Words by Nadir | 21 June 2020 | 8 min read

For many of us, the living room is the heart of the home. Upgrading our living room to meet our ever changing needs doesn't need to be complicated or expensive. Read on for our top tips on how to smarten up your living room. Everything here starts with a solid WiFi network - click here to read about how to make sure your home network is up to scratch.

Your TV

The television, once a humble box used to flick through a handful of commercials, soap operas and sitcoms is now so much more. The television is the hub of our home entertainment. Today, many of us already have smart TVs, but if you don't there is no reason why you need to spend a lot of money to upgrade your current set up.

A Google Chromecast is our pick for smartening up a dumb TV on a budget. It enables every TV with a spare HDMI port to gain internet connectivity, and become a connected streaming powerhouse. You can seemlessly stream content to you TV, using your smartphone or any other smart device as a remote. All the major streaming services, as well as your own content can be streamed wirelessly to your big screen for the whole family to enjoy. And at $59.90 is it unbeatable value.

A great tip is to use an old smartphone or tablet as a permanent entertainment streaming device. You can delete all other services and apps from the phone, and only install the streaming services you use. You will never have to worry about signing into your services, forgetting your passwords or keeping track of where you're up to on the latest Netflix true crime docu-drama.

Another option is the Nvidia Shield, which allows you to play content directly from the device to your TV fast, with a great user interface and in unbeatable quality. The Shield costs $290.00, but we recommend going for the Pro version, which retails at about $400.00, but comes with some impressive abilities, an awesome remote, gaming abilities and Plex Media Server built in.

If you have a little bit more money to spend, upgrading your TV has never been cheaper. Yes, you can spend $18,000 on an 85" Samsung 8K QLED TV monstrosity like this, but you can also get a very decent smart 4K TV for less than $1,000 like this one or this. Depending on the brand, TVs have their own app stores, storage and some even allow you to store games directly onto the TV. This makes browsing the web, videochatting and even working from home are a cinch.

Entertainment

With so much amazing entertainment at our fingertups, it can be hard to even know where to begin in the world of home entertainment. While streaming your favourite movies and TV shows has never been easier, entertainment devices like Xbox One from Microsoft and PS4 (and PS5 coming soon) from Sony now have better graphics, gameplay and loads of other entertainment options to be enjoyed right there on your TV, seemlessly working with the rest of your network.

If you're a diehard PC gamer, it's as easy as using an HDMI cable to connect a gaming laptop or desktop to your TV.

Keep an eye out for some changes in the gaming world too - Google Stadia promises to shake up the gaming world, by offering a subscription web based gaming model - coming soon to Australia.

A Smart TV will also allow you to stay in control of your device when you're not home. If you have a furry friend, try remotely streaming a youtube video or song during the day from your phone to keep them out of mischief.

Lighting

Ambiance is key to a successful movie night. Smart Lightglobes with WiFi connectivity like the Phillips Hue range allow you to control lighting and colours to suit the mood you are looking for right from an app on your phone or with your voice. Feel free to leave the lights a little brighter if you're watching a horror flick. We won't judge you.