Baton Rouge company offers home tech upgrades

When not in use, a TV can be hidden by artwork hung on a motorized lift. Photos by Collin Richie

Smart house: how to bring your home into the 21st century

By APRIL CAPOCHINO MYERS

Imagine waking up in the morning and walking into your bathroom. As you enter, the lights turn on at 50 percent and, three minutes later, gradually rise to full power while your body adjusts to the new day. For 15 minutes, the TV is on, preset to your favorite channel—maybe it’s the news or maybe it’s ESPN— while the heat adjusts to your changing body temperature. And all you have to do is wake up. The rest is automated.

Human, meet technology. Technology, meet the year 2015, where you can choose to control the digital devices in your home or automate them.

“Technology has come such a long way, people are expecting these features in their homes,” says Bryan Naquin, president of Acadian Home Theater and Automation on Perkins Road. “People want technology in some shape or form, and they want everything to talk.”

With the use of smartphones and tablets, Naquin and partner Jon Hunt help clients create streamlined technological systems in their homes where lights turn on and off automatically, music is played throughout the home or in individual rooms and TVs descend into furniture.

“Time is a global asset,” says Hunt, sales manager. “When you come home, the last thing you need to go through is all of those steps. We can save you 40 minutes per day in time.”

Home tech upgrades:

• Motorized window treatments
• Stealth speakers built into walls
• The ability to dim the lights or control the heat and fireplace with one swipe on a smartphone or tablet
• Remotely controlled security cameras
• Artwork hung on a motorized lift that slides down to hide a flat-screen TV
• A system for organizing and categorizing physical DVDs to create a more streamlined home theater system
• A home theater room where you can watch movies or sports, listen to music and track security cameras
• Centralized technology—the ability to put all of the technology in one closet in the home, eliminating wires throughout the house

All available at Acadian Home Theater and Automation; aciexperts.com