Why does experience matter? It gets you invited to the Netherlands, for one thing.

ACS has a client for whom we’ve integrated 4 different homes. It just so happens that the client’s 5th home is a 95-ft yacht…and it’s being built in Amsterdam. You can’t win them all, right? Well…

While the client explored integration options overseas, a priority for the family was for the controls within the yacht to have the same look and feel as the other homes on which ACS had previously worked. This meant viewing the same menu – regardless of the location – to set the music or raise the shades or view the status of any room in that home or across the globe. To aid in this endeavor, the client brought their world-renowned yacht builder to Los Angeles to review the systems in the 85,000 sqr ft home in Beverly Hills (which also happened to be the most recent work ACS had completed on their behalf).

This location has the advantage of the features that have made ACS a Crestron Gold programmer. More than a decade of development has gone into our template, featuring options many integrators don’t make available as their base offering. ACS has found it’s easier to include more options (and edit out what isn’t optimal for the client) rather than add what we consider basic functions at an additional cost. To demonstrate, the client took quite a bit of pleasure adjusting the volume in surrounding rooms while we conducted our meeting, as well as showing off the “home-at-a-glance” feature that displays the status of every zone from a single screen.

After the meeting, ACS was asked to review the company chosen for the integration overseas. Frankly, it was a quality organization, and we didn’t feel it made sense for us to be involved to any greater degree. However, there’s a peace-of-mind component to all such work. So, when the client offered to fly us to Amsterdam for 3 days to review the system with the chief engineer, who were we to argue?

Having problems with home network lagging? ACS, the factory authorized and trained dealer and installer of the finest A/V, Lighting Control, Motorized Shading, Home Automation and Network equipment has the solution.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all developed an expectation to be wirelessly connected at all times. Everywhere we go, we look for updates on our smart phone, tablet or iPad, all while working on our laptop. We use these devices to access today’s vast array of digital media such as streaming music, HD video, or even accessing our home automation and security while away.

At the heart of today’s residences, a well-engineered secure wireless and wired network is essential.  As we continue to depend less on traditional entertainment sources (radio, CD, DVD, cable TV) and more on cloud-based entertainment (internet radio, Pandora, iTunes, Netflix, AppleTV, and others), along with Gaming, Remote Access to Work, and everyday on-line activities, a faster, more secure and dependable home network is essential.

High-bandwidth devices place increased pressure on home networks. To meet these requirements, service providers are delivering advancements in internet speeds, but many home networks aren’t equipped to make use of the speeds they offer. Technology evolves at such a rapid pace that we have to evolve with it or get left behind. Our homes need a strong network to meet the demands of the digital age.

Looked at another way; consumer networks were never meant to handle the high demands of the audio/video components currently used in modern homes or businesses. The results being unacceptable WiFi performance, data loss, constant reboots, product failure, and the always-annoying customer service phone calls to internet providers. ACS fixes that by providing industry-leading technology that combines wired/wireless data and IP power with local and cloud-based management.