Outdoor AV, done properly
Outdoor AV is about the details: screens built for outdoor use, speakers aimed at your seating rather than the neighbour's fence, cabling installed once and buried properly, Wi-Fi that reaches the end of the garden, and control from the same app that runs the house. We design and install outdoor TVs, garden audio and full garden-room entertainment across Surrey and London.
Case study: a garden room in Thames Ditton
A Thames Ditton family wanted a grown-up retreat at the end of the garden, with a bar, a lounge and a gym. Into The Garden Room built it; we designed and installed the AV and the network.
- Lounge and bar: a 65 inch LG OLED TV with a Sonos Arc soundbar.
- Gym: a 48 inch LG OLED TV with a second Sonos Arc.
- Network: the building sits more than 70 metres from the house, so we ran a dedicated fibre line through the garden to a Ubiquiti Wi-Fi system inside.
The room is now used every day, and the client was “over the moon” with the result. Read the Thames Ditton case study.
Outdoor TVs
A TV outside has to cope with weather and daylight. We install TVs made for outdoor use, such as the Samsung Terrace, and plan where they go around where you actually sit, where the sun falls and how the cable reaches them. One client wrote about their terrace:
“Art Of Integration recently installed a Samsung Terrace TV in our outdoor area, and the entire experience was excellent.” Scott Atkinson, Google review
Garden and terrace audio
Good garden audio fills the seating area and stops there. We position outdoor speakers to point at the people listening, and we zone them with the rest of the house through multi-room audio, so the terrace can play the same playlist as the kitchen or something different. For commercial terraces the same thinking applies: at Oasis Bar in Canary Wharf we installed outdoor-rated Sonance speakers on the rooftop terrace, zoned with the bar inside.
Wi-Fi and cabling to the end of the garden
Garden rooms and outdoor screens are only as good as the connection that reaches them. Cabling should go in once and be buried properly, ideally before the landscaping is finished. Where the distance is long, as in Thames Ditton, fibre from the house feeds a proper network in the outbuilding rather than a Wi-Fi extender. See data and Wi-Fi networks.
One app for the house and the garden
Outdoor TVs, garden speakers and lighting can sit on the same Control4 system as the rest of your home, so the garden is one more room in the app, not another remote to lose.
