6 is the new 5

The backbone of your home is your WiFi. Okay, power is also important, but without WiFi the modern home grinds to a halt and makes everyday life a headache. In the current climate, where lots of us are still working from home or even running a business from home, a reliable and fast WiFi network is essential. Add in the demands from streaming and online gaming, plus smart home devices controlling your security, lights and heating, it's essential that your home WiFi network never skips a beat.

WiFi 6 is the next generation of WiFi which can bring more than just faster speeds. It is a future ready upgrade designed to be more efficient and to make sure WiFi speeds stay fast in the future. Whilst WiFi 6 will have speeds up to 9.6 Gbps, that can be split up across all the devices on your home network, meaning all devices will benefit from the speed upgrade. Improving the network for all devices connected is important; when its predecessor WiFi 5 came out the average US household had five devices in it. Now homes have nine and it is predicted this will increase to fifty within several years (theverge.com). WiFi 6 offers new features that make it easier for your router to communicate with multiple devices at the same time, keeping the connections strong as more and more devices are added to your network.

Whilst you may not see huge increases in the speed on your WiFi 6 devices (many phones and laptops are already WiFi 6 enabled), your devices will be kept fed with the data they need, even as more and more devices are added. Previously, your router may have struggled to maintain the quality of your Zoom call whilst someone else in the house was gaming online or streaming Netflix.

Sounds good, how do I get it? Sadly it's not just a software update, you will need new devices starting with your router. Devices will start to come with WiFi 6 by default, but if you don’t upgrade your router, there will be no benefit to your new WiFi 6 phone or laptop. So if you have lots of connected devices in your home and your network struggles, now would be a good time to upgrade your router to WiFi 6. Get in touch to discuss upgrading your home network to WiFi 6.

Effortless control of natural light

Made to measure blinds with the convenience of Smart Control will effortlessly control the natural light in your space.  Beautiful automated Lutron blinds will glide open, closed or stop at your preferred height in near perfect unison.  Create a comfortable environment throughout your home with your app, voice or one touch of your smart remote.

With the Lutron App and Smart Hub, you can connect with more smart home brands than any other smart blind.  Syncing your Lutron blinds with your smart lights, thermostat, music and more, you can now create your perfect comfort level all in one place.  Lutron integrates with both Alexa and Google Assistant, giving the convenience of voice control.  Just ask your smart home assistant to ‘Close all the blinds’ and save on that nightly task of manually closing all the blinds in your home.  The Lutron App allows you to schedule the opening and closing of your blinds, in time with the rising and setting sun, making the Lutron blinds even more convenient.  Or you can enjoy the extra security of an away from home schedule when you are on holiday.

Lutron smart home blinds offer versatile, timeless styles that will blend with your chosen interior.  Their expertly selected range of fabric and wood finishes offer blinds to suit all personal styles and interior decor.  The timeless design combined with Lutron guaranteed quality means your Lutron blinds will be enjoyed for years to come. Up to ten free fabric samples are available, making choosing the right fabric and finish for your home or interior design project easy.

Prefer wood blinds that offer the natural look of handcrafted wood blinds but still offer Smart Control?  Lutron wooden blinds come in a variety of styles, colours and finishes, with each being crafted from real North American basswood. 

Honeycomb cellular blinds have been designed to be energy efficient, trapping air in their cellular pockets, to reduce energy consumption.  Lutron Honeycomb blinds offer a more transitional look, with a wide range of fabric choices to fit any interior style. 

Lutron Curtain Track System offers all the convenience of the Lutron Smart Blinds but for curtains.  With tracks available up to 30ft (9144mm) long, with single or multi-bend curved tracks, 90 degree curves and much more, there will be a curtain track suitable for even the most challenging windows.  The curtain track can be synced with your Lutron smart blinds, should you choose both window treatments, they will seamlessly open and close in near perfect harmony.

Contact us to arrange a demonstration or to book a free blind or curtain track survey.

Set the scene

On or off, dim down, dim up. Click, click, turn the knob. Get the room lit the way you like it. Is it the same levels as last night? Are you revisiting the switches and dimmers to lower the brightness in the room to watch TV or turning more lights on to do some work or reading? You know there are better options, you’ve heard about smart lights.  

When it’s time to head up to bed, make your way around the house turning off all the lights, reaching behind furniture to turn off table lamps and peek through the blinds to see if the outside lights have been left on all day again. You’ve seen all the advertising for controlling lights from your phone or using a smart speaker. 

After a late night at the big match or date night at your favourite restaurant, returning home to a pitch dark house isn’t very welcoming and it’s been obvious that no one is home. Friends with smart lighting rave about their lights being on schedules and making it look like someone is home when you’re all out. 

An introduction to some of the all-time classic lighting scenes will make you think differently about how you control your home with a smart lighting system. 

Everyone’s favourite is All Off, self explanatory really. When you’re heading out for the day, you’re the last one to leave the house and you know the kids always leave their bedroom lights on after getting ready for school. Hit the All Off button or tell your smart speaker to “Turn off all the lights” and all the lights in your home will turn off. 

Another well loved lighting scene is Relax, this is a preset for lighting that can be applied to many rooms with just one button press. Dinner is over, the dishwasher is locked and loaded, your Kindle awaits your company in your favourite armchair.  Press the relax button on your smart light switch and it will dial in your preferred lighting level. The downlights dim to 20%, the table lamps around the room dim to 30% except for the reading light at the armchair, that’s slightly brighter at 50% and finally the LED strips that light up the coffered ceiling glow at a lowly 10%, it was so worth adding that detail, everyone loves the design of these.  Every time you hit the Relax button you get the exact brightness levels time and time again. 

The final favourite gets things a lot brighter. Turn on the Cooking scene from the kitchen light switch and summon the right task lighting needed to aid your culinary masterpiece. Under cabinet lighting is bright and sharp, the three island pendants pool light onto the worktop where you’re plating up dinner and the downlights are lit in the right places around the kitchen so that things are bright above the sink, hob and appliances. No chopping veg in the shadows of this kitchen. 

Every time you hit these presets on your smart light switch you get the same brightness levels again and again. Life lived with lighting scenes makes transforming the mood in your rooms and home a wonderful experience. 

Customised, based in South Norfolk, are you local Lutron Pro experts. Contact our Tech Team to arrange a demonstration, quote or survey www.customised.uk.com/contactus 

Smarter Lighting Using Motion Sensors

My eleven year old son seems to be developing a well known skill that a lot of his age group have. That is the inability to turn off lights when he leaves a room, particularly his bedroom. I often find myself spotting that his light is on when I pass his room; upon inspection the room is brightly lit but he is nowhere to be seen. He has the lights on in another room!

My own home benefits from having a smart lighting system which gives us great dimming control of the lighting brightness, the ability to voice control lights and schedule when they turn on or off but without the use of sensors the lights can still be left on accidentally.

We’ve now added motion sensors to monitor a handful of rooms in the house. These smart sensors pair up with the smart lighting dimmers installed and check if the room is vacant or occupied. Let me run through some simple examples.

In my son’s room the sensor is only checking to see if the room is empty or vacant. He still turns the light on from the switch but if no movement is detected for more than 15 minutes then the lights will turn off.

In our Utility Room we often find that we enter the room with our hands full with laundry, shopping or dirty hands coming in from the garden. The sensor installed in the Utility Room senses you entering the room, turns the light on to a specific brightness and then after 5 minutes, if no motion is detected, it will turn off the lights. Walk in, walk out mindset in this room. We’ve also got this functioning in the bathrooms and hallways in the house.

One smart feature of the sensors is that I can select when the sensor is active. For example in the hallways, these sensors are only active at night, sunset to sunrise. In other rooms the sensors are active all day and in bedrooms I have the sensors active up until 10pm, to not disrupt sleeping hours.

Sensors offer greater flexibility and control of your home’s lighting. An advanced set up like this is what we do at Customised for our customers with lighting control systems. Our recommended system for any customer wanting smarter lighting in their home is Lutron RA2 Select. This reliable, scalable and easy to live with lighting system is suitable for any home whether it’s a new construction or fitting into an existing home.

Customised are your local Lutron Pro installers in East Anglia and welcome your questions and enquiries.

Becoming a Smart Home Electrician

Our Technical Director Kris Gamble recently lead a webinar for SELECT - Trade Association for Electrical Contracting Scotland , The British Electrical & Manufacturing Company (BEMCO) and Lutron Electronics. Kris discussed ‘How to become a Smart Home Electrician’ and based on the Q&A that followed, it was a real hit with electricians! The webinar looked at the opportunity that exists for Electrical Contractors to fully understand and start using smart tech solutions in the Residential home market.

You can take a listen to the webinar here.

Get your garden summer ready!

With summer holiday plans dashed by the Coronavirus pandemic, a staycation in your back garden is the next best thing.  Recreate your favourite festival, go camping with the kids, or bring beach vibes to your back lawn.

But is your garden up to the challenge?  Adding garden audio, lighting, outdoor TV's and WiFi out there will create an outdoor room for you to enjoy all summer long.  From the new battery powered Sonos Move speaker which you can take outdoors or on those socially distanced trips to the beach, to a full garden audio system with subwoofer hidden in the shrubbery, Customised will make your garden THE destination this summer!  Have a listen to a system we completed last summer on our Instagram TV channel @Customised or get in touch to book your free survey.

Support Norfolk!

Local businesses need all our support now more than ever.  At a time when we’re all being affected by COVID-19, Support Norfolk is a place for us all to get together to hear more about how local businesses are adapting, find the best way to support them, and find out how they can help us too.  Customised are pleased to be part of the Support Norfolk network of local businesses, offering Working from Home kits and virtual tech support.  You can find us and other great local Norfolk businesses here on the website.

And as a thank you to our amazing NHS, we are offering a 20% discount on all installation charges for NHS staff members. Drop us an email to find out more.

Superfast Broadband ASAP!

Are you struggling to work from home with slow broadband speeds, maybe you are in a rural area with no fibre broadband available?  Is your mobile phone faster than your broadband?  Why wait for traditional internet service providers to give you that elusive superfast connection? Get connected with 4G!  

We can use that same technology your mobile phone is using to deliver a high speed internet to your property.  An external antenna mounted onto the outside of your home, where your TV aerial or satellite dish is located, houses the 4G sim card.  The sim card therefore has a direct line of sight signal from the nearest 4G mast, unlike some other 4G systems where the sim card is located inside the property.  This is why we can get really good Internet speeds using this system, in some cases 70+ Mbps download speeds.  

Unlimited data contracts are available so there is no fear of running out of data in the middle of a video conference call!  Our 4G internet service is available for customers across the East of England.  Watch our IGTV video which explains more or get in touch today!

Working from home; Simple Tech Tips Part 2

You’ve optimised your home router using our Top Three Tips in our last blog but are still suffering with buffering with a WiFi connection?  The simple solution is to wire the device you want to connect to the Internet.  Smart TV’s, media streamers, set top boxes, games consoles all have an Ethernet port for hard wiring with an Ethernet cable.  If your router is nearby your devices, connect the device to one of the four LAN ports on the router.  If you hard wire the smart TV, the games console and your media streamer, this will reduce the wireless traffic in the household.  Ethernet cables can be ordered from lots of online retailers and can be bought in 0.5m increments.

Get your devices hardwired for best streaming performance! For more tech tips follow us on Instagram @Customised.

Working from home; Simple Tech Tips Part 1

Make sure your wireless router is ready for action!  Three Top Tips from the Tech Team for working from home and making the most of your home Wi-Fi without buying any new equipment.  

1. Make sure your wireless home router is in a good location, not lying on the floor or hidden behind some furniture.  Put it on a shelf or piece of furniture.

2. If your router has antennae, make sure they are in the upwards position to maximise wireless coverage throughout your home.  If your antennae does not have antennae, ensure it is stood upright, in a good location, and that none of the cables are restricted.  

3. All the telephone points in your home need an ADSL filter; some homes may only have one filter.  If you don’t have a filter in every phone point, any calls will disrupt the internet. 

Look after your wireless router and it will serve you better!