Control4, drawn into the home

• Intelligent lighting — scenes for the way the home is actually used, not a wall of switches
• Shading — blinds and curtains that follow the sun and the season
• Audio — one sound environment across the living areas, the terrace and the pool
• Cinema — a dedicated room, or a living room that becomes one
• Climate — heating, cooling and underfloor on the same interface
• Security and cameras — alarm, CCTV and intercom tied into the same system
• Network — the backbone the rest of it depends on

Control4 is priced the same wherever you buy it. What changes is who designs it, who documents it, who builds it and who answers the phone in three years. That is the whole of the difference, and it is the reason we do the work in this order: engaged at concept stage beside the architect, a design and documentation set to tender standard, the rack built and bench-tested in our factory before it reaches the house, a short clean fit-off, then aftercare with a named contact who already knows the home.

Sit with it before you buy it. The studio showroom in Dromana is a house rather than a display — an 11.4.4 Dolby Atmos cinema, engraved keypads throughout, and the same interface you would live with. An hour there settles most of the questions a brochure cannot.