Outdoor living – including outdoor audio & lighting – was once an afterthought for many homeowners, as well as integrators and designers.
The indoor environment was for living, working, entertaining, and relaxing, while the outdoor environment was for either passing through or for purpose-specific activities – like dining or swimming.
Maybe you’d have some lighting on the patio for dining or some rock speakers for the pool. But the systems were limited and contained to one specific area.
However, coastal regions like the Florida Keys and California really began to change this indoor-outdoor dynamic. The warmer weather year-round allowed homeowners to prioritize their outdoor environment to create more dynamic, expansive, and purpose-built outdoor environments.
And, now, we’re seeing other regions follow suit – transforming the outdoor environment from an ancillary living space into a highly functional, essential part of the home that’s equally comfortable and enjoyable.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
As our entire family is intrinsically involved in outdoor living experiences through work with D’Asign and Coastal Source, we’ve learned quite a few lessons on the way to crafting purpose-built outdoor spaces.
We discovered very early on, it’s simply not enough to mount a couple of speakers to the back of the house and crank the volume. Nor is this the right way to design the lighting or the landscaping.
Instead, we combine lighting, audio and landscaping to create several individual “microclimates” throughout the property.
We hope these insights can benefit dealers/ integrators across the country as they capitalize on the outdoor living trend through the proper design and execution of outdoor lighting and audio.
Just as you would for the inside of a client’s home, the first step in an outdoor audio and lighting design is determining the functionality of each specific area of the yard. A thorough lifestyle consultation will reveal volumes about your client’s needs, and expectations.
Asking questions like, what sort of activities will the clients engage in? How often? Are there portions of the yard that are more important than others? How will each member of the family be using these outdoor areas?
From there, determine how outdoor lighting & audio fit in. Also use this initial consultation to uncover potential future plans for the yard. Just like the interior of a home, the landscape, outbuildings, and topology will go through many transformations as the family dynamic changes, and just as you would run cabling to future-ready a home’s interior, you can do the same outdoors.
For example, our family used to spend time primarily at our back patio and swimming pool. That soon grew to include the boat dock, firepit, playground, sand volleyball court, and tiki hut.
With each new addition we found our family wasn’t just spending more time outdoors; we were spending more time in different areas of the yard. This is true of other families, of course, so be sure to explore and identify the use of each space to wow clients’ guests and earn new business.
Investigate the outdoor areas thoroughly, paying close attention to not just the size or the structures within, but the vegetation. As growing, changing elements, trees, shrubs and other foliage will have a direct impact on lighting and audio design.
Your objective is to specify speakers and light fixtures that look and function well within each natural habitat, can adapt to changes, and will enhance the key features of each different environment. In some areas, you might focus audio toward a central gathering area, like a courtyard.
In others, like pathways, the speakers should be placed so the audio follows the passersby. The placement of light fixtures will vary, too, with some aimed upwards to highlight the texture of a tree, or a specific feature, like a BBQ grill for task lighting and among shrubbery to define a portion of the yard, like the swimming pool.
By creating layers of outdoor audio & lighting, each distinct area of the yard is covered.
In our backyard, for example, lighting and speakers live among more than 300 species of palms and tropical plants. As we expanded the outdoor living space, so did the surrounding landscape and the lights and speakers.
We’ve moved trees from one spot to another, planted new gardens, and watched as trees grew from saplings into mature and prominent features in the yard. With each growth spurt, the outdoor audio and lighting systems adapted. We relocated, replaced, and rearranged them to suit their surroundings.
Modularity, scalability, and interchangeability are invaluable when choosing outdoor audio & lighting solutions.
One wouldn’t dare plant a sun-loving tree in the shade – nor should you install audio and lighting without first considering their use cases.
Basing your selection of products on the varied outdoor applications is imperative. Similarly, install them in a way that delivers the best audio and lighting experience for the specific activities and landscape within each environment.
Modularity, scalability, and interchangeability are invaluable when choosing outdoor audio & lighting solutions.
Coastal Source
For example, in the covered gazebo where the hot tub resides, we utilized visible line source speakers that could be easily heard over the jets. Less powerful and visually discrete speakers meanwhile spread music over pathways connecting the various areas of the yard together.
Similarly, the style and installation of lighting varies throughout the property: niche lights illuminate the 350-foot-long dock, while uplights accentuate the textures of native trees, for example.
Creating safe, convenient pathways between the various distinctive living spaces in an outdoor environment is imperative. Outdoor audio & lighting make the journey all the more enjoyable and when positioned properly ensure there are no audible or visual dead spots.
We wouldn’t use the backyard as much as we do if it was hard to find the way from one area to the next. It’s important to provide seamless experiences in all outdoor designs.
Creating an inviting and luxurious experience that’s uniquely tailored to each client’s needs, not the individual products are what truly sell outdoor audio & lighting. Describe not the performance specs but how lights and music can transform every inch of a backyard into elegant, functional living spaces that last for generations to come.
Suggest lighting and audio as transformative to the underutilized portions of the property. Express how lighting and audio brings the family together to experience the yard in a whole new way.
Article collaboration by Franco D’Ascanio, Founder of Coastal Source, Nick D’Ascanio, Landscape Architect, D’Asign Source, and Franco D’Ascanio Jr., Architect and VP of Construction at D’Asign Source.
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