By Franco D’Ascanio Sr., Nick D’Ascanio, and Franco D’Ascanio Jr.
Historically, the outdoor living environment has been seen as a vessel for specific activities when passing through the environment, such as dining or swimming. Thus, outdoor lighting and audio has been treated in the same way — as an afterthought for both homeowners and designers alike. There may be a speaker disguised as a rock or patio lighting strewn about, but nothing that got the same thought and care as indoor spaces — previously seen as those for living, working, and relaxing.
But, beyond particular coastal regions where warm weather is year-round, why aren’t homeowners and designers focusing on designing these spaces to be equally as inviting and multifunctional? Why stop indoors?
Luckily, the tides are shifting. Today, we see the trend of outdoor living multifunctional spaces, akin to a living room or bedroom, spreading to other regions, where outdoor spaces are becoming just as functional, comfortable, and essential as the indoors.
Through our family’s deep involvement in outdoor living projects with D’Asign and Coastal Source, we’ve gained valuable experience in designing purpose-built outdoor spaces. These insights can help dealers and integrators nationwide take advantage of the growing outdoor living trend by expertly designing and executing outdoor lighting and audio solutions.
Our family has practically become synonymous with outdoor living designs and technology through our decades-long work with our companies D’Asign and Coastal Source. We’ve become fluent in building functional, purpose-built outdoor spaces that receive the same level of detail and attention as the indoor spaces we tend to spend so much time on. These insights can help dealers and integrators nationwide take advantage of the growing outdoor living trend by expertly designing and executing outdoor lighting and audio solutions.
Early on, we realized it’s not enough to just mount a few speakers on the back of the house and turn up the volume. The same applies to lighting and landscaping. Instead, we focus on integrating lighting, audio, and landscaping to create distinct “microclimates” throughout the property.
Get to Know Your Client’s Lifestyle
Just as you would for the inside of a client’s home, the first step in an outdoor living audio and lighting design is determining the functionality of each specific area of the yard. 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? A thorough lifestyle consultation will reveal volumes about your client’s needs and expectations.
From there, determine how lighting and 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, as well, so be sure to explore and identify the use of each space while creating an outdoor audio design of your clients’ dreams.
Adapt Your Design to the Environment
Investigate the outdoor living 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 be focusing 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 audio and light, 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 physically moved trees from one spot to another, planted new gardens and watched in awe as trees grew from saplings to 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 and lighting solutions.
Intuition and Intention in Application
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.
For example, in the covered gazebo where the hot tub resides, we utilized visible line source speakers that could be easily heard over the water 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.
Maximize Comfort with Smooth Transitions
Creating safe, convenient pathways between the various distinctive outdoor living spaces is imperative. Outdoor lighting and audio 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.
Pitch the Outcome, Not the Products
Creating an unparalleled, luxurious outdoor living experience that’s uniquely tailored to each client’s needs is what truly sells outdoor audio and 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.
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