With the ever-increasing access to smart technologies, customers are demanding more than ever from them.

This of course includes home security; property owners expect a user friendly and dependable security system one that tells them when the kids are home and when the bundle has been delivered. After all, what property owners want is assurance and when components like door locks and security systems link together this is simpler to attain. Property owners are now anticipating their security systems to do more like control lighting and the thermostat and today’s leading security systems make it possible for control and even automation of these systems.

Mobile phone and Internet of Things (IoT) innovation have enabled extending control beyond the house. The security industry has accepted this technology to make things like responding to the door from across the country a reality. Necessary for security integrators is to make this experience as seamless as possible. House owners don’t need the Web of Things to be Islands of Things, individually wise, however not totally linked and each with their own app to do something. They want a simple-to-use, linked experience.

However, what about entertainment?

It represents a significant element of the home way of life, however if the house theater or wireless audio system is not linked to other systems in the house, it might be another island in the Islands of Things. Security dealers who also provide automation and home entertainment comprehend this, and they see a crucial trend forming: the convergence of security, automation and home entertainment systems.

Obviously, custom-made integrators doing smart home and AV tasks see this merging in practically every installation they do. In a recent study by Nortek Security & Control of integrators setting up ELAN Home entertainment and Control systems, reactions indicated that the set up control system integrated with a security sub-system is well over 90 percent of the setups.

Why is this? It gets back to what house owners want assurance, comfort and convenience. Each homeowner will describe this differently, however home entertainment is an important part of the family lifestyle. It could be the simple media room, with a 4K TV on the wall and a sound bar beneath, or it might be a dedicated theater space, with a surround stereo to go with the 4K TV. In each of these cases, the integrator is simplifying the setup, getting the remotes off the coffee table and offering the home an easier, more user-friendly experience –– ideally one with better sound. Obviously, it scales up from there, perhaps with dispersed audio throughout the house and a couple other Televisions elsewhere in the house. And, as practically every home entertainment and control integrator will inform you, outdoor audio is one of the growth sectors in AV and control integration.

However, does it integrate with the security system?

This is the convergence in the 9 out of 10 customized installations referenced previously. If you are a security integrator not yet making AV and home entertainment part of your offering, here are a couple of things to think about:

What control platform should you use?

The best one for you depends on what you want to accomplish and what size integrations you desire to do.

Does the control platform incorporate with your security system?

Once again, this is the merging, but how your client wants to use the systems can help guide your recommendation. If your consumer simply desires to clean up the remotes in the media space, it might be less essential to connect the security system into the control and home entertainment system. Perhaps in this case, the security system is controlling the Z-Wave lighting and the thermostat, in addition to the monitoring cameras. The media room AV control is different, and the security-centric merging for the client is that they got two options from one resource you.

What if your customer desires to press a single motion picture time button and not just dim the lights, but lower the shades, switch on the TV and streaming media source, and set audio for movie mode, consisting of cranking up the subwoofer?

When you begin identifying the moments that are the common use case for your client, you may identify that the installation needs to be control and home entertainment centric which the security system is best operating as a sub-system within the control environment.

For installations like these, you’ll need to figure out which control system works best with which security system; how natively do they incorporate, or what chauffeurs are composed for the control platform particular to your security platform? Similar to security systems, all control and entertainment systems are not produced equal; each has strengths to measure versus others.