Outdoor Entertainment · Westchester & Fairfield County
The backyard is the biggest room in the house. We treat it that way.
Everyone is at the pool and the music is still in the kitchen. Someone props a phone in a cup. That is the problem this page solves.
Sound outside is a different job from sound inside.
Indoors, walls hold the sound in. Outside there are no walls, so a pair of speakers bolted under the eave is loud at the door, gone at the pool, and perfectly clear at the neighbour's fence. We plan a backyard the way we plan a house, in zones: the terrace, the pool, the pergola, the lawn. Lots of small speakers at low volume, set in the beds and aimed at where people sit, so the table stays at conversation level while the kids have it up at the pool. Where the music wants a floor, a subwoofer goes in the ground and you never see it.
We build this on Coastal Source. Their bollards are brass and marine-grade, the cable is buried and the connectors are sealed, which matters more here than anywhere: a Westchester winter and salt air off the Sound will find any wire nut under the mulch within two seasons. It is the same system we use for landscape lighting, so one trench carries both and the garden is only opened once.
Television outside is a question of honesty. An indoor set under a covered porch will not see a second summer, whatever it cost. We specify displays built to sit outside permanently, bright enough to read in afternoon sun, on mounts that angle away from the glare as the day moves, and sized for the distance a patio puts between you and the screen. In our experience under fifty-five inches outside is a disappointment.
The part that makes it worth doing is control. The patio is a zone in the same Savant system as the rooms inside, so the same app and the same keypads run it. Pool lights, the spa, the gate, the fire pit and the landscape lighting sit alongside the music, and one scene called Evening brings the whole property to the right place at dusk.
How we work
- 01
Walk the property
With you, at the time of day you use it. Where people sit, where the sun is at five, where the neighbours are, where the gardener's hose reaches.
- 02
Plan the zones
A speaker and lighting plan on your landscape drawing, with the trench routes marked, so the landscaper and the pool contractor know where we are going before they dig.
- 03
Rough in before the planting
Cable and sleeves go in while the ground is open. Doing this through an established bed means paying for the same work twice.
- 04
Install and aim
Bollards set in the beds and aimed at the seating, displays mounted and angled, everything terminated with sealed connectors by our own crew.
- 05
Set the scenes and tune
We sit outside with you at dusk and set the levels, then name the scenes. In the first season, adjusting them is part of the service plan.
Sound and light together
The same trench carries the lighting.
Landscape lighting from the same maker, on the same buried cable and the same sealed connectors, controlled from the same Savant scene. The property comes up at dusk as one thing, and the garden is only dug once.
- Path, step and facade lighting on an astronomic clock
- Brass fixtures that hold up to a Westchester winter
- Lighting and music on one Evening scene
- Planned with your landscaper, before the beds go in
Your house
Wondering what outdoor entertainment would look like, and cost, in your house?
Tell us about the room or the whole house and we will come and look. The calculator gives a planning range before you talk to anyone.
At a glance
Zones, not two loud boxes
Terrace, pool, pergola and lawn each get their own level, so dinner can talk while the pool has it up, and nothing reaches the property line.
Coastal Source outdoors
Brass and marine-grade bollards, buried cable, sealed connectors. The system is built for salt air and frost, which is what we have.
Televisions that live outside
Outdoor-rated, sunlight-readable displays on mounts that move with the sun. Nothing indoor-grade goes outside on our watch.
One trench, two systems
Audio and landscape lighting share the same buried infrastructure, planned with your landscaper before the beds go in.
Same app as the house
The patio is one more zone in Savant. Same keypads, same music, same scenes. No separate remote in a drawer.
Pool, spa, gate and fire
Pool lighting, spa heat, the driveway gate and the fire pit join the system where the equipment allows it, which these days is most of it.
With Coastal Source
Speakers that belong in a garden.
The television, under cover
A bollard in the bed and an outdoor-rated screen in the pavilion, so the game is on at the pool and nobody is squinting. Covered is not the same as indoors; the display still has to be built for it.
Bollards in the beds
Small, bronze, and set among the plants rather than on the wall. Many of these at low volume is what even coverage sounds like. They disappear by the second summer.
The big lawn
A line-source bollard throws sound a long way without getting loud up close, which is the answer for a lawn or a long terrace where a cluster of small speakers would not reach.
Common questions
What people ask us about outdoor entertainment.
- What is the best audio for a large backyard?
- Many small speakers at low volume rather than a few loud ones. Bollards set in the beds every twenty feet or so, aimed at the seating, with a buried subwoofer for the floor, give even sound across a garden so nobody is in front of a speaker or behind one. For a long lawn, a line-source bollard reaches further without being loud up close. Two boxes under the eave is the answer we are usually replacing.
- Can a television go in direct sunlight?
- Yes, if it was built for it. Outdoor displays come in grades for full shade, partial sun and full sun, and the full-sun ones are bright enough to read at noon. They are also sealed against rain, humidity and the hose. An indoor set outside, under cover or not, will not last a season, and we will not install one.
- Can the backyard run on the same system as the house?
- It should, and ours does. The patio becomes a zone in the same Savant system as the rooms inside: same app, same keypads, same music, with the pool lights, the spa, the gate and the landscape lighting alongside it. A separate outdoor system with its own remote is how things end up never getting used.
- What survives near the water?
- Less than people hope. Salt air off the Sound is hard on speakers, mounts and above all connections, so anything within a few streets of the shore is specified for the exposure. Brass and marine-grade hardware, sealed buried connectors and stainless mounts are the difference between a system that is fine in year three and one that is not.
- Is the season here long enough to justify it?
- Longer than it looks in February. Patios and pools in Westchester and Fairfield County get used from April into October, and the lighting runs all year. Outdoor sound and lighting are the two things clients most often tell us they use more than they expected.
- Who does the trenching and the outdoor wiring?
- We do, and we coordinate it with your landscaper and pool contractor so it happens before the planting rather than through it. Bringing us in at the landscape design stage is the single biggest saving on this kind of job.
- Can we start with the pool and add the rest later?
- Yes, and most people do. We plan the whole property and put in the sleeves and cable for all of it while the ground is open, then fit the speakers and lights zone by zone as budget and timing allow. The expensive part is the digging, so we only want to do it once.
Afterwards
Looked after by the people who installed it.
Our own crew does the work, so the number you call afterwards is the same one you called at the start. Equipment carries its manufacturer's warranty and we handle those claims rather than handing you a phone number. A service plan adds monitoring, next-business-day response and scheduled visits on top.
Also consider
Start a project
Tell us about the space. We'll come out and give you a straightforward plan.
The consultation is complimentary and it starts with a walkthrough or a set of drawings. You will leave it knowing what is realistic in your house, what it costs, and what can wait until phase two.