TV mounting, smart home and Wi-Fi in Marlboro, NJ

Much of Marlboro is made up of two-story colonials and larger custom homes on generous suburban lots, many built in planned developments. These houses tend to share a few traits: a tall family room or great room with a fireplace, a kitchen that opens onto it, a finished lower level, and a backyard with a patio or pool. Each of those spaces raises its own questions about where a TV goes, how sound carries and how far Wi-Fi has to reach.

Tall great rooms are the most common puzzle. A TV over a high fireplace can strain your neck, so it is worth looking at a pull-down mount, a different wall, or a projector and screen in the basement for movie nights while the great room keeps a modestly placed TV. Big two-story windows in the same room often benefit from motorized shades, since they are hard to reach and let in a lot of afternoon glare. If the basement will become a theater, plan the seating, screen size and speaker locations together so the room works as a whole, and add dimmable lighting so it is comfortable for movies, sports and games alike.

Many homes from this era were built with coax and phone jacks rather than network cable. If you work from home in an upstairs office, a single router in the basement or a far corner usually leaves weak spots. Running Ethernet to a few ceiling access points, sometimes through closets or attic space, gives each floor a solid signal. The same cable runs can feed wired cameras at the garage, front door and back patio.

Outside, homes near the Colts Neck border and in Morganville often sit on larger pieces of property, so think about coverage at the pool, the far end of the yard and any shed or pool house. Weather-rated outdoor speakers, a dedicated access point for the backyard and landscape lighting tied into one app make summer evenings easier. If you are planning a renovation or addition in Marlboro, wiring during construction is the cleanest way to get it done.