Home Security Systems & Smart Camera Installations – Complete Guide
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. Here’s what most people do: panic-buy a few cameras from Amazon, stick them up randomly, realize they can’t see anything useful in the footage, and end up with a false sense of security […]
Remote Control & Automation Tips for Effortless Movie Nights
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. Find the TV remote. Turn on the TV. Find the receiver remote. Turn on the receiver. Switch to the right input. Find the streaming device remote. Launch the app. Adjust the volume because […]
Home Theater Budget Planner: $2k, $10k, $50k Examples
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. You want to build a home theater. The first question everyone asks: “How much will this actually cost?” The answer most people give you? “It depends.” Which is technically true but completely unhelpful. […]
Video Wall Ideas for Homes and Small Businesses
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. Walk into any modern sports bar and you’ll see them—massive walls of screens showing every game simultaneously. Step into a high-end corporate lobby and there’s an impressive video wall cycling through company achievements […]
How to Build a Multi-Room Audio System That Actually Sounds Great
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. You know what’s frustrating? Walking from room to room in your house and losing your music every time you cross a threshold. Or having to restart Spotify on a different speaker in every […]
Best Projectors vs TVs for Home Theaters
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. 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 […]
Designing a Home Theater: Room, Acoustics & Equipment Checklist
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. 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 […]
Home Theater & Whole-Home Audio: Complete Setup Guide
Written by William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. 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 […]
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 William Young: Lead AV Specialist at Nex AV — certified Control4 & Lutron installers designing smart homes and AV systems across NYC. 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 […]