5 Audio Video Solutions for Planned Communities

When designing a planned community, developers have a unique opportunity to deliver high-tech community features that attract desirable residents, increase property values and drive customer satisfaction. A modern planned community needs the very best in audio video solutions and technology to provide the highest levels of convenience and service for residents. Check out these five great audio video solutions for planned communities.

Reach Out to Your Community with Digital Signage.

Leveraging LCD, LED, projection, touchscreen or alternative visual display technologies, digital signage offers a streamlined and highly targeted method of communicating information to residents in a variety of contexts. With digital signage, planned communities can:

1. Create a modern atmosphere of sophistication – digital signage is just beginning to make its way into planned communities. Early adoption of this high-end feature can position your brand as an industry leader in technological adoption and give your facilities a modern and sophisticated feel that generates buzz and attracts high quality residents.
2. Establish marketing and revenue opportunities – planned communities with digital signage capabilities can earn additional revenue by contracting with external parties to display their advertisements within the facility. Networked digital signage makes it easy for administrators to manage content and advertisements on all digital signage from a single control point.
3. Engage and interact with residents – one of the best use cases we’ve seen for digital signage is inside elevators. With a simple touch screen, users navigate an interface that displays the weather, recent news stories and communications from community administrators. Digital signage can also be used to stream videos in high traffic areas, such as elevators, access checkpoints, vestibules and outdoor recreation areas.

Streamline Facility Controls with Full Audio/Visual Integration.

For administrators of planned communities, exercising control over audio and visual systems throughout a large facility can pose significant challenges, especially when those systems lack integration. As a developer, you can meet this challenge by investing in high-end capabilities for the integration of audio and visual systems throughout your planned community. Integrated audio/visual systems enable seamless control of television, audio and digital signage output in every area of your facility.

The key to successful audio/visual integration is granular control – the ability to manipulate audio and visual output for individual spaces in your community in a targeted way. Each area of your facility has unique audio/visual needs that can vary by occupancy and time of day. You may want to play pop music in the cafeteria, jazz music in the elevator and rain forest sounds in the meditation/yoga room. You may also want to achieve cost savings by ensuring that televisions and audio systems are deactivated in unoccupied rooms.

Integrated audio/visual does all of this with a feature known as centralized video distribution. Leveraging ease-of-use features like iPad remote control, users can change television stations, customize audio output, or send unique video content to any monitor in the facility at the touch of a button.

Put Safety First with Networked Surveillance Cameras.

All it takes is one security breach in your community to create negative word-of-mouth that impacts your brand, status and reputation. Though it is now clear that networked surveillance is an essential aspect of risk management and crime prevention for planned communities, many still rely on outdated security cameras that are easily defeated and do not provide adequate security for residents.

Networked surveillance systems empower genuine security capabilities for planned communities. With networked surveillance, camera feeds are routed to a central, digital recording device that your administrators can access through the internet. Live camera feeds can be accessed through authorized phones and tablets, enabling security monitoring and control from anywhere in the world. Networked surveillance can help your planned community.

1. Deter Crime – criminals are easily deterred by networked surveillance systems that are difficult or impossible to defeat except by experienced security experts.
2. Monitor Events – continuously monitor the behavior of residents, visitors and staff throughout your planned community.
3. Gather Evidence – gather and collect evidence with respect to any reports of resident misbehavior or staff wrongdoing.
4. Maintain Records – create and maintain a repository of video surveillance footage that can be reviewed or reassessed when necessary.

In addition to their superior security features, networked surveillance cameras create digital video files that are easier to search through a view compared to traditional CCTV footage. Networked surveillance cameras can be integrated with other security features such as motion detection to further secure sensitive areas of your community against unauthorized access. Night vision and power-saving features such as motion-activated recording are also available.

Networked security cameras are the best option for planned communities that wish to protect their residents.

Power Your Network with Low Voltage Wiring.

Low voltage wiring simply refers to the physical wiring within your planned community that supports digital technologies. Residential and commercial buildings usually contain several different types of wiring systems throughout – one to transmit network data, one for the telephone, one for Wi-fi access, etc. These functions require a wiring network besides the standard electrical wiring that powers lights and appliances.

Low-voltage wiring can be implemented to support technologies such as wireless networks, cable, security and surveillance systems, digital signage and networked audio within planned communities. Installing low-voltage wiring throughout your planned community prepares you to deliver networked services such as cable and internet in every room of your facility and to easily integrate new audio video solutions in the future.

Wi-fi networks are one of the most important applications of low voltage wiring. Planned communities can establish excellent Wi-fi coverage throughout their facilities by installing Wireless Access Points (WAPs) that spread the Wi-fi signal across a larger area and support more traffic on the network. WAPs are strategically positioned throughout your community to maximize network coverage and connected to a central router via low voltage wiring.

Manage Access with Turnkey Security Card System.

Access control is a marquee feature of planned communities whose brands have become synonymous with exclusivity. Residents want assurances that only authorized persons, such as other residents or their guests, are being allowed into the facility. They may also associate a level of prestige with the capability to access their residence with an electronic security card versus a physical key.

Beyond security and prestige, there are significant practical benefits to implementing a security card system for your planned community:

• Electronic security cards are difficult to duplicate, so administrators can easily keep track of how keys are assigned and who has access to the community.
• Traditional keys can be lost or stolen, requiring community administrators to choose between replacing the locks and reissuing new keys to all residents or accepting that the facility is not truly secure. A lost electronic key card can simply be deactivated and replaced with a new one.
• Electronic access systems enable planned communities to establish records of entry, making it easier to verify who was in the building at a given time, or during an event of interest.

Access control combines effectively with networked surveillance to create full transparency and real time monitoring of facility use and access.

Security cards help ensure that only authorized residents can access your planned community. Additional practical features make electronic key cards a favorable alternative to traditional keyed entry.

Why Choose Hillman AV?

Hillman AV is a one-stop shop for developers that are looking to provide the best experience for their planned community residents with customized audio video solutions.

Hillman AV’s competitive strength is our ability to manage audio video solutions from idea to implementation, delivering quality results while driving down costs for our partners. Our end-to-end process includes planning and designing to meet your needs, sourcing all parts and components through our extensive network of suppliers, delivery, and systems installation. We also thoroughly test each new implementation and provide service and maintenance to help keep your audio video solutions working perfectly.

Hillman AV’s dedication to ease of use and experience in system design, integration and deployment has made us an industry leader – we were recognized by the Consumer Choice Awards in 2018 as Saskatchewan’s leading audio-visual installation company.