What do we mean by Smart Home?
A Smart Home refers to having smart devices such as thermostats, lights and speakers that can be controlled via apps, or voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa & Google Home. Many of these offerings are great options and often very affordable however then rarely work together in harmony. It is common to end up with many different apps which can get confusing or voice commands that are difficult to remember.
What is Home Automation?
So you’ve already got some smart devices and you’re using you collection of apps to control them all. Home Automation allows you to setup regular tasks on a schedule or based on a condition. For example, opening the blinds at 9am every morning and closing them at 6pm in the evening or motion sensitive lighting. Home automation is a very powerful tool and when configured correctly can have a number of lifestyle benefits.
What is a Control System?
The final piece of the puzzle when creating a smart home is a Control System. This is a centralised system that allows you to have control over every compatible device in your home. They also have the advantage over standard smart devices in that they feature a range of control methods that can allow a number of non-smart devices to be added to your central system.
Control System Options
Our Go To Choices
Our go-to control system for the home. Control4 covers all areas from including Security, Entertainment & Media, Lighting and Access Control as well as many others. The Control4 ecosystem is very cohesive and 1st party products and support are available, as well as many other 3rd party products being compatible with the system. There is a lot of customisation options, streamlined by Control4’s sleek easy to use interface that is accessible on remotes, touch screens and the free mobile app.
RTI is another excellent option for whole home control, offering second to none in the Audio Visual category. They lack their own lighting and security products, but have a long list of reputable supported 3rd parties . RTI also has unlimited customisation of its interface, touchscreens & remotes etc… making it perfect for multimedia solutions like a home cinema or multi use living space.
If you like to tinker or want to learn about the world of Home Automation, Home Assistant is the way to go. It’s a large scale open-source project with a lot of potential and support with a big DIY feel about it. It can handle small and large scale systems not supporting specific products but control standards instead. This means that it can in theory support almost anything and everything with enough tweaking, however this isn’t guaranteed. There is very little manufacturer support, again being more of a DIY project with PVS as your integration partner.