutes into a movie, a tense scene, perfect atmosphere, completely absorbed when the buffering wheel appeared. Then it froze. Then it dropped […]
Wired vs Wireless: When to Run Ethernet in Your Home
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us Let me tell you about the moment I realized Wi-Fi wasn’t cutting it anymore. I was in the middle of an important video call, my kid was streaming a movie upstairs, and my partner was […]
Home Network Checklist for Smart Home Installations
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us I’ve seen too many people drop thousands on a beautiful smart home only to have it run like garbage because nobody thought about the network. It’s like building a mansion on a foundation of cardboard. […]
Mesh Wi-Fi vs Traditional Routers: Which Is Best for a Smart Home?
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us Three years ago, I recommended a high-end traditional router to a client building out their smart home. Six months later, they called me frustrated—their video doorbell kept disconnecting, their smart lights in the master bedroom […]
Why Professional Home Wi-Fi Installation Is Worth It
Written by the Nex AV team — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. About us Your internet keeps dropping during video calls. Netflix buffers in the bedroom. Your smart home devices randomly disconnect. You’ve rebooted the router seventeen times this month, and you’re pretty sure your ISP is gaslighting you […]
Home Networking & Wi-Fi for Smart Homes: The Complete Guide to Reliable Connectivity
Imagine you’re streaming your favorite show in 4K, your kids are video chatting with friends upstairs, someone’s working from the home office on a video conference, and your smart doorbell just detected a package delivery. Suddenly, everything freezes. The stream buffers endlessly, the video call drops, and you miss the delivery notification entirely. Sound familiar? […]