However far along you are on your path to having your very own smart home, you will have no doubt thought about the technology you need to tie it all together.
Admittedly, there are some cool gadgets, like Philips Hue, on the ‘DIY’ (Do It Yourself) market, but none of these one-size-fits-all products can offer the flexibility to work alongside all areas of your house for an easier way of living like a professionally-installed home automation system.
How do I find the right home automation installer?
It’s understandably overwhelming to be at the start of your journey to living in a smart home – you may be asking yourself: what technology do I need? Where can it be installed so there’s not cables and wires everywhere? Who can I trust to come into my home and do a good job?
As discussed on another blog, it’s good to start with finding a CEDIA member near you, who you can have an initial conversation with about your home and lifestyle, and this chat will naturally turn to ‘home automation’ technology.
Think of home automation technology as the brain controlling everything – your lights, TV, music, temperature, and security – accessible via one touchpoint. You want the brain to be as skilled as possible, and not lacking in one particular area, right? So, the CEDIA member you talk to will likely recommend Control4 and/or Crestron (others manufacturers are available, but these are the most-used systems in the marketplace) and talk you through the cabling, rack and other requirements for the project.
What can home automation technology actually do?
After this is decided upon, your installer will work with you to create customisable ‘scenes’ that can change the atmosphere of a room at a push of a button from your handheld device or a keypad/touchscreen. Your home automation system can also be combined with other compatible technologies (such as lighting and cinema products), all of which can be controlled via an app.
For instance, your programmed ‘gaming’ scene in the living room may bring the blinds down, turns the temperature up a little to your preferred setting and the living room backlighting comes on, all set up for a games session. Want ambient lighting and conversational level music during family dinnertime? Done with one click. Need to be even more specific? For example, wanting your blinds to come down at a certain time in the day to protect your artworks from the sun? No problem, thanks to your home automation system and your installer’s handiwork. The wonderful thing about home automation is you can automate almost anything and control it with a press of a button.
A Control4 or Crestron-powered smart home?
There’s a lot of messaging out there and ‘x or y’ and ‘top’ lists about what’s the best home automation technology, but it really is down to your requirements and budget.
To simplify things, let’s take this back to the main reason you’re making an investment in a smart home – you want what we all want in life: more time. One system connecting your door entry and security, lights and blinds, entertainment and heating system (indoors and/or pool) gives you the time back you would previously spend turning on switches, altering dials and going to turn something off you forgot about, as now you’re doing it from your pocket! You’ve also now got one remote instead of three to watch TV or a film and instead of adjusting your music system in each room, you can have dedicated audio ‘zones’ playing different music across your home via an app, without even moving.
Here at New Wave, we are proud to work with what we consider the leading smart home products and are a certified Control4 dealer. Our customers couldn’t be happier with the ease of use for all ages of the family the technology offers, and helpfully for them, the systems tend to cost less on average than Crestron.
Control4 supports everything from home entry to energy management, and everything in-between, and thanks to its smart acquisitions, even has its own speaker line (Triad). The manufacturer boasts over 15 years experience in home automation and has gone from strength to strength in the smart home industry thanks to its affordability and the unrivalled number of integrations with other manufacturer’s products it offers (over 2,000 to be precise) – making it a future-proof option. Control4 is also continually home technology professionals preferred choice when it comes to home automation providers, with it scooping a record wins at trade publication CEPro’s ‘Quest for Quality’ Awards.
Finding a Control4 dealer near you
Like all other trades, there is a healthy number of Control4 dealers in Kent, the home counties and London out there, but with varying levels of experience and ability to handle certain scale projects. At New Wave, we’ve been working with Control4 since we began in 2004, and have collected accolades such as ‘Control4 Top Volume Dealer’ for several years in a row due to the number of products we installed for our customers each year. Our work with Control4 in cinema projects has also been recognised at the industry-leading CEDIA Awards.
As well as constantly undertaking the latest product training, we work closely with Control4 to feedback and make sure we know everything there is to know about products so we can offer the best solutions to suit our customer’s specific requirements.
New Wave AV – Certified Contol4 dealer
Now you’ve found out more about Control4, why not come and get hands-on with the technology at our Control4-certified showroom in Tonbridge, Kent? Here we have a number of home automation products for you to try out and the team will be on hand to answer all your questions about how to create your ideal smart home. Contact us for more information or to have a chat about how home automation can transform the way you live in your home.
