Starr News

3 years ago, my husband and I completed an 18-month build of what would be considered our primary residence off Florida's southeast coast on a corner alcove with direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway. We hired a dream team of experts in the fields of custom mid-century modern building, architecture & interior design -- with an emphasis on sustainable materials throughout. Taking a nod from Architectural Digest, (as well as a few raving colleagues) we consulted with a lighting designer on how to incorporate human-centric lighting (more commonly referred by its buzzword, circadian rhythm lighting) into our primary bedroom & the kids' adjacent bedrooms -- along with our large, albeit, shared office space downstairs.

Hopefully we have all come to terms with COVID-19. While things are starting to look better, we are not free of the virus and none of us are sure when we will be. Over the last few months, customers, partner and our own team have noticed five solution areas that are getting more questions and focus. If these are interesting to you, we would love to show you how we can help.

Maybe a year ago, asking if you had a healthy home would have seemed to be a strange question. Outside of some specific cities or areas, few people have cared about their air and water quality. Now we get asked every day if there is any way to test, monitor, and improve the environment we live in. On the Bravas Podcast¬, we talked to Anthony Antolino, the Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at Delos, about that very subject. You can watch that podcast on YouTube or subscribe to our video podcasts here.

For many home technology installers, it’s easy to get stuck in a project-based mindset. Projects have a beginning (discovery, design, engineering); middle (procurement, staging, installation, programming); and end (calibration, training, optimization). Once the final walk-through with the client is done, and they have been taught how to use their system, they tend to think of projects as having come to an end.

At Bravas, we believe that without the right technology, you can not build a truly beautiful and luxurious home. Yet, when we talk to many builders and homeowners and suggest this, they turn and run the other way. For many people “smart home” is an oxymoron like “act naturally” or “open secret.” For some, their experience with technology in their home is that it gets in the way of their day-to-day living. The promise, they say, is never paid off by the reality.

In a recent edition of the Bravas Luxury Living podcast, we talked to Bryce Nordstrand from Access Networks about upgrading our home networks. While there was a lot of good conversation about Wi-Fi 6 and wired vs wireless and technology trends, one issue caught many people’s attention. How do you keep up with all the changes in technology? Bryce had a great insight.

So, you are watching a YouTube video, and it’s just brilliant. Everyone in the house should see something – but rather than just all gather around your iPad, is there a better way? The answer is, of course, yes, but only for some. If your TV is enabled for Airplay2 (meaning it’s probably not much more than a year old), you can stream from your Apple device straight to the TV. If it is older than that, you may need an Apple TV – but that’s for another blog. Older versions of AirPlay may be supported on some devices, but you need AirPlay2 for the whole experience.

And just like that, human-centric lighting went mainstream. If that means nothing to you, let me catch you up. Human-centric lighting is artificial light modified to behave more like natural light. Because our bodies have adapted to operate under natural light, this technology is expected to improve sleep quality, mood and productivity, while also reducing risk of heart attack, lowering blood pressure and more. Companies like Ketra and USAI have been on the forefront of creating the technologies allowing light to automatically track the color of the sun throughout the day.

It’s frustrating for sure. You’ve taken all the steps to get the fastest connection possible; you purchased the 1GB plan from your service provider, got the latest Wi-Fi system installed, and have the latest phone model in your hands. You gleefully open your speed test app only to see 450Mbps instead of the 1GB you’ve been striving for. It may seem like a travesty to only get half of what was advertised, but the fact is you will never see 1GB speed on your phone (for now), and the difference between a 450Mbps and 1GB to a single device is absolutely nothing in the real world.

When we discuss the lockdown, one of the things we all end talking about is what watched on TV? Depending on when you spoke, it went from Tiger King to Hollywood to Filthy Money (with a little Unorthodox thrown in for those who can take subtitles). The interesting thing about those conversations is this: While we all were amazed by the image quality of our TV, many said they couldn't always hear the dialog.