What it takes to make a backyard genuinely usable

Outdoor audio has improved considerably, and the useful part is that it no longer means a separate system with its own controls. Sonos and Sonance built an outdoor speaker together specifically so that outside runs on the same interface as the rooms indoors, one library, one set of controls, one less thing to explain.

Televisions built for outdoor positions are a different product from an indoor set in a box. SunBrite's outdoor range spans a wide spread of sizes, and the panels are engineered to stay bright in ambient light and to keep working through a Northeastern winter rather than to be carried in each autumn.

None of it works without coverage. A garden, a pool area or a terrace at the far end of a property is exactly where provider-supplied equipment gives out, and adding a properly placed access point is usually the difference between outdoor audio that works and outdoor audio that stutters.