Is Your Home Network Ready for Holiday Guests?

The first night of a holiday visit usually goes fine. By the second, a dozen new phones and a couple of tablets are sharing the same connection, and the game stalls just as the fourth quarter starts. Meanwhile, a guest in the back bedroom is trying to turn on the TV, which should take one button, yet the instructions involve three remotes and an app nobody can find.

A network built for the load and TVs set up with visitors in mind solves both problems before anyone pulls into the driveway. Keep reading for what to check ahead of the holidays and what to hand over to the professionals at Home Theater of Long Island.

SEE ALSO: Why Acoustic Treatment Makes or Breaks Your Home Theater 

Size the Network for a Full House

Start by counting the devices a holiday week adds. Every guest brings a phone, and many bring a tablet or a laptop, while the household's own streaming boxes and cameras keep running in the background. A single 4K stream needs roughly 15 to 25 megabits per second, so a few TVs and a few kids' tablets can use a large share of an ordinary connection. Your internet plan matters too, but the router and access points inside the house decide how much of it reaches each room.

Capacity matters, and so does coverage. In a larger Long Island home with plaster walls or a stone exterior, one router in a basement closet rarely reaches the guest wing at full speed. A planned network places wired access points from brands like Ruckus Wireless and Access Networks where people spend their time, so the TV in the guest suite streams just as smoothly as the one in the family room.

Give Guests Their Own Network 

A separate guest network is the simplest way to put visitors online without handing them the keys to the house, so to speak. Guests join their own network with its own password, and their phones stay apart from your cameras and thermostats. Put the password on a card in each guest room, and nobody has to ask on the way in. A well-designed network can also prioritize the family's TVs and work calls, so a full house never slows the screens that matter most to you.

Get Every TV and Remote Guest-Ready 

Run through each TV a few weeks before your guests’ arrival. Update the streaming apps and the TV's software on your schedule, not in the middle of the game. Sign out of your personal profiles in the guest rooms so a visitor is not greeted by your watch history, and set a default input so the screen wakes up to something sensible. Test each TV the way a guest would, starting from a cold power-on with only the remote in hand.

Then look at the remotes. Most guests give up after the second one. A single interface fixes that, and Savant's Pro Remote X2 puts control of the home in one weighted aluminum remote. Your home theater deserves the same attention, since it is the first room many guests ask to see.

If your network or your TVs are not ready for the season, our team can help. Contact our team here to schedule a consultation, or stop by our showroom to see a Savant-controlled setup in person. A short planning conversation now takes far less time than fixing a stalled stream with a full house watching. The sooner you plan, the sooner you can enjoy the holidays instead of troubleshooting them.